Tonight’s workout scheduled by my coach was a 50 minute, easy pace run.  Nothing too challenging and something I typically enjoy.  Not tonight and not because it was cold.

I consider my greatest strength as a triathlete, is the fact that I love the ‘process’.  I love working out pretty much every day of my life, often twice a day.  It’s my time for me.  I’m super consistent in completing the workouts that my coach schedules for me and mostly only miss them when I’m sick with something like a chest cold.

Tonight however, was one of those evenings, when I just really didn’t want to go run.  The feeling of not wanting to run happens to me occasionally and I’m sure it happens to everyone.  When I get this feeling, I have learned that the secret is to just put on my running gear and go.  Once I get a few yards into my run, I almost never turn round and stop.  Typically, after a mile or so, I’m having fun again. 

Today’s run was different though; my legs felt tired throughout.  They had that ‘end of a marathon’ tired feeling.  I can’t say that ever wanted to quit during the run, but it really was a struggle to complete it.  

This kind of thing has happened to me a few times before, so it’s nothing unusual.  In hindsight, I believe that these runs are very beneficial from a mental toughness perspective.  There are times in races where the feeling of not wanting to run anymore can also happen.  It’s these workouts that really help you keep going during those dark times in a race. 

The other thing that usually happens is that my next run is totally different.  A good night’s sleep fixes a lot of things. I’ll find out early tomorrow morning, if that is true this time.

So my message today is that sometimes workouts are a struggle.  It’s normal to have them; the key is not to get into a streak of them.  If that happens, then you might be overtrained; something I have fortunately avoided so far in my triathlon journey.

How often do you get on the ‘struggle bus’?  Are you able to ride it and get off again at the end of your workout?  If so, you have progressed on your journey.