Most runners that live here started running somewhere else. When they get to Chaffee County and start to run (or try to) they notice that it is harder to run here due to the hills and altitude (and also increased age for all but a few).
This can be depressing, but how do you cope?
Some ideas:
*Forget the past. Don’t compare yourself to what you can do then and there. Focus on the here and now, and what you can do to make the future better.
*Slow down (sometimes) It is ok to slow down some, walk some hills( or flats), slack off your normal pace. If you are concerned about time establish a new set of times run for routes or distances up here, and try to work on beating these new pr’s.
*Add more rest. Try to maintain some of your normal speed sometimes by resting more days, so you are fresher when you do run, or by resting in your runs, by slowing down some, walking, or not going as far.
*Run by time. If you were used to doing 6 miles in an hour ‘then and there’ just plan on doing an hour at the same effort ‘here and now’.
*Try to maintain, and try to improve from where you are at now. In reality this is the best anyone, at any level, can expect to do no matter where they are.