WHAT MOTIVATES YOU??
Such a simple phrase but one I feel like I have asked and been asked a thousand times. What motivates you to sign up for an Ironman? More important what motivates you to keep going back to more Ironman events? How do you stay motivated to train when it is a frozen tundra outside and sunny skies and warm weather are a distant memory? How do you motivate yourself for a 5 hour sufferfest on this thing they call a bike trainer? How do you motivate yourself to keep going on a really tough climb? How did you stay motivated enough to finish the world's toughest Ironman event at Ironman Lake Tahoe? How do you motivate yourself for a 3 hour long run, by yourself, in 90 degree weather? How do you motivate yourself to get off the couch and go to the pool on a 5 degree weather day? How do you motivate yourself to put on this skintight, non flattering piece of clothing they call a trisuit? The list is endless and could be adapted to any situation. Mental Toughness in my opinion, is an often overlooked aspect of training and is one of the most important things behind motivation.
Everyone is motivated by different things. It is what drives us day in and day out. At work. At home. At play. But especially in the world of healthy living and exercise. There are lots of reasons that people exercise...to stay fit, to lose weight, to gain a better body, to fight depression, to be able to go to Northstar after a long run and not have to justify it, to not feel so guilty about the bottle of wine that you consume each week, to race, to compete, for a mental break, to get outdoors, to keep moving, to stay happy. And often times it is a combination of many of these things. Getting motivated to sign up for an Ironman was actually the easy part. Just like signing up for a new exercise class, starting out fresh with new resolutions each year, signing up for a 5k, these things, although scary at first, are actually easier. Initially, as with most new things, there is excitement, maybe a little fear, but it is normally a good thing. You tell your friends, your spouse, your parents, your kids. And although there maybe some doubt, most will support you and help you to start whatever this new event in your healthier lifestyle is. The hard part is sticking with it. When the excitement wears off. When the weather sucks. When the bike course becomes really challenging. When you start to get tired. When doubt or boredom kicks in. That is when mental toughness comes into play. That is when you really need to figure out how to motivate yourself.
A few years ago, I was on an 85 mile bike tour out in the Granville/Utica area with a group of friends. The majority of the group was much faster than me and I knew going into that ride that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the group. I also knew it was going to be a long day in the saddle as it was a hilly ride and I am even slower on my bike with hills than I am on flat ground. And as I expected the majority of the group got away from me, and although they waited for me at alot of the stops, I rode the better part of the ride alone. But, I knew I had to pace myself so I wouldn't blow up midway into the ride when the hills would be at their worst. A little over half way into the ride we got to the most challenging part of the course. It was a very steep section of hills that seemed to go on forever. As I got near what I thought was the end of a hill and what I thought was the end of any leg power I had left, I turned and realized the hill was still going on a bit longer. I had misjudged it. But, I was determined that day, I wasn't going to stop on any hills. I dug deep and I kept going. And I passed one of my friends who had pulled off the side of the road. Crying. Defeated. Beaten down. She had misjudged as well, but her brain said no more. I meant to call out to her but it came out as more of a grunt. Keep going. I could tell by looking at her that she was physically fine, maybe not so mentally. She did get back on her bike, and eventually she caught back up to me. How do you do it? She asked. What? I responded. How do you keep going when it is so challenging.
My friend was training for her first Ironman. She was at the point in training where you are exhausted, mentally done, and just ready to race. She had done a century ride the weekend prior, was supposed to do another one the day of this ride, and then she would be ready for taper. I could tell at this point that she had given up. My motivation? What keeps me moving forward? My phrase. Because I CAN. During the toughest times of my training I focus on those who can't: My father who has Parkinson's and gets fatigued just walking a few hundred yards. My friends that have passed away from cancer. My friends that are fighting cancer or another disease and are too sick to train. My injured friends. My friends and family that are too busy with the rest of their lives to be able to do what I do. I am lucky to be able to do what I do. And I remind myself of that as much as I can. No matter how difficult the workout, no matter how slow I am, I am very fortunate that I can do this training that I love (most days). We did get to the end of the ride. It was as tough as I imagined it was going to be. And I knew my friend was going to stop at 85 miles with the rest of us and call it a day. And I knew she couldn't. So when we got back to the cars, I told her we were going back out. Boy was she surprised. And resistant. But, mentally she needed to do this. So I drug her back out, pretty much kicking and screaming, and we finished 100 miles. I told her that as defeated as she felt by this ride, finishing it would be more important for her mentally than any of her good days. Why? She asked. Because an Ironman is not easy. There will be a point where you doubt yourself, but you have to keep moving forward, your mind will give up before your body. The tough days that you finish in training are ones that make you stronger on race day. I am pretty sure she didn't believe me. But she went on and did her Ironman a few weeks later. And we talked after, and she told me I was right.
Mental toughness is something you have to practice as well. My Coach Tim Barrett of Power of One Coaching recently wrote an excellent article about mental part of training. It was published by USAT and can be found here. I have used several of these techniques myself with training and when preparing for a big race. As with most things though, I could probably utilize them more.
Because of my work schedule I do the majority of my training alone. I think about many different things during my workouts: food, what I look like swimming, what the person in the next lane looks like, am I faster than that said person, how is my form, how is my breathing, how my body feels, my next workout, just to name a few. But I also practice race scenarios in my head. Some days I envision myself at a race and how I want to feel. I will do it on the bike, the swim, the run. I envision myself executing the perfect swim stroke, gait pattern when running or aero position on the bike, . I practice my finishers pose in my head and I will daydream about how awesome I will look when I come across that finish line. Some days I feel so tired I am not sure I can workout. With fatigue, I really have to evaluate this and I give myself some latitude. Sleep is as important as training, especially when it comes to recovery. There are definitely days that I have skipped a morning or evening workout to get more sleep instead. Lacking in sleep can lead to injury, illness, and mental breakdown. To me, it is worthwhile to get a few extra hours of sleep if I really need it to ward off long term problems that can arise from lack of sleep. I would rather train healthy and make it to the start of a race, rather than get injured or ill and lose out on a race (which has happened all too much in the past). So, I don't beat myself up if I miss a day of training here or there to sleep. If it starts to become more of the norm, then an intervention might be needed. There are some days that I really can't tell, I am tired, cranky, in general just blah. On these days it can be especially hard to get motivated. I have the 10 minute rule for these days. I give myself 10 minutes to exercise. Start whatever that activity is and give it 10 minutes. If I still am not feeling it after 10 minutes, I give myself permission to stop. Thus far, I have finished every workout I started.
I also use music a lot to help me train. When I run, I look forward to listening to music. I love it. I use it as a reward, but I also use phrases in songs to help keep me moving. On the bike or in the water I sing to myself. Sometimes out loud, sometimes just in my head. Each year seems to be a different song, but I normally will pick out a few phrases and sing them or say them when I am at a difficult part of a workout. "Stronger." "Lose Yourself." "Defying Gravity." "Pride." Very different songs, but all have given me motivation over the years. And I won't lie, sometimes I just sing whatever happens to pop into my head. "Party in the USA", unfortunately, has been with me on many rides. During IMAZ 2009 "Just Keep Swimming" was my theme. I just changed the words to whatever activity I happened to be doing at the time and made up words as I went along because the more tired I got, the less I could remember the words to the song. This year "Roar" by Katy Perry was my song. I will admit when I first heard it, I thought it was dumb. But the more I heard it, I started listening to the lyrics and the song hit home.
In training for Ironman Lake Tahoe, Coach Tim and I talked often about how I was going to prepare for this race mentally. We both knew this would not be an easy race for me. Lake Tahoe sits at 6,200 ft of elevation, Dublin sits at about 800ft, my schedule wouldn't allow for me to go out early to adapt or train at altitude. The bike had 8,000k of climbing and this would be the first IM I would attempt without having ridden at least part of the course or seen in advance to know how to train for it. In essence, I would be going into this race blindly. Add the fact that I have asthma to the mix and you have the biggest challenge I had ever signed up for in my life. The physical training we could do, and we had a solid plan in place. But, I knew I would need something even more to help me to dig deep, to keep going, to motivate me during this race. Coach Tim kept asking who is your "Power of One?" I thought alot about my phrase "Because I Can" and I kept thinking about all the people in my life that had passed away, especially two guys that had inspired me so much in the past years with their stories, their battles with cancer. I was not creative enough to come up with a jersey or anything, but I thought if I had something personal to take with me on that day to remind me of them, it would help. And somehow I came up possibly wearing one of Jeff's running hats. I knew that part of the race would be hardest for me. So I contacted his widow, who fortunately still had some of his things, and she said absolutely, I could wear one of his hats. And I did just that. I used that hat to honor all of those that can't do the type of thing I do, to honor the memory of both Jeff (who passed away in 2012) and Cory (who had died earlier in the year), and also to honor all of the others in my life that had passed away. And it was a huge help. Very few knew that I did that. But I knew. And I knew both Jeff and Cory were with me that day to help me get through that day. I needed Cory on the bike to get over those hills and Jeff on the run to keep me moving forward. And they didn't disappoint. Although, I probably should give a little credit to Katy Perry as well, for her well spoken words that influenced me in "Roar". My ability to finish that race had everything to do with the preparation and hard work I put into training...both physical and mental.
My friend was training for her first Ironman. She was at the point in training where you are exhausted, mentally done, and just ready to race. She had done a century ride the weekend prior, was supposed to do another one the day of this ride, and then she would be ready for taper. I could tell at this point that she had given up. My motivation? What keeps me moving forward? My phrase. Because I CAN. During the toughest times of my training I focus on those who can't: My father who has Parkinson's and gets fatigued just walking a few hundred yards. My friends that have passed away from cancer. My friends that are fighting cancer or another disease and are too sick to train. My injured friends. My friends and family that are too busy with the rest of their lives to be able to do what I do. I am lucky to be able to do what I do. And I remind myself of that as much as I can. No matter how difficult the workout, no matter how slow I am, I am very fortunate that I can do this training that I love (most days). We did get to the end of the ride. It was as tough as I imagined it was going to be. And I knew my friend was going to stop at 85 miles with the rest of us and call it a day. And I knew she couldn't. So when we got back to the cars, I told her we were going back out. Boy was she surprised. And resistant. But, mentally she needed to do this. So I drug her back out, pretty much kicking and screaming, and we finished 100 miles. I told her that as defeated as she felt by this ride, finishing it would be more important for her mentally than any of her good days. Why? She asked. Because an Ironman is not easy. There will be a point where you doubt yourself, but you have to keep moving forward, your mind will give up before your body. The tough days that you finish in training are ones that make you stronger on race day. I am pretty sure she didn't believe me. But she went on and did her Ironman a few weeks later. And we talked after, and she told me I was right.
Mental toughness is something you have to practice as well. My Coach Tim Barrett of Power of One Coaching recently wrote an excellent article about mental part of training. It was published by USAT and can be found here. I have used several of these techniques myself with training and when preparing for a big race. As with most things though, I could probably utilize them more.
Because of my work schedule I do the majority of my training alone. I think about many different things during my workouts: food, what I look like swimming, what the person in the next lane looks like, am I faster than that said person, how is my form, how is my breathing, how my body feels, my next workout, just to name a few. But I also practice race scenarios in my head. Some days I envision myself at a race and how I want to feel. I will do it on the bike, the swim, the run. I envision myself executing the perfect swim stroke, gait pattern when running or aero position on the bike, . I practice my finishers pose in my head and I will daydream about how awesome I will look when I come across that finish line. Some days I feel so tired I am not sure I can workout. With fatigue, I really have to evaluate this and I give myself some latitude. Sleep is as important as training, especially when it comes to recovery. There are definitely days that I have skipped a morning or evening workout to get more sleep instead. Lacking in sleep can lead to injury, illness, and mental breakdown. To me, it is worthwhile to get a few extra hours of sleep if I really need it to ward off long term problems that can arise from lack of sleep. I would rather train healthy and make it to the start of a race, rather than get injured or ill and lose out on a race (which has happened all too much in the past). So, I don't beat myself up if I miss a day of training here or there to sleep. If it starts to become more of the norm, then an intervention might be needed. There are some days that I really can't tell, I am tired, cranky, in general just blah. On these days it can be especially hard to get motivated. I have the 10 minute rule for these days. I give myself 10 minutes to exercise. Start whatever that activity is and give it 10 minutes. If I still am not feeling it after 10 minutes, I give myself permission to stop. Thus far, I have finished every workout I started.
I also use music a lot to help me train. When I run, I look forward to listening to music. I love it. I use it as a reward, but I also use phrases in songs to help keep me moving. On the bike or in the water I sing to myself. Sometimes out loud, sometimes just in my head. Each year seems to be a different song, but I normally will pick out a few phrases and sing them or say them when I am at a difficult part of a workout. "Stronger." "Lose Yourself." "Defying Gravity." "Pride." Very different songs, but all have given me motivation over the years. And I won't lie, sometimes I just sing whatever happens to pop into my head. "Party in the USA", unfortunately, has been with me on many rides. During IMAZ 2009 "Just Keep Swimming" was my theme. I just changed the words to whatever activity I happened to be doing at the time and made up words as I went along because the more tired I got, the less I could remember the words to the song. This year "Roar" by Katy Perry was my song. I will admit when I first heard it, I thought it was dumb. But the more I heard it, I started listening to the lyrics and the song hit home.
"You held me down, but I got up
Already brushing off the dust
You hear that voice, You hear that sound
Like thunder gonna shake the ground
You held me down, but I got up
Get ready 'cause I've had enough
I see it all I see it now
I've got the eye of the tiger, the dancer, dancing through the fire
Cause I am a champion and you're gonna hear me roar!! "
Perfect for an Ironman. And my IMLT group embraced it as well. It became our anthem and anytime it was on the radio that week, we blasted it, and sang with it!! And I sang it almost nonstop that day when I was out on the bike course. There was one segment on the bike course that I almost gave up. I had calculated the time in my head and I was sure that I was going to miss the cut off. But I didn't. And at that time I had to make the decision to push myself as hard as I could to get to T2, or slow down and be done with it, I was close enough to the cutoff time that I knew a few minutes could make or break me. And I thought of this song, this phrase. And I knew I couldn't give up. I wanted to be a champion and I wanted to have people hear me roar!
In training for Ironman Lake Tahoe, Coach Tim and I talked often about how I was going to prepare for this race mentally. We both knew this would not be an easy race for me. Lake Tahoe sits at 6,200 ft of elevation, Dublin sits at about 800ft, my schedule wouldn't allow for me to go out early to adapt or train at altitude. The bike had 8,000k of climbing and this would be the first IM I would attempt without having ridden at least part of the course or seen in advance to know how to train for it. In essence, I would be going into this race blindly. Add the fact that I have asthma to the mix and you have the biggest challenge I had ever signed up for in my life. The physical training we could do, and we had a solid plan in place. But, I knew I would need something even more to help me to dig deep, to keep going, to motivate me during this race. Coach Tim kept asking who is your "Power of One?" I thought alot about my phrase "Because I Can" and I kept thinking about all the people in my life that had passed away, especially two guys that had inspired me so much in the past years with their stories, their battles with cancer. I was not creative enough to come up with a jersey or anything, but I thought if I had something personal to take with me on that day to remind me of them, it would help. And somehow I came up possibly wearing one of Jeff's running hats. I knew that part of the race would be hardest for me. So I contacted his widow, who fortunately still had some of his things, and she said absolutely, I could wear one of his hats. And I did just that. I used that hat to honor all of those that can't do the type of thing I do, to honor the memory of both Jeff (who passed away in 2012) and Cory (who had died earlier in the year), and also to honor all of the others in my life that had passed away. And it was a huge help. Very few knew that I did that. But I knew. And I knew both Jeff and Cory were with me that day to help me get through that day. I needed Cory on the bike to get over those hills and Jeff on the run to keep me moving forward. And they didn't disappoint. Although, I probably should give a little credit to Katy Perry as well, for her well spoken words that influenced me in "Roar". My ability to finish that race had everything to do with the preparation and hard work I put into training...both physical and mental.
"Cause I am a Champion and You're Gonna Hear me Roar!"
Love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks Stan!
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