My Buddy & Me!

Though I've hinted to it several times in this blog, I want to talk about the importance of work out buddies. I've been very honest with myself recently. I acknowledge that I've accomplished a lot, even if I'm just talking about rolling out of bed before 8am. But I also know that, even now, it's near impossible for me to do without knowing that people are waiting on me. I'm not a morning person, nor will I ever be. That does not mean I can't get up early, it just means I need the right motivation. For most people this is their friends or team depending/waiting on them.

When I first started this journey, before I really new or cared about the other newbies, my motivation were the two friends who I signed up with. I knew that if I were a no show I'd hear about it. Now that months have past and I've made friends with other newbies, it's my team that motivates me. Perfect example was that I had to skip last weeks brick. First thing Monday morning one of the girls in the locker room was asking me where I was. "Wow, she noticed I wasn't here" I thought. Even though I had perfectly good, unavoidable reasons for not showing, I felt guilty. This is exactly what you need when you are wrapped in your comforter at 5am with the alarm buzzing and that snooze button looking oh so tempting.

I mentioned another great example when I talked about our first outdoor bike. Long story short, it was below freezing on a Saturday morning, and NOT a mandatory session. If my coach and I had not planned on meeting up to bike down to Rock Creek together I KNOW I would have skipped out. Simply not wanting to let people down is a much stronger tool then you'd suspect.

The most recent example was yesterday morning. To put in simplest terms... I was dragging. I don't know if it was the 82% humidity, what I ate for dinner, or if I didn't sleep well, but my body was not moving. Our run (down to Key Bridge, cross and back) had almost no hills and was probably the most basic run we've had in a while, and yet I was seriously struggling. I know if I was on my own, I would have turned my dragging behind around and gone back to bed. Lucky for me I happened to be pacing with my best friend, and though he didn't pull Drill Sargent attitude with me, he was just pushy and supportive enough to talk me off the ledge of quitting. Five miles later, I was done, and though I still felt like crud, I loved that I actually finished.



Even if you don't have a ready made group like Y-Tri, find a running group, biking group, or swim team. Just getting in the habit of doing yoga every Sunday morning with my girlfriends has been a great boost. Plus, adding a social aspect to working out takes off some of the pressure and seriousness that can weight down on your mood first thing in the morning. In the end, you're hanging out with your friends... just on the track rather than on the couch!