Mind Games

With the new movie Inception coming out (about altering people's dreams and living inside dreams and dreaming inside dreams...I am not necessarily going gaga over seeing this, but the Patient Spouse was a huge Matrix fan, so I suspect this will be one of our Date Nights soon), I got to thinking about how we all play mind game with ourselves to get ourselves to do something that isn't always...well, enjoyable.

I was gonna say, like doing laundry, but I can't think of a single mind game I use on myself to get the laundry done. The only thing that works on that is running out of clean running socks. Which happens a lot in our house.

Working out for long periods of time can sometimes be...well, a bit tedious. Not only long, but hard, and sometimes a bit boring in nature. I try to jazz up my bike and runs by doing them in 4-5 different places, but you simply can't jazz up your pool swim too much. Brad Pitt in a Speedo ain't showed up at the Allen LA Fitness yet.

I've mentioned before that one of the ways I use to get STARTED on a workout when I don't want to do one is to tell myself that I will go do it for ten minutes, and if after ten minutes I absolutely, completely detest it, I can quit (I've never yet quit). Once I get into the meat of a workout, though, there are things I do that help me get through the hard parts. And no, not all parts are hard parts.

On the swim, I try to break my workout into segments. For example, if I have the following workout: 100 warm up, 8 X 50's drill, 8 X 50's fast 25 slow 25, 3 x 500's and then a 100 cool down, I tell myself I have ten segments to the workout (I don't count the warm up and cool down). First segment is the first half of the 8 X 50's drill (200 yards), then the second half, then the first half of the 8 X 50's fast/slow, then the second half (each segment is 200 yards, and when I'm done, I'm done with 4 of my 10 segments). For the 500's, each segment is 250 yards and there are six of those. I keep track of each segment, noticing how far I have to go to complete it and how far I've come since I started it. It's a lot easier mentally than ticking off 2500 yards of swimming (this was last night's swim). I can also hum along with the H2 Audio iPod, or if I'm not wearing it, I sing to myself underwater (good song: "Cool Change" by Little River Band--"I was born in the sign of water, and it's there that I feel my best...").

On a bike, I try to go for miles as segements. Most of my rides and runs are set as a time thing, but I'm pretty good at figuring out how many miles I need to ride to make 2 hours happen, for example (28-30). I force myself to drink every two miles (on a really hot day, that turns into every mile), so I'm always looking for that two mile marker, and then I also divide the ride by four so I will know when I'm a quarter done, half done, three quarters done, and finished. Some distances don't lead themselves to an easy division by four, and that's when I spend mental time doing math in my head, most of which is incorrect. I also sing to myself, and look at the trees and sky and flowers.

On a run, the iPod helps a lot (obviously, you don't get to wear one in a triathlon, but there is a lot going on during a race that should keep you occupied). In addition, I break my run into miles and segments (usually divide by four again --which is fun to do on a five miler, even more fun on 13 miler). It's harder to focus on trees, birds, animals, etc. when you are running, but it really does help pass the time. Once, I ran early in the morning during the Plano balloon festival and the balloons were sailing off right over my head which was just awesome. I also ran by a lot where they were filling up a big Snoopy balloon and I took an unscheduled walk break just to gawk. That was a memorable run.

No matter how you trick your mind into accomplishing your workout (and you honestly will have to do it: your right brain is ALWAYS going to say to you that this nonsense needs to stop right this minute), always run/bike/swim the mile or segment you are in. Don't look too far down the road or worry too much about it--don't panic over mile 10if you are only in mile 3 of a long run. Run the mile you're in. Bike the mile you're in. Swim the segment you're in. Let the future take care of itself.

Tonight's an off night! Long bike tomorrow in the heat of the day, so I'm hydrating already.