Bad workouts are an unavoidable reality for runners. No matter how talented you are or how much you try to control every variable in your training, you will have a bad workout on occasion. Sometimes the reason you struggle is out of your control or not something you can pinpoint specifically, and other days the cause is quite apparent – bad weather, sleepless night with a sick child or a previous stressful day/week or poor eating choices.
Often our outlook after a bad workout is to dwell on the bad performance and question whether we've lost all our fitness. Sounds extreme, but is this not how you most often react?
The first step after a bad workout is performing a post-mortem and identifying any potential areas you can improve. Sometimes the reason might not be something within your control – a long day at work or a sick child. A lot of times you won’t be able to pinpoint anything. However, if you do find things you can improve upon for your next workout – hydrating for example – you can prevent yourself from making the same mistake twice.
One way to turn a negative workout into a positive is to look for lessons you can learn from. Big lessons, like not going out too fast, will be apparent. However, there are less obvious lessons you can learn from if you really pay attention.
One workout is not going to make or break your training journey.. Having one bad day is a blip in the grand scheme of your training cycle. It’s easy to lose perspective after a tough workout, but you have to remember all the great workouts you’ve had so far and keep in mind all the opportunities that lie ahead with your commitment to be a runner for life.
Remember that workouts are designed to improve your fitness and abilities as a runner, not to prove how fit you are.
Too often, runners use workouts as a constant barometer to measure improvement and compare themselves to how they will be able to perform on race day. Rarely will your performance in a workout translate to how you will feel on race day, so don’t get too stressed about a bad day.
