This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.
It’s all About the Turkey
If you’re a regular reader of this series you know that I’ve managed to save $200 – $300 a month by bringing bread and turkey to work every Monday so that I have the makings for a sandwich at lunch. For whatever reason, I didn’t do this the first week of March and got off to a terrible start for the month. I think I dropped $120 in the first week alone…
I was able to get back on track last week and actually didn’t spend a dime eating out until Friday, which is my designated cheat day. Actually, I should be more clear about Friday – Sunday. I allow myself to eat out on the weekends (not every meal) simply because it allows me to be social and around friends.
The heading for this section could have easily been, “It’s all About Being Prepared.” At the end of the day you have to figure out what your stumbling block is and then come up with a solution for getting around it.
Workout
In the last post for this series I wrote,
“So, I’ve decided inline speed skating is my thing this year. I still plan to cycle this summer as it’s a perfect cross training sport for skating, but I’m going to spend a decent amount of time on my skates, both indoor and outdoor.”
I’ve been on my skates quite a bit and my performance level is headed in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go. I practice with some of the top skaters in the United States and their fitness levels are down right amazing. From endurance to speed, they really have it all.
Skating with top athletes (this is true for just about any sport) helps me get back to where I need to be because it provides a constant challenge. On the other hand it can also be mentally draining at times, especially for an older athlete making a comeback, because you’re constantly getting beat or a couple steps beyond exhaustion.
At this point I’ve reduced the number of cycle classes I’m doing to one to two a week. As a result my weight training has decreased, and that’s not exactly a good thing. In terms of skating, I’m training (on a typical week) Tuesday, Thursday, Friday (I skip this day sometimes as it’s a late night practice 10 pm – midnight), Saturday and Sunday. Saturday and Sunday’s training sessions are outside and tend to be a bit grueling.
Mental Fitness
I think at times we forget how mental getting in shape is and don’t learn how to get over the hurdles. Let me elaborate on that a bit.
At our outdoor practice yesterday we started with a 40 lap event at a medium pace (10 miles), followed by a 20 lap event at a fast to faster pace. I gave the first event maximum effort and lapped the pack (tough on a 400 meter track) a couple times, but it hurt… bad.
I actually found myself wanting to quit after the first event, but managed to find the motivation to skate the second. I stayed with the pack and all was well, but I was spent. Needless to say I sat down, took off my skates and didn’t skate the third and final event.
As I was driving home I processed the training session, what went well, what didn’t and the fact that I wasn’t feeling motivated. During this processing time I started thinking about the rest of my day. I could easily go home, nap, do nothing and have a lingering feeling that my motivation had faltered. But that just isn’t my style, or at least I don’t want it to be.
By the time I got home I’d somehow talked myself into visiting another team’s practice last night (meaning two training sessions in one day) in an effort to try and overcome my lack of motivation. This decision didn’t come lightly because my legs were already hurting from skating outside…
Needless to say I went to the practice, hurt a decent amount, worked through the pain and woke up today feeling absolutely exhausted… but I don’t feel the lack of motivation that I felt yesterday.
Thanks for reading my ongoing “Get Fit” series; hopefully it will motivate you in some way or at least give you insights to someone else’s training highs and lows.
