As a form of cross-training, I used to hate running. Put me on a bike or in a pool and I would be quite happy, but even running with the rest of my crew I used to find impossible and, quite frankly, not fun. Last year I decided that I was going to improve, and so I started small and worked my way up. Everyone had told me it gets easier once you got into it, and that I would start to like it once I got going. I didn’t believe them, but here I am a year later, not only making it round my 5K loop, but actually enjoying it.
Part of the reason that I disliked running so much was that I was never able to go for longer than a few minutes before needing a break. Motivating myself to get through this was hard, and had we not been in lockdown for the first part of the year I don’t know if I would have managed it. The most important thing for me when breaking through this barrier was consistency. Working on it for a short period every few days, I began to see results much more quickly than I thought I could, and once I started noticing them it became much easier to keep myself motivated.
That being said, it’s important to remember that I had been trying to get better at running for a good two or three years beforehand, where each time I given it a proper go I had given up before I really achieved anything. It’s clear now that I got so stuck because I didn’t keep going when it was hard, and because I put too much pressure on myself to be good straight away. For me, a way to overcome this was to decide that I wasn’t going to learn to run because it would be good as a training benefit, but I was going to do it because it was a good thing to do to get out of the house and relax. Reframing my objective in this case really helped me to remove the pressure I had previously been putting on myself.
This helped me to maintain my motivation and stick to it much more than I ever had before. There are plenty of other ways to stay positive if you’re not achieving your goals as well- one that would definitely have helped me would to have been to reflect on the progress that I had made, even if I didn’t reach my end goal straight away. You could also begin a resolution with a teammate or friend- sometimes working towards something together is more encouraging than doing it by yourself, even if it’s because you’re too competitive to give up first.
Of course, there are other resolutions to be made as a rower aside from pure fitness goals. Like all sports, flexibility is a fairly key skill to have as a rower. In this case, little and often is the perfect approach, coming up with a short stretching routine and practicing it every day is not only easy but very effective in improving flexibility. Another resolution along similar lines is improving your sleep schedule. As an athlete and an individual, having a consistent sleep schedule can make a massive difference to every aspect of your life, from lowering your susceptibility to disease to improving your mood.
Two more similar goals are those of consistency and patience, and they’re pretty much applicable to any resolution. Whether its consistency over training plans and patience in seeing results or eating more healthily and waiting for the weather to improve, working on these soft skills will be beneficial within rowing and beyond. Along the more holistic lines again, maintaining a healthy balance between exercising, working and relaxing is something all athletes struggle with. Its not just about making sure you get enough rest, but also making sure you’re not sacrificing you’re work, and more importantly friends, for the sake of a few more training sessions. Obviously it’s important to do enough training, but especially at a junior level it is supposed to be enjoyable (over everything else) and maintaining this balance is key to making sure it stays fun.
Rowers in general make a lot of goals for themselves throughout the year, and those you make at the start will probably change as the months go by. To achieve them, consistency is key, especially when its hard and you’re thinking about giving up- making it past this barrier is by far the hardest part. It is also important to remember that you’re busy with a lot of other things as well as rowing and whatever resolutions you make for yourself, so don’t heap on the pressure to perfectly achieve everything you set out to do and do take time to reflect periodically on how far you actually have come. And if you’re really stuck with coming up with a resolution or sticking to it, there will always be a coach or a cox lurking around somewhere to give you some ‘inspiration’…
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