You’ve spent months training for Event Day and when it arrives you’re full of nervous excitement, ready to achieve your goals. And then it’s all over. The day has come and gone. You’re back to reality.
You’ll probably have heard of the adventure blues or post-run blues, and you probably have a fairly good idea of what it feels like to have prepared and looked forward to a challenge, adventure, or event, only to feel the anticlimax as you come out the other side.
The return to reality can be tough, and often our temptation is to book something else so we can keep riding the high. But you can overtrain, especially if you don’t have the support in place to manage your events and training routine.
Gil McClure - running coach and co-founder of Sole Clinic, a Bournemouth-based social run club - shares her top tips for moving on from your most recent event.
We are allowed to fall out of love with the thing we love. I often tell people I have a love-hate relationship with running. 50 per cent of the time I struggle to fit anything else around it because I am enjoying the journey, and the other 50 per cent of time I'd rather being doing anything else.
Set your next goal while being adaptable and intentional
Event Day fatigue can come from looking too far ahead, and planning too much too soon.
If you have already decided on your next event, don’t worry, it’s not too late to adjust your goal.
Answer these questions:
- What made you sign up to the event in the first place?
- Think ahead to the day after you have completed it. How do you want to feel?
- What are the three most important things to you about the event?
- Between now and your event, what can you do to ensure you enjoy the preparation journey?
Once you have answered these questions, think about setting simple intentions.
The great thing about intentions is that they can be really open, fluid and adaptable.
Think about what makes you get out and run in the first place, and set one or two simple intentions to help motivate you to keep up, or rediscover, your routine.
Examples:
- Focus on sticking to a monthly routine that helps you to maintain a level of fitness that makes you feel good
- Find events to sign up to that will give you a target and motivate you to maintain your routine
- Enjoy running by inviting friends along more often, and share your training routine to remain accountable
Create a feel-good goal but be specific about what you want to do, and how you want to do it.
Taking this approach will help you visualise and plan the steps you can take to get there.
Breaking it down like this will enable you to adapt your training and preparation as you go, take on rest and recovery when your body and mind needs it, and ask for help and support if you're feeling demotivated.
Examples:
- Enter one half marathon each season (spring, summer, autumn, winter) and attend a run club training session at least once a week, plus aim to complete two mixed-pace training runs each week
- Sign up to a running training app and focus on yoga and strength training while running two to four times each week
- Find a running coach to work with for the next two months to support you to embed a new approach and find goals that motivate you longer term, plus research trail events that allow you to explore a new way of running
- Sign up to a marathon or ultramarathon within the next 12 months plus two half marathons, with two long trail runs each month and two run club training sessions each week
The most important thing to remember when you’re training is to enjoy the journey.
Training can be demotivating at times, especially when it gets hard or life throws illnesses and injuries at you.
Every journey has its ups and downs. Often we appreciate the highs more because of the lows, and it’s important to let the lows happen and not be too hard on yourself or feel guilty because you just don’t feel like running at the moment.
Plans are meant to be flexible and changeable, even the most strict of plans, so make sure you’re factoring in rest and recovery and giving yourself permission to change your mind. There is real power in taking control of your training and making decisions that allow you to switch sessions around.
And if you’re really struggling to find your way forward, find a coach who supports you to find your direction and doesn’t just set you hard sessions!