Desire, Dedication and Determination

I hesitate to post this... not sure how it will come across since I'm not a coach, psychologist, or anyone with any training in "motivation" ... but I really needed to write it down in place that I'll be able to re-read it in the coming months, because I'm pretty sure that I'll need to. I'm hoping that it might help someone else as well...

You know those signs they sell at craft fairs, etc. "Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much"? You're supposed to buy them, put them up in your home and you know, have a better life! It's a great sentiment, but I think more appropriate in our house would be:

Desire. Dedication. Determination.

I started the week with the workout BLAHs... I just wasn't looking forward to my workouts and when I did them I wasn't really giving it all the attention that I needed to.

I posted about it and got a lot of good advice and empathy from folks:
- take a day off, you're burned out
- we've all been there, you'll snap out of it
- me too!
- get some new music or new workout clothes

they were all pretty varied, and it made me think about "why". What was the reason behind my workout ennui.

Was it burn out? Didn't think so, had a great taper week the week before and had just raced on Saturday.
Was it boredom? No, my coach keeps things fairly varied and interesting
Was I too busy, especially mentally busy (i.e. thinking about all the stuff that needed to get done) well, things are a little hectic because it's the end of the school year and that brings some scheduling challenges for end of session events, etc. but last week I had everything fairly well planned out so that it would work.

and then, I figured it out... I was frustrated.

still not able to get on the sunny side of my last race; I had been working hard and my results didn't show it... Frankly I needed to get over myself. So I went through the process of kicking my own fanny back into gear.

It boiled down to one thing...

Do you want to be an Ironman? Well, do ya, punk?

It was a slow process, over a couple of days, but eventually I found my motivation.

I hand picked songs for my next run. Focused on the music and ran like a kid again. I decided to switch some workouts around so that I wasn't trying to squeeze swim and run in at the gym. This gave me time to really focus on my swim instead of rushing it. Realized I was starting to drop my elbow again in the water... picked a couple seconds off my 100 time. It also gave me time to stretch after my run, do a little yoga... I opened up the windows and doors in the basement while I did my "during aj's nap" trainer rides and let the fresh air blow through.

All these little things helped me get joy out of my training again and got me ready to my crazy workout today (and that's a story for a different time).

And now I'm back baby!! With help from my friends, family, music and time. And if you ever need to psych up song... I highly recommend this: "Live for This"

"Every drop of blood, every bitter tear, every bead of sweat... I Live For This!"

So in the end it was remembering the Desire: Ironman, this goal I've had for so long and I want to do well, for me. But mostly, I want to know that no matter what happens on that day, I put the work in and I'm ready.

rediscovering my Dedication: I'm in this for the long haul...

focusing my Determination: ...and I'm not giving up.

I will be ready for Ironman.


oh yeah.