When runs go wrong

This morning I headed over to my local parkrun at Harrow Lodge with the view of hopefully seeing some returns on my increased training in the form of a PB.

However it was not to be as I experienced one of my worst shorter runs I can remember.

Although my time was only 30seconds slower than when I did it a few weeks ago I felt so bad and struggled all the way round.

So as a way of reflecting on what went wrong, putting todays run to bed and learning from the experience here is my break down of where it all went wrong. 

Hayfever - This week I have struggled a bit with hayfever in my throat, that feeling where you always feel like coughing and cant quite clear your throat. So this certainly didnt help as I felt my breathing was really affected and subsequently my performance suffered. 

Heat - This morning was particualy hot compared to the rest of the week and I struggled with thesr conditions and I was also probably dehydrated from sitting out in the sun and heat. 

Flapjack - I have been trying out different breakfast options for when I am out running in the morning and have been eating a flapjack recently. Although this has worked well for longer slower runs it didnt work well for this faster run. 

Pints - no early morning has ever been made better or easier by a few pints the night before. This mornings run was certainly not helped by the fact I had a few pints out at the cricket last night.

Lack of sleep - Its been a long and busy week and for one reason and another I have not had much sleep and I think this morning it had caught up with me as I felt mentally and physically a bit jaded.

Hard week training - I think also my increased training in the last few weeks as I gear up for my marathon had an adverse affect on me this morning as my legs struggled a bit with keeping up with the aches and pain of training. 

Poor warm up - I was late this morning and was literally running late to get to tge start at a decent time. Usually pre park run I get there around 10 minutes before and do a bit of a warm up but this morning I only had time for a wuick loosen up before it was time to start. Although I didnt feel any adverse affects during the start I thibk overall it did affect me and meant I was running as well as I could have been and meant things were more of a struggle than they should have been. 

Whatever the problems and however I think of them I think it is important to lay to rest the wrongs of a bad run and put them to oneside ready to go again for the next run!