That was me this morning.
I had it bad. The biggest case of CBF I’ve had this entire program. For 15 weeks I’ve woken up ready and raring to go chomping at the bit to rip in for the workout planned on my program. But today with just over a week to go until biggest race on my calendar for the year, I woke up looking for excuses. Thinking I couldn’t be F@#ked.
I woke up at a good time. No alarm with Garmin telling me I got just over 8 hours sleep. Nothing wrong there. It was cold, not Canberra or Canada cold. But for Newcastle it was really chilly. I took my 2 dogs down the beach for their daily walk and the cold wind just re-enforced my I don’t want to get in a pool today feeling.
There is 1 week left on my program before the big dance and I was almost prepared to let this session go. Things like I swam yesterday and swam really well, went through my mind. I won’t lose any condition just missing one session. Maybe it will even do me good if I miss it. I was ready to settle.
I ended up thinking to myself. What did I set out to do here? What was the corner stone of this program? It was consistency and no excuses. So far in the program I had started every workout and completed all but one due to a niggle in my dodgy arm that 3.5 km into the swim turned in to pain that needed to be looked in to. So today would be no different. Turn up, start the workout and see how the body feels as I go.
So I got in the pool and started swimming. WOW is about all I can say as once I started swimming my body came alive. All thoughts of not finishing this workout were quickly forgotten and those thoughts were replaced with thoughts of the task at hand and seeing what my body had performance wise for the day.
After the warmup was finished, I soon found out that I was on for a good swim with times faster than normal and for the final effort I actually posted a lifetime PB.
When I look back and think to myself now in the afternoon. What would happen if I settled? What would happen if I said nah let’s stay at home and watch Netflix? Maybe nothing or maybe I stay home again, then again and then you look back at my next big event and realise I missed quite a few workouts. Every time you don’t show up it becomes easier to do it again next time. Even if you feel like crap. Turn up, commit to trying and giving it the best you have on the night.
A podcast I recently listened to explained it like this. Most of your workouts are in the 80% bracket. Meaning you feel normal. Not awesome, not tired, just like it’s a normal day. 10% of the time you feel like crap. You are either sick, tired or have a case of the CBF’s. Then the days we dream about as athletes, the 10% Awesome days, These are the days where you feel like you are floating, going hard seems easy and you feel like you could go on forever. These days are literally that. Possibly 10% of the time maybe even a little less realistically.
It’s the 80% that we live in most days. So even though you may feel a little down or lay aim to get going and have one of the 80% days. Because those are the days that make up most of your training and where you will get fitter, stronger, leaner and become a better athlete.
I was super happy that I did go to the pool today and do my workout. To tell you the truth the part I am happiest about though is the way I went about getting there. I never once berated myself or shamed myself. Getting there came by recalling the reasons I do it in the first place and thinking back to my goals.
So often in the past negative self-talk is what kept me going or got me to workout. Somewhere along this path I have found my why and I couldn’t be happier about it.
So remember next time you have doubts about your training, know that we all have them and it’s ok to have them. But stay true to your goals and just turn up and see what happens. You never know. The workout just may turn out to be the session that defines you and takes you to the next level.
Mick.
Remember
Exercise is a privilege, not a punishment.