Defeated...in my mind

Some days I get up and get going and everything clicks and it feels good. Other days are like today, I wake up feeling sluggish, read part of my Bible study plan, eat part of my breakfast, crawl into the car and attempt to finish my training. It was a battle today. I wasn't discouraged in my soul but I was in my spirit. That may not make sense. I just didn't feel it today. But that's okay, I finished the workout and limped out (figuratively not literally) and ate and now I feel a bit refreshed.

I did learn a lot today. I learned that my upper body moves quite a bit when I cycle so I need to work on that. I'm beginning to understand pedaling technique but it will take practice. I learned it's not good to weigh yourself before a workout (haha!! That wasn't smart). And I learned that I'm not drinking nearly enough water. I'll be working on increasing water intake and retraining my thinking about eating and exercise. I'll write about all of this soon.

I also learned that if your mind isn't with it, it affects cycling. It's not like weight training. Your mind needs to be in weight training to remember things like roll shoulders up, back, and down, engage core, soften knees, etc. But for cycling, I'm learning, my mind can't concentrate on where I'm still lacking. I need to think about the workout (or imagine riding on the road if I'm not on the road, etc.) rather than think about how awful I am at it. Ha. (I'm not awful, just learning). I can concentrate on technique but if I think about too many aspects of it at the same time, I get overwhelmed.

This brings me to how kind my coach is. I was clearly down when the workout ended. He encouraged me that I'm learning. That's all I can really do. It's only the second week for goodness sake! He reminded me that as a writer, I've had to learn and things like books take a long time to come together. It was a good reminder. Also, having this much structure is new to me. We just got started.

So, today started rough but it's been a good lesson not to give up, which I wanted to do towards the end. Coach patted me on my back and told me to keep going. I did and it was good. I'll have another day like today. It'll stink, I'll want to give up. But, by the grace of God, I'll keep pedaling. I have a feeling I'm going to learn a lot about myself, endurance for life not just cycling, and perseverance.

Here's to a life of learning!