Today felt good or as good as it can feel once your body gets used to doing 2.5 hour long training runs, 4 hour bike rides, regular 3+ hour training sessions, weekly power bike interval training, training 2x a day which includes swimming, and let’s not forget life.

We are 11 weeks out from my first Ironman (2.5 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 run consecutively) and my husbands 3^rd.  One of the things that I have to constantly search and connect to is my motivation.  I believe motivation is that deep meaning/energy that keeps you hungry in life and sport. It keeps you striving, amped, energized, and reminds you that you are always reaching for greatness. I keep my motivation tank fueled in various ways. Many of you already see reflected in my blog…videos, quotes, pictures, my blog itself helps to me document my accomplishments.

Because ironman training is so life and time consuming I like to have my “motivation tools” visible because it reminds me to stay focused. One tool that I encourage everyone to use is a motivation board. My husband and I made these one rainy day a couple of weeks ago when we were feeling discouraged about the weather. They consisted of various motivating pictures and power words, cut out from our triathlon and running magazines, that capture what we see as motivating. We each made one and then made one together and have one posted in the bathroom and the others on our kitchen refrigerator, as you can see we also have type affirmations posted too. I believe this helps keep us focused, energized, and fueled with motivation.

Also I love watching motivating videos that are intense, motivating, or show athletes performing in a way that I would like to see myself performing, especially the night before a long run or a hard training session. Here is an AWESOME video that always gets me excited.

I encourage everyone to find ways to keep them fueled with motivation.  As Joe DiMaggio best put it,  “Motivation is something nobody else can give you…other’s can help motivate you, but basically it must come from inside you, and it must be a constant desire to do your very best at all times and under ANY circumstance.”

“Mental toughness is going out to train when your inner self screams not to: it is frigid outside, it is 100 degrees, you are tired, your muscles ache, and it’s too early in the morning or too late at night. You work through these urges to skip the workout and go out there and just smash it. Then you know when race day comes along, you have pushed the limit so when the race heats up you can squeeze out that extra little bit because you have done it before.” -Joanna Zeiger Ph.D, Professional Triathlete, Scientist, and 2008 70.3 World Champion