I’ve spent time this week reflecting on conversations I’ve had with several clients about motivation for training. Mainly from the perspective of how to approach things when motivation feels as if it’s lacking. It’s apparent that a lot of people start to become quite self critical and intolerant when motivation is harder to come by and as a result they begin to question the point of things, seem a bit hopeless and definitely find it hard to let go of all or nothing thinking. There’s certainly no magic fix in these instances, but it’s important to reconnect with what started you on your path in the first instance. What’s your goal?
There’s no one size fits all with this. We all have different personalities and lead different lives and therefore our reasons for exercising will be dependent on many factors. Generally speaking though I think motivation for training falls into 2 distinct categories:
Progression and improvement in performance.
General health and well being, including:
Weight loss
General fitness
Lifestyle improvement
Improve confidence
Stress management
Interest/stimulation
It is very likely that your reasons for following a training plan or exercise regime will be as a result of one or more of the above, and quite possibly the case that these reasons change over time. All of these reasons are of course completely valid and it is possible to be following the same training plan as someone else whilst at the same time having completely different goals. That’s the beauty of exercise. Target one goal and there will undoubtedly be other positive benefits.
When motivation comes into question the best advice I can give is, concentrate on what you want from your training not what someone else is trying to achieve. They could well be on a separate journey. Training doesn’t have to be brutal, prescriptive and directive at all times. If it is, then resentment is the likely outcome…and since when has resentment helped with motivation? Take ownership of your training, approach every session with a clear goal for that session and make adjustments accordingly if that’s what the circumstances dictate. Let go of attachments to all or nothing thinking. Recognise the dangers of an inability to allow yourself some ‘room’. The only real failure is you sabotaging yourself by failing to recognise what’s genuinely needed on a session by session basis.
In my generic training plans I offer individual pace guides that cater for the whole spectrum of participants, from those who are trying to push on and improve their times, to those who are more focused on their physical, emotional and psychological well being. Ultimately training and performance goes in waves, nothing in life is constant. There’s a natural ebb and flow to everything. The challenge is in striking the right balance between pushing when you can and being flexible when the circumstances change, whilst at the same time giving yourself the credit to know what’s best.
I have had several questions recently about how to control stroke rate and the importance of accuracy. In my training, and the plans I write, many of my (longer) sessions are controlled by stroke rate and pace targets in an attempt to make every metre rowed a productive one. I’m aiming for a consistent stroke profile and power delivery that can be transferred through the rates. In simple terms the lower the stroke rate, the slower the pace/500m should be. This sounds obvious to me as I write it, but more and more often I see people overloading their stroke which in my opinion doesn’t result in faster times.
There are of course many different and effective ways to train. This system however allows everyone regardless of ability, to follow the same core principle without the need for individual physiological assessment, planning or heart rate monitoring, which is very costly and not readily available. I have for a while now referred to this system as ‘gearing’ as it encourages people to hold a higher and more powerful stroke for a longer period. The analogy being that you wouldn’t want to drive your car for long periods at high speed in a low gear just because you could, in recognition that this wouldn’t be efficient, wouldn’t transfer to any greater speed in top gear and could potentially cause damage.
A good example of this can be seen in my session below which was the FM Rowing Workout of the Week. As the stroke rate increases so does my pace/500m. Of course there is a calculation to get the right numbers for all the varying sessions, but you will get the idea. All the stroke rates are correct for each 5 minute period.
So how important is this as a consideration in training? I think it is incredibly important for a few reasons. It shows discipline and ensures we focus on quality during any given session. It allows for direct comparisons with future or past sessions at the same rate in the knowledge that they are accurate. It encourages consistency by ensuring that the correct pressure is applied at each rate as often as possible. The more consistent we are the better quality we produce, the greater the training effect, the more controlled we are at pacing sessions and so on. Obviously there’s some room for movement, but as a rule our ‘gears’ should be within certain parameters. Gearing is the foundation on which all of our FM Training Plan sessions are built.
How do we hit the correct stroke rate each minute? Everyone has a preference on this. There are numerous ways of achieving the same goal in this instance. It’s important to add that it won’t make or break your training if this isn’t bang on every time, but it will also help to pass the time in longer drawn out sessions! The simplest way is to watch the ‘spm’ in the top right of the monitor and keep to a rhythm at the desired rate. Personally I count strokes each and every minute following the format below.
R18 – 3 strokes every 10 seconds. So the first of each 3 is on 0/10/20/30 seconds and so on.
R20 – 1 stroke every 3 seconds. So stroke on 0/3/6/9/12 seconds and so on.
R22 – 11 strokes every 30 seconds. So the first of each 11 is on 0 and 30 seconds and so on.
R24 – 6 strokes every 15 seconds. So the first of each 6 is on 0/15/30/45 seconds and so on.
R26 – 13 strokes every 30 seconds. So the first of each 13 is on 0 and 30 seconds and so on.
R28 – 7 strokes every 15 seconds. So the first of each 7 is on 0/15/30/45 seconds and so on.
R30 – 1 stroke every 2 seconds. So stroke on 0/2/4/6/8/10 seconds and so on.
Our journey to the City Regatta final at the Guildhall in London started about 3 months ago when I asked 3 other guys to join me in an invitational 4-man team to race others over 1000m. Graham Benton, Dave Marshall, Dan Stanley and I formed, on paper, what looked like a pretty solid crew. This offered us a chance to compete in a unique environment as a team in what is essentially an individual sport.
Bristol City Regatta
Our first assignment was to race in Bristol back in August at one of the 4 regional events hosted by the sponsor Investco Perpetual. The other 3 venues in London, Edinburgh and Leeds were equally as impressive a set up as ours was in Millennium Square, Bristol. The outdoor race atmosphere was great and no expense was spared as the event ran very smoothly. We had 3 heats which we came through relatively comfortably, easing through the gears and opening up a little in the final with a 2 minute 58 second effort.
Winners at Bristol Regatta
We had a few months then until the final and, after chatting things through, we decided we would prepare thoroughly. On the day the 4 of us all travelled from different parts of the country and met up at the hotel accommodation that had been generously provided by the sponsor. Off to the Guildhall yard we went, arriving about an hour before the start time. Following a warm up, where I’m not sure how warm we were given it was pretty fresh outside at 5.30 pm, we watched the ladies final and then we were ready to race.
Collecting our trophy
We were very fast out of the blocks and immediately opened up some distance between us and the rest of the field. We kept full pressure on until around the half way mark with the team averaging around 1.25/500m, giving us decent buffer. Whilst we didn’t ease off totally, we then came home a little more comfortably than anticipated in an overall time of 2 minutes 53 seconds which was 10 seconds ahead of second place. The whole race was a bit of a blur like they can be, but we definitely got a decent blow on, a bit of leg burn and a touch of ergers’ cough!
Winning team’s oar.
Suited and booted
The rowing was over, but it was back to the hotel, dinner jackets on and just the start of the evening ahead which was quite spectacular. Multiple Olympians were among 400 guests seated in the Guildhall at the event hosted by Sir Steve Redgrave. A fantastic and memorable evening was a fitting end to this year’s journey, one that, as a 4, we have agreed we will be defending next year. For me personally I am glad to see the back of that style of training for a while and excited to focus my attentions elsewhere.
I have always said training goes in waves. When you are on a wave everything is going well, you feel motivated and feel you are making progress. Hitting your daily targets seems routine and you look forward to the next session. The other side of the coin feels more like treading water. Effort levels are the same, but everything seems a bit of a slog. Targets are more difficult to reach which is harder to be motivated for. The thing is you never know how long each respective streak will last so you must remain consistent and dig in through those perceived hard times as they are ultimately building the foundations for catching the next wave.
Up until 7 days ago I had definitely been treading water for what felt like an eternity, to the point I questioned whether my peak was gone. It was ever since I had got back from a family holiday, had a bug and missed a whole nights sleep that I just seemed to fight with the machine to hit my numbers. I started to resent how hard things felt and the thought of another ‘hurt session’ was bottom of my list, but I kept the faith. My relentless consistency and a change of mindset last Saturday and things felt like they were on the turn finally. The mental side of all sports, not least rowing, is huge and tentatively it felt like I had at long last found a wave.
Our race set up at FM HQ
My last week of training has felt brutal, but positive in the way I am attacking things again. I have been mixing the start of 2km training with half an eye on the City Regatta 1000m final on Wednesday this week where we head as a team of 4 in good shape. Yesterday I finished on my target pace for a 10km TT which I had set up as a race at FM HQ. This is another savage distance where the mind is at least as important as the body.
10km Time Trial.
What can influence the stage we are at will vary from person to person. I believe I am at a point in my life where I need to feel a balance and harmony outside of performing to ensure I get the best from myself. I will always try my hardest at any given time no matter what, but without that mental balance I feel limited and distracted. I now strive to include positivity and eradicate as much negativity as possible. So if you are currently on a wave, make the most of it and push on as we never know how long they last. If things are not quite feeling in a groove, hang in there as the tide may well be about to turn.
All of my adult life, in fact most of my life, I have competed. As a young lad playing local and representative football, through my school years playing every sport going, leaving school and having a pro career in rugby, and now competing in indoor rowing. At no point in that timeline when I thought about coaching did I have any real interest in it. That was until more recently when my relative success across the distances in indoor rowing and some race wins along the way (whilst not being your average rowing type) lead to others asking me for training plans. So without any grand plan I just went with it and it seemed my coaching career was up and running.
At this stage I was both competing and coaching individuals (I still am) and hadn’t considered the impact these roles may have on each other. The relationship became more apparent when I started running group training plans where individuals, including myself, follow a generic plan that has individual targets for pace and stroke rates for each session. The group plan idea was formed following an early morning session with a client where I had remarked how this particular style of session would really help people of all abilities improve their rowing. His reply was simply ‘trial it’. So I did. Little did I know the Plan would have over 100 applicants! In my usual ‘no grand plan’ style, I just went with it and the FM Plan has been running ever since with great success.
In theory if I separated coaching and performing into two challenges in their own right then the relationship is easy. As there wouldn’t be a relationship! The tricky part comes when my style of coaching/leadership is considered. I naturally try to lead by example, something I’ve always done. Therefore if I’m not performing at what I consider to be an acceptable level then I automatically question my credibility as a coach. I recognize that this is my issue and not necessarily how I’m perceived by others during tougher training times, but it’s a difficult balance to strike. At it’s extremes, in the blink of an eye I can switch from having confidence in my coaching abilities, to questioning my approach to pretty much everything.
The fact is that the two aspects don’t need to effect each other. Ultimately I want to continue to perform AND coach, as both are hugely rewarding. What I really want to achieve however is that sense of balance and flexibility between the two, so that my perception of how credible I am to others doesn’t suffer every time my individual performances do. This is the next step for me. It’s both a personal battle and a professional development I need to undertake. As a starting point I made a parallel with parenting. In raising my 5 kids, I want them to acquire the ability to approach life and all it’s challenges with a ‘balanced’ perspective. In order to do that I’m required to guide them through their experiences with all my expertise and flaws so that they can learn from my successes and my mistakes and make their own path. We are at the end of the day, all different. They will hopefully take from me what they need to shape a life where they experience contentment. They are of course more likely to achieve that if I can demonstrate tolerance and an ability to do the same. If I can maintain my belief in my expertise as a coach when I perceive my performances to be flawed, then that’s a win…in the meantime I think if I remind myself that others have faith in me, and they can accept my ‘do as I say, not as I do’ approach, then I’ll have the courage to progress.
In short, it really depends on whereabouts in your rowing or exercise journey you are at. The further along you are, the more important it becomes for a few reasons. I have trained for lots of different events in my life, most recently they have almost exclusively been indoor rowing events and I have always planned my own training in advance depending on what the goal was and made sure sessions were specific to it. This sounds obvious to me, but it far more common that people will not do this. Whether they are not sure how to, or don’t feel the need I am not sure.
The most important thing is that people are staying fit and active and introduce exercise into their lives in an enjoyable and sustainable way as without this the next level can’t be reached. However, as we become more experienced and interested in a sport very often we want to progress and following a plan brings a structure, focus and accountability to help this. Very often there are ups and downs along the way, but remaining consistent at what ever level you are at will always bring you the best chance of improving. Having a plan at this point is vital to remain on track especially as those margins for improvement become finer and the level of effort needed to achieve will increase.
If you feel you need some structure then I would encourage you to take a look at the many plans out there. This year I have developed a plan myself with a system for all abilities to follow. It is a generic plan that provides individual targets, feedback and motivation via a group of like minded people with a common goal. Details can be found at www.fmrowing.com/rowing-programme/.
Consistency will always be the stand out factor for me when trying to make progress, but following the structure of a plan will make that task a whole lot easier.
I’ve spent time this week reflecting on conversations I’ve had with several clients about motivation for training. Mainly from the perspective of how to approach things when motivation feels as if it’s lacking. It’s apparent that a lot of people start to become quite self critical and intolerant when motivation is harder to come by and as a result they begin to question the point of things, seem a bit hopeless and definitely find it hard to let go of all or nothing thinking. There’s certainly no magic fix in these instances, but it’s important to reconnect with what started you on your path in the first instance. What’s your goal?
