Trying to avoid burning out…

Trying to avoid burning out….

It was Sunday morning and my schedule was some rowing and weights. Now not for the first time in the last few weeks, I had very little interest in doing either of these! That is not uncommon when you exercise frequently as you can’t always be super motivated, but this was one too often of late for me. I didn’t need to have that PM staring me in the face telling me I wanted to stop at any opportunity, I knew that already. Didn’t even want to do any weights so that was it, I laced up my trainers and went for a 10km run…..

Within my training I always run at least once per week, usually a set of high intensity intervals, so 10km was further than I had run recently. I have done a fair amount of running in my time, a marathon and lots of halves amongst them, and for a big guy I am ok at it. Today I didn’t take a watch so it would give  me a pressure free workout, delivering me my daily endorphins and the chance to sort through in my head what was going on.

Exercise, health and fitness performance is a huge part of my life. Along with my family it is my life and provides a great lifestyle for me, but that doesn’t always mean it comes easily. Because it runs so much deeper for me, to an addictive level, I am continually balancing physical burnout. Not the way it should be in an ideal world, but something I accept and manage because of all the things exercise provides my life day to day. One of my ‘work-ons’ for 2015 was to do less, but do it better. Great in principle, harder to achieve in reality.

I was flying a month or so ago and leading up to the EIRC in Manchester I was faster than ever before and peaking at just the right time. Conditions and a bug I was carrying left me short of my target that day and overall disappointment.  I had planned in the few weeks after the race to have another shot at a 2km TT, but the situation hasn’t ever felt right. In fact in the last week or two it has felt increasingly wrong. Physically ok, but desire and motivation were lacking. I am self motivating. A huge strength that has helped me to achieve a lot over the years, but on the rare occasion when that goes missing it is a tough place as there is nowhere to turn for it! Time passes and you wait for it to return, until you reach a day like today where enough is enough. Mental burn out from always pressuring yourself to deliver.

So today was a cross roads and I chose to reset the system as I still want to keep improving. I quite enjoyed the run, it was a lovely day. When I got home I jumped on the Watt bike for a gentle 10k as well, then came inside and entered a 10km road race in a few months time!  I will plan the way forward that will of course be weighted towards rowing, but it will incorporate a fresh approach with a plan that brings back motivation and desire. I already feel better for writing this and looking forward to the retuning positive times. Onwards and upwards.