Kicking myself out the door

I woke up yesterday in a Mood.

A trip to the pool saved my mood yesterday.

You know the kind of Mood I’m talking about — when you don’t feel like working, dread the day’s workout hours beforehand and question the motives behind even your most cherished beliefs and most staid routines. One of those.

The mood lingered even after a morning of work, so it was no surprise that I was almost frantic to avoid the early-lunchtime swim I had planned. I tried my best tips and tricks from my adventures in sports psychology over the summer to no avail. In the end, I all but kicked myself out the door.

Once I got to the pool, I had to force myself to actually jump in the water after spending three or four minutes stretching on the deck. “You’re not going home now,” I told myself. Finally, once I jumped in, I used some of the aforementioned tips to get my mind in the right place. I replaced negative thoughts (coldcoldcoldcoldcold! If I’d done the stationary bike, I’d be done by now!) with a simple refrain: I sang “Three Little Birds” to myself, and swam to that tempo.

I enjoyed a random but challenging workout composed entirely of 400s by repeating the following four times:

400 free with pull buoy
400 backstroke

The last four 400s, I added seven hard strokes to the first 50 of each freestyle set, and sprinting every other 25 of backstroke. The final 400 was an IM.

Are you surprised to hear that I had a great workout, and that the rest of the day was drastically better and more productive after I’d finished it? I’ll try to remember that feeling next time I’m struggling to get out the door.

How do you stop negative workout thoughts in their tracks? It’ll be easy to do so tonight — I’m not so much in the mood to head out into one of the first wintry nights for our Pacers Silver Spring group run tonight, but I’m definitely in the mood for a post-run happy hour at Adega Wine Cellars. Easy motivation!