Digging Deep

A really quick update because I'm feeling frustrated this morning...

Woke up early for an 18 mile bike ride only to realize that my gear shift and handle bars are messed up on the right side. This is from a silly little crash I had on Saturday after Chip and I did a 21 mile ride up to and around the Chatfield Reservoir. I had a great ride - even did my first open road cycling - and as we were pulling up to the Xterra, I was reminding myself to gear down, completely forgetting to unclip my feet from the pedals. I was braking and all of a sudden I was stopped. With BOTH feet still locked into the pedals. It felt like slow motion... I just toppled over on my right side. I got a little bruised up, but couldn't stop laughing at myself! :) SO.... that little mishap created a problem for me this morning. Hopefully it is an easy fix!

Upon realizing the bike ride wasn't going to work out, I ran inside and changed my shorts and shoes for a run. I don't know if it was because my mind was prepared for a bike ride or what, but mentally it was really hard for me today. I walked for almost 2 minutes to warm up and refocus then began my run. Time was crunched because of all the time I spent messing with my bike (I had to be home in time for Chip to make it to work on time), so I decided on running my go-to 2 mile loop when I have less than 30 minutes to spend on a run.

Usually, I knock out my two mile loop with no problems. Today was different. It was as if I couldn't dig deep enough to motivate myself through it. I'm so sore. I'm tired. I have scrapes and bruises all over my arms and legs. I have this spot below my collar bone that hurts when I do simple movements like pull back my shoulders, or straighten my back. Today was hard. It didn't go as planned. It threw me off. It was a good lesson.

I have to roll with training, racing, LIFE... when it doesn't go as planned. By nature I am pretty laid back and go with the flow easily. We love being spontaneous in my house. We aren't ones to plan too much because we love to be flexible. In life, I know that things rarely go as planned and am prepared for that. In training, however, I've been married to this "Training Plan" and my brain didn't know what to do this morning when I had to do a quick change up. I have a picture in my mind how each day's training sessions will go from what route I will take, the time it will take me to do so, the sets, the reps, the rests... you get it. I have a similar picture in my head for race day, which is coming soon. I think today helped me to realize that I need to prepare for anything. That even when I am tired and sore, I have to get my mental game on track to dig deep and pull out whatever it takes to finish strong.

Today I didn't finish strong. I turned around early and ran a measly 1.5 miles. Lesson learned. Dig Deep.