Developing mental toughness, whether I want to or not

It’s only Wednesday morning, and so far this week I have:

• experienced the most terrifying flight EVER - storm force winds at Orkney meant an approach to Kirkwall that was simultaneously up & down like a roller coaster AND barrel-rolling from side to side.  Not fun.  Not fun at all.
• taken more than 20 hours to get to work in Shetland because it was even windier in Shetland than in Orkney, so the Shetland leg of the flight was cancelled and we had to spend the night at a hotel in Kirkwall.  I had room service and watched Lord of the Rings on the telly, so that made up for a lot.
• twinged my lower back when I tried to heave my overly substantial bag onto the weighing belt at the airport.  It’s not painful, just stiff and aches a bit.  Sigh.
• had to rearrange Monday morning’s appointments for later in the week, which has eliminated most of the time that I had set aside to do admin, which means early starts and late finishes in order to get everything done before I leave on Friday.
• had to deal with a low tyre pressure warning light on my hire car.  The only tyre pressure pump in Lerwick was out of order so I had to take the car to the car hire company’s garage, where the mechanic took one horrified look at the tyres and said that the tread on both of them was illegal.  I obviously wasn’t allowed to drive the car away and had to hang about at the garage while another car with functioning tyres was found for me. Which, although inconvenient (I could have been using this time for admin), was actually a Good Thing, because it had been sleety haily not-quite-snowing since the previous day and the roads were icy, so some proper traction was welcome.
• had to run yesterday’s threshold run (10 minute warm up, 5x5 minutes at threshold effort with 90 sec recovery, 10 minute cool down) on the treadmill because the pavements were so icy.  I tried to convince Coach Ben to let me move that run to today, citing the icy pavements as well as the -1c temperature, the 17+mph wind, and HATING the treadmill but was clearly told ‘Complain all that you want, you’re still doing the run.’  
• enjoyed the treadmill more than I expected.  Having a bit of structure to the session makes it more interesting than just plodding at the same pace for what feels like forever, as I used to do. I should know by now that Ben is always right.

What does that litany of whingeing have to do with running, I hear you ask?  Well, apparently if we only run in good conditions and only when we feel like it, we never learn to persevere in races when the going gets tough.  We never learn to push through discomfort and tired legs and we never learn to ignore that inner voice that says snuggling under a blanket with a cat on your lap and a piece of cake is better than going for a run.  That determination to get out there no matter what your head is telling you is what gets you to the finish line.

For me, then, making myself run yesterday ON A TREADMILL after those stressful couple of days, is one more thing that goes into the Mental Toughness Bank.  Ker ching!