Some days are just hard.

It's been a bit stressful at work lately, and I usually look to my training and exercise to find some relief. Actually, I rely on my exercise and training for relief. If I didn't do that, I joke sometimes, I would drink a heckava lot more.

But some days - some days the relief just isn't there. Some days the whole thing is a slog. Today was that day. Is it really possible to run uphill both ways?

When I'm experiencing this - the internal groaning, the slogging, I have a few strategies I try. Here they are in order of use - ie, I drop down to the next one as the first fails to improve my spirits.

1. Raise your eyes up off the ground. Look around! Look at that lovely creek. Enjoy the feel and smell of this fall-but-supposed-to-still-be-summer air. Aren't you lucky to be jogging/swimming/biking through this beautiful place, with nothing to do but place one foot in front of the other/swim one arm overhead after the next/turn the crankshaft over? No? Not lucky? Not happy? Okay, then,
2. Focus on your breathing, your in and out, the pumping of your arms. Think about how your body is being infused with oxygen right now, how all your little cells are so grateful that you're exercising so that each little cell can do exactly what it's supposed to do. Get mesmerized by the turnover of your peddles.
   Still not buying? Still?
3. Hey, let's think about some completely random thing about your day, or a funny story, or let's write tonight's blog post. Oh, that won't work, will it, since you had a grumpy day you're trying to escape, and it does not help one bit to rehash it. Okaaaaay, now we're moving into serious territory here...
4. FINE. Be grumpy. Feel the slog. Crank through the jog/swim/bike. Focus on how long it's going to take you to get to the next post, the next swim sighting, the next turn. Feel the hard. Be unhappy. Which unfortunately invariably moves right into.....
5. Oh I live in the house of dooooooom!!! Why did I ever sign up for this folly of a race?! And WHY did I have to do it so publicly? How will I ever complete the 10K if I can't even get through half my measly run? And before the race, how will I EVER, EVER even GET to the run since I haven't swum nearly enough, I haven't biked nearly enough. And how is the Senior Center ever going through this tough economy, and where are we ever going to find the money that we're losing in funding? And oh my gosh, why am I even out here forcing my son to jog with me instead of spending quality time with him and getting dinner on the table!!!! WAAAAHHHHHH.
   

You get the picture. It ain't pretty. It sure wasn't tonight.

But, one of the great things about being out and going somewhere and back, as opposed to say, doing your excercise on a treadmill is, well, it's kinda hard to quit in the middle. You still have to get back to the beginning so you might as well just keep truckin'. Where as with a treadmill, when it all gets to be too much, well, you can just hop off. As I have.

And eventually either one of the prior strategies FINALLY kicks in, or you simply arrive back at home, where you started, simply glad to have it over with, and glad to have done it.

You know what finally turned it around for me tonight? My son kept asking me questions, which I kept refusing to answer because I was huffing and puffing so much. (My son, for those of you who don't know him, is the incessant KING of question-asking). Finally, I said, 'This workout (pant) is really hard. (pant pant). I am working (pant) really hard tonight.' And he, gliding along in his jogging stroller - which I would point out in case you missed it, I was pushing - said decisively, 'Yeah, me too. I'm working really hard too.' It just cracked me up.

What strategies do you use to keep it going when you are ready to quit?