Sometimes Hard Work Just Sucks.

My name is Joshua Pauley. And I believe hard work sucks sometimes.

Hard work is not all rainbows and butterflies. There usually is not anything majestic or noble about it. Sure, sometimes it can be sublime but usually it is not pretty. I was reminded of this this week.

On Tuesday I had 5x1 mile hill circuits. It was a gorgeous Tuesday morning, with the sun shining and the birds chirping. The circuit is broken up into basically four parts. It starts with what is just beyond half a mile climb at tempo pace. Followed by 2/10 of a mile at relaxed effort and then 2/10 of a mile sprint/hard effort. The circuit ends with recovery down to the bottom. I had done similar circuits to this throughout my college career, and I definitely under estimated what I had in store for me. After the first one I was hurting. The second one got better. But three was rough. At the end of the third rep I realized I was progressing through the workout and the reps were getting faster even though my legs were trashed. I toed the line for number four with the wind in my face, and the chill of the morning on my hands I knew that I would finish ever step of the workout. Not because I was getting faster but because that is just what I do. I set off on rep four and made it half way through and my stomach gave out on me. I will spare you of the details, but it was not looking good for me. I finished it up though. Number five came and went. My fastest one of the day.

Found this guy logging some mileage on the trails.

On Sunday Mary and I had an early flight out of Dallas to California. I also had twenty miles scheduled for that morning. That meant a 4:30 wake up in order to run. It did not feel great. And it kind of sucked waking up that early. But that’s just what I do. The run started off slowly and progressed. I had a fartlek that started after an hour. Nothing to fancy. Just something to get the legs turned over. I was tired the rest of the day. But the day was won.

Sometimes in life it is easier to give up.  Sometimes in running it is easier to throw in the towel as well. But in both situations we have to make the choice. Adversity is going to come – that’s just the name of the game. How we respond to that is what is going to define our success and failures.

It was a great week of training. With a lot of great things going on. Hard work is going to suck sometimes. I accept that though. And I’m telling hard work to come get some and to give me its best shot.

This past week of training:

91 miles total this week. A lot of good running. I finally began to feel the mileage in my legs and the fatigue that comes with it. But that is part of the process. I’m happy with how things went.

**Do better this week: This isn’t really a do better but something I need to keep in mind. I will be in California all of this next week. I need to be aware of what I’m doing and attempt to keep some sort of routine. 

As always, thanks for reading. The support over this past month has been amazing.

Bump the Lamp,

JP