60-minute easy run. If you haven’t figured it out, here’s the pattern:
This was another workout that made me feel like a badass. I was traveling for a work related training event this weekend. Up to Bangkok to stay in a hotel on Friday and Saturday night for a conference on Saturday and then some sightseeing on Sunday.
Perfect excuse to skip a workout right? Traveling. Working on the weekend. Crowded hotel fitness facilities. Completely suboptimal conditions. Except that I didn’t. Skip that is.
Instead, I went down to the hotel pool after my seminar wrapped up and knocked out the following swim:
Not too impressive right? Right. Except that I had plenty of good excuses not to do it (including the fact that I had to dodge clueless, oblivious goofballs in the hotel pool) and I did it anyway.
I think this is something that is absolutely key to my fitness consistency and lifestyle stability: ignoring optimization. It is way, way too easy to justify skipping a workout because of suboptimal conditions. Let me know if any of these sound familiar:
That’s what I thought. Overcoming or ignoring any and all of these excuses and conducting “suboptimal” workouts is critical to maintaining workout momentum and a good rhythm. Something is better than nothing. A good plan now executed with aggression is better than a perfect plan later (or never).
This is part of an ongoing series where I take a look at motivational images, phrases and soundbites culled from “fitness motivation” websites and other sources. I break them down and try to figure out what makes them effective or ineffective spurs to motivation for me.
This particular poster is one of my favorites because it speaks to one of my especial weaknesses. I am easily distracted and easily addicted. This is a bad combination. More times than I care to remember I’ve gone into an evening (or a full weekend day) with the intention to workout, gotten distracted by a TV show/computer game/book/other thing and turned around to find that the entire evening (or day) is gone and I haven’t worked out (or done anything else important or productive).
Time flies. Sometimes we waste time without really being aware of it. Other times we intentionally avoid doing things we know we should do, such as workout. Other times we are legitimately busy and have unavoidable obligations that consume large amounts of time (although this is less often the case than most of us portray to others). In any case, it is really easy to cut out working out. In fact most of the time I bet it’s the first thing to get squeezed out. Here’s the thing though: when I don’t workout, my life falls apart. I get stressed, I start eating badly, I don’t sleep well, I let other important habits (cleaning, grocery shopping) fall by the wayside. I get grouchy.
The key? MAKE the time to workout. But what does that mean? It’s not as if you can just wave your hand and add hours to the day. You can’t just set your clock back three hours and give yourself wasted time back. “Hey, boss, I’m supposed to make time to workout so I’ll be coming in at ten from now on”? Probably not. And you – or at least me – aren’t going to quickly and easily stop doing the time wasting activities (TV, computer games, Internet). Some people will same “time management”. But that’s a stupid term. You can’t manage time. You don’t manage fifteen minutes and turn it into 30 minutes. There is only doing something or not doing something.
So “making time to workout” simply means “making yourself workout”. Making yourself DO it. At first, particularly if I’m in a bad rhythm, this can be difficult, even ridiculous. For example, after Christmas and New Year when I got out of my workout routine and had to start making time for exercise, I didn’t do it by eliminating books and computer games. I didn’t do it by getting up early or skipping out on work. But I had to do it. So I made the time by just doing it no matter what or when. 9pm? Doesn’t matter, go workout. Tired and have to get up early tomorrow? Doesn’t matter, go workout. Overslept on Saturday and now it’s 95 degrees and sunny? Doesn’t matter, go workout.
So at first, I’m making myself workout at whatever time is available, even if it’s inconvenient or ridiculous. But eventually, usually within a week or two, I get tired of the ridiculousness and I start MAKING that time more conveniently, meaning I start to do my workouts at a more convenient time in place of other activities. “Self”, I say to myself, “you know you’re going to make yourself workout at some ridiculous hour anyway, so go do it now, right when you get home. That other stupid stuff you’ve been wasting time on [computer games, music practice, sleep, etc.] is a lot easier to do at 10 o’clock at night, so go workout when it’s more sensible.” Eventually, a combination of workout routine, improved fitness, and complete fatigue force the elimination of less worthy or less productive and rewarding activities. Boom. Time made for exercise.
[The poster clearly says “Hasfit.com” on it, but frankly I’ve never been to that website. I got this image from fitness related Tumblr – don’t remember which one – that is just a vast stream of random images – mostly either lame platitudes or unattributed quotes or pictures of bodybuilders and figure competitors.]
. . . was a 40-minute spin on the cycle trainer. I’d love to go out and actually, you know, ride my bike outside, but my “neighborhood” is awful for cycling. I have to ride for 30-45 minutes just to get to moderately not-miserable cycling route. I’m thinking about making some destination visits incorporating morning bike rides. Need to do some planning.
Workout rhythm is officially (for the most part) re-established. Mindset is significantly improved. I’ve got a couple of exciting ideas in gestation. I was going to kick two of them of in conjunction tomorrow but the technical aspect of it got the better of me. Once I get that part of it figured out I’ll post it on here.
I got up early and went for my run IN THE MORNING. Pretty big deal. I vastly prefer working out in the morning for a variety of reasons, but with my commute and some living arrangement considerations it is very difficult for me to do any significant exercise before work during the week. Still, it’s so awesome to start my day off with my workout and not have to worry about squeezing it in later that I’m going to continue to play around and see if I can do it more consistently.
So a nice easy run. I went for time today instead of a fixed distance. Not sure why, I just felt like it. But I think I’m going to continue to mix it up and run sometimes for distance and sometimes for time. Changing the target metric of your run changes how you approach it. One year I ran with a good friend and we used a marathon prep program that was entirely time based rather than distance and it was fantastic. I did some of the best running and got into some of the best shape of my life during that time. Part of it was having a strong, consistent training partner but a I think a big part of it was the way that a time based program is elastic and auto adapts to your fitness and fatigue levels.
Another good swim with my Garmin Swim (great Christmas present!). I really like having swimming in my workout rotation because it’s a great workout (cardiovascular and muscular endurance) while being incredibly low impact (at least the way I do it). It really helps me increase my overall activity level without increasing the impact and wear & tear on my body.
And the Garmin Swim is fantastic. I haven’t messed with the drills mode yet, but for lap swimming I love it. Just click it on and start swimming. It keeps track of the time and the distance and the number of laps like magic. So much easier than using my Garmin 310XT or a regular Timex Ironman watch.
Here’s some shots of the data it collects:
Now I just have to figure out what the hell these graphs are trying to tell me. Anyone out there speak “Garmin Swim Data”?
Wow. That was not good. So as I’ve mentioned I took about 3 weeks off from regular workouts. So yesterday I went out for a run – my third consecutive workout in a row – and decided to do some intervals. I was GOING to do 6 x 400m but got lazy pushing the buttons on my Garmin (don’t judge) and left it at 8 x 400m instead.
No big deal right? I’ve been doing all kind of crazy interval workouts over the past three months for my modified-5K program. Wrong! My legs were a little stiff and sore already just from cycling the night before (sad, considering how easy a spin it was) and the 8 x 400m was way harder than it should have been. 6 x 400m would have been fine. Plus I went out way too hard considering what I was working with.
Here’s the proof:
But at least I got out there. It was a struggle . . . again. I think for now I’m going to stick with a cardio routine (swim, run, bike, run, repeat) until I’m back in a good rhythm. Then I’ll start to develop a more focused regimen and up the intensity.
Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about my 375 CPFT goal (it is after all the name of the blog). I’m just reevaluating the plan to get there based on my experiences prior to my unintentional Christmas layoff. I’ve got some interesting ideas. Stay tuned for more motivational and fitness goodness.
Just did an easy 30-minute spin on the bike today. Nothing spectacular but at least I got sweaty.
I gotta admit that for the first time in as long as I can remember, this workout failed to have a significant positive impact on my mindset and emotional state. Usually a workout really improves my mood, even after a bad day at work.
The physical exertion combined with the psychological satisfaction of having done something that requires discipline and is good for me usually gives me a nice endorphin boost. But today it just wasn’t there. Or maybe it was but the amount of endorphins just wasn’t enough to overcome work stress and other factors.
Health and fitness is a mental game. The more stressed you are the more important it can be to workout to mitigate stress and stay healthy; but the more stressed you are (or at least the more stressed I am) the more likely I am to lack the motivation to get out the door and workout.
For me the key is to make the routine, the habit of working out so strong that it counterbalances any ennui or negative influences on workout motivation. Right now I am just rebuilding that habit after too long a layoff, so it’s extra difficult to do the right thing.
But I’m two in a row right now. Yay, me.
Tonight I took my first steps back on the path to regular workouts, less stress, and better mental health. After three weeks without working out I finally went out and ran tonight.
Not impressive I know. But at least I went out and did it. And I feel markedly better. Way better than I should for just doing an easy 5K.
Three things to think about:
More to follow on those later.
So I’ve fallen off the wagon. I am completely and utterly out of a workout routine. I’d include Garmin Connect screen snaps as proof but they’re just too depressing. I haven’t worked out in two or three weeks (minus a 1500m swim I did this weekend to test out my Garmin Swim which was a Christmas present from the girlfriend).
I also moved this blog off of Tumblr to a WordPress platform. I didn’t like the formats of the Tumblr posts and the interface wasn’t very nice.
The trick now is to get back in the saddle. This is tricky; once you get out of a program it’s a tricky psychological maneuver to get back going. It’s late here and I’m exhausted from a lingering cold and a poor night of sleep so I won’t elaborate right now. In fact, this whole post is pretty incoherent and maybe even pointless . . . except that at least I’m doing something.
Which is the trick to getting my momentum back in more ways than one. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Let’s go out and do some good. We’ll work on perfect later.
To 375 and beyond!