Getting Back on The Wagon After a Tough Race

Training Journal: Releasing pressure to rush back and running just to run

It’s been a few weeks since my last race and I wanted to share a few more reflections and things I’ve learned. I’m not one to write about my training too often, but I realize that I draw a lot of inspiration from others sharing their journeys, so I trust that this will be of some use to you. As I mentioned in my last update, we’re better athletes and humans when we share experiences and learn from each other, so that’s what I plan to continue to do. Let’s dive in.

For starters, having a race not go quite to plan has been a huge blessing in disguise. Why? It has forced me to remember a deeper ‘why’ behind running in the first place. Being purely motivated by time standards will only get you so far. Sure, it helped to shape my training and keep me disciplined, but the act of not achieving said goal took up far too much of my mental energy after the race.

The reality is there will always be off days, and there will even come a day when new PRs are out of the question due to age, injury, and other factors. While time or metric-based goals should be set and celebrated once achieved, they shouldn’t derive more happiness than the pure act of doing the thing — the act of simply going out for a run without…