It's December 2020. Covid has isolated almost everyone. I work remote, my wife homeschools our children. I spend 8-10 hours a day sitting in front of a computer. I'm comfortable with my weight, but I know I have some pounds to lose. Both my wife and I ran cross country when we were younger. Now, here we were, 20 years later, couch potatoes.
We said to each other, "I just can't seem to get motivated to go running." As adults, there was no one to offer us a reward for exercising and we could already get whatever we want when we want...within reason, of course. We had a planned friends over date that afternoon.
Our friend arrived and she said, "You know, I'm just having such a hard time getting motivated to exercise." It was out of the blue! It was a crazy coincidence!!! Now that we had a friend who also wanted to exercise, we devised a plan. We would schedule a biathlon in March 2021. We would run a 5K and bike ride 20 miles. It was a nutso plan! I hadn't run more than maybe 2 miles the whole year!
Once we had a friend involved, we didn't want to disappoint her and she didn't want to disappoint us. My wife and I started running immediately. I ran 2/3 of a mile every other day for a week. Then, I bumped it up to 1 mile, then 2, then 2.5, then 3. Our friend came down a month later and we walked 30 seconds/ran 30 seconds until 6 miles were reached.
I injured my foot. Three weeks ago, I hit my foot wrong repeatedly on a 4 mile run with my wife, trying to run slower to stay with her instead of running at my pace in front of her like I usually do. I rested my foot and 2 weeks later a ran 1.75 miles until I landed on my foot wrong and it was back in pain. I finished the 2 mile run so I could get to my house. I called the doctor and I got a brace. She said I could run and bike ride in the brace, so I biked 5 miles, but didn't run. I didn't want to chance anything.
Yesterday was our planned biathlon. We ran 5K and biked 21 miles! In 3 months, we went from couch potatoes to working out and feeling healthier.
How did we get motivated? We got a mutually interested friend involved who we didn't want to let down. Do you have a goal/desire you want to achieve but just can't get yourself motivated? Get someone with similar interests to be your backbone and you theirs. For us, we even signed a contract in December saying none of us would back out. We now have another one planned for June. This time, though, we're running 5K, biking 10 miles, and swimming a certain number of laps in my friend's pool...triathlon time 😎...Never give up! Oh! I almost forgot...our run was 80's themed...it helps to have something whacky, too 😁
I'm the one in the blue uni-suit and pink shorts :)
