Walsh's Pyramid - Cairns, always a challenge

Walsh's Pyramid here in Cairns. 922 m high.

For the past 7 years, Euan and I have run the Pyramid Race, which involves a 3 km run to the mountain from the town of Gordonvale, a climb up the mountain, race down, then run back to Gordonvale.

We often train on the mountain, but it never gets any easier.

Although over the years my race times have improved as you can see below - there are still good and bad days where I go faster or much slower.  Today was one of those much slower days!



Pyramid Race Times over 7 Years

2009   3 hrs 15 mins 19 secs          135th place

2010   2 hrs 39 mins 32 secs          86th place

2011   2 hrs 36 mins 35 secs         103rd place

2012   2 hrs 37 mins 0 secs           102nd place

2013   2 hrs 28 mins  58 secs          93rd place

2014   2 hrs 31 mins   42 secs        112th place

2015   2 hrs  9 mins    45 secs          64th place   2nd in age category

2016   2 hrs 16 mins   19 secs         64th place   3rd in age category

In the 2 hours 40 minutes it took me today to run from Gordonvale, go up and down the mountain and run back today - I had plenty of time to think.

At the start

On the run to the mountain we took it easy and I felt good. Then came the first 5 minutes of climbing (which is just non-stop steep climbing from the word go).  Every time I climb this mountain, the first five minutes is spent thinking - 'this is hard', 'I'm not getting any stronger'  'what made me think I could do this faster'..... and other such things.  I'm generally a very positive thinker, but haven't managed to conquer the negative effects of the first five minutes of climbing this mountain yet.  Maybe when I conquer that and turn it around to positive, I'll make more progress!

Uphill slog

A slog is what it felt like today. Sometimes I feel strong, but not today. It was hot, humid and I felt old and unfit.  I spent my time thinking about the exercise and training I want to do so that I can feel strong on my trail runs and so enjoy them more.

Generally I do enjoy my runs, even slower ones, but I know that the stronger, fitter and more prepared I am, the more I will enjoy them!

I thought about how I'm going to be more consistent in my training and more careful about what I eat - to get better nutrition into my body and fewer over indulgences!

It's like the hangover where you say I'm never going to drink again!  This was my time to feel the pain and figure out how to not feel like this again!  

The Top

Reaching the top is always an achievement and worth it every time for the view out over Cairns and out to sea.

I don't always stop at the top - sometimes it's just a turn around and straight into the downhill.  Today I needed to stop and remind myself why I was doing this!

Downhill

Coming down is such a relief after an hour of constant uphill strain on the leg muscles and my breathing.  That's what I most look forward to about going down - having my breath back.

Over the years I've gotten much better at the downhill - more confident to run more and more of it as I get to know the course more and feel more sure of my legs and footing. On a good day - I love the downhill, feeling strong and flying down, plenty of (small) jumps and leaps.  

Passing people walking up the mountain as I fly down is a great confidence boost. Seeing them at the tough uphill stage, I'm reminded again that I've completed that part and that makes me feel good.  It also makes me feel good when I hear people saying, "here comes a runner" and I think..that's me!   One of the relatively few people that 'run' the Pyramid!

The run back to Gordonvale

The run back after climbing up and down the mountain is always tough.  When I'm nearing the end of the downhill - I always think that I'm looking forward to just being able to run on the flat and give my downhill muscles a break, but then when I actually reach the flat part at the base, I realise quite how tired ALL of my leg muscles are and it's not really much of a relief to run on the flat.

Today I could have run all the way back (I can't always) but it was honestly just too hard and my head was in the wrong place to push myself to do it.  Everything hurt, I was hot and tired, so I ran and walked back. I couldn't find the motivation to push on and keep running.

Now

A few hours later, I've had a nap, and some food and am feeling much better.  The motivation is still there and I'm determined to make it last and get stronger and fitter.

The weather up here in Cairns has really turned hot and humid over the past couple of weeks, which makes long runs that little bit extra tiring, but that's not going to go away, so I just have to deal with it and let my body adapt to that heat and humidity.

Running the Pyramid is one of my favourite runs to do - although today you wouldn't think so!  It's never easy, always a challenge, but there's always that great sense of achievement from having done it!  

And that's what I'm focusing on today.

How do I motivate myself?

A friend asked me the other day, how I motivate myself to go for a run when all I want to do is sit on the couch!  I'd just posted on Facebook that I was good at motivating myself to do things, but not so good at stopping myself from ..well, eating ! 

It made me realise that if I could understand how I motivate myself to run, I should then be able to apply the same principles to being a bit more controlled with my eating habits!

I brainstormed the key things that I think help me in my motivation to exercise - looked at why they are important, and how I can transfer this to better eating habits!

A Clear Purpose / Goal

With my exercise and running, I have races that I've entered and times that I have achieved in the past. I want to improve on those times and my placements in the races too. These are measurable goals - running a particular distance in a particular time.  I also know I feel and look better when I'm exercising more. My muscles and tummy are more toned and I am slimmer.  I have photos of myself at two points in my life on my pinboard. One is from when I was 26 years old and travelling. I was about 60kg and fit. The other photo is from when I was 31 years old, just after having our first baby. I was  80kg and not fit at all!  I look at and think about these pictures when I need motivation of what I want to look like and what I don't want to look like!

My purpose and goal in healthy eating is to lose weight and feel healthier. Although I'm not overweight, I am at the upper end of my 'ideal weight' scale, and have a stubborn 7kg to lose to get down to what I'd like to be again - 60kg.  I'd then fit into all of my clothes (those I've kept but not been able to wear for years), I know I would run faster, with 7kg less to carry, and I would feel so much better in myself.  Having exercised a lot over the past couple of years and lost a little weight, I know it's not the answer to losing weight. I recently read this interesting article which explains how important what you eat rather than your exercise is in terms of losing weight. It also points out that although when you exercise you burn lots of calories, it is a relatively small amount compared to what you burn just living day to day.  It's what I'm eating that needs to change. I'm already happy and good with the exercise!  I just need to remember this and focus on my goals when I'm thinking about eating - not just when I'm motivating myself to exercise!

Have a Plan / Progamme

With my exercise, I found that my gains were much greater when I followed a fixed plan or programme.  I used to just run when I felt like it and how far and fast I went just depended on my mood.  As you can guess, sometimes I really didn't feel like exercising...so I didn't!  So what kind of programmes or plans? 

I have downloaded free running training programmes from the internet, and also followed the Insanity and Asylum video exercise programmes. I find it helps when I have my workouts mapped out for me each day. I can check them off on my calendar and plan in advance how to fit them into my daily schedule.  The first few days are usually the hardest - both physically and mentally, but once I'm into the swing of it, and can see all those days ticked off, it's easier to keep going!

So with eating - how can I use this to help?  I don't want to plan out what I eat each day. But I can have some planned healthy snacks or meals in my head (or in the fridge) that I can turn to when the hunger pangs hit - rather than the too convenient chocolate biscuits, chocolate milk, chips and cookies!  I've started drinking fizzed water with ice cubes and slices of lemon in it - this looks nice, tastes good and fills me up a little.  I have also started to have non-sugary snacks made up in the fridge, this week I had homemade hommus with carrot sticks; and next I want to try making some Bliss balls that a friend recommended to me. I found a whole heap of recipes here to try!

Visual Progress and Momentum

To be able to see some kind of progress is a huge motivator. Whether it's a faster running time, feeling stronger in a particular workout, or just noticing clothes being a little looser; any noticeable difference helps keep motivation up and spurs me on to do more. I now keep a calendar diary of all my exercise.

 Seeing all the days fill up with runs, cycles and other workouts makes me feel good about what I've done and want to keep on filling that calendar up.  I feel guilty when I see too many blank days and find that motivates me to get up and go!

So with my eating, this should work just the same. The longer I can stick at sensible snacks, portion size and avoiding too much sugar, the more I should start to notice a difference on the scales, with my clothes fitting better and hopefully feeling healthier.  I just have to get through the initial few days and weeks for a noticeable change and so build up that momentum.

Pain and Pleasure

I like to listen to Anthony Robbins motivation CDs.  He speaks about how we are all motivated by what gives us pleasure and what causes us pain. I agree with this completely, and that it's just a matter of choosing what to focus on.

In terms of exercising, this means that when I don't feel like going for a run, I try to focus on how I'll feel after my run, rather than how I feel now.  I know I always feel better after exercising - more awake, happier in myself and satisfied that I actually did it!  When I feel like I don't have time to run. I try to focus on how much more productive I will be once I've been.  

I have also worked hard on getting up early in the mornings (which I have disliked most of my life) and running then. It has taken a long time (maybe a year) but I now enjoy getting up early, and to run first things sets me up for the day - and I don't have the pain of motivating myself to run later in the day, but I do have the pleasure of knowing I've already done my workout before a lot of people are even out of bed!

So how does this apply to food?  Pleasure is definitely a big motivator for me to eat all those lovely tasty cakes, cookies and chocolates.  It's easy to focus on that instant pleasure.  But I need to instead try to focus on the longer term pleasure of the weight loss and healthy feeling that I will have by avoiding too many 'bad' foods.  I think I really need to work on what I'm focussing on - and think ahead more to how I will feel later, rather than instant gratification resulting in guilt and pain later on!

In summary!

I think the answer for motivating myself to NOT eat sugary snacks, have smaller portions and generally eat better is my focus. I have to focus on how I will feel and look later - rather than just the here and now of what I do and don't want to eat.  This is what I have done in terms of motivating myself to exercise lots and regularly, so now I will be trying to apply the same principal to my eating habits; changing them for the long term for a fitter and healthier me!

Limiting Beliefs

There is nothing that holds you back more from achieving your goals than your own limiting beliefs.

I do believe that you can do anything you set your mind to. This year I've set my mind to improving my running. 

So far I've won my first trail running medal and improved my PB time for a 5 km run by nearly 2 minutes.

There is however something I noticed in that last 5 km run, and I've noticed myself doing before and tried to change.  I didn't expect to run that fast in the 5 km race, and there was someone else I knew in the race that I didn't expect to even be close to. During the last couple of kilometres of the race, I could see this person ahead of me, and I was surprised but my first thought was that I couldn't catch them but I would try to keep them in my sights.  In the end they only beat me by less than 20 seconds.  Also at the end of the race, when I could see the clock and realised that I might go under 23 minutes, I managed to sprint to achieve this even though I believed at that point that I was going as fast as I could go.

Looking back at this, it makes me wonder if I could have beaten this person had I had a different attitude in my mind. If I'd had the belief in myself that I could do it. Honestly, I think I could.

Running is more than just who can go the fastest. A lot of a race is in your head. The more I run in various races, the more I'm starting to see this.  I think to improve my time further, I need to do some more races to get used to running with and against other people. And try to never limit my beliefs.

Last year before my daughter took part in her first school athletics carnival I told her the story of 'raising your hand'

A teacher asks their students to raise their hands as high as they can in the air. 

The students do this. Then the teacher asks them to raise their hands just a little bit further. Again the students do this - pushing their hands just a little higher.

The teacher then asks, "So what happened the first time I asked you to raise your hands as high as you could? If you had, you wouldn't have been able to raise them any further."

The point of this story is to show that even when you think you've given all you've got - there's always a little more left in the tank to give!

My daughter took this to heart, and in her first race, the 80m sprint, she was in 4th place with 20m to go, then she put on an extra burst and managed to win the race. Afterwards she said she told me she remembered what I'd told her about raising her hand further, and she did just that.

I need to remember this story myself, and next time I see someone ahead of me in a race - don't think, "I'll never catch them", instead I need to think, "I can catch them - let's go!" and push just that little bit harder. I might even surprise myself!

How to push yourself like a pro

What motivates you?

 A picture of someone who is fit - a body shape to aspire to?             

Or perhaps someone exercising in a beautiful place?       

        

Or maybe it's words that may inspire you to workout.

I believe that motivation and inspiration can and should be found in many different forms.

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing, that's why we recommend it daily. - Zig Ziglar

This is one of my favourite quotes. Motivation is something I feel I'm pretty good at - both for myself and motivating others, but it is still something I struggle with and am working on constantly.  I find motivation in so many different places, but find I cannot rely on one source entirely.   

Daily routine motivation

For a while I was putting daily motivational quotes on my Facebook page. Each morning I'd look for one that fitted with how I was feeling and my goals for the day. For a while it worked a treat, but then it started to become routine, and honestly sometimes a bit of a chore. I started to just pick random quotes just because that's what I did every day. I stopped doing it for the right reasons and it meant nothing. I sometimes barely read the quotes. This can also be reflected in workouts. If you're doing the same thing day in day out, it will after a while become routine, boring and won't be doing you as much good. To keep your motivation up, you need variety.  

Variety is the spice of life

Setting different short term goals each month for example can help keep you motivated.  Perhaps one month you may be aiming to lose weight, another to get a faster time for a run, or another to try a new workout programme.  I find doing different things helps keep my motivation up. Both setting the targets and goals, and also having a defined end to my workout plan- whether it be one month or three. There is a sense of satisfaction in completing it - seeing the days checked off the plan. Then a week of recovery afterwards to plan and anticipate the next challenge and programme.  

Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going - Jim Rohn

So it's all very well to get yourself motivated, have your goals set and your plan worked out, but once you've got past the initial excitement and drive, then how to you keep going? In a workout, what motivates me to keep going is that I said I would do it. I've found that having a timetable or plan to work through is what really helps me. If it's written down or printed on a piece of paper, then I have to do it and tick it off, otherwise that blank space would haunt me, and the guilt would be awful. I would feel I'd let myself down. Once I've got my plan, I make it part of my daily routine. Find a time where you know you can fit it in - whether that means getting up early before work, going out at lunch time for a run, or working out in the evening. Once you schedule it in, you make it part of your day, and not something you have to find time for. Wanting to set a good example for my kids also keeps me going. I feel I can't berate them if they're feeling too lazy for their sports practice, unless I show that I stick to my own exercise plans. I may not have team mates to show up for, but I want to show by example how important it is to follow through with your plans and schedules - for your own piece of mind.  

I can't

I like my comfort zone. Working from home means I have to be self disciplined and motivated to get things done, to organise my time, and not give in to the temptation to sit on the couch and take a break, or just read another couple of chapters of that great book I'm reading just now, or even take a cooling dip in the inviting swimming pool calling to me from our back yard. It's the same when I exercise, I have to push myself mentally all the time. 

When it comes to a hard part on one of my DVD workouts - like  sets of 16 push ups and mountain climbers, I know it's coming, and try to prepare myself mentally.  When my muscles begin to struggle and shake and my natural instinct is to stop because it hurts, what keeps me going is that I've done it lots of times before, so the excuse in my head that is trying to say, "I can't" just doesn't stand up, because I know I can. 

 I think one of the commonest excuses in exercise is "I can't".  I know, I've used it a lot. However, the more times I have said "I can't" but subsequently found that "I can", the easier it becomes to overcome this excuse the next time. 

 For me personally, a huge step forward in getting over the excuse of "I can't" came during the birth of my eldest daughter.  Now whether or not you've experienced childbirth yourself, it is accepted that it is a painful experience.  I remember reaching the stage with the pain that my brain said, "I can't". Now I was well into labour, and there was no stopping. I was too far along for any major painkillers, so had to suck it up and get on with it. It wasn't a matter of self-discipline or pushing myself, I simply had no choice and had to do it! And of course I did. So sometimes now when I'm feeling the pain in a hard workout, run or climb, I flip my mind back to that moment when I really, truly thought "I can't", and I realise that what I'm feeling is nothing compared to that day, and what I found I could do. For me this works. Do you have a similar experience or point in time that you can draw on?    

Motivation to stop

So motivating yourself to get up and do something is one thing - I think I'm pretty good at that. However, for food, it's a different kind of motivation - not to push myself to do something, but instead I have to STOP myself from eating. I truly LOVE eating and when I'm exercising, I often think about what I'm going to drink and eat afterwards and looking forward to that helps me keep going, great - a form of motivation! BUT, I know I eat portions that are a little too big, and rather too many treats and sweet foods. I love cooking and baking and am sadly not so disciplined when it comes to snacking and trying the food as it's being prepared. 

 It's a constant battle with my mind. I exercise a lot and do get very hungry. I've always had the viewpoint that if I do a really hard workout, then I can treat myself to some 'bad food': coke and chips, chocolate and cakes.  But I do tend to overindulge in these treats, and the fitter I become, the more I notice the  negative effects of  not eating sensibly and healthily. I've never been one to watch my weight, although looking at photos of myself at certain stages of my life perhaps I should have!  

So what now?

I feel like I've learnt a lot about motivating myself to exercise over the past few years, and have reached a stage that I'm reasonably fit and enjoying exploring a variety of exercise and fitness options. Now my big challenge is to motivate myself to eat better, which I believe will in turn have a positive effect on my fitness.

 I think sometimes it's easier to motivate yourself when you've reached an extreme. If you've reached the stage that you're very overweight, or perhaps a health scare makes you reassess your eating and lifestyle habits. I have never been very overweight nor particularly unhealthy, but still feel that I need to make changes. What is important is your own feelings about yourself.  When I look back at some photos of me, I see clearly where I want my body to be, and that motivates me to workout and watch what I eat.  

Having kids also motivates me to lead a healthy and active lifestyle to teach them and lead by example.   What motivates you to take care of your body and your health? Do you have any tips to share on how to motivate yourself to either do something or stop doing something? What has worked for you?

 Photo Credit: mark shaiken : : photography via Compfight cc Photo Credit: h.koppdelaney via Compfight cc