All Things Considered

Always account for all relevant factors in evaluating your training performances

Matt Fitzgerald and Endurance Mastery by MG

Feb 16, 2026

Enjoy this excerpt from The Complete Runner’s Day-by-Day Log 12-Month 2026 Planner Calendar by Matt Fitzgerald.

All Things Considered

Tim is almost ready to head out the door for a six-mile jog. Despite the unchallenging nature of the run, he’s a bit anxious about it due to stiffness throughout his legs and soreness in certain areas. He’s run through worse discomfort, however, so eventually Tim stops procrastinating, laces up his trainers, and starts moving.

Right away, Tim feels as though he’s gained twenty pounds since his last run, which was the day before. His pace is thirty seconds per mile slower than his normal jogging pace but feels faster. Remembering past occasions when he started a run feeling lousy and finished it feeling better, Tim hopes it happens again this time—but it doesn’t. After five miles, he pulls the plug.

Would you say that Tim had a good or a bad run? Before you answer, consider some additional context: The run I just described happened just twenty-four hours after a challenging track workout that went spectacularly well. Tim pushed himself to the limit in that session and ran much faster than expected. He was completely spent at the end of it but smiling with the knowledge that he had achieved a fitness breakthrough. No wonder he felt stiff, sore, and heavy the next day!

So, was the run good or bad? All things considered, it certainly wasn’t bad. “Predictable” and “appropriate” are probably the best descriptors. You might say Tim felt bad for good reasons.

The point is that every runner should consider the full context when assessing a run. This might seem commonsensical, but we fail to do it all the time, especially on the days when we struggle. Nine times out of ten, we come away from these “struggle runs” feeling discouraged, no matter the context.

Every run, good and bad, is an opportunity to evaluate how your body’s doing and how your training is going. But assessing how you feel and perform in a run without considering the underlying reasons is problematic, as it leads to distorted conclusions that, in turn, may result in irrational decisions about what to do next.

Even the best runs deserve this kind of contextual assessment. Let’s go back to Tim’s big track workout. Most runners would go no further in evaluating such a breakthrough performance than eating a celebratory brownie and collecting kudos on Strava. But suppose Tim is training for an important race that is still several weeks away. In this context, he might recognize that, as terrific as his performance was, he’s at risk of peaking too early and overcooking himself before the event. All things considered, the workout tells him he’s ahead of schedule in his training and should proceed with caution.

After each run, ask yourself, “Is this how I should have expected to feel and perform, all things considered? What are the reasons I felt and performed as I did today?” Then decide whether the run was good or bad and what to do about it.

Enjoyed this excerpt? Click the title to get your copy of The Complete Runner’s Day-by-Day Log 12-Month 2026 Planner Calendar.