Rut’s wrong with me?! 😣

This summer was a tough one for me as I found myself in that dreaded “runners rut“.  It was a tough one I’ll tell ya!

I was having such a hard time with my runs, and, the problem was I wasn’t doing anything different!  I was running the same amount and the same pace as always, but man was I struggling!  It was so frustrating to me as not only was I exhausted after a short run, but my body was aching and I was feeling old!  NOooooooooo!  I had not only plateaued in my running, I had started to regress! This really took a toll on me, so I really needed to figure out what to do and how to get back on track as it was really starting to get me down.

Now, who knows maybe it was the heat of the summer and the fact that most days it was over 25 degrees Celcius when I went out.  Maybe it was the thick, humid air?  Who knows! Whatever it was I needed to take control and get back on track.

So, I analyzed my runs and decided to come up with a plan.  What did I do you ask??? I decided to make a few temporary changes and hoped these would make the difference I needed.

Firstly, I cut back on the number of runs I was doing for a few weeks.  Secondly, I decided I needed to not care at all about my pace and run a comfortable, slow speed.  I also made sure that when I started out I started SLOWLY rather than my normal faster pace.  I had to really focus on being slow and making sure that I was comfortable.  The other thing I did was to change my routes a little and do shorter, flatter routes that wouldn’t challenge or tire me as much on those hot, humid summer days. The last change I made was to  cross-train on those in-between days (see my other blogs about great cross-training ideas!!).  Cross-training, as you all should know by now, is so very important to any exercise program you are doing.

The verdict????? After 2 weeks of doing this I feel I AM BACK!!!  I did what I needed to do and I was able to beat the rut I was in and have had 2 1/2 solid weeks (so far) of good running!

What did I learn from this?  I learned that anyone can go through a rut no matter what sport you are in; running,dance, soccer, cycling, even going to the gym!  We all seem to get to a point where we are not progressing in our workouts, or worse yet, we feel as though we can’t keep up to even our regular work-outs!  It’s so frustrating and discourages the best of us!

I hope that what you have learned from this post is that if you are going through that dreaded rut, just take a moment, figure out what steps you can do to taper back for a period of time, and CROSS TRAIN!!!   This will help to not only regenerate you, but help you get back that “runners high” or whatever phrase it is your activity of choice uses!!

There you go, your Simply Susan motivational tip of the day! 😆

Keep happy and keep active!  You’ll be glad you did!