Rule 1: Keep smiling, even when it’s POURING down.
Thank you to Tees Barrage Parkrun for this photo.
Everybody has a run now and then when your feet/body/mind just don’t want to join in the fun (right?) and you just desperately want to stop moving. When you’re a new runner – building up your aerobic, physical and mental strength – these moments come a bit more often than you might like.
I’m training for the York Marathon currently, and my marathon training plan involves running 6 days a week, which means that I’m often running on tired legs. This means that I’m having to use some of the tricks that used to get me through in the early days. I’ve called my responses to each problem “my solution” because they are just that – the things that get ME through difficult times when I’m running. They are very personal, sometimes a bit odd, but they keep my size fours in motion and I hope they help you too.
Shortness of Breath
The issue: You’re puffing, you’re panting, it doesn’t feel like you can get enough air into your lungs. Dizziness looms. Why on earth would you do this for fun?
My solution: First, stand up straight. Then, breathe OUT. Rather than focussing on trying to suck in as much air as you can as possible, think about pushing out with each exhalation. Ignore the ‘in’ breaths. Air will rush in automatically from higher pressure to low once your lungs are emptier. I try to count my out breaths as 1-2-3 but if this makes you light headed, go a bit faster or slower. Psychologically, it feels better to concentrate on a smooth, sure ‘out’ breath than trying to drag in a jagged ‘in’ breath that feels far from guaranteed.
Getting Slower and Slower
The issue: To put it in the British colloquial: you’re knackered. Legs feel like lead, each foot step is a drag; if you were going any slower, you’d be stopped.
My solution: Count footsteps and make bargains with yourself. “If I still feel like stopping after 20 left foot strikes, then I’m allowed to. Ok, after another 20 I can”. If I’m less than two miles from home this silly bargaining can take me all the way to my front door. Plus, it takes way longer to get home to your smoothie and shower if you walk.
Stopping Altogether
The issue: You’re not moving any more. You are on pause. You’re no longer running – it’s just called ‘standing about in lycra’.
My Solution: It’s important to discern between discomfort and pain. If you’re in pain, be kind to yourself and take it easy. If, on the other hand, you’re just experiencing some discomfort, reflect on this. What is it in you that wants to stop? Are you breathing properly? Are you lifting your feet? Are you slouching and reducing the space in your lungs? Focus on one thing and master it.
If you keep finding yourself stopping on runs, make yourself an offer you can’t refuse and catch public transport and run back home again, like we do on our Saltaire Half Marathon. Or, do an out-and-back run and don’t turn around until you’re further than halfway done. So, if you normally quit at 3 miles, run 2 miles before turning round and by the time you’re home, you’ll have to manage 4.
The Weather is Not Very Nice
The issue: It’s raining.
My Solution: Keep going! It’s actually lovely running in the rain. Make sure you dry between your toes when you get home…
What keeps you moving when you don’t want to keep running? Do you have any tricks and tips to share with our readers?
Runs in the rain are some of the very best runs! I love when it’s warm out and I end up running through a flash-flood of rain!
I’m definitely going to try focusing on breathing out next time I can feel my breathing going wrong!
Someone recommended the ‘out’ breathing in my very first 5K when I was getting myself into a bit of a panic trying to sup in breaths and not really managing. I find that it’s not just the physical that it helps, but on calming yourself down and feeling in control of your body.
Yay, another rainy runner! Now, if only I had a flat big enough to let my shoes dry somewhere other than my living room… :/
Just been toying with the idea of going out for a run in the rain… I guess if you can do it, so can I! xxx
Excellent, now that you’ve said this we’ll be guaranteed sunshine for a while. Sod’s law. THANK YOU!
I wish I liked running in the rain, as it rains a lot in Scotland. I just really dislike getting wet, especially my feet. I just find the sensation really uncomfortable. I need to find a way to get over it, apart from running in wellies!
I think it’s mostly because I hate being too warm while exercising SOOO much that I feel so grateful to be cooled off by the rain. The Parkrun in the picture was so so wet that it was like being a racehorse with weights on as a handicap by the end – my clothes must have weighed a TON.
Now’s the time to try, when you won’t get too freezy when you’re out. Good luck Cindy.
My technique whenever I feel like stopping because I’m hurting is to rate my pain on a scale of 1-10. If it’s less than 8 you can definitely keep going! Often getting over that is just mental not physical.
So much of it is in the mind, and one of the things that I think I’ve exercised much more than my body is the willpower section of my brain.
Less than 8 is a good rule!
well having just hobble-walked back from a run with a painful hip, maybe I shouldn’t comment because I didn’t keep going. but in general, if I’ve got music on, I turn it up, and if not, I give myself something in the distance to run to, then I can rest a few seconds. that makes a difference. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with very short walk intervals, incidentally. also rain is GREAT. and MUD. and TREE ROOTS. all awesome.
The rain is the BEST. Making sure that you get through it makes the time go by so much faster. Ditto leaping tree roots!
I set off for a run in the rain this morning, but by the time I got to the park the sun had come out – I was bitterly disappointed, I much prefer running in the rain!
Unrelated, but I loved your brunch feature on The Guardian website today – those chocolate pots look amazing!
Hi Jenny, haha, the weather can be such a cheeky monkey, can’t it?! Hope you had a good run anyway. Glad you liked the Guardian feature – there’s a video coming soon and all of the recipes will be on the blog next week. Those choc pots are coming to a kitchen near you (yours, in fact… 😉
I too love running in the rain and living in the Pennines we get a lot of it. Makes me feel very free and i think of all the people who are sat at home scared to go out. Very liberating 🙂