Trail running
COMPUTER SAYS NO…
Sun is shining, the weather is sweet, yeah. Make you wanna move those dancing feet… But what if you don’t want to move those dancing (running) feet?
WHO IS SABRINA?
Sabrina Pace-Humphreys is a run coach, personal trainer, author, community leader and founder of the community and campaigning charity, Black Trail Runners. You can follow her as she shares expert tips, advice and the joy of running over on Instagram channel @sabrunsmiles
It’s August. The height of British summertime. The days are long, the weather is favourable, and the trails look glorious. You should want to run, shouldn’t you? So how do you cope when your internal and external running computers – that’s your brain and body – say NO?
I had my own ‘Computer says no’ moment a few months ago. I’d been training for two mountain running adventures and got myself into a habit of travelling to Wales to spend time in Bannau Brycheiniog. Get up at 4am, drive 90 minutes and bimble up and down the lumpy bits for four hours.
But, as soon as I started my Garmin, something changed. That beep of the watch sent an invisible warning signal to my psyche it seemed. My initial run momentum slowed to a run/walk (and I hadn’t even hit a slope), my breathing was laboured, my legs felt like lead and then the thoughts started coming ‘turn around, go home, this isn’t working’ and they wouldn’t leave. One mile in I stopped – dead in my tracks – looked ahead to the summit, looked backwards at the trail behind, turned on my heels and walked back to the car.