This time of year I always need a little extra motivation. A kick in the pants or something to light a fire in my gut to get me moving. Its dark, cold, and frozen. Summer fun and racing seem so far away. To overcome the urge to hibernate, I like to sign up for an early spring/ late winter race (depending on where you live) to motivate me to train through the dark and cold. Without that, for me, it would be easy to stay in the cocoon of my fluffy comforter and warm bed, or sofa by the fireplace until its sunny, warm and above 50 degrees. This winter hadn't been too awful, and I spent a solid 7-8 days in Oregon where the weather was amazing and I ran in capri's every day of the trip…….
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| DEC running in Oregon |
…..signed up for a Feb. 1/2 marathon in a far away warm state and, and the next day when I returned to Chicago, it turned arctic, and subzero cold. Its still enough to motivate me to squeeze in runs as the bus is pulling up and its freezing and barely light. It also motivated me enough to join a local, grass roots gym 5 min from my house for the use of a treadmill to run even earlier. Turns out the local gym is pretty cool and has everything I need just 5 min from my house plus a cool coffee shop right across the street.> extra bonus.
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| Turf for dynamic warm up and drills before speedy tready runs |
But I've learned over the years people are motivated by different things. I see it with my patients every day, and I see it with athletes I coach as well as observations of other athletes on the various teams Ive been on. Some of my patients are motivated because they need to get back to work just to have $$ to drive their car or put food on table, some want to get back to a sport and some just want to walk again.
As for the athletes some are motivated to workout/ race because they want to eat, some to lose weight, some to achieve something never have done before, and for some it is a social outlet. There is no right or wrong, people are driven by different forces.
In the past I have bought new swim suits to help motivate me to get to the pool to swim
( i can't remember the last swim workout I did…May maybe?),
However, I still buy cool BETTYDESIGNS swimsuits for fun adventures like stand up paddle boarding and playing in the sun. Maybe I'll do some swim workouts again this summer, and hopefully I'll have be going on some fun SUP adventures.
But…here is a little extra winter motivation: summer is coming and Betty Designs Bling Tatoos
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| photo credit: BREEDFREAKPHOTO And one day soon it will be warm enough to playoutside without hats gloves parkas and boots! |
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| Bonus Workout! |
Oregon Duck Motivational Videohttp://vimeo.com/116379127
Even though they lost, its still amazing. It was enough to finally cave and paint Jack's room Oregon Green and Grey.
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| Oregon Fans |
