When effort makes it a better day...

I was not really myself this morning (sad things happened) . I can't start complaining about that, I have been blessed with so many happy days in the past year! And I know there are many good days to come!

And...on the schedule today was....the toughest training day of the week! I'll admit, a bad day to feel down.

Today, I was going to have to do the best I could to work with it because I had no other choice. And again, I was going to get to work on getting stronger inside.

I know that it is the positive thoughts and energy that help when I need to push through training. I knew it would be harder than usual today.

But someone told me that the strongest athletes are able to take a negative situation and turn them into positive energy for training and racing.

I had to meet Lance for a morning run around the lake. It was a bit chilly yesterday, a bit gray but I got to meet the NTC group for a while before completing my solitary run.

I returned home, went for a nap and some work, preparing for a hard afternoon. Tried to get my mind set on a big effort.

It was Lance's masterplan that saved me today:
Because it left no time to overthink, and that was a blessing in desguise.

My mission was to drive to coach Lance's place, ride down to do a bike training with Brent (McMahon) to complete a three hour bike ride including time trial and hill repeats. Then ride back and do a track workout with coach. Not much time for overthinking in that plan.
As I left Lance's place, I couldn't help but notice it hadn't gotten any warmer....it then started raining...I kept on thinking to myself that I was going to warm up during the time trial though!
I got to the training sight early, sat in the drizzle waiting for my training partner, secretly thinking I didn't know how I was going to do this. Feeling very alone.

I met Brent and things changed fast, he was ready for a big effort and that is very contageous! Brent always has a good drive, he is very balanced and a great, smart, training partner.
The work begun. The whole effort I put into that time trial was to turn my bad feelings into a good push on the pedals. It was not perfect, but I made it hurt plenty, it was a great practice, there was some good work in there and I was glad to see I was able to focus and push hard....forgetting about worries for a while felt very good. Riding my bike, felt very good.

I followed Brent into challenge number two (the hills), I was impressed with Brent's drive. He had us climb a couple of extra hills before the actual repeats, he wanted a good quality training and was not going to go for anything less.We finaly found the hill. We pushed, we focused, we enjoyed. Before I knew it, I was back at Lance's place feeling glad, satisfied, focused. Ready to run.

Challenge number three was even better. Coach was there with a smile and helped me push through...what turned out to be....one of the best run training of my life ( I NEVER would had expected things to turn out this way, this morning, when I woke up). Lance was very positive and even added 5x400 repeats to my training at the end, when I thought I couldn't take anymore. By doing so, he made me feel how I could take more than what I thought. Which brings me to the true lesson of the day: -the body can always give more, you just have to find the state of mind that will allow it-. The workout was a big set of 400's in which I had to focus on rythm and form. That workout took me to another place. I got my energy and focus from the fact that I love running, from the encouraging words of my coach, from the thought that I am so lucky to have such a great coaching support and to be here in Victoria, and from thinking about the race to come. And there is always that little extra bonus that you get sometimes: This time, my bonus was the nice, old man that stood by the track with his dog, talking encouragements to me after each of the couple of first repeats.

I left that track smiling, cooling down in some new, beautiful trails.
Now I know for a fact that the best remedy for a sad heart is to set a goal and overcome it. It is the last thing that you feel like doing but it is the first thing to do. I guess it is a good way to feel some control when things you can't control, affect you.

Another good remedy is.....good company.

Spaz, the magic nap cat.

Little house party....with Denise, Jennifer, Curtis and friend Mike.