Last week started out as a drag. Maybe a combination of already having trained well over 300 hours over the past few months, being on the road for 5 out of 7 days with multiple 12hr+ work days ahead of me, and the excuses go on and on… when my alarm went off at 0330 last Monday I felt like I did not want to get out of bed and tackle my first training block.
Luckily, I was able to fall back on my three top ways to get motivated and get my ass out of bed and just get it done. These have helped me get over many hurdles over the past 8 years, and I will continue to rely on them as I continue to work on my goals.
1) Look up to inspirational and motivational individuals: They are all around us. Different people get inspired by different individuals and their activities. For me, I have to look no further than those who served in uniform and are able to tackle tremendous feats on their return home after giving so much. Just a couple examples:
- Ryan Job climbed Mt Rainier after becoming completely blind and suffered brain damage after getting shot by a sniper in Iraq. Only 50% of able bodied climbers conquer Mt Rainier. On top of that he graduated college with a 4.0 after the injury.
- Todd Love competes in 10+ mile obstacle races without prosthetics and is an all-around extreme sports athlete after an IED in Afghanistan claimed three of his limbs.
- Rob Jones ran 31 marathons in 31 consecutive days in 31 cities after losing both legs above the knee to a landmine in Afghanistan. He also competed in the Paralympics less than 2 years after taking that fateful step. Whenever I feel like not going for my scheduled run, I simply look at his achievements and all my excuses go right out the window
2) The simple realization that time is the most precious commodity known to mankind. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. The vast majority of what you do every single day should align itself with your goals, because time is too precious to waste on things that will not get you to where you want to get.
3) If you don’t feel like doing something and you just want to put it off, just get started. If you still feel the same way after 10 minutes, then you can postpone it. But by getting started, and creating that motion and emotion, you will find that more often than not you will be having the time of your life after only 10 minutes.
The mental steps above helped me turn a slow start of the week into my highest volume week to date. Training numbers are below, marking my peak training week, as I will start tapering before the Santa Rosa IronMan in just 20 days. This coming week (at T-2 weeks) I will be looking to put in roughly 75% of the below numbers, and the week after that slightly less (around 70%). The week of the race will be mainly spent taking care of travel, logistics, and rest to complete the taper.
