The question I have has to do with cutting a workout short. I know
that its best not to do that unless injury has or is occuring,
weather related, and the like. I trained with that in mind before
so come feeling terrible on race day (lets hope that doesn’t happen
again) I know what feeling bad and still finishing is like. And it
works. Its ease to finish everything you planned in Summer, but
what about Winter. In Summer you can bike across the county, then
you have to get home so you can’t quit. But thats not the case
spinning in the basement. The concern I have is I have cut
workouts short lately and I was just wondering if that would carry
through into the Spring. I am still doing at least an hour, but I
feel bad when I should have gone two or more. Usually soon after I
will workout for two hours or so, but I still think about the one
that got cheated.
do the full time on your training, just consider it mental toughness training
at least that’s what i try to tell myself, but i’m far from perfect
.
You cannot make it up, so just go on with the workout you have next
.
Dude,
If you cheat your training, you cheat your racing! It doesn’t matter if it’s winter, fall, spring or summer. The better you train the better you’ll race. Your training will mimick your racing performance… So quit or cut short a workout, you’ll quit or cut short your race !
Try getting motivated by signing up for an early spring race, indoor triathlons with spin bikes or treadmills don’t count.
Toughen up dude.
Don’t sweat it, its chill time at the momment. This part of the off season is perfect for just doing workouts you enjoy.
A bit of R&R now will go far when you start to ramp up the training again.
Don’t sweat it, its chill time at the momment. This part of the off season is perfect for just doing workouts you enjoy.
A bit of R&R now will go far when you start to ramp up the training again.
Ya, but it sounds like he’s has been doing some R&R lately… It’s time to start putting it together.
A saying that I like is, “We are shaped by the doorways through which we walk.” If a person wants to be in the best shape they can attain during race season, then they need to squeak through the tough to get through workouts ie doorways now.
If you need motivation—write out your goals, put up inspirational quotes/posters, then when your mind tells you that you have done enough think of those goals or look at the quotes/posters. Either that or try to get a training partner. It is much easier to get talked out of finishing a workout when you are only listening to the voices inside your head. 
That being said, there is a time and a place for crosstraining. Although there are only 3 sports in a triathlon. So the time spent doing other sports shouldn’t be greater than time spent swimming/biking/running.
Plus, if you only just finished his season, then there should be some downtime to recupperate…time to rediscover and thank the things and people you may have neglected during the season. Although that is only if you just finished your season. Maybe for a month after.
This is a quote from Devilishpaul from the Mental Toughness thread: Commit to training every day for an entire month in the depth of winter at 6 am in the cold and dark. No sleeping in no wussing out no matter how sore or tired you feel. Commit to finishing each workout, no matter how miserable it feel. Have a few insanely huge training weekends like Irontour that on the surface seem impossible. Don’t change the plan if the weather sucks. You’ll note that very few people finished the Irontour in Ottawa in Sep. The exceptions being Dmitruk, myself, and Clinton. The weather was miserable, and some people wimped out and did not even start the swim in the cold and dark. But when push comes to shove on race day, and you see a guy surging up the road when the chips are down you can bet it will be Dmitruk. Race often and race hard. You might not taper like an A race, but you have to hammer like an A race. You can’t get tough in competition by racing 3x per year. To get good at racing, you have to practice racing.
OK, that is it for now. No book will help you. You need to be mentally tough day in and day out to do it on race day. Call it tough love from the peanut gallery
You might want to assess your plan and tune it to something that fits in with your lifestyle and motivation level. Training should be fun and you shouldn’t have to force yourself through too many workouts. Low motivation can be a warning sign so I’d try to dig in and understand the root cause.
I lived and trained in southern and central Michigan for 15 years. Here are some of the things I did to stay motivated in the Winter:
No TV unless I was on the trainer. That worked pretty well— I’d watch movie marathons while sitting on the bike. I also had a fridge next to my bike so I could reach in and grab good food during the ride. (I’ll never forget the time I found and ate 3/4 of a chocolate cake in the middle of a 4-hour trainer ride.)
Another trick was going out of my way to exercise outdoors. Sunlight works wonders for you. Freezing my ass off for an hour or two running across frozen lakes helped my psyche more than any amount of indoor training could. I found I even felt great getting out and riding and running in those 40 degree rainy days that on the surface seem to put a damper on everything.
The final trick was joining a great gym and making it a part of my program. three hours of training hours goes by quickly when broken up into yoga and pilates classes, spinning, running on the treadmill next to a hottie, swimming, and chilling in the hottub. Cross training in the winter makes a lot of sense.
Good luck!
-Marc
If spinning is not your thing to do, try something else. I truly believe in going outdoors and do not see the point of basement spinning. How about lang walks or a mountainbike. If it’s not the spinning that’s bothering you, but the solitude of you being in prison in your basement (who wouldn’t become suicidal?), then try a spinning class or put the spinningbike in the back yard.
And yes, training is a necessity, but one is supposed to like doing it.
Thanks for all the help! I had a rough, embarassing season so I am trying to push extra hard now so I don’t start 2007 the way 2006 ended. I finished every race, but its all starting to really catch up with me now how slow it really was. And thats the part thats hard to take. Just thinking that my “A” race to prove myself again is still so far away makes it tough. Our sport is about pushing to the limit and coming back for more. Its good to remember that no matter how hard one thinks their training is, there are always thousands more that train harder.