Finding it really hard to get the motivation to train at night

I decided to add cycling and swimming to my running today. The plan is to run in the mornings and add turbo and swimming sessions in the evenings on some days. 

I love to train in the morning. I find it REALLY hard to train at night, after work image Even when I am working from home! Today was a prime example - ran this am, missed my turbo this evening. 

Guess I just need to man up - maybe having a triathlon target would help but i don't want to set one until i have done my marathon in April. Anyone else have this problem or are you all, as i suspect, supremely motivated? 

I have to admit - the Something No Different To Last Years Competition thread is helping. Oh well, tomorrow is another chance to get on track.

Comments

  • i think it depends on how you think about your sessions, how you intergrate it. i decide in the morning what im going to do, at what intensity and at what time. If i know im not going to have too much time in hte late evening i make sure i get my session in before i eat. If im going to have a big dinner = i train before because no one likes to train with a belly full. For me its also how i word my thoughts - for example i will think " im going to do XXXX before XXXX" 

    why did you miss your session tonight - trained too hard in the morning? didnt have time? CBA ? i think you need to eliminate your excuses before you begin. If you really like running then why not make sure you do your other session before you run - delayed gratification image  hope you can sort it 

     

  • If you find training in the morning easier - then why not mix it up? Try and get a couple of turbo sessions in, and two morning swims.

    That saves your favourite (running) until later which you may find easier to motivate yourself for?

    I certainly found the 'Something  Different to Last Years Competition' useful in 2011 when I started - find an 'annoying' so-and-so who posts a few more points than you each week and try and beat them image

  • Hmm thanks for making me think about why I missed it. I missed the session yesterday because I ate before thinking about doing the session and then didn't feel like training. I guess the trick here is to ensure I do not have dinner until I have my session out of the way.



    I even hate running at night to be honest. Since my a race next year is the VLM I don't want to risk missing runs by moving them to the evening.



    Thanks again for the tips. Really did help.
  • I actually find it easy to train at night this time of year than in the morning.  I really struggled getting up in the dark on Sunday morning for my long ride.  You have just got to get on with it though.  No magic formula.

  • H0NKH0NK ✭✭✭

    I do most my training in the evening, it is not as if there is ever anything worth watching on tv so thats when I train.

    Having a new event to train for (ironman) has got me fired up and keen to train though. last winter I stopped running during the week and only ran at weekends. I was determined not to let that happen this year.

    Swimming and Turbo training I'm happy to do anytime, its the running that I dislike doing in the dark as I prefer to use off road tracks, joining a tri club makes one evening run a week more enjoyable and gets me out, 

  • Picture yourself sitting on the side of the road 65 miles into your bike leg, feeling upset or annoyed that you have nothing left and your Ironman dreams are over......should give you the drive to want to train at anytime and in any weather....it does for me.

  • Consider nutrition.

    If your energy levels are down in the early evening this may create a weak mind that is open to giving in. If you eat lunch early (12:00) and don't get home till 18:00-19:00 then where is the fuel coming from for the evening session. So you eat and are then too full.

    A late afternoon snack may carry you through and enable training. Plus if you don't then train you will get fat - so training is not optional.

    I do most of my training in the evening and often do my marathon training long run on a Monday evening. Out at 6pm, back by 9pm, wash, dinner, bed. However I rarely train twice in a day. Saturdays have a morning swim and afternoon run or bike.

    At first you just need to apply will power, at some point routine helps keep you going.

  • TRTR ✭✭✭

    If you dont enjoy something, or cant face doing something as part of a path to a goal race (for example)  then don't do it. If you dont like training evenings then don't. Train mornings and lunchtimes (when you work from home). It's supposed to be a hobby and supposed to be fun, not a chore.

  • Disagree...if you have paid to enter an event (and i think you have) then you want to enjoy it and compete, so you need to train.

  • kittenkat wrote (see)
    m..eface wrote (see)

    Consider nutrition.

    It's not 'nutrition' unless you're elite and have a team of specialists behind you.

    It's eating stuff and drinking stuff.

    I'd hate to get a dictionary out................

    ...............however the point is the same. I find if I have evening session planned, especially a longer session then I have to adapt my eating such that I am not starving or recently stuffed.

    I would also agree with FlatFooted. It is possible to want to do events, and enjoy training but not want to do every single training session. We all sometimes struggle for motivation and have to push ourselves out the door. Or have you always wanted to do every single training session you have ever done?

    Also not sure how many of us actually train twice a day.

     

  • Kittenkat in reply to your first post, if you dont like these kinds of posts then don't waste your time and that of those participating in them by moaning about how you don't like such posts. Haven't you got anything better to do? If you have, do it. If you haven't, find something to fill that void in your life. This was not a request for motivation. If that is what I wanted I would have put in the subject, 'request for motivation'. 

    Meface - it could but nutrition. I need to take a look at that. I'm creating a daily calorie defecit in order to lose some weight and i did not think about the fact that this will have its impact on training in the evening more than training in the morning when I am relatively fresh.

    This evening I went for a swim. I made sure my meal before the session was much earlier than the session so i would not be feeling full and 'comfortable' when it was time to head to the pool, but at the same time I felt energetic. It worked - I had no issue going and enjoyed the session.

    I think a part of the problem is also that I really dislike the turbo trainer. I need to make the environment I turbo train in a bit more appealing. Right now my turbo is sat in the middle of a cluttered up garage and it's a bit offputting. 

    Thanks for the tips folks. 

     

  • I was going to say is it motivation to train or motivation to sit on a turbo trainer that is lacking ?     I find turbo training takes time to get into - use it twice a week and you get into a habit after a few weeks - it can almost become fun...almost.   Are you turbo training to a plan though - do you have a heart rate/speed/power that you are aiming for in each session ?  

    The other thing that I find helps is having a bike set up on the turbo ready - so I only have to motivate myself to get out into the garage and train not to spend 20 minutes faffing about with it before I even start training.   

    If you really can't face it though is there no way you could do an evening road ride -depends where you live but I have a 24 mile loop I can do at night which is lit and probably no more dangerous than riding in daylight.   

  • popsider - the turbo bike is set up all the time. It's my mountain bike that I have set up on there. I have trainerroad and intend to follow their base building plan. You make a good point about just starting with one or two session a week just to get in to the swing of it. I'm definitely going to clean up my garage this week and make the whole setup more appealing. It's pretty nasty in there. 

  • I stuck a telly and old pc in the garage so I can watch tv / dvd's to while away the time. It made the 2 hour session bearable!


    I am starting to really enjoy evening sessions. I'm often up and out early and tbh couldn't getting up early enough to do a session and then get off to work, so I do most of my training at night. I'm looking forward to lighter evenings!

    I'd agree with the above, if you don't want to do a session then don't, if its lack of getting started then you just need to do it, but do also think of what it will be like if those sessions you miss make all the difference to the end result

  • SgtLardSgtLard ✭✭✭

    Train in the mornings if thats what you like.

    evenings are for when you screwed up. slept through the alarm or just pulled your head under the duvet and pretended it wasnt your alarm.  wait till 9 then have at it and redouble the effort in the morning.

     

     

  • I learned this week that I must train before tea - if I eat first and then have to let my food digest its doubly hard to train later in the evening. Tea is my reward image ... In fact I think for me food is always the reward!!
  • Like Matt It's hard for me to train in the morning as I have to be out of the house to go to work by 6 so would have to get up at 4, so I do almost all my training in the evening, I am a procrastinator so before I would look for over things to do when I get home from work then tell myself that its to late to go out training, but now I get things ready the night before so when I get home from work I don't have the excuse of having to look for kit etc, so I just get home, get changed and get out.

  • I work lates, out of the house by 11 so train first, earlies out of the house by 6 so train in the evening and middle shifts out by 8 home by 7.30 so can train morning or evening,Tend to train in the evenings when their is a choice as this is my me time and reward for working my arse off all day.Agree with BBT always put my kit out day before/bike on turbo ready if thats the plan and then come straight in change and start never sit down,if I sit down then its a struggle to get going again. The only thing that is a total pain is fitting in available pool time around available swimming time!

  • Agreed, the danger is to sit down when you get in. My advice is to say hello to the family and then get straight out running or turbo......when you've finished that you can have the conversation & tea.
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