Greg posted Wednesday about motivation – he’s right. The wall by our garage is awesome. But let’s be honest: problems with motivation don’t happen at the garage or at the front door (on a related note, see the photo of the Ironman Lake Placid course poster that that’s hung in our foyer.) Motivation happens at early morning hours, when you’re peacefully sleeping in bed, in silence (which is a rarity when you have 2 young kids and a dog).
Look at my alarm clock settings and you’ll see what I mean. I have 4 different settings for 4 different early-morning workout times: 4 am for days that I swim (in the pool at 5 am), 4:20 (for a “snooze” on days when I have an internal debate about whether to blow off swim practice), 4:45 for the days that I spin (the gym opens at 5, with class at 5:15), and 6 am (for the non-workout days, when I just need a few minutes to get up before the baby.) Ridiculous. This is when being a morning person has its disadvantages.
Just looking at this screen makes me tired.
Yesterday, I fell victim – somewhat – to the motivation issue. The alarm went off for swimming at 4 am. Like most rationale people, I said no to waking up at that awful hour. Reconsider alarm? Nope. Spin class alarm? No to that too. Finally, around 5:10, as I wrestled between my “Lazy” self and my “Goal-oriented”. I knew that if I didn’t get a workout in that morning, I wouldn’t have time to make it up later in the day. So, reluctantly, I grabbed my cold weather gear, and Sharkie’s leash, and headed out for a truncated run.
While it sounds good, I probably spent more time in Starbucks getting my post-run coffee than I did pounding the pavement. But, on some days, it’s about more than the miles. It’s about overcoming the tough mornings to get a workout in. It’s psychological. Motivation gets worse over several days; it’s a slippery slope for certain. So, I’ll call yesterday’s experience a mental victory. And, that victory was enough to turn around my focus, and I even headed to the gym last night for spin class too. Dare I say, a test in motivation became a double workout day?! Score one for Monique.
