Motivation: Where I find it

Motivation is the thing that drives us to the actions we commit. Its the reason why we do things and in the manner that we do them. This includes the sports that we partake in and are an important reason why certain people play certain sports. On occasion, I like to think about what motivates me to to run and why I have continued to run at a serious level since the beginning of grade 9. Thinking about this lets me evaluate the reason why I participate in the sport and if my motivation is coming from good or bad sources. Listed below are former and current motivations and the reasons why I have stuck with running for as long as I have:

Talent/Success

I was always pretty good at XC and track in elementary school but was never something spectacular and never really won any races. My first year of high school came and I had a pretty successful year by finishing 2nd in my regional race and placing 32nd at OFSAA XC for Midget Boys. Now, I would like to be able to say for certain that even if I was not as talented as I am now I would still be just as motivated to run. However, that is just about impossible to find out. I feel like starting a sport in high school with this relative amount of success obviously motivated me to continue it and experience this success again. But after competing in this sport for 4+ years and having continued to stay motivated after many unsuccessful moments, I really do not think my talent/success is a viable source for my motivation anymore.

Expectations

Now when people expect something of you, I feel it leads to motivation to fulfill these expectations people have placed upon you. After receiving some success in my first year of high school running, I began to feel some of these expectations from others and myself. I had always heard these stories of these high school runners who performed really well early on and had tons of promise but faded out and never really could fulfill the expectations placed upon them. In my early running years, I feared  this the most as an athlete and the last thing I wanted to do was end my running career in regret knowing that I did not do my best to fulfill my expectations. Now this obviously is not a good motivation but it is one that I'm sad to admit was one of the main reasons why I continued running in my first year of high school. Now if this had stayed as a big motivation for me, I don't think that I would have continued running very long and would have probably given up a long time ago. I'm happy to say that nowadays this motivation has completely faded and I don't worry about the expectations of myself or others to continue my running career.

Goals

It is probably safe to say that most of the kids that grow up playing sports have the goal of either competing in the Olympics and/or playing professionally. I too shared this goal for the longest time and after receiving some success in running, this became a super long term goal for me. I know I should (insert Justin Bieber movie title) and continue to believe this dream but I think its pretty safe to say that this is probably nothing short of a pipe dream. However, I feel that I still can find motivation from setting more attainable and shorter term goals. This season, my main goal is to hit Junior Nationals standard in the 1500m (3:57.00) and although it won't be easy, I think it is very possible with the fitness I am currently in. This just motivates me even more as I have set a goal I think I can attain and know my season is a success if I can do it. Having a goal to focus on is good because I feel it gives me a purpose to what I am doing and motivates me to focus on what is needed to achieve it.

Interest

After running competitively for numerous years, I have grown to really enjoy the sport and have a strong interest into almost all aspects of it. Whether it's going for long runs or competing on the track, I really enjoy what I am doing and this is a massive motivation for myself. If you enjoy doing something, you get motivated to do it again just to feel that sense of enjoyment and running is something that I get a ton of enjoyment from. Even attending meets or watching meets online gives me motivation to compete well and achieve my goals and dreams to be become as good as an athlete I can be. I can't imagine anything that can be more motivating than watching Cole Hannam drop a dirty 1:54 800m PB in January and just motivates me to do the same. I would have to say that this section is the one that I receive the strongest motivation and really drives me to achieve the success that I want in this sport.

What/Where it Brings me

As mentioned earlier, every young persons dream when competing in a sport is to hopefully one day be able to make money and have a career in the sport. Although this was a big motivation that could fall under this category, the bigger motivation for me in this category is the experiences that are along the way. I feel like being a student-athlete/competitive athlete is a great opportunity and chance to experience so many unique things. Being able to travel to meets in places that you would never otherwise go. Meeting people and making friends with people that are working towards the same goal as you with similar interests and mindsets. Living a healthy and active lifestyle, giving you a higher quality of life. Without running, I would have none of these things and feel that I would be living a life that is not as good as the one I'm living now.

It's Maltese hunting szn

Its kinda crazy to think that all of these things, either consciously or unconsciously, motivate or used to motivate me and many others to do the things that we do. Some of these are positive and some are negative but in the end, I feel like the positives out weigh the negatives. Running is the type of sport that I feel requires plenty of motivation just because of the nature of the sport and the strenuous training. To really take the sport seriously and enjoy it, you really need high motivation and a love for the sport.

I'm proud to say that this is the case for me.

-Simone

New Beginnings

Hello world, it's nice to meet you again. Would you like a seat? A cup of coffee? Make yourself comfortable because it's about to be a bumpy ride.

In case you don't know me, I will introduce myself. My name is Brendan Simone. I am currently in my first year at the University of Windsor and I am studying Human Kinetics. I am also in my first year running cross country and track and field for the Windsor Lancers. I am originally from Windsor and went to high school at Holy Names Catholic High School. I ran cross country and track all four years at Holy Names and I guess I liked it so much that I decided to continue my running into university.

After going through my first varsity cross country season, I thought it would be cool to start a blog to start writing about my experiences as an athlete and how my season has been. If any of you are thinking that I also got this idea because my fellow teammate Alex Cyr also has a pretty established blog, you might be right but I will never admit it ;). Regardless I've always seen blogging as something pretty neat and since I am also planning on getting a minor in English by the end of my degree, I thought I would give it a whirl.

I feel like every season, whether it is cross country or track, always has its peaks and valleys. It rarely ever happens that you can have a season where all your races are good or all your races are bad. This past season has been far from perfect and definitely contains some ups and downs. To keep this as structured as possible, I will summarize each month of the season starting with August and then finishing with November.

This past season started out about as best as it possibly could have. In the past few summers, I had either been battling injuries or just lazy and never really got in the proper base mileage that was required. However, this August was by far the most consistent August I have ever had of training. I up'd my mileage slightly and only missed a couple runs due to extenuating circumstances (work, vacation). I also raced a waterfront 5k in mid-August and came away with a massive PB of over one minute, running 16:05 (I hadn't raced a 5k since grade 9, lol). So to say the least, once September rolled around I knew I was prepared for the impending mileage jump and the higher intensity workouts to follow.

September was a pretty good month to start off my first university XC season. In September, I raced three times and I each time it was a good performance by my standards. First was our inter squad race just between our team and the St. Clair College team. Now it should be said that it really wasn't a real race as it was only an inter squad and was on the first weekend of school. Nevertheless I surprised myself and finished 5th, a placing which I completely did not see coming and still do not know how it happened. After a few hard weeks of training including our Lancer training camp, I then raced my first official race as a Lancer at the Bill Salter Western Invitational. Despite the scorching heat, I finished 48th and ran a time of 26:52 for 8k. This is still my best 8k time to this date and I was pretty happy with the result. This was a good initial benchmark for the season and seeing how much I improved from the year before (I ran sub 24:00 for 7k twice), how could I be mad. To finish September off, I raced my first NCAA cross country meet in Bloomington, Indiana called the Sam Bell Invitational. I still think this was a decent performance of mine, falling somewhere within the realms of good and bad. I ran 27:02 which is slower than the previous week's meet. However, I shouldn't even bother to try to compare times as of how many factors go into Cross Country and what effects the time. I finished a little bit farther behind my teammates that I finished around at Western. So I'll say my performance in Indiana was about an 8 on a scale of 1-10.

If we are still using the peaks and valleys reference from earlier, than the beginning of October was definitely the biggest valley in the season. I feel like the longer workouts and added mileage was really starting to get to me and effected not only how I performed, but also how I felt. In high school, I mainly trained with my high school coach during the high school season so after 4 years, I was used to his type of training. Although he was a good coach and knew the aspects of distance training very well, the intensity and length of workout change from last year to this year was massive and really took a toll on me. My legs were tired constantly and caused me to have some poor performances in some workouts along with a race. I know that this is something extremely common within first years and the regret not realising it while it was going on and doing something about it. I raced once in this Month, which was at the Bradley Pink Classic in Peoria, Illinois and it was by far the worse race of my season. After 2km into the race, I was spent physically and faded throughout the race all the way to the finish. After this performance, I decided to take the chance to take a little break from racing just to focus on training and to get away from the racing aspect of the sport. I think this was a good decision for me and with some smarter decisions in training (taking easy days easier, not going "full out" every workout), I finished off October with my legs feeling better and some good workouts under my belt. During this time, I got to witness my fellow teammates race at the OUA and then eventually the Usports Championships. Watching them succeed and perform only further fueled the fire going into the later part of the season and made me even more motivated to do the same.

In the month of November, I raced twice as a member of the University of Windsor Athletic Club (UWAC) at IMO, the most important races of my season. First was at Athletics Ontario Juniors where I finished 6th and gained much of my racing confidence back. I was not enthralled by the placing but it was definitely much better than my previous race and I beat some quality guys that I was happy to place ahead of. I was hoping to finish top 3 and qualify for Team Ontario for the upcoming Athletics Canada Nationals in Kingston, but that did not happen and there is always next year for that. This leads into my final race of the season which was at AC Nationals in Kingston where I finished 36th in the Junior Men's race. I always seem to race well on Fort Henry and I think this race stays true to that and I am pretty happy with it. Last year, I was 9th in the Youth race so I think 36th in the Junior race the following year is a good progression. It was a good way to finish off what was pretty crazy first university cross country season and to gain some momentum going into indoor track.

Nothing suits XC more than a little bit of mud

It has been a hard last couple months but if there is one thing that it has taught me, it is that resiliency is key to success and progression. I have learnt that if I truly want to get better and grow as an athlete, I have to put as much dedication as I possibly can into it. There is no point in doing things half-ass'd and without much effort. Goals and aspirations will not be achieved if you don't fully set out to achieve them. I feel that if there is anything to take out of this season that will help me in future, these are the ideas that will help me achieve my goals.

I am super happy with the decision I made to stay at home for school and join the Windsor Lancer XC and track team. The coaches and teammates are incredible and really create an atmosphere which is conducive to success. I have met so many great people with similar goals as mine and are willing to put in the work to achieve them. It will be interesting to see how we all evolve as athletes and if we are all able to achieve what we set out to do.

Well that just about sums it all up. If you have made it this far, I thank you for taking the time to read this post. I plan on posting at least once every two months to go over things and talk about new experiences I have encountered.

But for now, indoor track awaits.

-Simone