Keep Moving Forward

"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done..."

I love this quote!  

Often when I am on a hard run or ride trying to figure out a way to dismiss the current pain this quote will pop into my head and it never fails to give me that little something extra.  Does anyone know who said this? Ironman Champion?  Ultra-Marathoner?  I'll let you know at the bottom of the post ...

The reason I posted this was because last week was hard on me both physically and mentally and it popped into my head quite often.  I was tired, sick, and sore.  My legs felt like they had ten pound weights strapped to them with ever stride, spin, or kick that was taken.  Mentally I had to fight off the voices that kept telling me to quit.  Even though last week was a recovery week and the overall volume was just a little short of 12 hours this was by far the most challenging week of training that I have ever gone through.

What a difference a week makes!

I am back and feeling stronger than ever.  Here is how the week is going so far:

• Monday:  Rest Day - This was the get my head and body together day - Reset.  I wore compression sleeves all day and ate extremely clean.  Bed time came early as I had a 4:10am wakeup for Master's swim.

• Tuesday AM:  Master's Swim - 3200yds.  I felt great the entire workout.  The last 400yds were 100yd intervals and I pulled out a 1:36/1:36/1:38/1:40 for those 100's.  Not my fastest 100's but still extremely strong at the tale end of a 3200yd workout!

• Tuesday PM:  Tempo Bike - 1h 45m (31.5mi) total with 34m of tempo in the middle.  I felt so strong that I did tempo for the entire ride.

• Wednesday:  BRICK DAY - 1h 15m of Zone 4 on the bike.  This was done on the trainer and I mashed in the big ring the entire time and the legs felt powerful.  The run called for 30m at Zone 4 pace.  This was done in 90F heat and finished up doing 4.01 miles in 30m 44s.  Splits were 7:50/7:40/7:52/7:16 for a 7:39/mi avg pace.  I could of held this pace for a few more miles - excellent run.

So what does all this mean?

My take away is that over the course of a training plan you are going to have highs and you are going to have lows.  The key is to just not overreact to either of these highs and the lows. Trust you plan and do the work and the results will follow.  Or simply, Keep Moving Forward!


Oh, and CLICK HERE to see where the above quote originated. (If you already know I think we can be BFF's)

Thanks for Reading.

Jeff