Fighting the Blahs with Amazing

After an amazing month of September, sticking to my workouts and seeing the result, the first week of October was anything but amazing.  I just felt blah.  Not having a race for 3 straight weekends after so many races was a bit of a let down and on top of that I just was tired and overstressed with everything else.  I only knocked out 2 of my full days of workouts the first week of the month and partial workouts the other 3 days - we're talking BARE minimum.  The fact that my knees were a little achy all of a sudden didn't help either.  It was just easier to sit on the couch and veg or catch up on sleep than to get my butt in the gym or out the door.  As the second week of the month rolled around I knew I had to get myself moving or I was going to fall into the old pattern of not training.  On Monday I literally forced myself into the gym, feeling totally blah.  I was cold.  I was tired.  I was weak.  It was back, bis, and shoulders (typically my favorite workout); and I was dreading it.  I started out with a superset of assisted pullups and bicep curls, 3 sets, 10 reps each.  Warmed up a little I continued through my next supersets, getting more and more pumped as the workout wore on until I finally wrapped it up and decided to knock out abs as well.  Workout completed I left the gym hot, sweaty, and pumped - overall feeling great.  So when Tuesday rolled around and I was again blah and again dreading the gym, why did I find it easier to just let it slip by?  I justified with the fact that I'd pulled a REALLY strong 3 mile run during lunch.  It was supposed to be 3 easy miles at 10:18mm, but I felt so great I cranked them all out at 8:36.  Unfortunately it did little to keep me from being so blah by the end of the workday.  Wednesday rolled and I was still regretting missing leg day but just as blah as ever.   I drug my butt down to the gym again and grabbed some heavy weights for squats.  As I started working through each superset I found myself grabbing heavier weights than usual and REALLY enjoying the workout.  Then came the thing I hate most about leg day....step ups.  I have no idea why I despise them so much, but I do.  I've often thought about replacing them with box jumps, but I'm been intimidated by those and figured I'd end up face planted or on my butt...or in the ER.  Totally pumped up from a workout that was so far amazing and about halfway done I randomly decided today was the day and set the weights aside and tried a box jump onto my bench.  Granted, it's a bench, so it's not crazy high; but I was amazed at myself.  I landed it!  No falling, stumbling, injury...well, ok, not totally balanced on the first try but it wouldn't've had any deductions if it were a gymnastics meet either!  I landed it.  So, I kept going...3 sets of 10.  And each one got better and better.  And the blahs were totally gone by the end of them and the rest of the workout and the evening was amazing - including the ab workout I tacked on the end of the leg workout!  Of course it didn't make up for the fact that I'd blown off my tempo run that day because of the blahs.  BUT Thursday was an off day, so I decided to knock out the tempo run then.  And again, at the end of the workday I found myself feeling blah and not wanting to run.  It was a gorgeous fall day with a bit of crisp air, but I'm still fighting accepting that fall is here...forever a beach girl, I'm not ready for summer to be done...so that perfect running weather did nothing to fight the blahs.  I forced myself anyway, not wanting to have 2 weeks of missed workouts, and laced up the running shoes and headed out.  The intent was to run 1 mile at 10:00-10:30, then pick it up to 9:00 for 4 miles, and cool down with a final mile at 10:00-10:30 while running an out and back along the waterfront for 3 miles.  The first quarter of a mile I was grumbling to myself (as usual) about my legs feeling heavy, this being miserable, BLAH....about half a mile in the mental chatter subsided, I realized I felt pretty good, and I glanced at my pace...9:18...sweet...and it was feeling easy.  I hit the mile mark and picked it up.  A little ways in I glanced at the Garmin thinking I'd find I was running slower than I should because it wasn't feeling as tough as I expected, 9:01...not bad...as I hit the 2 mile point I made the decision to turn right and make a loop, knowing it would add about half a mile to my run, but deciding I was ok with that and would just have a little longer cool down.  As the miles ticked on I occassional checked my pace and found each time my pace was increasing!  And I was still feeling amazing!  Most of my miles were down in the 8:38 range.  As I approached the final mile and a half I decided to go one further and keep the pace high throughout the rest of the run.  As I approached the final mile I decided to up it a little more and pass my endpoint to wrap things up with an even 7 miles.  In the end I ran 7 miles with the first mile at 9:18 and the rest ranging from 8:36-9:03 with a negative split and felt amazing.  So today, as I sit here feeling blah and not wanting to workout I'm trying to convince myself if I get off the couch and go knock out my chest, tris, and abs as planned that I'll actually feel amazing tonight.  After having it repeatedly proven to me all week you'd think I'd believe it by now...but I'm still feeling just flat blah.  Guess I'd better go hit the gym and hope for amazing before I decide to be lazy.  :\