“Bad” runs happen to every runner at all stages of fitness. We all know its impossible to post a personal best every time – but it’s so easy to let a bad run get us down. I haven’t had a proper run in two weeks, a combination of being bed ridden with to tonsillitis, moving to a new city with a new job and getting into a new routine as well as an abnormally busy week.
So when I set out on a damp Sunday afternoon (after reneging on my promise to run both days of the weekend) I should have expected it would not be the most stellar effort. Yet I wanted to blame something else for the crappy time: my 5km took 33 minutes, which is the sort of time I last posted two years ago.
I gave up smoking a month ago and expected to magically becoming better at running within a couple of weeks. Alas, I huffed and puffed through the measly 5km. Of course not smoking is doing wonders for my health, and in the long term it will certainly help my fitness but when I was straining in the third kilometre I admit I wobbled: “Why did I bother? When I was smoking I ran 10km within an hour.”
Ridiculous logic, I’m aware, but when you are struggling on what would normally be a jog in the park – literally – you want to blame something easily and quickly fixed. My only other option was my choice of running music. Kanye West’s latest offering, Yeezus (three stars, in case you were wondering).
In my heart I wanted to be able to put the onus on something less embarrassing than losing fitness after a couple of weeks off. I know I will get back to my form from a month ago but despite knowing better, I’m still hoping for an alternative to running consistently and giving it a bit of time. Do you have silly excuses for a below par performance?
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