Today was one of those ‘blah’ days, when I just felt bored with life and unmotivated.  My work day seemed to drag on forever.  The past weekend was a distant memory, and next weekend was so far away in my mind, that I couldn’t even begin to think about it.  It was really hot outside, so I knew my run was going to be tough, and I knew the bike session immediately after my run, was going to be even more grueling.

It would have been so easy to take a ‘rest day’, but I am fortunate in that, I have experienced these feelings before.  I  know that working out, can actually help overcome the ‘blahs’.  The hard part is starting the workout.

As I got changed and put on my run shoes, I actually started to feel a little more upbeat.  I turned on my watch to get the GPS signal, and started walking up the street.  The watch picked up GPS and buzzed to let me know.  I began my run and pressed ‘start’ on the watch.

Immediately, my legs felt really sluggish.  They felt like my mood all day, and they didn’t change at all during my 25 minute run.  I finished the run feeling really down and unmotivated again.  I think I felt worse, because I had convinced myself that the run would make me feel better, and it hadn’t.

After a longer break than I really should have taken, I started my bike session.  It included four intervals of  four minutes at VO2 Max effort.  If you don’t know what VO2 Max is, then just substitute in the words … ‘very, very hard’.  

After the way my legs had felt on the run, I wasn’t sure how hard I would be able to go.  My coach had given me a range for the target power on the hard intervals, so I decided I would start each interval at the lower end of the range, and see how I felt.  The first interval went quite well.  I was gradually able to push more power and I finished at the top end of the target range.  I did the same on the second and third intervals.  While they were both a bit of a struggle, I thought that I would be able to do at least the same thing for the final four minutes.

Half way through that last hard interval however, I had a bit of a mental breakthrough.  I was able to convince myself, that I could go much harder.  For next two minutes, I closed my eyes and rode as hard as I could.  I had no idea what power I was pushing, but I did know that I was ’emptying my tank’.  When the interval was over, I was shocked to see how far above the top end of the power target I had gone; it was a lot. Even though I was sweating like crazy and breathing hard, I felt totally rejuvenated. 

Once again, working out, had snapped me out of my funk. I think the smile in the photo that I took after finishing on the bike, says it all.