As
endurance athletes it is easy to turn our “off-season” into an extended season.
During the holidays, large American turkey dinners, company holiday parties and
cold breezy and bone chilling mornings keep us off pool decks and avoiding our
other modes of exercise in full. This hibernation practice often extends our
off-season leading to a longer detraining period then we had initially expected.
Walking hand-in-hand with our “personal recovery time’ is ones’ lack of
MOTIVATION to get back to regular exercise patterns and the typical type ‘A’
schedule we often keep. So the question becomes: How do we brake the cyclical
patterns of not exercising during these winter months and get back to swimming,
riding and running with new vigor, excitement and MOTIVATION?
Athletes
looking to get back to the swing of things need to develop a plan. The best
model I have come up for endurance athletes is the M.O.R.E plan! The MORE plan
is both acronym and philosophy that successfully builds an exciting and
stress-free framework to get athletes motivated for serious training. Simply
the MORE acronym stands for: Motivation,
Off-Time, Research, Exercise. While each aspect of the MORE plan is somewhat
self-explanatory, it is important to dive into each aspect of the plan to truly
understand the method and philosophy that will lead to an athletes overall
motivation change.
M
The
M in the MORE plan stands for
motivation for a number of reasons. First, athletes looking to regain
excitement about their sport need something that motivates them to ‘dive’ head
first into the early mornings swim training and the often pending 2nd
sport exercise session that follows mid-day or after a long day of work. The
top three motivators that I have found both personally and while working with
endurance athletes are Materials
(i.e Gear), Movies, and Music. Buying a new piece of gear or Materials such as new goggles, a new
fun suit, or a waterproof MP3 player, can often excite an athlete to
participate in practices that he/she hasn’t participated in for some time. In
addition watching or listening to Motivational
Music or Movies inspires an athlete to begin the train process with a full
head of steam.
O The O in the MORE plan
stands for off-time. Off-time or rest from the exercise
sessions allows for our bodies to recover. Too often do athletes get motivated to
get started training and burn themselves out in the first three weeks by trying
to do to much. Schedule Off-time in
your weekly-workouts that incorporate something fun and different to allow your
body and mind to recover. This practice will allow the athlete to avoid burn
out, keeping motivation high, and allow for a successful transition into a
bigger training volume in the months to come.
R The R in the MORE plan stands for Research. In this case research stands
for any actions an athlete can take to organize, develop and structure their
training/racing plan to make their season run smoothly. I like to start off by
having my athletes create a document that lays out all the races that they plan
to do, the various logistics for each race, and what they want to accomplish at
each race. This process alone has the ability to motivate, excite and inspire
an athlete to jump head first into training!
E The E in the MORE plan stands for Exercise.
Exercise as most of us know can bring happiness to our lives! When looking to
get motivated, participating in exercise is the first thing I encourage an
athlete to do. At the beginning, exercise must be different then anything the
athlete has previously done. If you are 200 free swimmer, swim backstroke or
breast. If your tired of the pool altogether lift weights, go rock-climbing or
attend your local yoga class. The idea here is to keep you moving through
exercise, allow your brain to have a break from your typical exercise/event
whilst strengthening the systems that are needed to support your sport. Going through this process will ignite the
passionate fire deep inside an athlete to re-establish their exercise training
patterns and motivate them to begin a new season.
MORE The MORE philosophy,
when put into practice, successfully results in an athlete feeling more
motivated then when they started. One aspect of the plan may contribute to an
athletes motivation more significantly, however, all aspects have the
collective potential to motivate the athlete to the necessary level to begin a
serious training schedule. As athletes, we must implement the MORE plan early and often (i.e daily)
to give ourselves a fighting chance against the relentless late dinners and
social holiday gatherings that keep us off pool decks and far from hitting that
personal record swim, bike or run time.
