Skip to main content

When You Find Yourself in a Failed Workout



I've talked about the marathon a lot before. It is a race that consists of thousands of hours training for, hundreds of miles ran, countless hours of strength training, hill training, speed work, tempo runs, and the list could go on and on.


I would like to talk about finding yourself in those rough training days. Whether you are training for a marathon, half marathon, triathlon, or any endurance competition. I know that we have all had them. What do we do? Quit? Give up? Keep pushing through?


This can happen on any given training day. Short runs, long runs, speed work or even strength training work. I am a big believer in listening to your body. Do not mistake me here, if you are listening to your body and giving it what it needs, your body will give you more on race day if you respect it during training.


There are those training sessions that you need to compete. I usually like to get in three 20-mile runs before a marathon. And some days, you just do not want to run that 20.


I was training for the Big Cottonwood Marathon this past summer. Each Saturday morning, my alarm would go off at 4:30 and I would start the long drive up the canyon. I would run the course of the marathon every Saturday for 4 months. My training was right where I wanted it to be. I was hitting my goal pace times. In fact I was exceeding my goals! I was dreaming big for the outcome of this race!


One Saturday, I went up the canyon and I just knew that this was not going to be a good day to run a 20-miler. I had not slept well the night before, not properly fueled, probably dehydrated, it was cold and so dark. So many excuses. It was about mile 14 when the pain really hit. I checked out mentally. I thought to myself that I could just call it quits. I could run the 20-miler next weekend. My stomach was acting up, my legs were not moving and I was far from hitting my pace. I had so many excuses to just throw in the towel.


Then I pictured myself out on the race course, in the middle of a bad patch in the marathon and remembered one bad mile can’t define your race, but fighting through to find one good mile can make it.


I ended up pushing through and completed my 20 miler. No, it was not my fastest time, but I did it.




Bad days will happen in training cycles. They are inevitable. There are going to be days in which weather conditions, lack of sleep, poor fueling, dehydration, etc. are going to make for good excuses to throw in the towel on a bad workout.


Letting go of your goal time and just getting through the workout is far greater practice than quitting. My fitness was there but my mental game was weak. On that training day, I strengthen my mind rather than my body. I think I fought to train another day. 


Happy Running Friends,
Kylie



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Marathon & Half Marathon Training Plans- Train With me

Train with me! Are you training for a marathon, half marathon or any running race this fall? Whether you are a seasoned runner or just signed up for your first event, let’s train together! I am preparing to run the Chicago Marathon on October 7th this fall. I am so excited! I have some big goals set and I want to help you reach your goals as well. Disclaimer- I am not a running coach, I have run 6 marathons, and countless half marathons. I have qualified for Boston, New York and the Chicago marathon. I have done my research and I am ready to take my running to the next level. I am not acting as a coach, just wanting to give guidance and share my journey to runners and learn throughout this every changing process. I will post weekly runs, workouts and explain how these workouts are supposed to go. I believe that everyone is different, and everyone succeeds through different workouts. I am a huge advocate of listening to the body, going off of feel rather than time. We will have spee...

Supplements

Supplements.... Supplements... Where to begin! The fitness industry can be a very messy, intimidating and contain a lot of misleading information. Supplements are a huge money maker for companies because everyone is looking for that "magical pill" to make them fit into those high school jeans. If you know me, I am a very naturalist person but I also do take supplements. I love to find very natural supplements and limit my caffeine intake. **Disclosure- I am not paid to represent any of these products. They are all just products that I like and recommend to everyone in the fitness world. My schedule: Wake up at 4:30 AM- Take my pre-workout from WM Nutrition & L-Carnitine from Ideal Fit During my workout- sip on Ideal Fit's BCAAs & WM nutrition Hydrenengery After my workout- IdealFit Protein Powder At breakfast- Glucosamine and daily multi-vitamin Here are what they look like and links to where you can buy them: Pre workout- WM Nutrition WM Nutrit...

4 IngredientProtein Granola Bars

I absolutely love these bars! I do not understand how people do not like peanut butter.  When you mix peanut butter and honey.... you have me. I love quick and easy recipes without a lot of ingredients. I mean, this only has FOUR ingredients! YASSS! Once I created this recipe, I make it almost every week. I love to eat these before or after my workouts. I wanted to share this SUPER easy protein granola bar recipe: Ingredients: 2 cups oats 1/2 cup honey 1/2 cup peanut butter 1 serving of vanilla protein powder Directions: In a mixing bowl, combined oats and protein powder, set aside In a small sauce pan over medium-high heat, bring the honey to a boil Let the honey boil for one minute Remove the honey from the heat and stir in the peanut butter Immediately pour the honey-peanut butter mixture over oat and protein mixture in mixing bowl as the mixture becomes sticky and difficult to work with so move quickly Pour mixture out on a pan or on a plate Flatten mixtu...