I knew what to expect with workouts.
I knew how I was going to feel.
Then
BAM
It hit me like a freight train.
I had a workout yesterdayIt was deceptively hard. I did what I could, but I struggled. I struggled to keep my cadence up. I struggled to go from zone 4 intervals to zone 2 and back again and again and again.
I ran off the bike well. That was the day that I hit that 7:04 interval.
But the bike......it wrecked me.
After the workout, I was tired. No matter how much I ate. No matter what I did. I was tired.
I got up today to do another one. This was a run.
It was hard again. I hit every interval, but I was wrecked.....again.
In my Training Peaks log, I sent a note saying, "I did my best. These workouts are deceptively hard. I feel like overnight we took the workouts up a notch."
"Was it me?" I wondered. "Was I just tired? What happened to me?"
My phone beeped at me. It was Liz, "I can tell. You were challenged by the workouts. We're taking your training to a whole new level."
And I should mention, she ended it with a smiley face.
I remembered that she warned me this was coming. I just sort of ignored the warning.
Today, I thought a lot about the workouts. Rather than get beat down by the feeling of being beat down, I decided to embrace the feeling.
She has decided that I'm ready for the next level of training.
Mentally, I know that the next weeks of workouts are going push me like that. They are going to make me doubt myself. They are going to make think I'm not strong enough. They are going to make me think about quitting or taking it easy here and there.
But I'm not going to do that. I'm going rise to the challenges. I know they are going to open my eyes to a whole new world of suffering, but there's nothing that feels as good as getting through to the other side and realizing that you're stronger, and every drop of sweat, every tired muscle, every mental battle.....was worth it.