Staying Motivated

For some people, motivating oneself to get out for a planned training session is the biggest motivational hurdle. However, I find getting my kit on quick smart will usually get me past this. For me, I always find the first five minutes of any training session the hardest.

During this time I find that my body doesn't really want to co-operate, my heart rate shoots up, but worse than that the demons in my head come out to play and try to persuade me to go back home where it's safe and warm and there's a sofa for me to sprawl on. Today for instance Dave and I went out for a ride. As we left the house the sun decided to dodge behind a cloud and it started to rain a bit. My enthusiasm for the ride quickly dwindled and I started to feel the cold and wonder if I should turn back to avoid getting wet and even more cold.

The benefit of riding in a pair is that one of you is usually keen to keep going and I was told 'keep going the rain will clear' and sure enough it did and we had a great time on our bikes.

My question is if you don't have someone encouraging you to keep going (and I don't always have this either) then how can you keep your mind focused on the training and from wandering into 'the land of sofa'. How do you also know when your thoughts are valid and maybe you should be on the sofa instead? I understand that there will always be times when you have get over mental barriers (I've had to do this many a time in training) but maybe there are easier or better ways to keep your motivation topped up? I was interested on WeeMan's blog on motivation and the line between good and great and success and failure for example. This got me thinking about what does keep me motivated and if there are things that I'm missing.