Lightweight Eats

Sometimes, my athletic improvement stalls. Usually, training volume or intensity increases, and the fatigue cancels out any positive fitness gains. A month may pass without improvement.

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” - Harriet Beecher Stowe (source)

Those times test my resolve, but I've developed a great strategy for getting through; I extend my time scale. Instead of looking back to last week or last month, I look back farther.

I started keeping a workout log in 2012, when I started at CRC. I have a record of my weight lifting, my rowing and my erg times. Going back farther, I've also recorded my erg times in my online logbook. And I generally have a sense of what I could do as far back as high school.

Some favorite examples:
- When I first started rowing, I couldn't run a mile without stopping. This week I ran 4.5 miles as part of a second workout of the day.
- My first 2K test, I pulled 2:12 for 500m splits. I recently pulled 2:06 splits for nearly 24K!
- In college, I celebrated breaking 2:00 splits for a 4K. Now I'm disappointed by a 6K average split of 1:59.
- In November, I lifted 45 pounds for 6x20 benchpulls. My last lift, I did 45 pounds for 6x150 benchpulls!

These examples remind me that improvement comes over years, not months or weeks or days. They are also a great reminder to judge my speed on my previous results, rather than on the speed of those around me. Ultimately, I will have to beat others, but to get there I first have to improve upon myself.

How do you stay motivated when progress stalls? Do you ever look back?

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