Thursday, May 1, 2008

Motivation

Motivation can be so hard to find sometimes, especially when recovering from the flu. That extra bit of tiredness doesn't help with the flagging mental motivation. But the trick is doing what you can to push yourself.

Having pre-set goals doesn't hurt. Two weeks after being sucker punched by the monster flu, I found myself waking up at 6am, putting on my running shoes and piling in a van to head to the start of The Relay. Not only did I have to run through the night, three legs about 5 miles each, but I also had to captain the team - help make sure things run smoothly and everyone is where they need to be and whatnot. And of course, it was fantastic.

Sure, it was a bit harder than it's been in the past. And yeah, I did come out of the weekend with a renewed sore throat and a shiny new cough... But also I came out with renewed motivation. I was fired. I came home, and started researching what 6 other races (half marathon plus) I could do to fulfill my Eight in '08 plan and even registered for a few of them.

Then there was my other fitness goals. Last week, I wasn't quite prepared to start the new P90X+ yet, despite it sitting around and taunting me for the past few weeks. But I was ready to ease back into a plan of some sort, that included more than just running. So I decided to revisit my old friend, Maya. It had been quite a while since I last visited with her and while I was looking forward showing her my improvement, I was also worried she was going to lecture me about missing months of workouts.

Fortunately, she didn't lecture me any longer than when I missed one workout - I'm not sure those virtual people have much of a sense of time... Anyway, the workout was decent. It was definitely out of touch with the changes in my abilities: The upper body strength workout was far too easy. Bu it was a great way to ease my way back. And it prepared me for psyching myself up - nay, motivating myself - to tackle Tony's new plan.

Unfortunately, Tony's new plan tackled me... but I'll tell you more about that shortly. In the interim, I'll leave you with this thought: Women's Health Magazine recently published an article about the power of your head to overcome your body's whining and motivate you. So when your body is feeling down and out, what motivates you to keep going?

2 comments:

andrea said...

I just caught Tony's "new" (or at least new to me) infomercial this morning...something about 10 minute workouts to lose weight and tone up--mainly targeted at women. Then I began to wonder why I was busting my ass using P90X if 10 minutes is all it would take. Then I remembered I'm getting "super sonic X-style fit" Haha.
I don't know how you can do all of the leg work outs and be running so much...I had to quit the leg workout because it was too much with running 35-45 miles/week; I was just too tired. After my marathon in five weeks, I may start back up, we'll see. Good luck w/ all of those races!

Sara said...

Hey there - yeah, it's tough to fit in the entire p90X schedule with a normal running week. I haven't been doing the full p90x these days - I've been meaning to upload my modified schedule but keep slacking. I should really get on that :)

Thanks for the good luck wishes - same back atcha!