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June 06, 2005
Energy and Motivation
Today I was a little tired. It clouded my mind and left me a little less than motivated to do even the simple tasks at work. In my quest to understand how motivation is effected by various events and conditions, I have been using my bike racing, running and other training as tools in that process. Tonight I have more examples for how my energy levels effect motivation.
My low energy levels today were caused by a lack of sleep on Saturday night. In fact I didn’t go to bed at all Saturday night because I was having too much fun researching something about bicycles online. Sunday morning I felt ok, but after the parade, until about 4pm while hanging out and talking with the others, I was falling asleep in my chair. After I got home Sunday night, I couldn’t take a nap so when I went to bed later I was exhausted.
I got a full-nights rest, but I was still very tired this morning. As a result I had a hard time focusing at work and my motivation was low. Even talking with my friend on the phone I was feeling a little blah and unresponsive. I was trying to talk myself into going for a run at lunch, but nope. By the time lunch came around I was too hungry and tired to do it. I decided to go eat lunch in the park by the stream. That was really nice. Then I walked over to the bike shop to chat with the guys there, helped a couple of customers and then went back to work. It was a strange day. At the end of the day, about 4:30pm I ate a Cliff Bar to give me an energy boost before my bike racing class. It sure didn’t seem to help while riding there. I felt weak and sluggish. And I had a headache. And guess what we were doing in class tonight! We were doing hill climbing all night!
At class they handed out a Cliff bar to everyone, but since I had just eaten one about an hour before, I decided to hold on to it for later. After about a half hour into our training we had a break and I ate the Cliff Bar. That seemed to help. Another thing that helped was pushing past my tired, weak feeling and exerting myself. I don’t know what to call this phenomenon, but I’ve experienced it a few times before. After really heavy exertion and breathing, my blood must be flowing better, and the tired, weak feeling in my muscles goes away.
Of course I think this boost in energy is also tied to having enough fuel. On previous occasions that I knew I was going to have a heavy workout, I ate more food, more frequently. During tonight’s hill-climbing adventures, I actually felt more motivated than I did all day and the tiredness was gone. On the ride home after class I went up a couple of big hills and I felt great. Now I’m tired again so I’m off to bed. It’s been a long day.
Tomorrow I’m going to try to motivate myself into doing a short run, then on Wednesday I’m riding in the Time Trial in St. Paul. I can’t wait. It’s 4.5 miles and I’m going to try to improve my time from the last Time Trial I did.
Sleep + Fuel + physical exertion = motivation
Posted by carl1236 at June 6, 2005 10:01 PM | motivation