You Can Do This

I took the day off from running today.  Instead of running I decided to get in a workout on my bike using my bike trainer and riding in the garage for an hour.

My goal today was to keep a cadence of 100 rpm during my entire workout.

I started in a gear where 100 rpm felt good, but slightly uncomfortable and I kept that up for 20 mins.  After that 20 mins was done I dropped down a gear on my bike to increase the resistance on the trainer and maintained the 100 rpm at a more difficult effort.

My original plan was to ride the final 20 mins in the next gear, making the effort once again more difficult, but I decided that 10 mins would be a better idea because I have a long run planned this weekend and don't want to get hurt riding my bike.

The next 10 mins in the more difficult gear were pretty hard.  Keeping up with the 100 rpm wasn't very easy.  I kept say to myself "You can do this!!!"  I started out just saying this in my head, but twords the last 2 mins of this 10 min effort I was having to say it out loud to myself.

My goal was to ride for an hour so I needed to figure out how to end the last 10 mins of my ride.

I decided to ride 2 mins 30 secs in the gear I started in, 2 mins 30 secs in the 2nd gear, 2 mins 30 secs in the hard gear, and then I ended in the easy gear for 2 mins 30 secs to cool down.

I'm not much of a cyclists, and really have no idea what I'm doing on a bike.  For me riding my bike is just a way to balance out my training.  I'm starting to push my bike workouts more and more lately.  I'm excepting the fact that my workout lately aren't easy, and that they hurt... and I'm ok with that.

There are a few races coming up that I really want to do well in, and I'm doing what I need to do to hopefully be successful in those races.

Sometimes I just have to remind myself during those workouts that I can handle the pain and to keep pushing hard.  The more comfortable I become with being uncomfortable, the better I'll do during my races. 

Hard workouts aren't easy, and they shouldn't be.  I know what I need to do to have a successful run at my next race, and sometimes I have to remind myself that I can handle the pain and discomfort.

Sometimes I just have to tell myself, "You can do this!"

Until next time...

KEEP RUNNING!!!!