Building Momentum
Hi Gang!
This week marks getting back into the regular swing of things. If you’re looking for an early season race to kick things off, the Robbie Burns 10K is back. A bit earlier this year – Jan 22nd. If racing more was on your list of goals this year, here’s a great way to start. They are offering a $10 discount with the code “ROBBIESBACK”.
Most ppl are rolling with goals for the spring. I know I still owe some plans and I am on that over today and tomorrow! (any specific immediate q’s please check in with me). What I’ve been thinking about is Momentum. Man, is that ever a thing, eh? When you have it, things just flow so much more easily. When you don’t, you wonder how you ever did the things you’ve done before. Obviously, starting from holiday mode (which we all needed, so let’s not beat ourselves up), we do not have a lot of forward momentum. Getting going and finding the rhythm that works might feel a bit harder at the moment. That’s ok. It’s normal. Starting the boulder moving is the hardest part. Here are a few things to consider during this phase:
- Don’t wait to feel motivated. Motivation often follows action. Trust that it will come and your mental energy will catch up to match your physical action. Then you can start relying on your “desire” to get out there. But first, you have to start.
- Start slowly. It is way easier to form habits of easier tasks (drinking a glass of water in the morning) than harder tasks (running 15K every day). All you’re asking yourself to do for now is to just show up. Just start. If you start the workout and it’s going poorly and you hate it – stop. You can. If you start a run and it’s a 20 minute run – that’s great. Just start.
- Finish on a high note. This is “habit formation 101” – we tend to recall how we finished something vs the hardest part of the thing. They did an experiment with two groups of cyclists and gave them the exact same workload, but one group finished with the hardest part, and the other finished with some easy cycling and chatting. Then they had them rate the difficulty of the workout. Those who finished with easy social cycling rated it as easier and more pleasurable. I think this is why the social chatting and cool-downs from our workouts are key. If you’re solo, make sure you finish every hard effort with some sort of reward – 20 minutes to read with a coffee, a bath and a book, your favourite smoothie … whatever will attach a positive memory to the experience.
- Be flexible and allow for nuance. Nothing kills a sense of joy and motivation like a forced, rigid schedule. Some of the most successful athletes are the ones who understand what they are supposed to do from their plan, and then figure out how to make it fit their life. They don’t contort themselves into pretzels to fit it all in “perfectly”. If they’re skiing with family on weekends or have a busy work week or are experiencing some pain – they are ok with mixing things around and making it work for them.
Those are my tips for now – I’m there with you all in this. And one thing we can’t change but man it would help – a little sunshine for even 5-10 minutes at one point this month! We’re not asking for a lot.
Ok, on to tomorrow’s workout! Back to Lakeshore and Leslie. 6:05 drills, 6:15 GO.
- 1 mile tempo. 2 min rest. 10 x 400 w 1 min rest. 3 min rest. 1 mile tempo (this last tempo only for those with spring marathons or ATB and only if feeling good).
- People just getting into things or coming back from illness/injury: 1 mile tempo, 6-8 x 400 w 1 min rest.
- If going by time: 6 min tempo, 10 x 90 sec Hard, 1 min Easy, 6 min tempo.
- If on the fence, just come out and start. 1 mile tempo is a good place to start.
That is all – see you in the am!
xo
Seanna