How do you motivate yourself? I've been throwing this question around a lot lately. Right now I am on holidays from work which meant I could devote 3 weeks of intense training to get me back on track. Trouble is my motivation only lasted a few days. So how DO you get motivated? I am so lucky to have some pretty amazing friends who are also my training buddies. They motivate me. I could never pass up a 3 hour ride if it meant catching up on this weeks news with my best buds. I go to masters because I do love to swim but I also enjoy chatting after my sets with all of the lovely company there too. I don't usually run with friends very often but when I do it is always special. For all of those other runs I motivate myself with gearing up at my rare opportunity to listen to some fab tunes cranked up all by myself.
So this past week I got motivated and threw myself head first into some pretty awesome training. The one that has kind of stuck to me is always a nightmare ride. In our neck of the woods there is a road that winds back up into the most amazing look out. Rumour has it that the grade on the final climb up is 24% (that's the final climb of the already many tough climbs). So when my coach gave me this awesome workout (insert sarcastic voice) I needed every ounce of motivation I could get. Once I was done this bad boy of a ride I was getting myself the biggest, best reward I could buy.
Already a little rosy from the initial climbs and gearing up for the big one.
Before I even started the hard part I had it in my head that it's early season and I didn't HAVE to finish. I could be a quitter today. The negativities were being spewed out like a night after food poisining. Who is this quitter? Luckily I had my motivation with me and I am so glad he was there with me to get my butt up that mountain of a hill.
I sweated a lot, I swore a little, but I made it. I'll be honest, it was not pretty. My average speed was probably 2 km/hour but what matters is I did it and I did it because this crazy guy motivates me all the time.
It's funny how we make up ideas in our head of how difficult things will be. Instead I need to remind myself that yes it will be tough but so worth it. Worth it to spend time with a great friend, spend time to be outside, spend time to sweat a little.
So you ask what was my reward? Well I have a confession to make... I love online shopping. So when I feel I need a little reward (and lately I feel like I've needed lots) I jump onto Amazon.ca to give myself a little something. So after eating a ton of food I jumped online and I bought not 1, not 2, but 3 books! Books on training!!! I'm such a nerd I know but if you walked into my house and saw all of my lovely books you would understand.
So I want to know, how do you reward yourself? Food, shopping, night out away from the family? We all motivate and reward ourselves differently but we all know it works!
Now if you want to reward yourself or reward someone else there is a fab little place online that you can purchase gift cards and/or sell unused gift cards. Raise has got you covered.
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