Through my whole career here at Vision Personal Training, I never truly appreciated the importance of events for training and focus.
As a young man, I never fully understood the importance and impact that events hold in my life, health and daily training. Being young, energy and enthusiasm to participate came easy. Complimented by the now understood and appreciated simplicity of only needing to focus on me, opposed to the many demands placed upon you as you age!
My enthusiasm for training has always been strong, but it was my attitude that was different. Being young competing was an outlet for me to push that little bit further, to see how far I could go. I could relax on the training and still compete and finish well. I enjoyed the challenge both mental and physical.
In more recent times, old age or life got in the way. I found that I had lost focus and I had lost my why. I chose not to participate in any events, and those I did register for I pulled out of due to 'work commitments'. I was ignorant to the fact and that I had allowed life to slow me down.
As a result, as I am sure we all know and have experienced first-hand, I struggled to maintain shape and fitness. I would find myself regularly wondering why I was not really in the "mood" to train.
The lack of motivation and impact on my mood furthered my frustration particularly as I value my training and my health, after all it is my livelihood!
As with all things that are hard, we avoid or latch onto the next best thing to kick start and try even the silliest of things to get started. In my case, it was a new toy, or a holiday 'to train'. Always looking for a band aid solution, not brave enough to look deeper within myself for fear of facing what I knew all along; I was the issue, my excuses had lead me to this.
Earlier this year I placed my name down for the Queenstown half marathon. My intentions were set; be a good team player and participate with my team. During the year, I realized my conditioning wasn't where it used to be and it was posing to be slightly more challenging than it used to be (there's that age again!) After a slight panic, and a mental repertoire of 'I can do this, it will be fine!' (cue more excuses to remain mediocre) I owned up to the real concern which was the possibility of embarrassing myself.
This realisation gave me the focus to increase my commitment to training and to remain consistent. Consistent. More importantly, it gave me reason and motivation to start and push myself. It wasn't as easy as I had imagined. I still had my attitude to grapple with. I was going through the motions of getting ready for another event. It was as if I were just cruising through my training, even though I now had the motivation to start, I was already thinking about the finish.
It only dawned on me the weekend before the event as to how important this event was for me and why events in general are so important for our training. It once again came back to my attitude. I was thinking about the finish, not in tune to how monumental this even was and how lucky I am to be able to have this opportunity. Having some new-found enthusiasm, I didn't want to lose it to go back to that person training daily and 'going through the motions; I was truly petrified.
This was a turning point for me, an 'aha' moment. I promised myself I would always have an event to compete in as part of my training. Not to place added pressure on myself to perform, but to help keep me focused and purposeful with my training.
In short, this realization has been a powerful one. I am sure there will still be ups and downs but with simple reminders and a supportive team, I will continue to make my health and fitness a priority. After all, it's what I've spend the better part of 10 years of my life doing and is something that brings me so much pleasure.
*Disclaimer: Individual results vary based on agreed goals. Click here for details.
