15th February 2020
Wet & Windy At Walsall Arboretum ParkRun 🏃🏼♀️ ⛈
Mega frustrated at park run today, as I crossed the line with immense disappointment at my finish time of 22:13. However, at this point, I’d only got my Garmin’s word for it. Prior to the start when I pointed out my previous parkrun time, Dave said I wouldn’t run that today with the inclement weather as storm Dennis beckons. But I was determined to run close to it or perhaps even beat my time by a fraction. Also, I put in quite a tremendous sprint finish, in the hope to make up some ground and finish in a respectable time. So, running a second slower would just be crushing.
I felt so deflated on my cool down, as I took the time to reflect on my run. I’ve been training so hard and today it felt like such hard work – so much harder than it should’ve been. Heavy legged, and sluggish, I was determined to brave the storm to get some tempo in. My upcoming races are the goals which are motivating me massively at the moment, and I must prepare for them as the work isn’t going to do itself.
I ran a conservative first lap, mainly because I hadn’t done much of a warm up and it took a while to get my legs going. Ive been really struggling with tight hamstrings all week, despite all the stretching. Perhaps the stresses of the last week have had an impact on my running, perhaps overloaded the gym work, or maybe i’m not getting the recovery right?
Anyway, on the way home I had a mild panic attack in the car. An overwhelming feeling of despair washed over me, saturating me faster than the wet clothes on my back. As I frantically stripped to get all my drenched gear off, negative thoughts filled my head and just consumed me. I couldn’t help but ask myself why i’m still doing this…why am I even trying to still succeed in this sport. Whats the point?
5 hours later….
Following my afternoon nap, I checked the official results and realised i’d actually ran a season’s best of 22:13. Not the 20mins benchmark I’m working towards but having compared this to my previous park run on 25th January just 3 weeks ago i’d actually ran 8 seconds faster today 😊 I had in my mind I ran 22.12 last time, but in actual fact it was 22.21. so over the moon with an eight second improvement!
Therefore, that’s the point right there. It’s progress, and all my efforts are paying off. Note to self: Stay POSITIVE!!! Good things come to those who wait.
“Hurry Slowly” is the moto of my former coach, and there’s so much truth in this. #trustintheprocess.
@suzystreetrunner #theroadback
Streetrunner 🇬🇧🏃🏼♀️ 