Different Ways of Finding your Motivation

One of the things I wanted to talk about, when I was training for the triathlon, was where I was training. No, not where I ran, as it was pretty much the same places where I always run. And, I don't think there are too many differences in indoor swimming pools, though, I think the YMCA pool was longer than the pool at LA Fitness. (Not that you would care.) No, I was looking for a place to train for the bike portion of the race. And, I was looking for a place different than I normally trained. So, I went back to the future.

During my triathlon class, something my coach (Sharon) mentioned was to try to find a neighborhood that you could ride in to do training. In that way, you are off the main streets and less likely to get injured. My neighborhood would have been fine (I've run around there many times) but it is a bit hilly. Plus, I wanted something different. I decided to go back to the neighborhood of where my grade school is located. It was a perfect place as it was slightly hilly in spots but mostly flat.

Now, you might want a short history of me to understand that, even though I live about 20 minutes away from where I grew up, it wasn't always that way. You see, I lived in Boston for 10 years. Then New Jersey for 10 years. And, 12 years ago, I came back to live in the Philadelphia area again. And, the past few years, I began to reconnect with the people who I knew growing up in the area especially those I went to grade school. Though I've passed by my grade school on a number of occasions over the years, I felt like a tourist just passing through the area. I might drive through maybe 2-3 times a year. Even though I didn't live that far away.

So, I would take my bike and park in my old school's parking lot. The first time I did it, I drove around looking for a good loop that I could do. I knew I could find 3-4 mile course as I swear I lived 10 miles from the school to start. And, to get to any of my friends' houses would take hours. Ah, nope. As it turned out, the neighborhood was a little smaller than I remembered.

But, after some trial and error, I did find an appropriate loop about 3+ miles long. Whizzing by, I would look at the houses and think, 'So and so lived there.' And, 'this is the way I would take to the park when I was visiting so and so.' People who lived there now must have thought I was nuts as I would do 3-4 loops around. Luckily, I did run into a few other people on bikes so I didn't feel like a complete idiot racing around.

After I was done for the day, I would sit on the steps of the school and just think about days long ago when I would play in this schoolyard. It's not a glamorous place. It's just your everyday, run-of-the-mill school that you would see in Anytown USA. But, in this everchanging world we live in, it was nice to have something anchored that hadn't changed. People find different ways to motivate themselves to train. Mine was to go back and reconnect with my past.

(Notes: In some ways, it won't seem like I went through a summer this year. This coming weekend is the Falmouth Road Race on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Though I was selected in the lottery to run the race, Steve (Runner) was not, so I've decided not to take the trip up by myself. I've been doing the race for the past 5 years and its been a bit of summer tradition so it will feel a bit strange not to do it.

Speaking of Steve, yet another change of plans for the fall. We both decided not to do a fall marathon but instead concentrate on the half marathon instead. Steve has had a nagging ankle injury and, in truth, I wanted a break from 4 hour long training runs in August and September. So, as of today, this moment, we are considering either the Valley Harvest Half-marathon in Wolfville, Nova Scotia the weekend of October 9 or the Prince Edward Island Half-marathon the following weekend. Valley Harvest is presently in the lead as, in comparing the logisitics and costs with both, it seems to be the more 'friendlier' to get to and on the wallet.

And, yes, as predicted, it has been a short transition as I am starting to get back into the swing of things for training. I am going to include some swimming and biking as I train for the half marathon. Yes, a little more running as well but I don't want to fall too far behind as I look forward to next year's opportunities to compete in triathlons :-) )



(This picture has nothing to do with this post. I was starting to download some pictures on my computer when I put my camera down on my desk at this angle. When I looked through the viewfinder, I liked the composition and the lighting so I took the picture. )