Navigating Peaks & Valleys in Our Running

I’ve been running for 16 years now and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, this sport comes with a lot of ups and downs. This has been on my mind for months because coming off of my success at CIM last fall I had big goals and expectations for my spring season on the track and, unfortunately, things didn’t pan out as I had expected. Honestly this was really hard to swallow. Today I wanted to talk a little bit about what it’s like to go through a running “valley” following a “peak” and the things I do to get to the other side. 

A little backstory on my spring season:

Unlike my marathon training cycle I went into my track season with very specific time goals in mind. In the fall I consciously chose to go into training with no expectations. I didn’t put any pressure on myself and made my goal to train really freaking hard and see what race outcomes that brought me. As you know, this approach worked really well for me and I ran an almost 4 minute half marathon PR and a 22 minute marathon PR last fall. Search me why I didn’t stick with the approach that had worked so well for me but at the beginning of the spring season I set my goals to run 1:17 in the half marathon, 35 min in the 10K and 16:30 in the 5K. 

And my spring races went like this…

2/4 – Surf City Half Marathon – 1:19:06 // 30 seconds slower than my PR, had a pain in my abdomen during the race and it kept me from going faster the last half of the race without feeling like I was going to throw up, felt frustrated that I hadn’t run faster and that  [RECAP HERE]

3/10 – OXY Invitational 10K – 35:16 // 48 second PR, felt the same pain as in the Surf City half but was much more mild, was so excited to have run so fast so early in the season, felt like I had <35 in the bag no problem by June, also qualified me for the Portland Track Festival which was very exciting [RECAP HERE]

3/18 – Hot Chocolate 15K – 57:07 // PR because have never run the distance before and this race was just for fun, had wanted to run faster but when we realized how hilly the course was decided to take it as a workout [RECAP HERE]

3/30 – SF State Distance Carnival 10K – 35:29 // slower than previous 10K, the abdominal pain hit just as hard as it had at Surf City and it prevented me from pushing it the last 2 miles, feeling really frustrated by this point and make an appointment to see my doctor about the pain

*got sick with some sort of stomach flu, was out of training for a few days, attempted an 800m workout after I started feeling better and don’t even make it through 2 reps, called Henri crying during my mini cool-down*

4/7 – Pomona-Pitzer Invitational 5K – N/A // didn’t race because I was still recovering from that flu

*re-tried that 800m workout a week later and it went much better, decided to hop into a different 5K race that weekend*

4/14 – Triton Invitational 5K – 16:57 // fastest I’ve run a 5K in the 6 years since college (post-collegiate PR by 25 seconds) and only 7 seconds off of my lifetime PR, so excited about this and feel optimistic about my chances of running 16:30 by the end of the season in two months

*got sick for two weeks with a sinus infection, couldn’t do any workouts, decided to skip out on racing in my first National Championship race at the Pittsburgh Half Marathon, recovered and then got sick with something else again, my coach and I decided to take a total week off to recoup from all of the sicknesses that I’d been hit with over the last month and then I found out that I was pregnant and happily end my competitive racing season*

So while this past season had some mini-peaks in it (like the OXY 10K and my 5K) I would characterize the 3 months I was racing this spring as a “valley” in my running career. I struggled with the unexplained abdominal pain that my doctor wasn’t able to find a reason for after doing a bunch of tests and labs, I felt overall way more exhausted on a daily basis, my runs and workouts felt harder and I had many more “failed workouts” than the one 800m repeat workout that sticks out so vividly, I had to pull out of races that I was really excited about and to cap it all off I didn’t hit any of my goals. This experience is frustrating for any runner, but personally, I think they are especially hard to swallow following a major “peak” moment. When you reach a peak you are so inspired, motivated and amped up to find and summit the next one so tumbling down into the valley instead can be devastating.

Whether the valley is caused by physical or mental factors (or a combination of the two) it’s important to be kind to yourself and stay positive. Of course, I have my fair share of negative feelings and moments when I’m going through a running “valley” – case and point = that 800m repeat workout… but for me the key to getting through is maintaining a positive attitude. Below are some of the other things I’ve done to get through the running valleys in my past, including this most recent one.  

• Try to remind myself that I still made progress, even if it wasn’t as much as I wanted. Sure, I didn’t hit any of my goal times but I ran a big 10K PR and ran the fastest 5K I have in years. Those are both wins and I shouldn’t sulk just because I wanted to run 17 seconds faster in the 10K or whatever my arbitrary goal was… I took steps goals my big goals and that’s better than nothing!

• Keep showing up. Like the wise Des Linden said after Boston, it is so important to just keep showing up. Keep doing your runs, keep putting yourself out there in races. You will fail along the way but if you are persistent you’ll reach your next peak!
• But realize when/if you need a break. Sometimes in the valleys I am so frustrated/determined/stubborn that I want to keep training and racing until I achieve my goal, but this is a horrible, horrible idea! You just end up being over-trained and burnt out which I experienced 4 years ago. I recognized that I wasn’t enjoying my runs or my training and my body was just exhausted so I took an extended break from serious training. So yes, keep showing up but sometimes showing up for yourself means giving your mind and body the rest and recovery they need. 

• Use the experiences from the “valley” to fuel my next “peak”. I always try to pull some lesson out of a valley season and apply it to my future seasons in the hopes of reaching a peak. In the past when I’ve suffered from stress fractures (I had 2 in college) I took the chance to learn about how to keep my bones healthy and the supplements that I needed to take to prevent future fractures. I’m still reflecting on what my lessons from this past season are but similarly to the bullet point below, I think the main lesson I’ve learned is that putting time restraints on my goals does me more harm than good.  
• Go back to what works for me. Of course we should all have goals but like I said above, in the fall I found that holding much more loosely to my goals helped me to have a more enjoyable and less stressful season. I went into every race excited to see my hard work pay off and to see where my fitness was at, instead of putting pressure on myself to run a specific time in each race.  I need the big pie-in-the-sky goals to motivate me on a daily basis but I won’t be putting a deadline on them anymore – for example, this season I will run XX:XX in the 5K! (please hold me to this one friends).

• Identify areas where you may of contributed to the valley and fix them going forward. When I got my preliminary bloodwork done for this pregnancy I was anemic – something I had started slacking on during the spring was taking my iron supplement. I had been taking iron in the fall but since I didn’t seem to be struggling with anemia I kind of got lazy about taking it. I also was not as good as doing my foam rolling and Normatec sessions and really got a little loose with my 10PM bedtime. I know that my down season wasn’t only because of these things but they definitely played a factor and so going forward I’m recognizing that and will make sure I’m on top on them when my next training season starts (after this baby is born). 

So if you are going through a running valley right now, just know that we’ve all been there. Keep your head up and don’t get discouraged because I know that you have more peaks ahead, and the view is going to be ever greater because of what you went through to get there!