"How does one keep training sustainably alone on bad days when boredom or tiredness sets in"
.Its a trick question, isn't it? I have seen you cycling and you are a tough nut. You could control your diet loosing so many kilos in one year and you have improved by leaps and bounds in a short period. So you don't have a problem with motivation in general. Its a trick question.
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Swim training
Your friend is the stop watch. Mentally decide what you want to do (30 X 100m every y mins) and start right away. No one in the pool is your friend. You have things to do. Swimming is always going against the watch.
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Bike training
Again the watch and the meter is your friend. You have your favourite route. Time your rides every time. Time specific long hills too for you to compare next time.
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Run
You don't even have to wait for mates. Just start from the car park and do the same route every time.
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Tiredness
If you really are tired (from work or lack of sleep), I would skip the swim workout and spend time with the loved ones.
However if after a rest day, you are still tired, then its a problem with motivation.
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Trainer / Turbo
TTH I think listens to music.
For the past month I have gone on the trainer 5 mornings a week at 5 a.m. I have watched recordings of IMWA 2007 and 2008 I suppose now a hundred times. I am still far from bored, cos I am going in Dec 09 yeahhh.
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Other tricks
- Record your training (oops sounds like someone): the times, distance, conditions and your emotions. You will have fun comparing them even in ten years' time.
- Declare your goals (sounds familiar).
- Register for that dream race.
Thats it
6 comments:
I agree with tricks #2 & #3. However recording all your workouts can be counter productive. Its a personal thing but I have not logged a workout for 12months. I don't write down swim, run, bike times. I don't want to put pressure on myself to always go one better and then demotivate myself becasue one week was so much worse than the previous. I remember my good sessions. YOU ALWAYS remember a session you blasted and did a PB. And as for those bad ones, there really are never any bad session if you always finish them. But thats just my take on it...you all know I like to keep it very simple.
Thanks for your take Emma. Interesting diff. of opinion on the recording.
Thx Sofian, Will follow advice but its no trick question.....scouts honour! I am motivated becoz I never thought I'd get this far... but there are days when performance drops and all I have is volume and I sometimes wonder where its going..... I do keep track of progress/regressions. The record of collective experience of yours and all the tri bloggers out there is the main source of any improvement I have made so a BIG THANK YOU!
You are doing very well Paul. We will all pull each other on our journey.
OK here's my take: -
First of all Sofian knows his stuff, all this is great advice and spot on.
I appreciate that we are all different but my advice is DO RECORD ALL OF YOUR SESSIONS, yes they are great fun to compare in years to come because you WILL NOT recall exactly what your times were 10 years ago or even one year ago. Of course you can't improve every session but when you have a bad one you add a comment to your log why you think that was for future reference. Simply accept the workout for what it was with the positive thought that it's banked, done and dusted and that's that - nothing negative about a bad workout, it's just part of the building process. If you don’t have lows how can you have highs?
The only thing I'd add to Sofian's input is don't just have a single favourite route for running and riding have several, mix it up a bit to keep it interesting. Yes 9 times out of 10 time it, the one time you don't is when you know you're exhausted, so just smell the flowers, watch the birds, look at the trees etc and enjoy the ride/run.
Once every now and again go and explore, i.e. new ride, new run route - usually you get lost or come to a dead end or find too much traffic but occasionally you find a NEW favourite route.
If anyone asks me why I do this everyday (including the little voice inside called lack of motivation) my answer is “Because I can, when once I couldn’t; because I can, when most people can’t; because I can and I’m too scared of going back to where I once was”
Keep it up guys it’s worth it and it’s what keeps us young.
Wow Simon has spoken. Thank you Simon.
All the pearls of wisdom are coming out for the Pauls and Peters (we all wish them the best).
P.S. I am not doing the Perth 2xOD in Oct. Too much red tape.
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