“Celebrate the good, yet embrace the bad”
No one wants to have a bad workout, am I right? There are plenty of reasons you might have a bad workout & there’s the possible way to avoid a bad workout by making sure you take a rest day, both of which I’ve blogged about before.
But as I was thinking about it recently, I realized I failed to recognize one of the reasons we might have bad workouts – a good reason, a productive reason. Especially in the case of training for an event, like a race or triathlon, a bad workout is actually a good part of training.
Celebrating – and hydrating – after a hot, humid run done
Event days are rarely perfect. From unexpected weather to crowds to the obvious fact you’re probably doing the longest version of said event for which you’ve been training, there are plenty of surprises that can be thrown at you on the day.
If every long run, bike ride, or other workout was always picture-perfect, you lose out on that element of overcoming an unexpected challenge. I recently had to do this twice when I was preparing for my first half marathon since having my son. There was one long run that was bad, simple fact was it was hot and I don’t do well in hot weather. Then there was one that was so, so bad, I told my husband I probably shouldn’t have finished it. I was honestly worried that it was so bad, my form probably went to shit a few miles in and I may have done some damage by continuing (I was fine, just feeling a little dramatic at the moment).
Luckily, I survived both and going into race day, knowing it would be hot and humid, I reflected on those runs and told myself I was prepared for this, I could do it. And I did.
So next time you have one of those tough workouts where something – or everything – goes wrong, embrace it and remind yourself it made you stronger.
I tend to anticipate at least one, if not a few, really bad workouts when training for an event – how about you? Do you try to take the benefit from a bad workout or does it just get you down? Comment or tweet me, @LindsayIRL.