It is a Tuesday evening and I just finished the saddest “strength” workout of my life. I am feeling frankly a little unmotivated and frustrated by some pain in my back and how it is holding me back from where I should at this point in my training cycle. While I was starting dinner and pep-talking myself, I thought maybe someone else needs to hear what I am telling myself too…so here we go!

First off, it is OK to feel like this! It is NORMAL! Whether you are working through an injury, work is taking extra energy out of you or you are just plain not feeling it – it is perfectly OK to just not want to train.

The catch is, you still owe it to yourself to show up for yourself.

Your training plan has a run you just aren’t up for? Make a goal to at least lace up your shoes, get outside and do the warmup and see how you go from there.

A nagging injury or pain keeping you out of the pool? Skip the pool, grab a yoga mat and stretch or do some light core work.

I can’t run right now, which is disappointing, but I decided to get in a strength workout. And to be honest, it wasn’t the best either because my muscles are still fatigued from my long ride Sunday and I had a heck of a busy 9 hours at work today that zapped a lot of energy. But I am so proud of myself for even putting in the 20 minutes that I did. I moved my body, got some fresh air and reminded myself it is OK to feel off and that it won’t last for long.

There are a million reasons to not train, but at the end of the day you owe it to yourself to show up for yourself and do whatever you are capable of accomplishing that day. That is a total success.