Motivation

A lot of people ask me how I stay motivated to train the way I do. I thought I’d share some thoughts on this. I think there are a few layers to this for me. There are a few things that are like the internal fire for the motivation and then there are layers that feed themselves.

For this first layer of what motivates it goes pretty deep into what my overall goals and dreams are. It comes down to some pretty core concepts for me which serve to feed the fire to keep me going day in and day out. Here they are:

1. I want to qualify for Ironman Hawaii.
2. I want to win races, whether it’s an age group win at a big M-dot race or overall wins at smaller New England races.
3. I want to be the fastest athlete I can be at the Ironman distance.
4. I want to execute races like a pro.
5. I want to be at a pro level for Ironman distance.

In order to get to Hawaii in my age group (30-34) I need to be at a very elite level. Most Kona bound guys in my age group are well under 10 hours for ironman. This basically means I need to train as close as I can to what is typical of a pro. With my work schedule my sustainable volume is only around 20 hours a week whereas many pros are hitting 35 + hours a week. My training plan is designed to get me as close to critical volumes as possible in a safe manner.

So back to motivation- how do I get myself to get out of bed for 5am workouts? Or figure out a way to get my workout in during times of really crazy logistics with work or family. The above principles are the internal part and then there are other layers—

I have found that simply turning off emotions (very hard for me) and thinking clearly with a focus on simply “getting the work done” is very helpful. If I want to meet my goals I need to get the work done plain and simple. I also have a very very supportive wife and family who understand and support “getting the work done.” Yes I am extremely lucky and not a day goes by that I do not give thanks for this.

So then there are other things that serve to feed the motivation and it falls into this concept of “training is testing, testing is training” that Dr. Andrew Coggan made famous.

Basically every workout I do I know where my fitness is. I always know whether I’m improving or not and this is hugely motivating for me. For example my zone 1 pace (aerobic threshold) was 7:45 in Dec and it’s now 7:06. Same exact HR but much faster paces with zero tempo or speed. I hit the 7:06 level the week that my base phase ended and am now in a build phase so I am doing some tempo and hill bounding. Just seeing the fruits of my hard work translate to faster paces or power is really motivating.

Overall training update-

Threshold swim pace is around 1:20 / 100yds
20 min power on the bike is 330 watts
FTP is 315 which puts me at 4.5 watts/kg
Run zone 1 pace top (aerobic threshold) is 7:06 (this is roughly 20 beats below Lactate threshold)