Day In & Day Out

I can't pinpoint a reason why but my mindset has changed over the past few weeks and definitely for the better. I've always been a competitive person but when I first started running I wanted to improve as quickly as possible. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing and it showed. I had this idea in my head that if I had one bad day of training or missed a workout everything that I had done would go to waste. I would get stressed and panic about the silliest of things.

Somewhere along the way my mindset changed. Bad days happen to even the best athletes out there. They are inevitable and are no excuse to give up. It is much more beneficial to acknowledge that it is an off day and make up for it the next day. I've had quite a few days where I felt like complete crap and I got through them by telling myself that tomorrow would be better. Sometimes it was and sometimes it wasn't but crappy days don't last forever.

I've also started to realize that some progress is better than no progress, or worse, losing fitness. On Wednesday I had a ride on the schedule. I wanted to get out and practice riding the course for the triathlon I'm doing next weekend. I've ridden the course in full or a variation of it twice before and there are some winding downhills and sharp turns that I really need to work on.

At the end of the ride I was bummed that I didn't ride faster, despite a lot more wind than I'm used to and legs that were pretty darn tired. I rode the course about 10 minutes faster than previously but was upset I didn't go even faster. I quickly realized how ridiculous I was being and that I need to celebrate making progress. I am not a very patient person but I'm learning that putting in the work every single day might lead to small bits of progress in the beginning, but after awhile those small bits of progress can add up to some huge improvements.