Motivation

I have been thinking about what gets me motivated.  What keeps me motivated.  Well one key is getting registered or entering a race.  Right there your committed.  Sure, you can drop out and not train.  But a fool be you!  Motivation is plentiful.  It's tapping into it is the trick.  You must always listen to your body first and foremost.  Learn yourself.  Learn what is pain.  Learn good pain, bad pain, and no pain.  I will spare you with the no pain no gain stuff. But always listen to your body.  When I first started training in November I quickly developed Runners Knee.  I thought, "oh I am not cut out for this."   But I found out what to do to correct it and pushed through the pain.  It eventually resolved itself.   (Strength Training did the trick).  That is motivation in itself right there.  That motivated me to keep pushing.  There is motivation in everything.  Find it.  And squeeze it dry.  There is the fun motivation like music.  A new song or hearing a beat in song you didn't realize was there before that makes you pick you pace up.  Fun motivation:  New running outfit.  Go buy it so you can go run and try it.   Whatever gets you out there.  Sometimes its as simple as getting a new flavor of gatorade.  I know, I'm easily pleased.  Find motivation in the numbers game.  I track my runs with a pedometer on my ipod.  It is fun to see how the numbers add up.  Nike is the brand of my sensor.  Although I do have complaints, it presents you with levels.  A certain amount of miles and you move up levels.  I have not done that one for the past 3 weeks because of my triathlon training but as soon as this Sunday is under my belt, I am going to go back to concentrating on training for my next 1/2 marathon in October.  So whatever it takes.  Feel free to share your motivation.  I would love to hear what you use to get you on the road.  One of my favorite sayings, "Do the miles so you can say you did them."