When Workouts Just Don't Happen...

You know how some days you have great INTENTIONS of working out, and for whatever reason it just doesn't happen?  If you're like me, you have those days a lot...even when I'm training, things come up, days happen, and I don't beat myself up too much.  I try to stick to my planned workouts and training plan as best as I can, but I know that I'm human.  (Well, when it comes to running/training at least!  It's probably the only area of my life where I'm NOT a terrible perfectionist!)  What I'm saying is that if I have a terrible day and feel like I need to go curl up in my bed with a book and skip that swim workout or hot yoga class, I do it.  If I have friends or family in from out of town, I might decide seeing them is more important than that mid-week tempo run.  No big deal.

What makes me absolutely CRAZY are those days where you don't really FEEL like working out, drag yourself to the gym/pool/roads anyways, and something goes wrong.  You know those days?  That's what has happened to me the past two days in a row.  Monday evening I raced from tutoring to vinyasa yoga and made it into the class by the skin of my teeth.  I was planning on getting in a good swim afterwards, but was SO exhausted after the particularly challenging class that I really contemplated packing up and heading home.  But no, like a good little cross trainer I forced myself into my swim suit, showered off the sweat, and dragged myself out of the locker room and onto the pool deck, knowing I would feel better once I hit the water....only to be faced with a water aerobics class in the lap pool and swim lessons in the family pool.  WHAT.  How dare other people occupy the pools when I am planning on swimming???  (Don't worry, I sat in the hot tub for 10 minutes instead...can't let that swim suit go to waste after all...)

FAIL.

Today would be better, I told myself.  Knowing full well that it was going to be a looong day between a before school science fair prep meeting with a coworker at 6:40am and grad classes from 5:30-8:30, I refused to let me mind even entertain the idea of skipping my scheduled easy 3 mile run.  I knew that if I let so much of an INKLING of "maybe I don't really need to do this run..." into my head, I'd be a goner.  So I dragged myself to the gym, unzipped my workout bag to change, and found that while I had brought two different choices of headbands (obv), I'd forgotten socks.  And my contacts.  And my ipod was dead too.  The contacts are no big deal, I run in my glasses from time to time, I'm just not a big fan of it.  And the ipod is alright too, I can read a magazine or watch netflix on my phone.  But the socks?  Ugh.

To be fair, I did TRY.  I put on my running shoes sans-socks, crossed my fingers that my good luck of never getting blisters would continue, and hit the treadmill.  After one mile, I realized there was no way this was going to work out.  My shoes were rubbing my feet something terrible, and with just a couple of weeks until the half-marathon I've been training for forever, there was no way I was going to risk some stupid blister or random foot pain screwing up this week's long run or whatever.  I know you probably think I'm overreacting, but trust me, with my luck 1 sock-less run would turn into a stress fracture or something ridiculous like that.  I managed to drag myself through a mile on the elliptical before I decided enough was enough and after a 13+ hour day the only place I belonged was in bed.  Where I am currently sitting, typing this post.

But don't worry, tomorrow is another day.  And I am sleeping in workout clothes tonight with the lofty goal of a 4:30am ride on my indoor bike trainer...third time's a charm, right???

Do you let yourself slip with your training when you're just not feeling it, or do you suck it up and get your workouts done no matter what?


If you get to the gym and realize you forgot something important, do you find a way to work out anyways, or turn around and leave?  I think the only times I've totally left without working out were once when I only brought stuff to swim, only to find out the pool was off limits due to a lightning storm (who knew that rule applied to indoor pools?), and another time when I forgot gym shoes...but I definitely flake out early on days like today when things just aren't working out!  Sometimes enough is enough.