Staying Motivated

It’s still warm in the northern hemisphere and technically we’re just shy of two months left of summer. It’s August 3, 2020 and today is only the third day of road racing for the Bicycle Racing Association of Colorado. Normally, we’d have completed nearly an entire road season and cyclocross racers would be foaming at the mouth for the season to start.

Yet this year is different.

This year, everything is different.

We had a notion the race season was going to be canceled back in February. Yet we (everyone) hoped this pandemic was just hype. That the news sources were fixating on the newest headline in a slow news day. And then the COVID case counts started rising, hospitals were slammed with critical care patients, PPE shortages, panic toilet paper hoarding and everything was shut down. With so much uncertainty, it was hard to write training plans around events that were vanishing before our eyes and in turn hard for our athletes to stay motivated.

Despite all of these setbacks and changes, it was interesting to see which athletes took this news in stride and which ones struggled. Sport certainly teaches you a lot about overcoming adversity and setbacks. For the most part, everyone was able to overcome the reality of a canceled race season and instead embraced working on their weaknesses. Normally, we only get a few weeks in the winter to really address the things that hold us back and this year, we’ve been able to hone in on them all spring and into summer.

Yet without competition, it’s hard to know if the time spent working those areas will come to fruition. Who’s paying attention? Does it really matter if I do my core in the morning? What if I missed a yoga class for the third week in a row? This is where it’s important to trust the process. We’ll find out soon enough and you’ll see who spent this time wisely or who decided to perfect their baking practices. (Kudos to those who were able to do both – that’s a win/win!)

If you’re struggling to stay motivated now that it’s August – getting that stoke factor back up could be as simple as taking a break. Or it could be brainstorming with your coach or friends to come up with a challenge to keep you on track for the months to come. I encourage you to get creative and think outside of the box. Bike packing adventures, scavenger hunts, exploring some new gravel roads, visiting farm stands and sourcing your veggies locally, etc. Just make sure to share it with someone you know who will hold you accountable and get in touch with what brings you joy.