Who's Got the Funk?
March 14, 2007 by Bryon Powell · 10 Comments
I’ve got the funk…. or at least I’m in one. I’m in a running funk and I risk falling into a personal funk. This isn’t the first time I’ve fallen into a running funk and it won’t be the last. Now I’ve got to figure out why I’m in it and a way out. The first time I can remember the symptoms of this episode of running funk is right after the Seneca Creek Greenway 50k two weekends ago. I woke up the next morning and desired neither to run the 50k I had plan for the next day nor anything at all. I can think of two major reasons why the funk may have started when it did – overtraining and missing overly optimistic expectations – and both these likely stem from the fact that the previous weeks I ran back to back (B2B) long runs. I’ve never done B2B long runs in the past, but each of these seemed to go well enough, even with two of the Sunday runs being road or flat runs. If you’ve ever experimented with B2Bs, you know that it’s much MUCH easier to go fast/slow than slow/fast. In retrospect I don’t know if I was ready for three such weekends or the general load I ran those weeks. More importantly, my belief that I could do them without a problem made me feel kinda lame when I couldn’t after the way messing/difficult run at Seneca Creek. Looking back, that took the wind out of my sails. When you combine that with bad circumstances early last week, a rest day last Friday, a recovery day on Sunday, I also got out of my rhythm. My frustrating run at Way Too Cool, even if good physical and mental training, has not helped things. Two short, unpleasant runs on Monday and Tuesday were not enough to snap me out of the funk and today I didn’t get home from a work dinner until 9:30 at which point I was too full to run.
Folks, I’m looking for a little spark. Give me a good running story. Give me a smile. I’m not looking for life-making inspiration, so skip the Rudy and man-walks-on-water stories. Just a snippet, picture, quote, etc. that makes me want to go out and run. Sure, I could take two weeks off and that would rid me of my funk, but I don’t want to do that. How do y’all get out of running funks? Got any ideas for a fun run? Something? Anything? :-)
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Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
Read the report/article written by Kenny Moore about Ritz.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,sssssssssssssss6-243-297–11600-1-1X2X3X4X5X6X7-8,00.html
That will give you some perspective. Then cut out the long runs for a good 3 weeks. Don’t run anything longer than 90 minutes and get your turnover back. I am convinced that B2B and super frequent long ones will kill your speed and slow you.
Anyway, get it together man, and listen to those body signals…..If I’m gonna kick your butt at the VT 100, I want it to be when we are BOTH running our best.
Cheers,
Greg
Hang in there, Bryon. Just a thought, but you might be overtrained–especially for this early in the year. Try to take a solid weekend off and do something fun, completely unrelated to running.
Occasionally, I’ll work an aid station at a race. This has become a foolproof way of renewing my mojo. It gives you the chance to view the sport from a different perspective and gives you more of an overall appreciation–a big picture smile, if you will. Give it a try.
Great seeing you at Cool. Here’s to running some miles together at Miwok.
- GG
To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If
you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever
increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires
effort. This is one of the things that discipline – training – is
about.
– James Clavell, in his novel “Shogun”
You can say what you want about me
Wanna do what you want to me
But you can not stop me…
Ain’t nothing in the world that would keep
me from doing what I wanna do
‘Cause I’m too proud, I’m too strong
Live by the code that you gotta move on
Feel excited for yourself
and got nobody on a way
I am no expert and don’t give advice on “how to properly train”, although I don’t believe much in backing off for myself – but then again, I don’t have speed. But I have a thrill of a finish, and that is why I keep training:)
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3216/2047/1600/ZG8.jpg
Two simple things always work for me:
Try running someplace new (or that you don’t run often)
and getting a new pair of shoes always helps!
skinny b
http://crashfistfight.blogspot.com/2006/11/on-pain.html
Listen to your body – if it says take a break, then take a break. You’ll be back in full stride in no time.
Seneca Creek took the wind out of your sails. It put the wind in mine. I have been so inspired since that run. Thanks for getting me out there. You inspire me.
How about you put on your skirt and run like a girl!
Maybe I can let you borrow one for the HAT run.
But seriously it is ok to take a few days off from running. You’ll still be fast when you are ready, ready, ready, ready to run again.
-bls
Thanks everybody for the great advice. Much of it is advice that I would give others if they were where I was, and I have often, because it’s a piece of advice best heard from others. I’m glad you all showed up and chipped in help me out when I needed it. Thanks. :-D
I know, I’m late. But I feel like contributing anyway.
I met Kathrine Switzer on Saturday. I’ve seen her speak before, but this was the first time I spoke to her. Before she signed her book for me, she asked me to tell her about myself. She included some things in the dedication, and in her way of being so gracious as to not talk about herself, but to talk about the importance of setting an example for others, I was reminded that even though running may seem extremely independent and even selfish at times, it’s inspiring to remember that by running ourselves, we inspire others and future generations to continue a healthy lifestyle and to challenge themselves.
Aw man, I just blogged on this very thing. I’m a super senior and typically finish mid to back pack. My funks are like spontaneous, seemingly coming out of nowhere. I am training for a fairly challenging 40 miler on steep technical trails, and last weekend I was ready to throw in the towel. For no reason. I had just become depressed. I was serioulsy ready to contact the race director and tell him to give my slot to some deserving soul on the wait list. On Sunday morning I hit the trail and after a couple hundred yards, the funk went away. I’ve felt great all this week, but I know the funk will rear its ugly head again. Maybe we all have to deal with this to some degree or other. Keep up your hard work. It will go away, at least in my humble opinion. /jim