My first training failure!

Tuesday’s training was rough for me.

I wasn’t having a good day anyway. Tired coming off the 3-day weekend. Annoyed at little things that seemed to pop up throughout the day. Hungry. Dehydrated. Bleh.

I’ve been switching around my training because having my gym classes back means I have to cram more into my schedule. I’m trying to find out what schedule works best. Last week, I did a 60 minute TrainerRoad (TR) on Tuesday, strength and aqua aerobics on Wednesday, 75 minute TR on Thursday, 90 minute TR on Friday, Sprint at the gym on Saturday, and my trusty outdoor ride on Sunday. My legs were dead on Friday, though.

So this week I decided to try the 90 minute TR on Tuesday.

Ouch.

I didn’t make it.

I have been beating myself up over it for the last couple of days. But it seems silly now and I’m wearing it as a badge of pride instead.

First of all, I did a lot of things wrong. I didn’t fuel a couple hours in advance like I usually do. Instead, I had to run into the office to do a few things, and I got back home later than I wanted. I ended up eating a big bowl of cereal, which was a bad choice. That just sat there in my stomach, and then add water on top of that … I felt so awful.

And then there was the workout itself. Five 10-minute sweet spot intervals at 95-99%. Those 10 minutes feel like an eternity. I made it through four of them given all the things I did wrong, and I backpedaled a few times through the fifth one. In reality: That’s still AWESOME. I did 40 minutes of quality sweet spot work. So what if I didn’t do 50?

And then add in the fact that I was stressing out about everything else. The entire day had me on edge, so my nervous system was in overdrive. Not being able to fuel stressed me out. The workout plan stressed me out.

It was just a bad day.

It does not mean I don’t “deserve” my new FTP. It doesn’t mean I’m losing fitness or getting weaker. It doesn’t mean I couldn’t just “tough it out” for the last one.

We’re allowed to have bad days, and we are allowed to attempt very difficult things on those bad days, and we are allowed to fail at those very difficult attempts on those bad days. Does that mean that maybe we would have succeeded if it were a “better” day? Maybe.

But who gives a shit? Try it anyway. Learn from the process, and don’t be afraid to back down when it’s wise.

And be especially, especially forgiving on yourself when you didn’t think you could do it anyway but still tried.

THAT’S HUGE!

Most people wouldn’t even take that first step, but you did. That’s what makes you amazing.