Find your inspiration..

Do you have someone who is your inspiration for your fitness journey? I do, well I actually have a few people that I admire and aspire to be like in the world of indoor rowing. I think that having this sort of inspiration is just as good as having goals and targets you want to achieve. It will push you on when the going gets tough and make your targets feel more real as someone is already reaching them.

I know all people are different and everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses but, if your interested in a particular sport or fitness area and there is a person who seems a lot like you with regards to their familylife or work - then this is what will help keep that fire ignited when the spark starts to waver.

Finding inspriration is becoming a lot easier due to social media, there are so many strong women (and men) out there that inspire me to carry on training. I am not going to lie and say and I am motivated everyday to get on and do my training. There are days when I feel and say no, but those days are few and far between, when I do feel like this I tend to think about the strong women I have met through my indoor rowing, or the athletes that have achieved something pretty spectacular recently.

Yesterday was one of those days, its not that I didn't want to train, but I have been feeling recently that I am at a bit of a cross roads with regards to my own fitness goals. Yes I am aiming for the World Championships in Paris but due to unforeseen circumstances this may not be feasible, so I have had to come to terms with this and have sought out other goals that I know I have a good chance of achieving. If I hadn't done this I would be in the athletes limbo. I would be training for nothing so my motivation wouldn't be as rock solid and much easier to ebb away.

The record breaking marathon that was run by Eliud Kipochoge was a real eye opener for me yesterday. It helped me realise that I still had to plough on with my 2k training - no matter how hard it hurt. Can you imagine how uncomfortable the last 6 miles of that marathon were? He still carried on though, running through it all to get to the finish line, this was only part of the pain he had to endure to get there too. I would have thought the training he had completed over the past few years would have made him feel pretty wretched sometimes.

So, I decided yesterday to let him join my list of people who inspire me to be a better and stronger athlete! Some of these people are fellow rowers, some just people I know and like who inspire me to never give up and lastly there are some like Eliud who have managed to produce superb feats of superhuman athleticism that should inspire each and everyone of us to get up and do something with our lives!