Are you Tough Enough?

This is a question I find myself asking and considering over and over again as I train, as I ice, as I plan, and as I dream.  This is a mental game, and if you can dream it you can do it.  At least that is the idea.

The truth is that day to day you have no idea what you are going to encounter, what challenges, drama, pain, fatigue, illness, anger, tears.  But with all of this, you need to take the joy, success, love, laughter.  This happens on a day to day basis, and if you focus on the bad, well, there goes your day, but if somehow you can focus on the light on the horizon, and the pure joy of the experience, somehow the whole day, the whole race, no matter what the downside was, just seems better, easier.

Tonight, I trucked through a trainer ride, feeling good, right up until a 12 minute push to a Zone 4 heartrate (90-95% of max).  That push made me want to back off, it made me question what I was even thinking getting into all of this, made me think, "can I even do this?"  That dark side of training exists, but only has an impact if you let it.  So I put my head down and dug my heels in and kept spinning, for 30 seconds at a time, talking myself through the push, until eventually it was over.

So much of this race is mental, I know I will have low points, but if I can keep my chin up and focus on the experience, I truly believe I can do anything.  This applies to you to, no matter what it is, be positive, smile, laugh, enjoy the experience.  Its just not worth being down. :)


Also, in true ironic form- my scale died shortly after my last blog post.  And if you know me, you know that this is probably a good thing since I was typically weighing myself every day.  So, my challenge to myself, I am not going to buy a new scale for at least one month.  Trying to gauge my success on how I feel, not what I weigh.  We'll see if I last :)