Monotony of training and the things that get you out there!

When I'm injury-free and more lean, I don't have too much trouble motivating myself, or I didn't, ha. The one trick I learned during times where I had a regular work office job was to leave work and go directly to the park no matter the weather.

If I went home first, I always found myself sinking into the couch or chair and thinking of more important things to do (excuses) and weather questions (checking radar until it was "too late" to go) with those late afternoon thunderstorms always looming.

So I made the rule to go to the parking lot of the park. I still use that rule often, combined with other rules like "if the street is dry and the temperature is over x" or whatever I'm trying at the time. If I get to the parking lot and still don't want to skate for any reason, I try to let myself not skate, figuring I'm close to burning out and that to me is the worst. Above all I want to keep my love for skating, no matter how it affects my training or lack thereof. I believe that in the long run I am better off not burning out even if I never win any event age groups. Besides if you want to win age groups we all know events and distances where it's easier (but that's another subject).

When I have a specific event in mind and I am relatively injury free and not at maximum weight, I will sometimes make a rule that I just have to skate 1 lap (or something UNDER 15 minutes) then reward myself by doing what I want next. Once I've done one lap, it's a guilt free zone to either not skate, not skate hard, or train, whatever I feel like.  

As anyone who knows me can attest, food is a motivator as well. I tend to eat poorly when I have guests and want to really maximize the enjoyment, and also when I am NOT training, so I can still experience good things in life and not give up, ha! Once I begin to be trained sometimes I will want to eat more healthily much of the time or even almost all of the time.

However, if it is a Tuesday night and I have skated in Country Park I want to eat the Tuesday night 2-toppings special at Elizabeth's Pizza on Lawndale in Greensboro (sometimes garlic and onions, sometimes pepperoni and mushrooms). This goes back to when the place was "just" a strip mall Formica and vinyl laminated tables pizza joint with no fancy fireplace, no bar, plenty of police dropping by and lots of skaters and pals hanging out on Toozdeh Neit after the skate. Sometimes if it's another night and I'm not on the No Cheese No Deep Fried No Ground Meats Zone Diet, I'll call up Manhattan Pizza on Tate near Spring Garden for their large cheese pizza takeout special. Garlic indeed. Maybe soon, methinks so, we'll have a Mellow Mushroom here in the burg of Greene.

One thing that helps me many years is going to Miami for the Great Esskate roadskating festival, because I get in some early last minute skating for that, and I'm embarrassed enough at my carcass to get out afterward for awhile. If I've missed much of the spring then the free SkateDC weekend is a nice target. Last year I was pretty lame but still had a nice time and enjoyed the fun and reality check.

Another motivator is to go to the Eddy Matzger workshop (roadshow, see skatefarm.com) to try those nasty little drills and see how I come out on that scale, plus to see the video to see what my skating looks like quite apart from my ability to do drills and exercises, too. I always come out of the workshop feeling more in touch with skating, more knowledgeable about where I am in my evolution or devolution, and reminded that I want to be good but that I just love the movement and wind and excitement of skating more than anything else.

Another biggie is the Tour to Tanglewood training rides. We get out there with the cyclists and need to stay in OK shape to do that or we start to feel we might be holding things up a bit. We don't like doing that, so we work to be in shape, and we work to be in shape for T2T and A2A at the end of the season. 

Another huge factor is beginning to know the people at the park each year, meeting new folk, and seeing the regulars again after some time away perhaps over winter or due to job locations or hours. Going from frightening people perhaps at first to knowing them just a bit to them looking for you and missing you when not there is a nice social transition and motivator. And of course, representing skating and giving back to the sport that we love and that saves so many people's lives from boredom or whatever else is great, and connecting skating to helping others with multiple sclerosis or leukemia or diabetes or other maladies is great too.

So there are a few thoughts on my motivators. And the one extra is to skate with, either in person or even talking on the phone with a headset!

Skateylove y'all...Blake