"Your demons can chase you, or you can exercise with them."
-- Achieving ODJ
I recently sat down with a longtime friend, who more importantly is an old UNLV Swimming teammate, to catch up and break bread. These days when we reminisce about the by-gone years in the pool it sounds more and more like an inspirational Nike commercial. We seem to forget a majority of the time our training program resembled the Old Testament... When swimmer was in Egypt's land. Let my swimmer go!
No matter how many years it's been since our glory days in the pool, inevitably our conversation passes through the land of current personal fitness efforts. We have similar lives; both with multiple young children, strong to very strong stay at home moms for our progeny, and sales based corporate American jobs. (The latter can make or break one's waste line if precautions are not taken when entertaining or being entertained.) We compare notes looking to gain additional workout insight. At this station in life I am looking for fitness truths, and my obstinate ego long suppressed by epic fails. I seek to gain from anyone. We discuss what I'm doing to stay thin(ner). What his workouts look like. What is the best bang for the buck when time is at a premium. An the crucial component; is there an external motivation source. The minister of muscle manipulation will have an interesting perspective. (See comment section.)
I am currently training for an adult swim meet in December. This upcoming meet has ensured a good amount of motivation to swim three days per week and hit JBK’s program another three days. On the seventh day so he rested. My dear friend said he did not have a road race on the books to prepare for so he was going through the motions during his daily runs. JBK will admit that without a pending beach trip or work sponsored weight loss contest he too will “go through the motions.” For me, if it ain’t written down or shook on then it is just a pipe dream and the slide toward Fat Jarvis has already begun. My hat goes off to people who can work out for vanity’s sake. Oh, excuse me… I meant, "for health’s sake." Nudge, nudge. Wink wink.
The best laid plans of mice and men... No matter how good the intel, success lies in the execution. It is disheartening that some people have perpetual motivation at the gym. Mainly because Ole JT and I do not. "Going through the motions" is a kind description of the effort I put in, between contests and vacations. Having a motivating factor, for most of us is the linchpin to achieving our fitness goals. Almost all motivating factors boil down to vanity, or more appropriately fear of embarrassing ourselves. For me, it's equal parts wanting to look good in a swimsuit on the beach, and fear of looking like a beached whale. When the motivator is a sporting competition, one could argue it's wanting to do well. I could just as easily argue it's not wanting to pull up lame. If you're a regular reader, you've already correctly pegged me as a glass half empty guy. Sadly, as reported on the evening news (Daily Show), pessimists statistically live longer than optimists. If it's on TV, it must be true. Damnit. All the effort I've dedicated to avoiding the diaper years, down the drain.
ReplyDeleteI train on delusion -- delusion that I am still twenty one, delusion that I can still out perform my twenty one year old self, delusion that I'm immortal. This obviates external motivators because I'll always be delusional.
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