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winter blues and motivation

hi all,
am i the only one that just hates waking up in the morning? it gets worse by the day as the daylight gets less...
i have suddenly (or gradually) lost my drive...gone are the days i would be up like i was hit by lightning: ...alarm goes off, alarm gets a slap, i sleep another half hour, takes me another half hour to open my eyes and body to really wake up by now it is 6.45....start getting ready...put swimming suit on get dressed ...then the negotiations start: 'oh it is too late now, i wont be able to finish my session before the close the lanes..i will leave it for this afternoon and do the swim, then spin then weights!'
then afternoon comes and i am still at work and it's 7o'clock and i am still at work and then i am tired and just about manage one session out of the 3 or none and i go home hating myself for letting myself down so badly and then i think: 'now you messed it up so badly have some pizza to complete your failure'
i have no drive to stick to my diet and i have no drive to train and the funny thing is that actually once i am out there doing it i love every minute of it including the painful ones but the hard part is getting me there on the first place...
i feel that i am slowly slipping...the image that represents me are those cartoons (the coyote or something), hanging from a cliff, slowly slipping with his nails scratching the surface marking 4 parallel lines,...HELP!!!!

Comments

  • durhamvamdurhamvam Posts: 246
    Hi Eve,

    I don't have a solution but I can feel your pain! This morning went something like: alarm went off, alarm got slapped, dragged self out of bed (considered pulling covers off snoring BH - resisted), looked out of window, saw rain, felt cold, pulled on running stuff, woke up dog, somehow found self wearing wellies and a rain coat and walking the dog not running........

    And I won't do anything tonight because I'll be too battered after going to the physio

    I think it's a question of just making yourself get started, so saying something like well, I'll just do the warm up then I'll just do one interval.... etc But how you actually get yourself out of bed in the first place is beyond me.

    VAM
  • It's tough to get motivated at this time of year. I think most people on these forums have ended their season, but it sounds like you've got a big race coming up soon.
    Motivational tips that work for me:
    Picture yourself crossing the line in an amazing time to be greeted by your favourite person(s)
    Change all the music on your mp3 player - make it uplifting music
    Use a spreadsheet to chart your training progress; award youself points for each training session, and set a weekly target. If you hit 2 or 3 weeks targets in a row, award yourself with a purchase/cream bun/night out/whatever floats your boat.
    Give yourself a few days holiday from training - after 2 days you'll probably be itching to get back to it and find you have a renewed vigour.
    Have some sort of slogan that keeps you going. My wife once said to me 'Feel the fear and do it anyway'. This became my slogan and helped me get out of bed every morning.

    I know it's tough, I've been there myself and I remember it fondly. You'll get through it.
    Go Sporteve!!
  • I'm with you on the morning thing, generally I hate getting up. I'm a little lucky in that I don't start work until 9.30 so can set the alarm for 6.30 to go swimming and still comfortably get to work early.

    You say you love it once you get training. What I do is instead of concentrating on the negatives, it's dark, it's raining etc. I try to really think about that positive feeling and really picture myself feeling good while working out. That helps. The other thing is to just accept that it's going to be difficult but do it anyway.
  • jacjac Posts: 452
    Take a break.
    Forget about training. Do something different.
    Then a couple of weeks down the line have a think about targets/plans for next year.
  • I'm with jac on this one. Take two months away from structured training, just do what you want to do, not something some plan tells you you're supposed to be doing. If it ain't fun, it ain't worht doing.

    Come December/January, you'll be fully recharged, and ready to starting increasing fitness, dropping weight, and be up to race fitness my April.
  • Get all your gear ready the night before..Thats what helps me. So the only thing I have to do is roll out of bed and onto the bike (process shortened for forum purpose only )

    Also remember the feeling you get when your sat in the tea room/office..everyone blurry eye'd and yawning! Yet you've just done some training and the internal engine is fired up for the day. The more I train the more energy I have.
  • risris Posts: 1,002
    i'm with jac as well, if you are feeling demotivated (and i know i am a bit after feeling pressured to train from april-sept) then take some time out. do the exercise because you want to not because you feel you have to. give yourself a break, particularly mentally, and then come back to it in a few weeks.

    in the time you have spare perhaps think about what your goals are for next year and consider how to get there (races you want to do, improvements you want to make). then work out what that means for the winter training regime - doing some running events, or duo's, or cycling audax's (etc).
  • I overcome this by entering an event, something that I don't normally do like a cross country race or mountain bike enduro. The fear of looking like a tw@t come race day is enough to get me out of the door ( although that doesn't preclude the fact that more often than not, I still do )

    Alternatively pay for something up front. I've just signed up for 12 "advanced swimmer lessons" at my local pool. In reality there is nothing advanced about them, it is basically a supervised training session but, because I've paid up front and I'm a tight so and so I'm more likley to go.

    I still hate dark mornings though
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 335
    oh yes - kow exactly where you're coming from - but its not just mornings its cold, wet evenings too - think I need to invest in some decent winter training wear
  • Or move out of Wales!
  • KenMacKenMac Posts: 14
    Move south or become a 'hemisphere hopper'!
    Newport Gwent to Napier NZ....
  • durhamvamdurhamvam Posts: 246
    Ah KenMac this would be the same Napier where the main road to Taupo was blocked by snow at the weekend stranding hundreds of motorists and where they are forecasting a very wet, cold spell with snow down to 200 m for this weekend would it?

    I think it might just be warmer here or at least although we had a frost the weather is clear and beautiful!

    Just hope it gets better for my trip back to NZ in November! Not looking forward to tramping in torrential rain.
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