Working out -vs- Training

Ahhhhhhhhhh the JOYS of winter training!

It was not to many years ago that I use to blame the winter weather for why it was so hard if not impossible to keep in good shape and keep the weight off year round while living here in Spokane. I mean for at least 5 months out of the year its cold, wet, windy, snowy and plane crappy outside. I used to talk about how much easier it was to keep in shape when I lived in California where we had 300 days of sunshine every year! It seemed simple to me, that the bad weather was the reason I had packed on a couple of extra pounds every winter. That pretty much justified why I had put on an extra 25 pounds over the past 13 years. The weather prevented me from getting out to do my workouts! I so hate to be cold!

Then I had this great idea that I needed to run a Marathon, so I signed up with 3 other girlfriends for the Portland Marathon. We picked it because it was perfectly timed to avoid our local crappy winter weather. The Marathon was in October so we started running in the spring after the weather got nice and we were all ready for our October Marathon. It was a perfeact plan that worked. All 4 of us earned Finisher Shirts!! Victory was Sweet!

Then in the aftermath of my "Finish Line Euphoria" I had this great idea to collect Marathons! The next one I decided to do was the Las Vegas Marathon, sounded like fun to me and my family was excited about getting to go to Las Vegas in Januray and escaping our cold winter weather for a week. Opps, to do a Marathon in January anywhere it would mean that I would be putting in my long training runs in November and December, the middle of winter snowy, rainy, windy & some very cold crappy weather. Hmmmmmmmm What was I thinking???

This put me in a do or die situation. I was faced with either having to put in my long running miles before the race in the cold, rainy, snowy, windy and crappy weather or face the consequences of metaphorically dieing in the race!

This experience taught me some lessons that were instrumental in transforming my attitude in a critical way that would prepare me for what the World of Triathlon would demand of me!

So what did I learn?

1) I learned that there is a HUGE difference between "working out" and "training"! When you are working out it is easy to come up with 100's of excuses, especially weather, as to why it is o.k. to skip that work out, and that decision will go un-noticed by those around you and can take years to show up in a negative way on the body.

2) Training however is much different, it means you have committed to a race, it is on your schedule, it means that you have paid $ for that race, it means you have told people, it means that in your near future you will face the "starting line" and a "finish line" of that race and every mile in between will either reward you for the training you did or make you pay for what you did not do.

3) Winter weather is what you make of it... the 20/80 attitude rule applies here. 20% is what the weather dishes out to you and 80% is how you choose to react to it.

4) Proper clothing and equipment is key to your success in training..... I now have clothing that allows me to swim/cycle/run in most any kind of weather conditions, I even have snow studds for my running shoes!

5) Any weather condition presents it's own challenge.....I now choose to see it not only as a fun challenge to overcome but also as a fun and different training environment, and I enjoy how it breaks up the monotony of running or cycling the same routes or courses over and over.

6) I love to run in the rain and I can do it without getting cold and I know that I won't drown

7) I love to run in the snow, can also do it without getting cold and I know I won't freeze

8) I have a "trainer" for my bike and can now get all my cylcing hours in no matter what the weather

9) I have equipment to swim indoors or outdoors so no excuses here

10) Training is far more fun than working out and provides constant accountability which is motivating to me!!

As you stare the 2007 New Year in the face, if you find yourself having difficulty with coming up with a Resolution for yourself or you are struggling with staying active year round, I would encourage you to spend some time pondering the difference between "working out" & "training" for yourself. It will apply to any physical activity you choose to pursue! Trust me there are races, games, matches, and tournaments for every activity you could possible think of, so find your activity of interest and hold yourself accountable by getting a date on the calendar of your life. I promise it will inspire you!

p.s. I just paid $ for my first race registration for 2007, that's exactly what I need to continue to be motivated in my Training.....

What will you put your $ on????