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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Five minutes in

I often have a hard time with motivation.  Sure i'm motivated enough to sign up for crazy events when they are months away, but i typically find it much harder to motivate myself to train for those events, particularly since the nature of each of my workouts tends to be pretty demanding.

So i've made a deal with myself that seems to be working.  Just Don't Skip.

I don't worry about getting motivated to run the Tabata, or pour myself into a time trial on the bike.  Instead i just focus on getting the running shoes and at least getting 'five minutes in'.

By the time those five minutes have elapsed i've already committed to the time - i've showed up and started.  I've abandoned or set aside all the excuses about what else i need to do that is more important that i can't workout.  And even though it's often stressful just making those decisions (particularly since i feel overwhelmed by the details of the thousand things i feel like are on my agenda everyday), once they're made, i find myself switching gears.

I become present.  I'm here.  I'm on the treadmill, in the pool, on the bike.  I didn't feel motivated to go hard and feel the sting of lactic acid, the burning in my lungs - but since i'm here i better get on with it.  Because i don't have much time and sooner or later that crazy event is going to actually show up on the weeks calendar.  And i can't get any of that other stuff that seems so important done now anyway.  If i don't make the time count now, it simply doesn't count.

By five minutes in i've gone through all these thoughts.  My body is physically warm and my heart is pounding.  I'm ready to go.  I'm glad i came.  I'm in the moment.  And it's a good thing too, because, at least for me (and at least for my speed workouts) five minutes in my lungs have caught fire and the lactic acid is just about to show up to the party.

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