As some of you know I took a break from serious training this summer. It was kind of unplanned but with nagging injuries and no real goal in sight I just took my sweet time with training.Well....... it's that time to get moving again. Here is how I went about getting motivated to actually train again.The first thing is, I found a goal. For me and many other people training without a goal is very difficult. If there is no light at the end of the tunnel then why am I in the tunnel in the first place? So I found my goal. I plan on racing a 50k trial race in January. So the goal is set. Now I need a plan.
Once I figured I needed a plan I started getting a little excited about training again. With that excitement came some motivation and with the motivation came me actually writing myself a training plan for this race. I took in the factors of how long I needed, what other races would help me reach my goal and that fact that I am out of shape. I first started with writing out a weekly training program for myself. It includes plenty of running but I first have get back into shape. Just running isn't going to help me as much as I would like it to. So I scheduled 2 Corefit sessions a week, a spin class and some actual swimming. Thank goodness T3 has all of this or I would be a mess right now. Next I found a couple of races that would help me prepare for my goal race. The Dirty Du @ Rocky Hill Ranch is @ a perfect time and the Double Decker is a hilly race where I can test my overall fitness. It's like training for an IM and doing a 1/2 IM about 45 days away from the big event.
Once I have my training schedule done and my training races in place I add in my personal time. Like working Longhorn and my annual trip back to Maine in November. With that done I start to feel confident that if my body holds up I can actually do this race.
The final touch is dragging my butt out of bed and doing the training. Right now it's a bit tough because I haven't been getting up all that early but when motivation is on your side the early mornings aren't so early. I am also a bit out of shape so I scheduled my actual race training to start in Oct so it would give me about 3 weeks to get my legs and lungs into working order.
So with all this said..... having a plan for any training is a smart idea. It'll pay benefits down the line and it's keeps you motivated until race day. One very cool thing about getting to race is the post race..... "what do I do now?" The answer is start a plan for another race and keep chugging along.
Hope this helps.
Coach Logan
