Our schools have their March Break this week, and that has affected schedules. In particular, both of the Cross-Swim classes I take were cancelled for the week. In the scheme of things, that is not a big deal, but I found myself experiencing a sort of withdrawal effect. I missed the classes. Don’t get me wrong – they aren’t exactly fun. In fact, they are often the opposite of fun. I have learned that you CAN sweat at a swimming pool! But the instructors are great. We have three instructors and, while they appear to be pleasant, kind people on the outside, they seem to enjoy pushing us through whatever grueling workout they have come up with each week. They make us endure a mix of high-intensity exercises with some moderate-intensity “cool-downs” in between. It’s an hour of huffing and puffing (not so easy when part of your workout is in the water).

But we keep going back, and that’s what has me intrigued. I look forward to class. I want to go. I make sure I ate an appropriate amount (usually, just a small amount) several hours before class because I really don’t want to revisit the meal. I make sure to drink lots of water beforehand. I sometimes pop a nutrition ball on the way there so I have that little bit of reserve. . .

So why is it so motivating? I basically go out of my way, plan nutrition, hydration and even activities around it. What I think has happened is that I know an hour after class, I will feel great. I mean awesome! On-fire! My body leaves the pool craving “a pile of protein with some veggies”. And I have feel that my metabolism is revved way up. I guess it is that natural endorphin high people talk about. I experienced the same kind of exercise separation anxiety a few times before – when I was training for triathlon events.

My conclusion is that, at some point, your priority shifts and you are not just randomly or aimlessly working out; you are on a mission. You are aiming for something. You see progress. Your workouts become more and more coherent. You are focused on getting better, getting faster, increasing your strength and stamina. You want to test yourself. And the “doing well” becomes a priority that you are actually willing to restructure your life in order to accomplish.

This is a pretty powerful motivator, but if you REALLY want to turbo-charge your motivation, add in a couple of workout buddies. Pick them carefully, because (imho) you need a combination of encouragement and smack-talk. Sometimes you need no words at all – just a quick text to inform you that one of your workout buddies was up at 7 am doing burpees. They don’t even have to say anything – the little updates through the week are all it really takes. But a bit of smack-talk is kind of fun, so don’t forget to sprinkle a dash of that on your workout buddies from time to time.

So I’m going to miss Cross-Swim this week. I will do my best to taper my eating a bit so I don’t have to undo it when we get back to the pool!