(wanring : long)

I hope my little story will help you, coming from the world's laziest
athlete.

I've had lack of motivation for, well, most of the past decade, covering all
of my sports carreer.
I've been working on a masterplan (training schedule) to become "Olympic"
for a few months now, while busy feeling sorry for myself how bad the
weather is, and how tired I get home after work. At least I have a daily
bike commute that seems to give me a little bit of base conditioning.

Wednesday last week I finally managed to conquer the weeks rain that
followed the months of impossible heat. I went for a 5km run, first in half
a year, and before that I was a crappy runner already. I promised myself to
do the sensible thing, and stick to a gentle jog, sub 12kph.
As the sort-of nice girl I had been keeping up with started chatting to
about me how quick I was, I realized I was over-doing it. See read 14kph to
me from her bike computer (called that quick), and then gave it a bit extra.
I tried to follow, and sealed my fate for the rest of the week : walking
like I had just made "friends" on an overnight stay in a group jail cell.
Man it hurt. Even cycling was bad, every upper leg extension hurt. The last
kms of that run home were painful and non-graceful, apart from being in the
rain and thunder.
-By monday I could sit and walk normally again, so went for another run. 6km
and more contained, some 12kph average. More rain. It took me till 22:43
till I had finally managed to drag myself outself, so home late, short
sleep.
-Tuesday : I had planned for a rollerski session (first in way too many
weeks), but a ladyfriend asked me to show her a cycling route to her new
work, so I casually pedaled 40km on top of my daily 2x15.7km.
-Wednesday : home late from work, and more rain. Took me till 22:35 this
time to get myself outside on my sneakers. New plan (thanks to tips from a
running friend) was to work on my technique. Wow, that helps, a lot! Shorter
and lower steps, higher cadance, which is especially good for my
summer-asthma-lungs. Less gasping for air, higher speed. 7km, 12.8kph.
-Thursday : short nights, unusual-for-me workouts and general lazyness got
to me. Dry outside, but I couldn't bring myself to go rollerskiing.
-Friday : I did it. I told a friend to show up with his rollerblades, and I
completed all of 8km on my Crosskates away from traffic on the local
business park till the friend had to split. Every couple hundred meters my
legs or bum would give in. Only a "long" V2 session managed to have the arms
get tired before the (better trained, 100% vs. 0%) legs. This sure has been
a while. I can go fast still, and even tweaked my technique in the time I
did nothing, but endurance is GONE, so speed is a short sprint, nothing
more. I hoped the running (all three jogs of them) would have helped, but
no. I'll have to rollerski again. I know I can be fast again, been here
before.

Over the past week I did "something" on top of commuting 4 times. To me,
pretty special. If I can keep this up for a couple months, I know I'll be
dangerous again in an MTB race, but that knowledge is just a fraction of the
motivation I need.

Goal : somehow get rich, train hard, and get my arse fit and on a plane to
good Scandinavian snow this winter. And buy a car to get some more in
southern Germany and France. Take part in a big wintertriathlon (EC?) and
somehow as a first-timer impress the folks that have been doing that all
their lives. Me, new to snow of any kind that lasts longer than a mashmalow
at a weigh****chers convention.

How I'm gonna get there?
-Well, try to run 3x a week. Do (super $#@& to perform) intervals of all
mind-killing kinds, and get my 10km PB down to sub-40min (now 45min), and
manage a 15km in an hour flat. That'd be a start, nothing more. I lose more
on running in a run-bike-run than I win on the bike, not good.
-Scrape together cash for rollerski's (and manage to obtain them) to commute
on, 2x a week and do some extra sessions.
-Keep commuting my bike the other days (PT is no option, and no car yet)
-Show up for MTB and Cyclo-Cross races, which is what I've done most past
summer seasons. This winter I hope to be at many more CX races, they're good
and fun.
-Hopefully with the help of some motivational write-ups on here about how
cool it is to be a snow-skater, and good info on how to get there and which
are the best camps/races to enter as a rookie and learn QUICK.

I know who-ever you are, your self-motivation is gonna have to be superior
to mine. You realize better than me how doing "something" will bring you
closer to realizing short and long term dreams.

Any personal coaches for rent? When I had one of those I made huge leaps in
fitness and technique on the bike. Too bad I can't find anyone with the same
goals to train with yet. Mayeb when I have some rollerski's, at the local
club...

Still, the NIKE ad says it all :
Ain't nothing to it, but to DO it.

Go for a run tonight.

Good luck,

J

"Bjorn A. Payne Diaz" schreef in bericht
ups.com...
I can't get no
Motivation
I can't get no
Motivation

But I try
And I try
And I try
And I try

I can't get no
No, no, no
Hey, hey, hey
That's what I say