Tuesday, 12/24 → Phase 2 Lift
Wednesday, 12/25 → Rest
Thursday, 12/26 → 5 mile run
Friday, 12/27 → Rest
Saturday, 12/28 → 3 mile run (treadmill) + phase 2 lift + stretch
Sunday, 12/29 → Rest
Sunday, 12/29 → Rest
Monday, 12/30 → 7 mile run (treadmill)
At this point in training, the above quote should be tattooed on the back of my eyelids. I don't know what it is, but I'm getting in my head a LOT lately when it comes to my training and my brain is working overtime to find excuses to skip workouts. You'll notice above that I only got in 3 runs for week 10 because I made up excuses to *not* got on my 18 mile long run over the weekend. My mental game has been pretty terrible this last week and I need to change it *and* be more disciplined when my mental game isn't where it needs to be. I just gotta get these runs in, man! Anywho, I've bumped the 18 mile run I was supposed to do for week 10 to week 11 and will aim to get it done at some point this upcoming weekend.
Because of my mental state being in a bad place, my workouts were also not where I wanted them to be. It's wild how much your mind can control the outcome of your work outs, especially when it comes to running. On Christmas Eve, Brett and I went to the gym and honestly if he wasn't there with me, my work out would have sucked. I'm lucky that he was there to keep me motivated and he corrected my form on some of my lifts which is always so helpful. Even though I'm at the gym regularly I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing about 1000% of the time!
The day after Christmas I really wanted nothing to do with exercising. I woke up feeling really depressed and anxious and just overall in a bad place. I grumpily put on my workout gear (though I did get to rock my new BRP singlet which I was excited about!) and told myself it was only 5 miles and that running in the heat would be good for my training. I dropped my sister and Brett at the gym and ran 2.5 miles out and 2.5 back in the Florida heat. I really try to gas my legs out on these shorter runs to see how far I can push it, but with my mind being in the place that it was my splits were ALL OVER THE PLACE because I kept on going from really confident to really bummed... UGH. So frustrating. At least it was nice to run in the Florida sunshine.
Lol I love how beat red my face is. 😂
Definitely not used to the 80 degree weather anymore!
We were back home on Saturday and I had intended to go run my 7 miles on the treadmill. As soon as I started running I knew it was going to be a battle mentally, and honestly my brain won out. I opted to just do my workout that was a 3 mile run with my lift directly afterward, and I would do 7 miles another day. Even the 3 miles, though, were rough. I even ended up walking for half a mile because my mind just was. not. there. I never have to walk for a distance that short! It was honestly really discouraging. I finished up my run and kinda flopped my way through my lift, but I left the gym feeling pretty defeated. It just wasn't a good day and it's all because my mental health just wasn't where it needed to be.
Sunday was just... a really terrible mental health day. I was ~going~ to do a 7 mile run or maybe even my 18 mile run... but it just wasn't the day to do it. I needed to focus on doing small productive non-running tasks in order to start feeling better, and after a really disappointing few workouts I really was not equipped to be handed another defeat. I decided it'd be better to put the workout on hold for that day. Should I have sucked it up, been disciplined, and ran anyway? Maybe. Or maybe not. We'll never know. But I do know that I wasn't doing what I needed to do in order to feel good mentally, and it was totally effecting my training in a negative way. So I made the choice to do what's best for my brain and skipped a workout.
Then Monday happened. I opted to attempt my 7 mile run indoors once again (because it was literally raining ice and not 18-mile long run conditions in the least). I was nervous to get back up on that treadmill but it needed to happen.
And I knocked out 7 miles @ 10:00/mi like it was no big deal.
Like... what?? How did it feel so easy to maintain that pace when two days ago I was struggling my way through 3 miles??? This is when I realized that I was feeling better mentally that day (though still not 100%) and I finally knew that taking a day off (a mental health day from running, if you will) was a great call. I felt so happy and confident after those 7 miles that I snapped a post-treadmill gym mirror selfie. 💪
If I needed any more proof that running is a majority mental game, this was it. Even though I still wasn't feeling 100% mentally on Monday, I was leaps and bounds ahead of where I was on Sunday and taking that day off from training to take care of my brain was a good call. The proof was in my performance! If you're finding you're having a string of bad work outs, maybe check in with yourself mentally. What have you done lately to take care of your brain? What can you do to get yourself to a more positive mental space? That's just as important as your physical fitness, and a lot of times can dictate how you're performing in your training. Something to think about!
I do often struggle as to where I need to be taking care of myself vs. when I need to be disciplined, though. How can you tell if taking a day off is good for your mental health or if taking a day off is you just being lazy and undisciplined? Do they go hand in hand, or no? I guess that's something I'll have to work on figuring out. In the meantime I'm trying to convince myself to stop making excuses for the 18 miles I have scheduled this weekend... the predicted weather (rain Saturday, snow Sunday) is making staying in bed all weekend *awfully* appealing 😂 BUT I know that's just me being lazy and not necessarily because I'm in a bad mental place. It's a tricky balance! But now that we're a little over a month from race day, everything counts and it's time to put everything I have into making sure I'm prepared - physically AND mentally!
Good reading this poost
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