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Uggghhhh.

Made it.

The end of a tough day of training at the end of a tough week of training.

Today's session was nothing spectacular to write home about. It was a brick session with the ride leg being done on the trainer and the run leg being done on my feet. If I am honest it wasn't great. Tired is the excuse I would give. If I was looking for one.

The ride leg went okay, I held the numbers I was after but it hurt a little bit more than I was looking for. The run leg though was just flat. I was keen for a good run since running has been feeling so nice all week, but after the first few kms I just wasn't there.

It wasn't all physical though, mentally I was a little dialled out of the session too and I sort of found myself just going through the motions. That is never a good place to be when looking for quality training, but I found that I just couldn't bring myself back. The lack of mental focus I am blaming on a couple of nights of not great sleep. Some self inflicted, some child inflicted.

It wasn't that the run was terrible. A month or so ago and I probably would have been quite happy with it, but that was a month ago and I know I am running better than that now. Really it was the feeling of the session that annoyed me, just unpleasant running.

My mental state wasn't helped by the conditions either. It was very windy today and my big mental step backwards came after I had turned into the headwind. Not long after that I had an altercation with some walkers and my motivation for the run went downhill from there. I quickly went from chasing the session to just doing the session.

The altercation with the walkers was a good lesson in why training early is good. I was a bit later this morning and there were pedestrians all over the path. Today's conflict stemmed from the fact that I felt that a particular pair of walkers shouldn't have been taking up the entire footpath and they felt that I shouldn't have kicked one of their dogs. Really though who is to say who was right or wrong...

To be fair any dog kicking that happened was entirely accidental and they really were taking up the entire path. They felt I should have yelled out to let them know I was coming past. I am a firm believer that if you are going to walk two abreast with two dogs, taking up an entire footpath, then the onus is on you to be aware of people trying to get past you and give way to them. After we had exchanged these viewpoints we decided to part ways.

I may or may not have then significantly changed from my regular run route to make sure I didn't encounter them again. Little old ladies can be scary sometimes...

Sometimes I just can't help but get frustrated with my running. I look at my races and just shake my head. I know it is my weakest leg and something that I desperately want to improve on. At the moment those improvements just don't seem to be happening. This week I was sort of feeling like I was turning a corner, which is why this morning's run was so annoying. Really though this is just a tired brain talking. Deep down I know the improvements are getting there. Whilst today's session may not have been a great one physically, it was a great bit of mental training and that is what I am going to take away from it. Other than that I will be putting it behind me and moving on. 

Other than the brick I was also down the pool today for a gentle recovery session. A bit of running in the pool, a bit of gentle swimming and a bit of stretching. It was a mental recovery session as much as a physical one and given the morning I had had, just what I needed.

Training this weekend hasn't been all thunderclouds and grumpiness though. The ride I had yesterday was a nice bit of awesome. It was a truly tough ride with six 10km TTs and I managed to get through them all, hitting my power targets for all of them. I have done this ride a couple of times before, but this was the first time I have managed to hit those targets. Some of that fatigue might have come to haunt me this morning, but if that is the case, then it was a price paid in the name of a good cause. So nice little ray of sunshine there.

Day off tomorrow and as you might gather from the above post, I think I probably need it. Time for some sleep and a bit of mental recharging.