Survive and Advance
As March Madness is winding down, I'm sure you've heard someone say "survive and advance" at least once in the past week. And I throw the phrase around a lot, not just in March. It's not that I don't want to do my best, or that I don't want to work hard. It's just that sometimes, all you have in you is enough to get past that day and move onto the next. Whether talking about March Madness or a workout in training, it signals that it might not have been pretty, but you got the work done. You did what you needed to do to move on. Sure, you didn't blow the workout out of the water, but you're still in the hunt.
This past week has been a great week of training. I've seen significant progress in my running. I was hitting all my heart rate zones on the bike, and nailing my swim paces. I take pride in making sure that all my boxes on Training Peaks turn green. If a box turns red it haunts me. I get down on myself and let that little red box haunt me. But truth be told, it's been a long time since I've had a red box.
And last night it happened. I got on my bike to finish out my last workout from last week's schedule. It was a short(er) bike ride. I had to do it on the trainer because of the rain, but to be honest, the heart rate zones were not that difficult and it really shouldn't have been a workout I struggled with. But for some reason, known only to the triathlon gods, I did. Big Time.
Ok, ok, that's not the whole story. The whole story is that I know there are some things about yesterday that probably would have contributed to a sub-par workout. Namely the fact that I ate Easter candy. Not a lot, but more than usual, which for me at this point in my life is none. And the amount of sleep I got Saturday night was less than ideal. But there is nothing you can tell me that would make me believe those two things could turn a normal workout into the struggle-fest that I went through last night. It hurt. I felt sick. My heart rate was no where close to where it should have been, and I was sweating buckets. It was, to put it bluntly, terrible.
About 2/3 of the way through the workout, I just stopped. I physically couldn't handle it anymore and mentally? Mentally, I'd quit about 5 minutes into the workout. So I pressed stop on the Garmin, got off my bike, laid on the floor, and was sound asleep within about 5 minutes. My legs were done, my mind was done, I was done.
After 10 hours of sleep last night, I knew uploading that workout to Training Peaks was going to suck. I was going to have to stare down that red (or maybe yellow) box and type in some comments about what a miserable failure of a workout this was (dramatic much??). So I kept it short and sweet (or sour may be a better fit here). Said it was awful. Said I was sure nutrition and lack of sleep played a roll, but that it was just a crappy ride.
And then after beating myself up all day about it and swearing the next workout would be better, I got an email from my coach: "sometimes you just have to pull the plug and live to train another day." Maybe basketball players aren't the only ones who "survive and advance" this time of year. Maybe I'm doing a little bit of it too. So today, I'm back at it, with a lot of swimming and some strength training. Survive and advance, baby. Survive and advance.
This past week has been a great week of training. I've seen significant progress in my running. I was hitting all my heart rate zones on the bike, and nailing my swim paces. I take pride in making sure that all my boxes on Training Peaks turn green. If a box turns red it haunts me. I get down on myself and let that little red box haunt me. But truth be told, it's been a long time since I've had a red box.
And last night it happened. I got on my bike to finish out my last workout from last week's schedule. It was a short(er) bike ride. I had to do it on the trainer because of the rain, but to be honest, the heart rate zones were not that difficult and it really shouldn't have been a workout I struggled with. But for some reason, known only to the triathlon gods, I did. Big Time.
Ok, ok, that's not the whole story. The whole story is that I know there are some things about yesterday that probably would have contributed to a sub-par workout. Namely the fact that I ate Easter candy. Not a lot, but more than usual, which for me at this point in my life is none. And the amount of sleep I got Saturday night was less than ideal. But there is nothing you can tell me that would make me believe those two things could turn a normal workout into the struggle-fest that I went through last night. It hurt. I felt sick. My heart rate was no where close to where it should have been, and I was sweating buckets. It was, to put it bluntly, terrible.
About 2/3 of the way through the workout, I just stopped. I physically couldn't handle it anymore and mentally? Mentally, I'd quit about 5 minutes into the workout. So I pressed stop on the Garmin, got off my bike, laid on the floor, and was sound asleep within about 5 minutes. My legs were done, my mind was done, I was done.
After 10 hours of sleep last night, I knew uploading that workout to Training Peaks was going to suck. I was going to have to stare down that red (or maybe yellow) box and type in some comments about what a miserable failure of a workout this was (dramatic much??). So I kept it short and sweet (or sour may be a better fit here). Said it was awful. Said I was sure nutrition and lack of sleep played a roll, but that it was just a crappy ride.
And then after beating myself up all day about it and swearing the next workout would be better, I got an email from my coach: "sometimes you just have to pull the plug and live to train another day." Maybe basketball players aren't the only ones who "survive and advance" this time of year. Maybe I'm doing a little bit of it too. So today, I'm back at it, with a lot of swimming and some strength training. Survive and advance, baby. Survive and advance.
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