MORE: MOTIVATION & YOUR NEXT PERSONAL RECORD!

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 2^nd 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.