Listening vs Pushing

How do you handle it when you start out on a run (alone) and you feel like hell? Nothing specific hurts, but you just feel sluggish from the get-go and something is telling you it’s not your day?

Do you push through and make it work?

This happens to me occasionally (maybe once a month) and I generally listen to my body, head back home, and try again later.

If I drive somewhere to run and I feel this way, I push through and my body usually adapts, but from home I choose to quit.

This happened to me this morning again. After a great last week of training, I figure I was due for a bad day, but this morning was really pathetic and I only made it about 50 meters before I came home.

I think it’s smart to listen to my body, but at the same time, in race conditions I like to able to push through fatigue and get it done under any circumstances. These seem to conflict with each other.

How do you handle it? Coaches, what do you recommend to your clients?

15 Responses to "Listening vs Pushing"

Sarah Lavender Smith says:

September 23, 2013 at 11:25 am

Funny, I bagged my run this morning too, experiencing the same thing you described. I intended to run 7 – 8 miles for slightly more than an hour, but I was incredibly tired and dead-legged. It’s not just that I was tired; it’s that I really did not want to run and saw no good reason to. I handled it by heading home but I went to our workout run to do a lot of stretching, core and arm exercises, and I told myself I’d head out later in the day for an easy run (only 3 – 4 miles). Which is what I’m gonna do now.
I think you need to have your mind up and be motivated beforehand to run through these times; e.g. when you intentionally do a back-to-back, or when you arrange a run date with a friend and have to keep it even if you feel sluggish. Otherwise, I think it’s good to be flexible and change plans based on how you’re feeling.

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  September 23, 2013 at 1:17 pm
  
  Sarah-
  
  Good, I agree. I think one thing we’ve got going for us is the ability to listen to, and gauge, the subtle messages from our bodies.
  
  A few hours after this morning’s non-run, I tried again, felt better (though not great), but was compelled to keep running because my daily routine is running Sunny to preschool.
  
  I think what it comes down to is that our bodies are weird and we understand very little about how and why they work.
  
  Reply
Eric says:

September 23, 2013 at 3:37 pm

I often struggle with differentiating “good tired” from “bad tired”, just like differentiating “significant pain” from “you’re 45 miles into this race and things are going to hurt, deal with it – pain”. I’ve always assumed I’d get better at telling the two apart as I get more experience, but for right now I usually err on the side of “just deal with it” and more often than not that sluggishness goes away after a little while. And if it doesn’t, and I feel crappy the whole run, I’ll usually treat myself to a super mellow, short day the next day because I appear to need the break.

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Scott says:

September 23, 2013 at 4:59 pm

I agree with the “listening” part but I was surprised when you mentioned the 50 meters part. I would say it’s pretty often that I feel a bit sluggish in the beginning, even well past 50 meters. I do a lot of my running in the very early morning, so I’m probably not even fully awake yet. But it’s happened often enough that I know that after a few miles I will be into my rhythm and feeling good.

If I’m planning to do 15-20 miles and I feel like crap after 10, then I might bag it for that day. But jeez, I would feel pretty bad if I quit before even going the length of a football field.

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Rob says:

September 23, 2013 at 6:21 pm

I’m fortunate enough to live very close to the trails here in Marin county – headlands – and if I’m feeling sluggish I do a downhill start to my run and if I feel good I hard up hill first….. I always do at least a 5 mile run, can’t escape and turn back….. The trails here make you commit…. Plus if I’ve bothered to get my shorts on and tied my shoes tight – I’m going running….

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Jason Mara says:

September 23, 2013 at 6:50 pm

This is the best post I have read in a while. I struggle often with 70-80 hr work weeks and lots of travel and humid weather in the south. A couple of times I have been .75 of a mile into a run and just wanted to stop and twice in last six weeks ran 1.5 miles and stopped. I felt like a fraud; on my good days I am a back of the pack ultra runner. It’s hard to say with a straight face I’m an ultra runner and have bagged several runs less than 2 miles in. Yet this past Sunday after several good week day runs and a good nights sleep I felt exausted before my run and was running bonk pace in mile two. Yet it wast too hot I had no excuse and I kept going knowing like in an ultra things always change. Yet it didn’t I put up awful mile after awful mile but grinded it all out.
No real insight here except to say you aren’t alone. I think a lot most of us are juggling demands in life where running while important is still a hobby. Work family and other demands come first or tire us to the point when we have the time we lack the energy. I can’t say it’s unacceptable to quit on a run as I have done it several times but I think we all know it’s important to try and grind it when we can. I try to remind myself it’s good training to complete the run as we all face similar challenges during races. Yet there will be training runs where for one reason or even lack of a good reason we dont make it. Its important not to dwell on it and come back again the next day. It’s also worthwhile to examine what we can do to minimize the reoccrance. Can we modify diet the day before the run, try for more sleep, add ice, hit the cooler or our own aid station earlier, try a new route or time of day.
I look foward to reading more comments and best of luck on future runs.

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Trail Laddy says:

September 23, 2013 at 10:03 pm

Thanks for posting that Jason and Eric for bringing it up. I’m struggling to run more than about 16kms a week at the moment after being able to run when I felt like it. Started an awesome new job BUT, doing 7X12 hour shifts then getting a day and a half off then going over to nights is making pretty much every run a fatigued effort as the job requires me to be on my feet for about ten and a half hours per shift. It comforts me to know others are doing this as well, it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one sometimes.

Thanks

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Bjorn says:

September 24, 2013 at 2:50 am

There is no training or diet that will guarantee one perfect training day after another. Sometimes things just don’t fall into place, the pace is sluggish, you don’t get into any rhythm. In short: It’s no fun to run! And that’s what it should all be about, right?
So if you are not enjoying your run, then don’t do it! Simple as that. Don’t feel bad about leaving out a run in your training plan, because it won’t make a difference (unless it happens 4 out of 5 times a week). Come back the next day and never look back.

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Rosemary Smith says:

September 24, 2013 at 5:24 am

Love the discussion going on here! I usually have a day once every 2-3 weeks that I just don’t feel it. I generally will scrap my run before I head out in favor of a rest day. If it is a more important workout, then I try to put a plan in place of when my schedule will allow me to do that run. If I’m out already and am just having a crappy run, what I do depends on if it was an important run, if I can reschedule it, and if I feel like pushing might really give me an edge. If I have been very busy with work/home and getting little sleep, pushing it is probably not going to benefit me. If I have dead legs, then I may continue on. And I may compromise by switching a very technical steep run for a more gentle graded dirt path. I don’t see a problem with occasionally ditching the run as long as it isn’t a frequent, or multiple days per week, thing. 🙂

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Ethan says:

September 24, 2013 at 5:50 am

I think there’s no contradiction in varying your response; it just depends on the purpose of the run. We’re all very comfortable with the idea that not every run should feel the same – after all most of us do ‘long runs’ or speed work. So you should consider the purpose of your run when you decide whether to bag it. Is it an easy run? Is it supposed to be a quality workout to improve fitness? In that case bag it and know you’ve done the right thing. On the other hand, if you’re in the peak mileage phase of a training plan, or the second day of back-to-back long runs, or you have some other reason to persevere (like beautiful scenery that’s not accessible on regular daily runs) you should go for it even if your energy level is low. Taking a black and white approach to running – as with so many other things in life – might lead you to erroneously conclude there’s one right answer. In fact, you should probably consider the circumstances.

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  September 24, 2013 at 5:55 am
  
  Ethan, I agree 100%. If there’s a purpose to the run…tempo or big mileage, etc…I wouldn’t consider stopping, and as I mentioned, if I drive somewhere to run I won’t stop.
  I wasn’t looking for a black or white answer, but rather gauging to see what other people do.
  
  Reply
  1. Ethan says:
    
    September 24, 2013 at 4:10 pm
    
    Didn’t mean to imply you were taking a black and white view, just giving my two cents. I think there are people out there who don’t feel like they can let up, even on easy days, and I don’t think they’re doing themselves any favors. Just want them to know that if they feel like taking a day off they’re not alone.
    
    Reply
John Bryant says:

September 24, 2013 at 6:54 am

Having once been over 400lbs and any aerobic effort felt like a bad day, I would say that you simply get out and move. If you don’t feel like running, walk. It’s not going to do you any more harm than resting on the couch and you’re at least moving. Yes, you take rest days, but those are usually scheduled in. Just my opinion as a former morbidly obese individual.

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Shelby says:

September 24, 2013 at 6:57 am

I think it’s important to give your legs some time to warm up and get a rhythm going. Now that I’m at the end of a long training season, I almost never feel energetic when I start warming up. But generally, I find after 15-30 minutes, I get my mojo back and I feel normal again. These days are great for farleks or easy runs, I’ve found and I never regret getting in at least a 45-60 min run/trot/plod. Not running leaves me feeling mentally worse.

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Trevor Murphy-Mannix says:

September 24, 2013 at 8:38 am

I take a slower pace and push through. Usually my next run will be phenomenal.

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