Working through

Oh boy did training hurt this morning.

For training today I was out on the paddleboard. A bit of an interval session with some mates. Always a recipe for a bit of pain.

To make the situation this morning worse I did a strength workout last night. I knew that by doing strength work I was going to be putting myself in a tough place this morning, but that is where the strength work fitted in the program and so that is what I did. I was right though, it did put me in a tough place.

Still, doing these sessions and persevering through them, even when they don't feel good, and even when they hurt a fair bit, that is one of the secrets to improvement.

The unfortunate reality is that not every session can feel great. It is nice when the sessions do feel good, but sometimes they hurt, or you feel average, or slow, or in some other way just generally off. However, it is important that even when the sessions do feel like this that they are done anyway.

This comes back to my blog from Tuesday about getting out and consistently getting the work done, day in, day out. Doing the work even when you aren't feeling great is another aspect of that. Unfortunately feeling rubbish is not an acceptable excuse for going back to bed. If that was true half of our sessions would be missed. Instead even when you feel rubbish (unless you are sick or injured) it is important to see the session through. You may not hit your targets in terms of pace/power/whatever, but you can still strive to meet the intention of the session.

Whenever I slog through a session where I feel average I just think of it as another step along the journey, another brick in the wall. I don't focus on that specific session and beat myself up over it, but instead focus on the step closer the session takes me to my goal. Take enough steps, even if some of them feel terrible, and you can reach your goal, or at least make it closer. Not taking steps because you are feeling tired, or sore, or slow gets you closer to nothing.

Simple as that.