On Your Worst Days

Anybody who’s done any sort of significant training for any extended period of time knows that not every day is sunflowers and roses. Not every day is filled with PR weights and not every day feels easy or how you want it to feel. That’s called training.
Today I had to get after one of my classes for a lackadaisical, mediocre level of effort and intensity. What I had to say to them was very simple: results are a byproduct of consistent, daily intensity and effort. Especially on your worst days.
On the days when everything doesn’t feel quite right or the days when everything in your mind says back off the sets or the reps or the days when every ounce of your desire wants to go home early, those are the days that make great athletes. The ones that hang it up or don’t work or don’t get that last rep or that last set, those are the athletes that will always fall second-best or just one rep or one workout short in competition. The best push when everything in them says stop.
One of my coaches who was coaching with me in that class said something I thought was very profound. He said most days in the weight room are hard. You have to accept that most of the time you’re not going to love what goes on in the weight room BUT attack the workout anyways knowing that your perseverance is 90% of the battle.
Right now in our programming you are all probably feeling a bit sluggish probably not as quick or as agile as you were four weeks ago. It’s designed to that end. We are 2 1/2 weeks out from the Open. That means that much of the conditioning and the work being assigned to you is not going to be fun or glamorous or sexy. It’s going to be soul-sucking hard work. We’re in the final phases of a lactate buffering cycle that is meant to hurt. Really bad. Remember the goal. Remember the results that are to come. Persevere. Your effort now is 90% of the battle of tomorrow.