BUILDING BLOCKS OF MOTIVATION:
First it is important to consider what motivation IS NOT. Motivation is not emotion. This is why being inspired may be short-lived, in terms of long-term exercise adherence. Putting together a series of runs or walks week by week for several months in a row requires something more stable and permanent than the motivation of a football team half-time speech or the emotion that football team uses to run through the paper team banner, the runthrough screen, at the start and at halftime of games.
Motivation is also not wishing or promising. Brian Tracy says that a goal that is not written down is just a fantasy.
How does one get motivation---the intrinsic kind that is self-perpetuating? What are these building blocks of motivation?
First, motivation comes from setting reasonable short and long term goals. Yogi Berra once said that if you don’t know where you’re going you might end up somewhere else. You need to have a track to run on, you need to know where you are going and have a plan for getting there. This gives you a focus. Olympians and other athletes all say that goal setting procedures account for the majority of their improvement in performance.
Secondly, motivation comes from Habit Formation. Look at time differently. Jeff Galloway has written several articles on strategies about alternative plans to get in workouts to help this habit formation. For example, it is much more important to do something compared to how long you do it. Doing is much more important than how long.
Here are some strategies to get through Marathon training in have intrinsic motivation at the end:
Do your long runs with a local running group and bond over common misery. Know any local running groups in Sugar Land?
Schedule your runs/walks and plan fun activities after them. Run to your rewards. Psychologists call this the Premack Principle.
Try crosstraining 1 or 2 days per week.
Run in a new place.
What to do when you are ready to drop out of a long run or you question your motivation:
Imagine the marathon start with thousands of runners lining up—the only way you can pull yourself to the starting line and then to the finish is by not dropping out today. Keep on running; aim for the lamp post ahead, then the big tree, then up the hill (if you can find one). If you stop, just take a walk break; it is great to rest the critical left brain and great for the right brain.
Pick a few friends you know to be committed runners with a proven track record of intrinsic motivation.
Lastly, motivation comes from results. Celebrate those results. Buy a new pair of running shorts or shoes to reward yourself for an accomplishment, like finishing the longest run ever, a race, or even doing all runs for a week or two week period.
So, motivation has three building blocks: Set Goals, Develop a new habit, and Celebrate the results.
What is the purpose of goals besides developing our motivation? John Ruskin, English critic in the early 20th century said, “the highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.” Jim Rohn says the purpose of goals is to become the kind of person who could accomplish that goal. Very similar.
Since we have the Olympiad as a backdrop, Gold is not the glory, the pursuit of Gold is.
Until next time, there you have it.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Running Motivation
I recently read Brian Klemmer’s If How To’s Were Enough We’d All Be Skinny, Rich, and Happy. Great title and it indicates that just knowing the steps one would take to accomplish something isn’t necessarily all there is to doing it. Take running for example; it seems very simple. You may hear some of us joke that it is just putting one foot in front of the other and doing it for however long you will go, 10k, half marathon, 25k, 30k or the marathon. Sounds simple enough. Simple doesn’t mean easy. The hard part may be in getting out the door to do the actual training.
Actually, what gets in the way of this simplicity is the other “M” word. Motivation is another of the key skills successful athletes have developed. Research indicates that, among professional tennis players at least, that there are 5 key personality traits considered important to success: Athletic ability, emotional stability, character, self-confidence and self-motivation. Of these five there is one trait that accounts for most of their success: self-motivation. In addition, 80% of this factor is accounted for by what the athlete does off the court. This has obvious implications for running/walking the marathon.
So what is motivation? The dictionary definition is: the interaction of cognitive, affective, behavioral, and social processes contributing to purposeful, often goal directed behavior. You can see that motivation is not a single entity or trait, but rather a dynamic model made up of many different components. Motivation, as it pertains to exercise/running/walking, is often separated into two distinct categories.
The first category focuses on external, or extrinsic, factors involved in motivation, e.g., personal appearance, weight loss, and social support. These factors may be important when beginning an exercise program, or say when becoming a new member of FBF. The motivation may be losing weight or getting in shape. These external rewards may be enough to motivate an individual to start a program. However, research has shown that body-related motives are not, on average, sufficient to sustain regular exercise regimens and thus should not be made the most salient justification for engaging in exercise. The goal must be to move an individual’s focus to internal motivators in order for one to adhere to their fitness plan
The second category of motivation focuses on internal, intrinsic, factors associated with exercise adherence. Internal motivators are those that produce long-lasting adherence to exercise. Some motivators are health factors, personal competence, increased energy, and decreased stress. People who successfully maintain a workout regimen learn to shift their focus from distant, external outcomes like losing weight to positive, internal experiences in the here and now. The Intrinsic Exerciser (IE) looks inward in the attempt to discover what holds true meaning for them. Whatever the reasoning behind one’s motivation for exercising, it must come from within in order for meaning to be attached to it.
Jay Kimiecik, the author of The Intrinsic Exerciser, has developed his own philosophy of intrinsic exercise from years of performing research in the field of exercise psychology. He says the answer to becoming a regular exerciser/runner/walker over a long period of time is simple: You must learn to love moving your body, and make a connection with that experience. The first step in this process is to develop an Intrinsic Mindset, in order to maximize the enjoyment of moving your body. You don’t become a regular IE or runner by telling yourself it will help you lose weight or decrease the risk of disease. You become an IE by finding the joy and fun before, during and after every running/walking experience.
There are 4 core concepts in Jay’s system to be understood.
Vision---one must visualize oneself as an exerciser/runner/walker without actually doing the activity. Get an inner vision of yourself as an athlete.
Mastery---learn to recognize improvement in your performance; the longest you’ve run/walked; a PR in a race. Base success on your own criteria.
Flow---you are totally connected to the exercise; you have deep understanding and concentration in the run/experience at hand. Once flow is achieved an individual will want to run/exercise for the deep psychological connection gained by the activity. Stay in the moment; you practice this by becoming aware of what you are doing mentally and physically and enjoy the sensation of every moment.
Inergy: here, you let exercise help you meet other life needs. This allows you to attach meaning to your exercise beyond the health benefits. Some examples: Houston Marathon Run For a Reason program; Team in Training by LLS; the MS 150 cycling event. Actually, running/walking for any cause accomplishes this. This allows you to be part of something bigger than yourself.
The syngergistic, simultaneous combination of these four factors will lead to your developing an Intrinsic Mindset. You will learn to love moving your body and you will become a regular exerciser/runner/walker over a long period of time. You are now an IE!!!
Actually, what gets in the way of this simplicity is the other “M” word. Motivation is another of the key skills successful athletes have developed. Research indicates that, among professional tennis players at least, that there are 5 key personality traits considered important to success: Athletic ability, emotional stability, character, self-confidence and self-motivation. Of these five there is one trait that accounts for most of their success: self-motivation. In addition, 80% of this factor is accounted for by what the athlete does off the court. This has obvious implications for running/walking the marathon.
So what is motivation? The dictionary definition is: the interaction of cognitive, affective, behavioral, and social processes contributing to purposeful, often goal directed behavior. You can see that motivation is not a single entity or trait, but rather a dynamic model made up of many different components. Motivation, as it pertains to exercise/running/walking, is often separated into two distinct categories.
The first category focuses on external, or extrinsic, factors involved in motivation, e.g., personal appearance, weight loss, and social support. These factors may be important when beginning an exercise program, or say when becoming a new member of FBF. The motivation may be losing weight or getting in shape. These external rewards may be enough to motivate an individual to start a program. However, research has shown that body-related motives are not, on average, sufficient to sustain regular exercise regimens and thus should not be made the most salient justification for engaging in exercise. The goal must be to move an individual’s focus to internal motivators in order for one to adhere to their fitness plan
The second category of motivation focuses on internal, intrinsic, factors associated with exercise adherence. Internal motivators are those that produce long-lasting adherence to exercise. Some motivators are health factors, personal competence, increased energy, and decreased stress. People who successfully maintain a workout regimen learn to shift their focus from distant, external outcomes like losing weight to positive, internal experiences in the here and now. The Intrinsic Exerciser (IE) looks inward in the attempt to discover what holds true meaning for them. Whatever the reasoning behind one’s motivation for exercising, it must come from within in order for meaning to be attached to it.
Jay Kimiecik, the author of The Intrinsic Exerciser, has developed his own philosophy of intrinsic exercise from years of performing research in the field of exercise psychology. He says the answer to becoming a regular exerciser/runner/walker over a long period of time is simple: You must learn to love moving your body, and make a connection with that experience. The first step in this process is to develop an Intrinsic Mindset, in order to maximize the enjoyment of moving your body. You don’t become a regular IE or runner by telling yourself it will help you lose weight or decrease the risk of disease. You become an IE by finding the joy and fun before, during and after every running/walking experience.
There are 4 core concepts in Jay’s system to be understood.
Vision---one must visualize oneself as an exerciser/runner/walker without actually doing the activity. Get an inner vision of yourself as an athlete.
Mastery---learn to recognize improvement in your performance; the longest you’ve run/walked; a PR in a race. Base success on your own criteria.
Flow---you are totally connected to the exercise; you have deep understanding and concentration in the run/experience at hand. Once flow is achieved an individual will want to run/exercise for the deep psychological connection gained by the activity. Stay in the moment; you practice this by becoming aware of what you are doing mentally and physically and enjoy the sensation of every moment.
Inergy: here, you let exercise help you meet other life needs. This allows you to attach meaning to your exercise beyond the health benefits. Some examples: Houston Marathon Run For a Reason program; Team in Training by LLS; the MS 150 cycling event. Actually, running/walking for any cause accomplishes this. This allows you to be part of something bigger than yourself.
The syngergistic, simultaneous combination of these four factors will lead to your developing an Intrinsic Mindset. You will learn to love moving your body and you will become a regular exerciser/runner/walker over a long period of time. You are now an IE!!!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Hydration and Electrolytes
HOW IMPORTANT ARE ELECTROLYTES TO PERFORMANCE ANYWAY?
In regard to many concerns about electrolytes, especially during this hot season, I feel compelled to express my concern that they may be considered the “magic bullet” to performance and the key to the rehydration puzzle. While important, they are a piece of the puzzle.
In actuality, regular nutrition may be the ultimate long-term answer. This would include optimal nutrition at the cellular level, using a broad spectrum of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Research indicates that endurance athletes use 12 to 20 times the amount of oxygen that an average person uses and as a result create oxidative stress equivalent to that of a cancer patient. There is a “dark side” to oxygen. Free radicals are created in this process of endurance running/walking. Antioxidants at optimal levels may be more important to performance than electrolytes. Our free radicals come from more than the exercise we do. They come from stress, radiation from the sun, pollution -good old Houston air, toxins in the water and poor food choices.
In order to evaluate the importance of electrolytes, I think it is important to understand how the body uses electrolytes. In addition to being a catalyst for muscle contractions, electrolytes function to hold water in the blood stream so it doesn’t empty into the bladder or send signals to the sweat glands to produce sweat. This is what happens when you drink plain water while running. Water turns off the thirst mechanism and its rapid gastric emptying results in the body’s need to get rid of the excess water by producing urine or sweat. As a result, it doesn’t get into the muscle where it is vitally needed. You end up feeling that you are sweating a lot. You are, but you are just sweating out the water you just drank. Runners/walkers need to have those fluids in their muscles, not going to their skin.
The key is to keep the water in the bloodstream. This is where the electrolytes become involved; the salts keep water in the bloodstream, and also make us drink more. However, there is no guarantee that the fluid with electrolytes is going to get into the muscles, where we need it. Muscles that are working are being depleted of glycogen so “they” go “looking” for carbs, which are big water attracters. Carbs flood into the muscle, dragging the water with them. The end result of this process is rehydration of the muscles, allowing us to work more efficiently and avoid later headaches, stiffness and soreness.
Electrolytes alone will not result in this process occurring, unless they are attached to carbohydrate molecules. Another important factor is the speed with which this process occurs. The quicker the better you’re saying, right? This is where the concept of “osmolality” comes in. In simple terms, blood has an osmolality of 250; anything less than 250 will be absorbed by the muscles very quickly; anything greater is absorbed more slowly and may have to be digested in order to be absorbed; delayed absorption is the result. Research indicates that Gatorade, at an osmolality of 280, can take as long as 45 minutes to get to the muscles after ingestion.
Low Oz, used by many FBFers, has an osmolality of 150, resulting in very rapid absorption; research again indicates its absorption within 45 seconds, with an average of 90 seconds. This is 30 to 60 times faster than Gatorade. This lower osmolality is accomplished by using long chain carbohydrates; so you may have just as many carbs, but there are fewer molecules (lower osmolality), resulting in more rapid absorption. Science on our side.
The implications are clear. Optimal rehydration occurs when the correct level of electrolytes, in concert with long chain carbohydrates and the correct osmolality level, are taken in to the body. You need a product with electrolytes and carbs. LowOz is a convenient way to accomplish this; the electrolytes and carbs are already at optimal levels.
There are many other good options to Gatorade or water. I have used Gookinaid, Elyte sport and Ultima Replenisher. All good and effective. But just as there is only one Boston Marathon, there is one optimal fluid replacement drink. If you cannot get Low Oz you might want to try on of the others listed. I can provide you with details on how to get them.
In regard to many concerns about electrolytes, especially during this hot season, I feel compelled to express my concern that they may be considered the “magic bullet” to performance and the key to the rehydration puzzle. While important, they are a piece of the puzzle.
In actuality, regular nutrition may be the ultimate long-term answer. This would include optimal nutrition at the cellular level, using a broad spectrum of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Research indicates that endurance athletes use 12 to 20 times the amount of oxygen that an average person uses and as a result create oxidative stress equivalent to that of a cancer patient. There is a “dark side” to oxygen. Free radicals are created in this process of endurance running/walking. Antioxidants at optimal levels may be more important to performance than electrolytes. Our free radicals come from more than the exercise we do. They come from stress, radiation from the sun, pollution -good old Houston air, toxins in the water and poor food choices.
In order to evaluate the importance of electrolytes, I think it is important to understand how the body uses electrolytes. In addition to being a catalyst for muscle contractions, electrolytes function to hold water in the blood stream so it doesn’t empty into the bladder or send signals to the sweat glands to produce sweat. This is what happens when you drink plain water while running. Water turns off the thirst mechanism and its rapid gastric emptying results in the body’s need to get rid of the excess water by producing urine or sweat. As a result, it doesn’t get into the muscle where it is vitally needed. You end up feeling that you are sweating a lot. You are, but you are just sweating out the water you just drank. Runners/walkers need to have those fluids in their muscles, not going to their skin.
The key is to keep the water in the bloodstream. This is where the electrolytes become involved; the salts keep water in the bloodstream, and also make us drink more. However, there is no guarantee that the fluid with electrolytes is going to get into the muscles, where we need it. Muscles that are working are being depleted of glycogen so “they” go “looking” for carbs, which are big water attracters. Carbs flood into the muscle, dragging the water with them. The end result of this process is rehydration of the muscles, allowing us to work more efficiently and avoid later headaches, stiffness and soreness.
Electrolytes alone will not result in this process occurring, unless they are attached to carbohydrate molecules. Another important factor is the speed with which this process occurs. The quicker the better you’re saying, right? This is where the concept of “osmolality” comes in. In simple terms, blood has an osmolality of 250; anything less than 250 will be absorbed by the muscles very quickly; anything greater is absorbed more slowly and may have to be digested in order to be absorbed; delayed absorption is the result. Research indicates that Gatorade, at an osmolality of 280, can take as long as 45 minutes to get to the muscles after ingestion.
Low Oz, used by many FBFers, has an osmolality of 150, resulting in very rapid absorption; research again indicates its absorption within 45 seconds, with an average of 90 seconds. This is 30 to 60 times faster than Gatorade. This lower osmolality is accomplished by using long chain carbohydrates; so you may have just as many carbs, but there are fewer molecules (lower osmolality), resulting in more rapid absorption. Science on our side.
The implications are clear. Optimal rehydration occurs when the correct level of electrolytes, in concert with long chain carbohydrates and the correct osmolality level, are taken in to the body. You need a product with electrolytes and carbs. LowOz is a convenient way to accomplish this; the electrolytes and carbs are already at optimal levels.
There are many other good options to Gatorade or water. I have used Gookinaid, Elyte sport and Ultima Replenisher. All good and effective. But just as there is only one Boston Marathon, there is one optimal fluid replacement drink. If you cannot get Low Oz you might want to try on of the others listed. I can provide you with details on how to get them.
Characteristics of a Positive Mental Attitude
Successful athletes:
Realize that attitude is a choice.
Choose an attitude that is predominantly positive.
View their sport---running---as an opportunity to compete against themselves and learn from their successes and failures.
Pursue excellence, not perfection, and realize that they as well as others are not perfect.
Maintain Balance and perspective between their sport and the rest of their lives.
How do you develop one of these? Some helpful tips:
Develop an awareness of your attitude and its influence through self-monitoring.
Realized that attitude is a choice.
Identify appropriate role models---FBF is full of them.
If you can find apt quotations, anecdotes and stories use them. Nearly every FBF coach has a favorite quote.
Emphasize a “commitment to excellence,” meaning you focus on getting better.
Emphasize “Mastery” vs “Winning.” You have control of mastery issues, but not whether you win or lose.
A major factor in developing a PMA is making self-to-self comparisons as opposed to self-to-others comparisons. There is a great danger in self-to-other comparisons. When a person sees the vast difference in ability of other runners he may conclude, “I could never do that,” or “she/he must have a natural talent for running.” You may reach a premature conclusion that “I’m just not good at that.” This conclusion can be discouraging and may result in the erroneous conclusion that “I’m not cut out to run a marathon.” Well you can figure out the rest from that.
However, the royal road to results is measured by our own progress. When we have this self-to self comparison in mind we can look to others’ accomplishments for inspiration, for models of excellence and for sources of high quality of information on our own improvement, not as targets of envy or jealousy.
As mentioned this morning, one of best sources on this topic is Marty Seligman’s Learned Optimism published in the 90’s. Dr. Seligman did the seminal research on pessimism and how people got depressed and turned around his research to study optimism instead. It is a great read and also great to work with you children in terms of their own self-concepts.
Realize that attitude is a choice.
Choose an attitude that is predominantly positive.
View their sport---running---as an opportunity to compete against themselves and learn from their successes and failures.
Pursue excellence, not perfection, and realize that they as well as others are not perfect.
Maintain Balance and perspective between their sport and the rest of their lives.
How do you develop one of these? Some helpful tips:
Develop an awareness of your attitude and its influence through self-monitoring.
Realized that attitude is a choice.
Identify appropriate role models---FBF is full of them.
If you can find apt quotations, anecdotes and stories use them. Nearly every FBF coach has a favorite quote.
Emphasize a “commitment to excellence,” meaning you focus on getting better.
Emphasize “Mastery” vs “Winning.” You have control of mastery issues, but not whether you win or lose.
A major factor in developing a PMA is making self-to-self comparisons as opposed to self-to-others comparisons. There is a great danger in self-to-other comparisons. When a person sees the vast difference in ability of other runners he may conclude, “I could never do that,” or “she/he must have a natural talent for running.” You may reach a premature conclusion that “I’m just not good at that.” This conclusion can be discouraging and may result in the erroneous conclusion that “I’m not cut out to run a marathon.” Well you can figure out the rest from that.
However, the royal road to results is measured by our own progress. When we have this self-to self comparison in mind we can look to others’ accomplishments for inspiration, for models of excellence and for sources of high quality of information on our own improvement, not as targets of envy or jealousy.
As mentioned this morning, one of best sources on this topic is Marty Seligman’s Learned Optimism published in the 90’s. Dr. Seligman did the seminal research on pessimism and how people got depressed and turned around his research to study optimism instead. It is a great read and also great to work with you children in terms of their own self-concepts.
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