I am often asked questions like “how do you stay motivated”, “how can you wake up at 430 or 5 am to go run”, or “how can you train that many hours in one week on top of everything else”; and honestly I’m not sure if I know the answer to them…but I’ll try.
I think part of it is that I truly do LOVE swimming, biking, and running and I am generally excited to get out of bed in the morning to do it. Some mornings are obviously harder than others, but all I have to do is think, for one second, about crossing that finish line on July 22nd and I am awake and ready to kick some training ass!
I will be honest, and say there are a lot of days I would rather go out with my friends for some drinks or to watch the game instead of staying in and planning to wake up the next morning well before the crack of dawn…but that is the choice I’ve made. It is a choice I have weighed time and time again, and am happy making. I also hope that my friends understand that often times I would rather be out hanging out with them, going to their wedding, or birthday, or just doing whatever, but unfortunately to accomplish my goal I may not be able to.
The other part is that I do have a goal, one that most people wouldn’t even imagine ever accomplishing in their lives: swimming 2.4 miles, then biking 112 miles, and after that running a full 26.2 mile marathon to cap things off! 140.6 miles of complete, full out, racing as fast as I can make my body go – madness. This endeavor is not for the weak-minded, faint-of-heart, or lazy…it’s not even an endeavor that most motivated, in shape people would ever consider doing…and YES, I know that I must be, at least a little bit “crazy” to want to do it.
There is truly only one word that can describe this, and though I cannot fully understand its meaning yet it is: “Ironman”.
Though, whenever I am lacking motivation I turn to YouTube for one of these incredibly motivational gem’s:
After watching these two videos how can you NOT be inspired to get out of bed or off the couch and GO!?
BONUS VIDEO! – if you want an idea of what it is like to train for an Ironman this sums it up quite well:
