I chose to win today.

A while back I wrote a post about "choosing to win." Those are the times when you really don't want to workout but you do it anyway.  It's when you put yourself outside of your comfort zone, and therefore also when you stand to gain the most. Sometimes it's simply breaking a pattern or getting out of a rut. Sometimes it's about pushing yourself to new performance levels during a workout. You CHOOSE to make yourself better rather than playing a victim card of some sort and laying down mentally. This is an important point because it keeps you mentally in control of what happens to you.

Today I was really tired at lunch and didn't want to run the regular 10k route. I had several good, valid reasons not to go. I was really tired from adding about 35% volume into the week, and we have an hour of PT scheduled for my USMCR drill on Saturday, so a makeup session is guaranteed.  But I grabbed my gear and changed, thinking I would just do three miles. I did all six miles.

The way I see it, this is a double workout. Not only did I not bail, but I did the full-on workout that was scheduled. Instead of being lazy and not burning 800 calories, I burned those 800 calories.....for a total of 1,600 calorie difference in the day. That's the sort of thinking that gets me to do the workouts when I don't want to.

So I chose to win today. I won a mental battle. But more importantly, I won the battle for consistency that will build the foundation for good performances next summer.