The bad run

[El Gordo]

Hi Nigel,

For me, as I've mentioned a few times, there is a tendency for the pleasure from runs to be inversely proportional to the expectation. I know that sounds glib, and a bit too clever, but it's so often proved to be the case.

A couple of Fridays ago when I was working from home, I spent the morning looking forward to my lunchtime run. It was a fantastic autumn day. Cool but bright and sunny. It had rained through the night so the air was clean and fresh. I went out full of joy, but... but it just didn't follow the script. Despite being well-rested, after a couple of miles I just ground to a halt. Literally. I had to stop and walk even though I wasn't going fast. I picked up again, but it wasn't the run I'd hoped for. The opposite happens all the time. Pretty much every morning in fact. This morning was a good example. The thought of getting out of bed and running was dreadful. But I dragged myself out there and sure enough, felt fantastic afterwards.

Why does this happen? I'm at a total loss to explain it. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. You learn to minimise the dangers, but it still happens. Most of us, when we started, made the usual mistakes of running straight after eating. We learn the importance of sleeping reasonably well and not over/under-dressing. But there's something beyond all that that's unpredictable and both frustrating but fascinating.

Any theories anyone?