What Makes You Tick?

A number of athletes that I've talked to recently have expressed self doubt about why they are training, or what the point of training is, now that so many events are being postponed or cancelled. It's tough to keep your motivation when your finish line is moved, it really is. But what I've told them is that this is the perfect time for some self reflection. Why are they training in the first place? Who are they doing their sport for? This may be the time some people have really tough conversations with themselves and or their coaches.

Ultimately, it's important to know why you compete and why you spend so much time training for those competitions. In an idyllic, sunshine and rainbows world you all train for the most wholesome intrinsic reasons- you love the rush of endorphins after a workout, you love seeing our personal progress each day/week/month and that progress is fulfilling in itself. Sometimes you may be motivated to compete because you feel like you have to- to keep up with coworkers who are doing the Friday night 5k series even though you hate running- or because you want to get revenge on someone who beat you in the last group ride town line sprint. Maybe this is the time you realize that you don't even like racing your bike, you just like beating Steve-the-dentist who gave you a bad filling that needed to be redone later on. Whatever your reasons are, they're yours. The point is to think about what makes you tick and decide if that's what you like or not.