Today was one of those "why the HELL am I doing this? days. in all honesty....I don't have those days very often..and I don't have workouts that go bad very often..at all. I usually feel decent about them. I may not love them, but i get through them and am happy with my accomplishment.
Today on the other hand was just a total mess. Mentally.
the workout was 8 x 2min hill sprints.
I have ALWAYS felt very weak with hills. they are the ONE thing in training I dread. I feel like I am not strong. I think my legs are built for speed...but not for strength. maybe this is all mental, I don't know...but I do think there is SOME truth to it. Some of my friends have big strong quads and hills aren't the utter devil to them like they seem to be to me.
I have done this workout twice...first week was 5 x 2min...and it was pure hell. 2wks ago was 6 x 2min...and it was really hard too. so today...the thought of 8 was a bit much. I TRIED to psych myself up for it. lots of positive self talk "it's only 2 more than you did last time. It won't be that bad. You can do this. You are strong" etc etc.
I felt good on my warm up, but when time came to run..things turned bad quickly.
I ran the first sprint and felt decent. few I thought.......but quickly, # 2 and 3 really didn't feeel good. my lungs were SEERING......my legs weren't THAT bad, but my LUNGS....oh my gosh, I could HARDLY get in enough oxygen the last 30 seconds.
# 6, I am pretty sure I pee'd my pants the whole way up. My bladder is extra bad lately. (10lb babies, and 4th degree tears= peeing your pants for the rest of your life).
Every single sprint, I made less distance and had slower paces. THIS is what was so discouraging....I JUST COULDN"T PULL IT TOGETHER. I wanted to quit so bad. by the time i would hit about 1min 20 seconds, mentally I had given up.
I wanted to quit, but I told myself, even if these next 2 suck, you are going to finish, you are NOT a quitter.
That was about the only good thing that came from this workout today....I did't quit. I felt like total YOU KNOW WHAT after this workout.
My mind was FLOODED with self doubt and alll the way home, all I could think of was that Boston course......the Hills and how I might go all the way there and totally flop. I kept thinking about the comment (can't remember who it was from) that posted on here a while ago and said that Boston kicked her butt every time she had run it, so I might have to get my goal time on another course.
I felt SO discouraged!!!!!
Amanda, Jenn and Tasha had good comments on my I dream of running FB PAGE that were helpful, so thank you ladies.
I AM about to get my period in 3-4 days so I hope that this whole mess has something to do with that. ....Yeah....I am gonna try and chalk it up to THAT! lol
So...what do you do when you have workouts like this? I need to learn some tricks on how to get over these mental barriers!