I need some suggestions. The recovery periods for two unrelated injuries, back-to-back have pretty much reduced my fitness level to zero. I went from a comfortable 10k of running to feeling like I’m going to drop dead after 10 minutes. Cycling is similar. Spinning for twenty minutes at a moderate cadence and I want to give up, the idea of spinning for an hour seems like a completely unreachable goal. I feel so discouraged, that it is severely affecting my motivation.
Help me come up with strategies to improve either my discipline or my outllook so that I get back to training.
Atleast you’re still attempting it. Every few times you run try to go an extra minute or two. Just know that if you push yourself, its only natural to see that it will get easier and easier (that’s a fact).
Also know, that if you don’t do any exercise, you’ll wind up being a couch potato who is EXTREMELY out of shape.
For me, thinking about what will happen if I DON"T do something is usually enough for me to suck it up and do it.
Start smaller. It really, really doesn’t matter how much you are doing now, all that matters is how much you are doing in six months. So go five or ten minutes a day, but go every single day, no excuses. This builds the habit back into your life and reteaches you not to look for reasons not to (after all, when can’t you do five minutes?) It also gives you confidence that you can meet goals.
After a couple weeks, up it a couple minutes. Not too much. Keep it at a level where you don’t hate it. Build it up slowly. You’re not on a clock.
As a long time distance athlete, I have had to return from many injuries as well as run through some bad ones. When I first return, the first day or two is really minimal just to test and get a pattern going. The breathing rhythm returns that fast. After that I establish some distance such as 2-3 miles that I won’t go below. I know I want to go a lot more, but thinking of it and doing it is too much. I have this sense of waiting for the feeling to come to me. Whether it’s a week or two weeks, I know that at some point I will be at the end of that three miles and will want to go further. It’s going to be an extra mile or two. Then that is the new minimum. I think of it as “owning that distance.” Really I should say, “renting that distance” because injuries can come along at any time and evict me.
Bottom line: Just do something and wait for the feeling. You know you will get there and it will come when ready.
I think that actually plays a huge part of it. When it was part of my daily routine, NOT doing it just never happened. It was actually hard to adjust to the fact that I had to stop in order to recuperate from the injury. But now it feels like a “chore” I have to do.
Have you thought about doing something like Team in Training. It’s for a good cause, and you are training with a team of people in the situation as you. Motivation times two. Working out with someone else always helps to keep me motivated because someone else is depending on me. The fact that it is all for a good cause is an added bonus.
I am exactly the same way, which is why I have found it worth it to take six weeks doing seriously light exercise (like 5 minutes) just to establish the pattern. When it’s stupid-easy, you always do it, and once you’ve got to that point, upping the ante is easy. Always having to start out working hard enough for it to be “worth it” really kept me out of shape for years. Macho bullshit is my bane!
