There's no escaping the fact that setbacks are difficult, wherever they occur on the sliding scale of severity. Even a minor illness can feel huge if it comes during what was meant to be your peak week of training, so a more serious injury or period of sickness can feel catastrophic. The hard fact is that unfortunately, yes, these setbacks will most likely have a negative impact on your training and therefore on the likelihood of you achieving your goals within the anticipated time-frame. And of course, they don't only occur during training. They can also happen on race-day itself, which is possibly an even harder pill to swallow.
So how do you deal with it? How do you move on from a major disappointment, or accept that the training schedule and end-goal you have been so committed to has now got to be revised?
Caring is what made you so committed in the first place - it's a positive attribute!
Firstly, allow yourself time to really feel the frustration. The well-intentioned "It's just running - it doesn't really matter" doesn't always land well when you've dedicated hours and hours of your free time to something, and you definitely don't need to be an elite athlete to feel the extreme disappointment when it all goes wrong. Give time and space to those feelings and don't feel ashamed of them. Caring is what made you so committed in the first place - it's a positive attribute!
Remember that whatever happens none of the work you've already put in is wasted. I've written another post about the importance of valuing the process just as much as the outcome, and this is a major reason why. Everything you have invested before the setback STILL COUNTS. Ok, it might not have earned you the results you were after this time and you might need to take a few steps back before you try again, but it still represents physical and mental progress. You have learned from it and whether that's been a lesson in training (volume, intensity, what works/doesn't work), a lesson in race-day technique and preparation or simply just a lesson in what you can achieve when you put your mind to it - all these lessons are so valuable and will only help you moving forward.
Don't give up too soon! In some cases what feels like a major issue may not actually have the negative consequences that you imagine. A few missed training runs feels huge when you've completed all the previous sessions to the letter and it can be very tempting to throw in the towel, but it's not over until it's over. Keep your chin up, focus on the things that you CAN do (eating well, sleeping well, resting, doing the rehab exercises etc) and see where you are when things are better again. You may not be as far off as you think.
It's not unusual for setbacks to actually end up being the catalyst for success, however perverse that sounds.
Let the setback fuel your fire. It is normal to feel hopeless and despondent in the face of disappointment but I promise that the passion is still there. Come back stronger, fitter, faster - harness those emotions and use them to your advantage. It's not unusual for setbacks to actually end up being the catalyst for success, however perverse that sounds.
Don't beat yourself up about things that have already happened. It's easy to look back and think "if only I'd done x/y/z". Sometimes, unfortunately, it is true that the setback happens because of a mistake you made. Over-training, persevering through injury, under-fuelling...all of these are sadly as common as they are avoidable and the consequences are almost always negative, sometimes even disastrous. But instead of punishing yourself, learn from it. Take the lesson and make as many notes on it as you possibly can. Go forward feeling positive that you won't make that mistake again.
Finally, step back and look in. When you're at the centre of whatever has gone wrong it is almost impossible to see it with true perspective. It can feel like the be-all and end-all and that can make it very difficult to see beyond it. Maybe you worked hard to qualify for a race and illness forced you to pull out at the last minute. Maybe you picked up an injury at the peak of your marathon training, when you were feeling at your fittest. Maybe external factors mean that that PB attempt just keeps eluding you, time after time. These are really tough things to deal with but try and keep some perspective and remember that, for the vast majority of people, this is only one part of your life. And while all the goals and achievements rightfully mean a lot, they don't define you. There will always be other races and other opportunities but ultimately most people run because they enjoy it and it makes them feel good. I know that if it ever came down to a choice between running for fun (no achievements, no goals) or not running at all, I'd take the running for fun every time.
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