Lost Confidence

Hi everyone,

This is my first time to post on the forums although I've browsed them for a long time. I've been runing fairly consistently for the past 3 months, coming from a not too bad fitness base. I've been running 5/6 times a week, 4 of these with a club and the rest in the gym. Went away last week on a training weekend and we trained twice a day. Really enjoyed it and got alot of encouragement. 

 

Got back on tuesday and decided  to take the day off as I was wrecked, wednesday tried to run but calves felt tight and were burning. And then at training on thurs, an easy 4 mile, I just really struggled and have never found a run so long. Bear in mind I've been doing the 10 mile long run on sundays. 

 

Now I just feel so disheartened and discouraged. I felt great when I got back on tues but I feel like I was just fooling myself and I'm actually awful at running image I really found like my confidence was improving(part of the reason I started running, wanting to lose a bit of weight and actually achieving something). I've been so low the past few das and just can't shake it. Didn't go to training yesterday or today - although I did go out myself today and made a feeble attempt. 

Has this ever happened to anyone else ? I was enjoying the running so much and now I feel, just blah. I'm not overweight but I'm heavy enough and I feel like I'm just plodding along and people must be just laughing at me. I'll stop now before I work myself up more.

 

Hope someone has some advice, sorry for the moan ! 

 

 

Comments

  • mathschickmathschick ✭✭✭

    I think you have just overdone it at the training weekend. Have a week off and let your body recover, Then try again.

    If you are new to runnning most of your miles should be fairly easy or you run the risk of injury.

  • dprovandprovan ✭✭✭

    qf05, i regularly have bad runs or bad weeks where i am going backwards. i have completed long runs of 21 miles that have felt easier, smoother and stronger than other 3 mile runs that i have completed. I know it is easier said than done but try to put less pressure on yourself, every run that you do is making you stronger and fitter and it takes strength and willpowe to get through those tough runs so your building your mental strength when physically it feels tough.

  •  

    Firstly, i'm no expert...at all. I only started running in October after 15 years away but I was an overweight guy (17st 9) when a chance encounter got me back running. In the 7 months since I've learnt a fair bit about myself and how I react to running. I started out seriously plodding and getting through 1 mile without stopping was a massive achievement. I'm sure plenty of people laughed at me and my size but I genuinely loved being out there. Not for the health benefits or weight loss, I have lost 4 stone mind you, but because I just enjoyed the act of running. The enjoyment got me through so many bad runs at the start. I've had countless bad runs, stopped on runs, walked at distances i'd previously run past with no problems. Had weeks where I felt like I had made no improvements whatsoever, where every footstep was a huge effort. Theirs lots of thinking time out running and I was soon thinking that this was all I was able to cope with/achieve. But over time it became clear I was wrong and I WAS making improvements every time I was stepping out of the door with my trainers on. Every time I run, no matter how good or how bad I started to tell myself it was fitness being added to my fitness bank. When I feel I'm tired and can't go on I tell myself every step is worth more than when i'm running easy and feeling great. Its helping me cope with muscle fatigue, its helping me beat the doubts in my mind and the voice in my head telling me I can't do it. Getting in after a bad run I started telling myself that at least I was out there trying, and trying was better than giving up.

    I've been up at 40MPW since Febuary and did my first ever race last Weds which are both things I never thought would happen. Having said that I had to call my wife yesterday 3 miles from home as I was just totally knackered on a long run through the countryside. Legs felt like lead with every step. Today, still feeling a bit tired I went out and crushed a very hilly 11 miler no probs. One day bad, next day suprisingly good.

    I guess in meandering fashion I'm trying to say that the main thing is to just enjoy the act of running. The bad days and weeks make the good days so much sweeter. Every run has ups and downs, when you hit a bad patch its just that, a bad patch. In the same sense its easy to have a bad week or a bad few runs, but you'll get through this patch and the improvements will keep coming.

    Get through this tricky spell and you'll be back seeing advances and feeling better about it in no time.

    Your out there doing it, and thats a great thing. The good times will be back soon enough.

     

     

     

     

  • Hog-mouseHog-mouse ✭✭✭

    sounds like you've done some hard work and now need a rest to let your body repair and regrow.

    That's normal. Just continue to pootle at whatever pace and distance you can manage for this week. You'll feel fresher after it if you don't push yourself too hard but allow yourself to recover from the hard training that you've done.

    You've certainly jumped in at the deep end and set out hard. Running for a few months, 5 - 6 x a week. Even if you are fit that's asking a hell of a lot from your body, then you go make it work twice as hard by training twice a day.

    Your muscles fatigue when you exercise, you cause tiny stresses and tears in them, this take time to recover from. You need to give your body time, you are expecting too much from yourself. Running is heavy impact, your body has told you it's time to rest.

    It's taken me from middle of feb to now to recover from a winter of running. 1 chest infection, 3 colds, an allergic reaction to life and I ran my first strong run of more than 2.5 miles today.

    We all have bad periods and if you continue to push yourself too hard you'll burn out like me. x-train, swim or cycle but nothing to hardwork for a few days - a week. We all need to build in easy weeks to our training. That could be every second or third or fourth week. It doesn't matter how fit you are you still need down time.

    relax, don't beat yourself up, get a good nights sleep and a few healthy meals, a little treat now and then and you'll pull back and go on to be stronger.

  • Wow thanks everyone for great replies. I guess I am panicking unneccesarily. I'm going away in two weeks and I had planned to do some running abroad. Holiday is 10 days long and I'd really like to get a bit of training in. I think I'm just worried that I won't do a tap because I'm feeling so brutal about the running. Have to get a positivity boost image Thanks again image

  • Hi qfo5, I'm TOTALLY with you. Moan away! I've had a ball for the last 8-9 months, slowly getting stronger fitter faster, couple of races, better PBs in each. It's been great fun but more than that - a massive huge boost to my self-esteem, sense of identity (I'm a runner that's what I am) and fitness (and girly weight loss obsession, I'm not overweight but I'm 'heavy enough' too as you say!). However I ramped it up this month for my first half marathon and have come a cropper with fatigue and a knee niggle. I'm having a week off now which should sort me out physically (fingers and toes crossed) but as you said its the emotional side that's been the toughest aspect. I also started to question myself - maybe I'm no runner after all, maybe I've peaked already, I've been kidding myself, I knew this would happen... Blah blah, negative slef-talk. All the positivity that running has brought was slipping away but I'm trying to chill.

    I think you and I may be 'all or nothing' type folk? We wrap ourselves in things good and proper (which is great) but we also over-panic when things slide a bit. If a run is slow, if a muscle hurts, I tend to imagine the worst. Let's not panic. We are runners, runners is what we are, but we do need to find our pace and our level whatever that may be, so we can be runners until we're 80 - or until an afternoon of bowls seems entertaining... Finding that pace and level takes a while, years even I think. For me running has brought me a much closer understanding of my body than ever before. I've had to listen to it. Its capabilities, its demands, its needs, its limits. In return my body is allowing me to pursue a hobby which keeps my mind healthy and happy. 

    Let me know how you get on? This is important. x

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