We’ve all been there. The tough workout that’s just not cooperating with you. The legs won’t fire, the breathing is going through the roof and you’re just getting started. But you remind yourself, if this were easy everyone would be doing it and you keep your head down, right….? Well sort of.

Sometimes no matter our best intention the workout is just no coming along as we’d like. Maybe it was a long day at work, poor sleep, a missed lunch or just cumulative fatigue that’s wearing on you. Yesterday I found myself in this boat (it certainly wasn’t the first time) and I had to pull out all of my little head tricks to get the job done. It was a challenging set of 2x3mi tempo intervals on town lake trail. Coming off a hard ride in the AM, I knew they’d be tough but I was excited to give them a shot. The goal was 5:30-5:40 pace and,  if feeling good, pushing the last mile down to 5:20…. We’ll it didn’t quite start out that way, instead of starting out at the slower end of the range and working down, my sense of pacing was waaay off and I came through the first mile in 5:23…oops. While that split might feel gratifying I knew right away it was going to make the next 5mi that much harder and it did. I was able to finish that first 3mi effort with 5:35’s but the 2nd set was going to be questionable…

At this point I’d started to question my ability to complete the workout, those 5:35’s felt awefully hard and 3 more miles at the pace was going to be brutal. Before I let the negative self talk take over I remind myself of the workout goal at the onset. 2x3mi at 5:30-5:40pace, if I can achieve that I’ve completed my goal and gotten in a good overload, no need to hit everything at the fast end of the range, start out a little slower and see what you’ve got. So, instead of thinking about the entire 3mi interval I decided to focus on the first mile only, my goal was simply to go out controlled and then take it from there. No use in worrying about miles 2 and 3 until I finished mile one, right? With this I was using a great mental technique that we can all use from time to time, breaking a large and sometimes insurmountable task into a much smaller one that’s easier to control. I would start interval two only thinking about mile one, focus on the process not the outcome. Sure enough mile one was a good solid 5:36, not too fast and within range, I felt labored but the next 2 miles seemed as if they would actually be achievable.

Or maybe not.

A quarter of a mile later a side stitch thought it’d be fun to say high, ouch, oh and was that a rumble in my tummy? This can’t be good, now I’m going to have to deal with a stitch and need a bathroom, this workout is doomed. But wait up in the distance, was a guy that passed me when I was recovering after the first interval, this is great, now  I have a carrot to chance and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to catch him. So I shift attention to catching the rabbit and remove focus from my uncomfortable stomach, sure enough 1/2mi later I’m passing him, that little victory felt good and it was just before the 2mi mark achieved in 5:32! Oh wow I tell myself I might pull this workout off after all, just another mile to go. I throw in a little surge and start rolling toward the finish but the legs are not wanting to keep it up, this last mile was going to be the toughest. I can actually see the bridge where I’ll finish it looks deceivingly close but the wheels are coming off. So I make a deal with myself, I get ice cream tonight if a go <5:40 (truth be told I eat ice cream every night, but if I went >5:40 I would not be getting any ice cream tonight!) and that little reward seemed to push me just enough as I finished with a 5:37 and was happy with the day.

I had achieved my workout objective even though I wanted to quit numerous times. As so often it is overcoming those little intra-workout challenges gives us the confidence to push and overcome on race day. So use the below tricks to help yourself through the next hard workout you have…I have a feeling there’s one coming up soon!

1) Remind yourself of the workout goal and objective, do not get caught up in beating those or yourself.

2) Focus on process vs. outcome goals. Break up the Vo2 intervals or mile repeats into one interval or even one 400 at a time, the outcome will arrive if the process is respected.

3) Speed up before slowing down. I tell athletes to do this in racing all of the time. But you should also do it in workouts. You’d be surprised at how a 5-8sec burst will help you get your power or your leg speed back up and then the originally intended pace/power does not feel so bad.

4) It’s supposed to hurt and stop feeling sorry for yourself. I was very much guilty of feeling sorry for myself at the end of the first interval. Those 5:30’s hurt and I thought “I should be able to cruise that pace, oh dear poor poor pitiful me I’m running so slow”.  Well designed workouts are supposed to push you and take you out of your comfort zone, so when it hurts embrace it as a challenge and find out just how much hurt you can handle, don’t feel sorry for yourself.

5) Find your carrot, if there’s someone up the road or just a competitor that you are imagining in your head, make it real and chase that person down. Rehearse this, as it will pay off on race day.

6) Bribe yourself, but use this one sparingly and only when you really need. It can be anything, ice cream, a new pair of shoes, a nice dinner out, whatever works but only use it when it really matters, else it’ll lose it’s power!

Do you have a great tip that helps you through hard workouts? Share it in the comments section or @duratatraining on Twitter