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What motivates you in the off-season?

Posted by David Hardy
David Hardy
VTR Expert
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on Friday, December 07, 2012
in Training

 

As we get deeper into the off-season some of you probably have not been training much and some not at all. Of course there are probably some of you that have already signed up for an Ironman event next year or an early season marathon and your training is still in full swing. After training right through the off-season for the last 3 years I am faced with my first real stretch of time where I am not signed up for a big event and don't really have a "reason" to train. In some ways this is liberating and in others it is a little scary. My whole identity for years has been focused on my training plan and preparing for either an Ironman or marathon. In some ways I feel a little lost without my training plan "blanket".

After fumbling around training randomly for the first 2 months post-Ironman, I decided to enter a few races to determine my fitness level. I entered a 5k on Thanksgiving Day and 3 days later I entered a half marathon. I did not have stellar performances in either of these events but it got me back in the game. Unfortunately there are not a lot of races to choose from for the next couple of months. Racing every weekend or even every other is very difficult with all of the Holiday commitments and limited race schedule. So now what?

I needed another plan to keep me motivated....Sign up for a big event in 2013? No....not ready....Then I remembered something I always wanted to do. I hesitated to write a blog post about this because it is not that big a deal and also it may not be that smart. I have always wanted to run every day for an entire month. I know....why? It isn't even that cool or exciting...I think I watched a news story about a guy called "The Raven" who has run 8 miles a day on Miami Beach for 35 years in a row. This intrigued me and I have occasionally thought it might be cool to do a very limited version of this insanity. After much deliberation (with myself) I decided I would run a minimum of 4 miles a day for the entire month of December. Now I am not running the same course, I just have to cover the miles. Again I am not writing this because I think this is an incredible feat. This is just something that will keep me motivated for the month of December and then we will see what happens....I post all of my workouts day by day here if you want to see if I make it.....who knows maybe if I am successful I will keep going....Remember this quote from the movie Forrest Gump ?

Forrest Gump: That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going.

 

                                                  What keeps you motivated?

 

 

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