Staying Motivated ?
Hi folks. Al will probably tell me I'm too young to post here (not quite 45) 
, but I figure this is the right audience to ask -- since you've all likely been at this longer than me.
Basic Q is what trick(s) you all use to stay motivated to race and train at high intensities?
In short, have been doing tris for >10 yrs now, plus 3-4 yrs of running before that, 3 or so years of competitve cycling before that .. and high-end competitve swimming forever (over 10 yrs) before that. Numerous HIMs and handful of IM finishes. Last IM was 06, have done HIMs more or less annually or 2x per year since about '02. Aside from a a few years worth of inactivity in grad school, when our kids were very small, a couple of years where I logged 250k air miles per year for business travel, and here and there from unrelated injuries, I've been a long time endurance athlete of one kind or another.
That said, I'm really struggling this year with motivation to get out and go. Last year, I had a 3 mo recovery from a broken arm and concomittant surgergy starting in April, but was still able to race a more or less local Oly in mid Sep that I have done in pvs years and podium in my group (40+ Cly) ... aka the MAMIL fat club (!). After that, went into Oct OS (my first with EN) with the full 20 wks and ran a PR HM in Feb. I had so-so testing improvement in the bike, but a good jump on VDoT. Still, I had an absolutely lousy day at Oceanside HIM -- sometimes its not your day. After that, took a week flat-out off, and have flipped over to Adv SC plan through mid summer for a group of shorter races between now and Aug.
I'm sure that there is some residual physical fatigue, but it seems typical from my experience, and I do enjoy most of the EN style work. But, I'm having a really hard time this past month or so -- dating from the Oceanside taper -- getting out the door every day to train hard. Literally, some days I just don't care whether I do or not (very, very unusual for me) Add to that, my regular group is all IM people who are doing the usual weekend 5+ hour rides. This past Sat, I just bagged the whole thing, went for a 2 mile swim in the ocean and went rock climbing with my son on Sunday.
No medical issues I'm aware of that would impact training; have been pretty injury free. I'm concerned b/c I know I need to train in order to compete reasonably well (and to support some indiscriminate eating and drinkning from time to time) .. but really looking for motivational tricks. My toolkit isn't working. I don't mind doing an LSD bike or short run ... but outside of that, am struggling a bit to get out or stay out, as the case may be.
Bottom line: Any good methods for maintaining mental engagement and desire to race/train?
Comments
My 2 cents is you are walking the line of burnout, you have been going hard for a long time before joining EN then you come in here and crush yourself. When I get in your shoes I ask myself why am I doing this? Is it fun? If it stopped being fun then you need to sit back and assess.
I see you went for a 2 mile swim and did some rock climbing was that fun? Did you have to drag yourself out of bed to do it?
I always try to throw fun in whenever I can, because in the end its only a game.
Good Luck
I say this because I never do anything for very long. After a while, I get to a plateau of sorts in my ability vs desire to push harder and I start to rethink why I do these things. In my distant past I was big into rock and ice climbing and winter camping in the Adirondacks. Life got in the way, then marrige and a son further delayed my play time. Eventually I found myself running for fitness whch lead me back to camping and hiking. I also picked up whitewater boating - that became my 'thing' in my mid 40's on some serious class 4+ rivers. Next thing I new I was running marathons. Just a few at first which allowed me to continue boating. As I became more obsessed with running it was harder to do it all. Next came triathlons.... my first was an olympic. Hooked again. Now with running 2 or 3 marathona a year, add in several sprints and a HIM and boating isnt an issue anymore.
Now my big thing is IMLP. Not sure what will happen after that. My wife is afraid I will be an IM junkie for the next few years.....
I never really get very good at most things but I do get to do an aweful lot of stuff! Fun stuff at that!
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"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement."
Steve Prefontaine
It's clear that being active and competing are in your bones, your DNA. You'll never lose that, and that's why you go for a 2 mile swim in the ocean, rock climb with your son, and like a long ride or a short run just about any time.
The trouble i'm hearing, is "why should I work HARD at this right now?" My question is, have you got an A race or a big event, like a multi-day bike ride planned? If the answer is "yes", and it's not enough motivation, consider bagging the race, and just spend as much time as you want having fun with your fitness, until you're ready to race again. If the answer is "no", then either sign up for your dream race, or don't worry about how hard you're working.
(Thanks for assuming we've accrued some wisdom through all our hard knocks, instead of just getting the sense beat out of us, like it feels sometimes!)
Found that somewhere...forget where.
Acceptance is a biggie. It's different from resignation.
Instead of viewing your lack of motivation as something to get over, or fix, maybe you accept it, reframe it and acknowledge that it's happening for a reason. Maybe it's not a shortcoming, but more of a passage. I found 45 to be right about where things begin to change. The next 4 years were spent raging against it and finally going, okay, let's approach things differently now. We can do this the hard way or we can do this the smart way.....
I think tri is probably over for me. Maybe not, but I'm racing the bike hard and free to do a lot of other stuff. If I get the bug again, so be it. Like a lot of the above peeps, I've been into a bunch of physical stuff over the years including a lot of alpine climbing. Maybe I get the bug to go slog up big mountains again. I don't know. But I do know I'm going to be active and always challenging myself. It's always going to be something. It almost doesn't matter what.
Maybe let yourself off the hook and "quit" for a while and see what happens. It opens you up to a lot of other stuff and/or allows you to come back with a renewed sense of joy for doing triathlons.
Good luck.
@ Al, I have Alcatraz on the calendar in June (deferred from last year) ... so I'm doing that since I've already paid 2x for it and it's such a cool destination event. After that, I may take a bit of a break from tris ... we'll see.
@ Steve F .. no issues getting out of bed to swim in the ocean or go climbing ... the swimming is second nature to me and the climbing (though I'm not very good at it) is a great way to bond with my nearly teenage son. Pretty soon, he won't want anything to do with his Dad, so I'm takning all the advantage I can of the time while I have it
I'd fairly say that this really has been over a year in coming. After racing Oceanside in 09, I skipped it in '10 and was spending a lot more time cycling ('cross, track) and doing other outdoor stuff w/ my kids (now old enough to come along and more or less like it), but got waylaid last summer and decided to get back on the horse aggressively by racing another HIM in April. Training with consistent intensity for ~ 6 mos over this past 'winter' (a relative term in So-Cal) reminded me what I don't like about doing an A HIM first week of Apil -- LOTS of cold, dark runs and riding as well as often sketchy weather.
Had a training partner who was sort of in the same boat -- and he went totally the other way ... in the past year he's lost probably 30-40 lbs., done 4 full IMs and (IMO) sacrifced his marriage (he's now divorced) and nearly his job on the altar of triathlon (and at almost 50 no less). He's now in fantastic shape ... but has (again IMO) little in his life outside this sport and his work. I have no interest in doing that ... even though it means that we can't train together anymore, really.
Again, appreciate the thoughtful and insightful commentary. Thanks.
This all started with the best of intentions – a little background is probably in order.
After 10 yrs in the sport, incl. IM and many HIM finishes, I joined EN in the fall of 2010. At that time, I was coming off a season where I had been sidelined by a broken elbow/surgery to repair it from April through end of June. I pulled things together enough (thanks, 8+ yrs of deep base) and had a good end of season performance in a local OLY that I have done for a number of years. Not my best time at the distance or on this course, but nearly equal to the prior year, with MUCH less in the training bank.
Thus motivated, I went into the 10/11 OS in Oct highly motivated, and by Feb 11 had posted PR HM and nearly life best FTP results … and had good fitness for Oceanside 70.3. I had horrible race execution there, and it showed with my worst HIM ever time – by nearly 60 min -- but I just shook it off; we all have bad days sometimes.
Used the SC plans for summer of 11 and had great results @ Escape from Alcatraz, as well as in three local sprint races (2x podium) and also a good back-to-back weekend performance at the local end-ish of season Oly/Sprint (2 days, 2 podiums, and course PR for the Oly). All very good … planned to do a run focus for Oct, and since I was not racing a HIM early in 12, get into the Nov OS.
And here’s where all the fun begins … Beginning about the second week of Oct, I had a 3 week period where I had to handle my mother(3000 miles away) going from frail, to very ill to passing away, so no training to speak of, really. Very sad of course and also exhausting, emotionally, mentally and physically, but I figured I had plenty of time to get my act together. Well, Nov ended up being crazy at work, in part b/c I had been almost totally gone for 3 wks in Oct., but managed a good run block, little to no cycling of any significance.
November turned into December, and I developed a foot injury from running (perhaps running too much on pavement, not sure) – I’ve never had PF before, and I don’t want to again. Again, I thought, stop – rest – heal – you’ve had a hell of a year (long season from HIM in March to SC racing into end of Sept, plus real life stuff), and you have plenty of time. That injury, plus short days, etc. and I ended 11 with a great/fun family trip to Mexico over the holidays. Very much needed for all of us, and decided I would just do a hard reset and hit the Jan OS – since my ‘A’ races were planned for end of the 12 season anyway.
Jan OS started gangbusters. Great consistency and really loving the OS flavor of work, as I long have, and really hitting good numbers with FTP steadily trending up and Z4 run paces at or better than where I ended the 10/11 OS. Took a long-planned 12 day trip to S America @ end of Feb. Did some running and swimming, but no cycling on this trip (as planned). I was back for a week and then ended up having to make a somewhat unplanned 9/10 day trip to Asia for work. Again, was able to do some running on this trip, but no cycling. And when I got back I developed a nasty sinus infection … Not necessarily surprised by that, since I had been on 3 continents in 3 weeks, spent ~ 30 hrs on airplanes and experienced temperate SoCal, full Southern Hemisphere summer and northern Asia winter in that same time span.
Bottom line I ended March only having been on the bike 3x in the course of ~ 6 wks. Not good.
So, April had a 15k mud run on the planned year, and I spend the first ~ 10 days or so of April running more to make that doable – it goes fine and it’s also a lot of fun (finally, fun!). I had a good 3-5 weeks in April/early May hitting workouts based on OS plans, but given all the consistency issues, was focused on consistency first and effort in a secondary way. Up to ~100 mi bike/25 mi run weekly by 3d week in May. I know it’s light for LC racing, but was still technically in the OS and thinking I still had a long time until August. Starting to think I’m not out of it yet (!).
Then comes the summer of endless travel … Ugh! Note, this was all self-inflicted and seemed like a good idea at the time. Spent Memorial Day weekend on a rock climbing/camping trip (no training, but high quality eating and drinking) .. the next weekend at a youth soccer tournament up the central coast (drive lots, run a little) … on the east coast for a command performance family gathering (run only) … a weekend at home (YAY, bike and bike some more), and then a weekend in NorCal for another family thing (didn’t even bother packing anything training related for this one). I had planned to train hard in the weeks and be more or less resting the weekends, OS/SC flavor training and then hit the HIM volume in July forward for Aug events … well, that didn’t work so well. I did ride a bit during the weeks, but not really enough, and I also had a bike crash which mostly injured my pride, but left some road rash and a sore hip, knee, and shoulder .. so more time off the saddle.
Which brings us to July. I went out surfing with my tween son July 4 AM and slice the top of my right foot open on a board fin (don’t try this at home) … a couple stitches and a nasty infection later, I have been essentially doing little other than sitting with my foot elevated/on ice since then. Unfortunately, I can’t run or bike b/c of the injury – wearing shoes is a challenge, let alone running or cycling with any kind of pressure on the instep. And b/c of the infection, MD says no pool or ocean water for another week or so (until stitches out and nasty cut healed up).
So, to sum this up: YTD, I have run ~400 miles, biked a meager 525 miles and swum 45 miles (vs 10 yr annual averages of 776 mi R/2250 mi B/55 mi S). Needless to say, I am way off my normal form for July, and given my foot, actually worried about doing meaningful training for most of July that remains. Have sold/transferred by Aug ‘A’ race entry, and seriously debating pulling the ’12 plug for now and focusing on getting things healed up.
Tim ... My two cents... Yeah, pull the plug. Some people can do races as events, not caring about their time or result. You dont sound like youre wired that way. Luckily where you live you can start your season any time you want. If Oct seems like a reasonable time to let yourself heal, plan for the OS start then. Two other things... First, you CAN start up before then, just remember to not even think about any intensity or volume for 3-6 weeks after coming off the couch. And second, and this is the hard part, dont plan any races until after youve done 4-8 months of rebuilding. Its just not worth it... Either you reinjurre, or the race goes poorly ... Just as you experienced this year.
By now your foot should be healing up nicely if you want jump into a SC plan modified your way to your flavor. Perhaps just taking off weekends or doing a Mon, Wed, Fri, on days with Tue and Thur, off adjust volume as you see fit. I feel as though you are mentally putting yourself behind the 8 ball and your own type A is getting the best of you turn off the races stay fit and enjoy your family.
Have decided to take a break from racing for rest of the season. Focusing on water (swim, surf, paddleboard), some climbing/hiking and will bike some also until Oct at least. Come fall, will decide about 2013 plans for tri season.