Who has ever had a bad workout in their life? How about this year? This month? I’m sure most of us can answer yes to all three of these questions. Bad workouts happen to all of us! Some people say there’s no such thing as a bad workout, and I agree that every time you workout you should be proud of yourself for getting it done. However, I think a lot of us know the difference between a workout that you feel like you’re crushing and a workout that feels like it’s crushing you. I think it’s OK to accept the fact that those workouts exist. I was thinking about this topic, because my last two running workouts haven’t gone as well as I hoped. Just this morning I was doing some speed intervals, and I felt like I was giving max effort but my times weren’t where I wanted them to be. I was a little disappointed, but I accepted that it was not a great workout and thought about what might have contributed to it not going as planned. Just because you accept the workout as not being great doesn’t mean you dwell on that fact. Accepting it for what it was gives you the chance to think about any factors that may have led to that outcome. Were you dehydrated? Did you get enough sleep? Were you sore from a workout the day before? Did you not fuel your body properly? If you were outside, was the weather different than your body was used to? Did you over do it in the workout? There are so many different factors that can affect how your workout goes. More times than not, I find that I can figure out which one of those was most likely the cause of the bad workout. This gives you the opportunity to make changes for the next workout and set yourself up for better results next time!