I didn't have an answer. It seemed like kind of an odd question to me to be honest.
He continued on, "It's important to have that thing to tell yourself to keep going when it gets hard."
I still didn't know what to say. I sat there in silence for a moment and asked if I could have a few minutes to think about it. (He was surveying the staff for answers which he was to put in a blog post of his own.)
I never got back to him.
I've been thinking about my answer for the last few days. What does motivate me? Is it to try to find the limits of my endurance, physically and mentally? That would be the easy answer but its lacking substance. I don't really care where my limits are. I don't time my efforts or train with a power meter, and therefore have no way to "know" what my limit is in any objective sense. In other words, I don't know that I can hold X watts for Y time, or do X mile repeats on Y interval. So I think that the "finding my limits" rationale isn't good enough, although its close.
Is it for health or for that runners high? To non-athletes I'm sure the concept of endurance sports is bizarre. Why subject oneself to the pains and frustrations of endurance sport, especially when so many of us get injured? Clearly it can't be about health as most of us could lead healthy lives on less training volume. Perhaps many of us would be healthier on less volume. Besides, in my mind I'm young and invincible. I don't train for my health.
Masochism? No. I don't do it for the pain. I don't like the pain. Getting past the pain and ending a workout and escaping the pain is rewarding and gratifying, but only in the sense that I survived and beat the pain. Pain is a necessary byproduct, but it isn't something I enjoy, celebrate or embrace.
I still didn't know what to say. I sat there in silence for a moment and asked if I could have a few minutes to think about it. (He was surveying the staff for answers which he was to put in a blog post of his own.)
I never got back to him.
I've been thinking about my answer for the last few days. What does motivate me? Is it to try to find the limits of my endurance, physically and mentally? That would be the easy answer but its lacking substance. I don't really care where my limits are. I don't time my efforts or train with a power meter, and therefore have no way to "know" what my limit is in any objective sense. In other words, I don't know that I can hold X watts for Y time, or do X mile repeats on Y interval. So I think that the "finding my limits" rationale isn't good enough, although its close.
Is it for health or for that runners high? To non-athletes I'm sure the concept of endurance sports is bizarre. Why subject oneself to the pains and frustrations of endurance sport, especially when so many of us get injured? Clearly it can't be about health as most of us could lead healthy lives on less training volume. Perhaps many of us would be healthier on less volume. Besides, in my mind I'm young and invincible. I don't train for my health.
Masochism? No. I don't do it for the pain. I don't like the pain. Getting past the pain and ending a workout and escaping the pain is rewarding and gratifying, but only in the sense that I survived and beat the pain. Pain is a necessary byproduct, but it isn't something I enjoy, celebrate or embrace.
In the end I found out that my motivation is simple. I like swimming. I like biking. I like running. It carries over to the academic and professional world as well. I love the competition, and I love the training and the practice. What do I say to push myself to continue when I'm tired? I don't know. I'm usually having too much fun to think about it.
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