After a couple of tough workouts yesterday, I was feeling a little fatigued, when I woke up this morning. I looked at my workouts for the day, and immediately didn’t feel like doing them.  I had a very hard threshold run workout, and what would be my first swim for over two weeks (due to pool closure).  It was time to rely on mental fortitude to get me through.

On days when I don’t feel like working out, I use my mind to get me through.  I am fortunate to have been training for a long time, and this gives me lots of past experience to call upon.  Knowing that I have done dozens and dozens of workouts, where I didn’t want to actually do them, helps a lot.

I have learnt two things.  Firstly, and most important, is to get into your workout gear and actually start the workout. Ease into the workout and see how you feel after five to ten minutes.  This is often all it takes, to get past the lack of desire to do the training.  Once you get moving, you realize that your body is doing okay, and the workout isn’t anywhere near as bad as you feared.

Occasionally, the ‘just get started’ trick doesn’t work, and you still want to quit after warming up.  This is where strong mental fortitude can carry the day.  In situations like this, I just tell myself that the workout is likely to be miserable, and to just ‘suck it up’.  If I am able to do this and finish the workout, then I find I get a deep feeling of satisfaction. A huge sense of pride about what I was able to get through.  Remembering this feeling of pride is particularly good, when it come to ‘sucking it up’ in races.

Finally, there are times when I do actually quit the workout.  This is quite rare, but when it happens, I am fine with it.  In these cases, I know my body needs a rest.

My threshold run today turned into one of those ‘suck it up’ sessions.  My legs really hurt during the three intervals of seven minutes at threshold pace. I got through them however, and felt really good about myself afterwards.  I have a hard bike workout tomorrow, and may need to dig deep again to get through that one.