What to do if your run doesn’t go to plan

Not every run will be great. Some won’t even be good at all. You can however, turn it round and salvage even the most diabolical run.

You’ve gone out with a session plan in mind. Maybe it’s to run a hard 10k at nearly race pace. Perhaps you’re looking to run six 1 mile efforts at your target 10k pace. That plan can soon go out the window if you’re having an off day, but fear not, all is not lost.

Plan B
I’ve had these types of runs too, the pace you normally run at feels horrific and completely unsustainable. It can easily leave you feeling dejected and like it’s all a giant waste of time.

What I’ve always done though is to simply change the session. My preference is to swap longer intervals for short bursts of speed for around 1:00-1:30 followed by as much rest as I want/need. This takes the time pressure off and allows me to feel good in a hard and fast pace, plus release some of the frustration I inevitably have at having needed to change the plan in the first place.

You might also decide that you’ll just take an easier pace and reduce the number of miles or efforts you had planned at the start, or scrap it all together and just do 3-4 gentle miles.

Don’t worry

Whatever you choose to do, take it in your stride knowing that even the best in the world have bad days, but don’t give in and stop all together.

Learn from it

You should make a note of the details of the session, your day so far, hydration, food and anything else you can think of, to see if there’s any link between these less than ideal sessions. It can be hard to remember it all and make the right decisions based on two or more runs that will (hopefully) be several months apart, but by making notes you can alter your day or plan to suit.

You’ll feel better and might just avoid on of these confidence busting runs.

Written by Kyle Brooks, Running Coach based in Norwich, Norfolk