Staying Motivated

It always seems to happen at this time of year.  You have set a big goal/s for the season ahead in May and have put in the work over the first few months of winter but its seems at month three you hit a wall due to lack of motivation,injury or illness

If you are reading this start to finish, you've hit a training slump and need to know how to get out of it.  The first thing you need to ask yourself is why did you decide to do this race in the first place.  Did you do it because you needed a new challenge?  Did you do it because you thought everyone else was doing it and you didn't want to be left out?  Has this always been on your list of things to accomplish in your life?  No matter how cautiously or impulsively you registered for your triathlon goal, is it in your nature to quit when the going gets tough?

Probably not, so let’s see where you are stuck and see what you can do to get through it.

You've had a training injury and are "behind schedule"

I put this one first, because it happens to everyone.  Even the most motivated athlete.  In fact, probably more often to the most motivated athletes, because they never miss a training day!  Sooner or later you get an overuse injury (we are only human) and you have to shut it down in order to heal.  Here are some do's and don'ts regarding training setbacks"

Do

• Learn to distinguish between an ache and an injury.  You are probably going to be sore a lot.  Tight, achy muscles become a way of life for an athlete.  But if the pain is joint related, or doesn't feel better after a day or two of rest, you should get it checked out and follow your coach's advice.

• Take your recovery as seriously as you take your training.  If icing,massage and physio are recommended, do it.  How you handle your recovery will have everything to do with how well you will race and train in the future.

• Cross train if time allows.  This will help refresh your training regime and break up the routine.  Examples include mountain biking, hikes, ski paddling, surfing, pilates and yoga.

Don't

• Ignore the injury because you are afraid it will set you back from your training.  Nothing will set you back worse than an injury that prevents you from getting to the starting line.  Respect your body and take the time to heal.

• Pick up where you left off if you've had to take off more than a week due to an injury.  Allowing a day or two for rest if you catch the injury early on should enable you to get back into training right away and without adjustment to the schedule.  But if you've let the injury go and a week or more off is required for healing, you will need to ease back into the training to prevent an immediate relapse.

• Panic! Most plans factor in training set backs.  If the pain is caught quickly enough and the schedule is restructured, there is almost always a way to salvage the plan.
  

You are bored, tired or for some other reason have lost your spark:

Sometimes you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you just can’t make yourself get out the door for another swim, bike or run.  The first thing you have to ask yourself is if you are tired and since you are training for a triathlon, the answer is quite possibly “yes.”  If its just because you had a busy weekend combined with your first really long run, getting to bed early tonight and having a day off from training might do the trick.

If that’s not it, or if you still are having trouble motivating yourself, you probably need to change the routine.  If you usually run the same route, change it up a bit.

You need a small term goal:

If you have set as your big goal this year the GC Half Ironman, Sprintman, Noosa or IM OZ, you might spend 12-16 weeks (or longer) training for this one event.  If you don’t have some smaller goals along the way, it can become easy to blow off the workouts when the race is still a couple of months away.  But if you have some short term goals along the way – maybe one race a month or every six weeks – you will have a reason to do that next long run or early morning swim.  Although you usually only have one or two "A" races per season, make the other races at least a “B” so that they are nearly as important as the main event.

The most important thing to remember when training for an endurance event is that it’s not supposed to be easy.  All the challenges that you meet along the way will make you stronger on race day.  If you learn to handle illness and injury correctly, you will eventually get stronger.  If you ignore the injury or give up, you’ll never get past this point.  If you get creative when there are time constraints or less than ideal race conditions, you will get creative when there are stresses during the race.  But if you give up when the race conditions are not to your liking – it’s too hot, it’s too cold, the hills are too high - you’ll never make it through the big day, and by skipping your workouts or cutting them short, you are teaching yourself that it’s ok not to finish.

However, every time you get out of bed and do the workout as it’s laid out, regardless of the weather or the hills or your mood, you are training yourself to have the mental toughness to get through whatever marathon day gives you.

Safe Training!