Working Out Because You Want To vs. Working Out Because You Have To

            I have been an athlete my whole life. From the time when I was barely toddling, my parents had me in Gymboree, ballet, ice skating and playing pee-wee soccer. Even when these parent-inflicted-commitments ended, I continued to exercise by joining the high school track and cross country teams. What is crazier is that I continued exercising through college by competing in races with Drexel University’s track club and triathlon teams. My most recent competition was a beauty pageant, which not surprisingly, required a great deal of physical exercise!

            I seem to be hooked on competition and exercise. Many of the competitions that I participate in usually have a singular goal. With running and triathlon, the goals are winning races and racing in a faster time than your last. In pageantry, the fitness goal is looking toned on stage.

            Now that it is my off season for triathlon and for pageants, I find myself still wanting to exercise, despite the lowered pressure to perform a certain way and to look a certain way. I think I enjoy exercise more now than when I have pressure to do well in a race or look good on stage. Additionally, I feel like I am quickly getting into triathlon shape, and I still look the same as during the Miss New Jersey Pageant one month ago.

Photo: Vintage - Drexel University Track Club at the 2007 Philadelphia Marathon. 

            This viewpoint for exercise would advocate that one should not train for a particular event, but sign up for that event when one is ready. This is the opposite of my marathon training last year, when I used my long lived dream of running a marathon as my motivation for training. Training for the marathon with the goal of completing a marathon and qualifying for the Boston Marathon as my motivations caused me to literally run myself into the ground. I finished that race with a time barely qualifying me for the Boston Marathon. (In my peak shape a time like that would have been cake.) I was also left with a long-sustained hip injury that one year later I still have not recovered from.  

            If I had cross-trained sufficiently, found a training plan that fit my fitness needs and signed up when I was ready perhaps this injury would not have been so serious. However, giving myself a timeline, gave me pressure to fit in more miles into my schedule so I could feel prepared by following a traditional marathon training plan. This time crunch for miles is what caused my injury.  

            Currently and in the past I have exercised just for fun. In these instances, I signed up for races once my body felt ready for them. This is instead of signing up for one big race that will take place a while from now… success of training unforeseeable. In all of these instances, I have had peak performances. My new philosophy is to stick with signing up for races when I feel physically ready…. Rather than signing up for races as motivation to continue training or to reach a certain level of fitness. Anyone with me?