What's your best "Get er Done" workout tip?

I've got a race rival who's also a friend of mine. He's significantly faster than I am in cycling and running, so every step I take is "Every pedal stroke/step is one stroke/step to being faster than..." I modify it to a teammate to "Every step is one step faster than... is because he skipped the workout"

Also, "If I skip this workout, I'm going to be one workout further away from making it to Kona." That gets me out of bed 98% of the time. Sometimes when I'm feeling miserable I just take it easy and am better mentally for the next go round, though.

1) layout everything the night before

2) make it a habit. After almost 4 years now it feels odd not to work out

3) a healthy fear of losing what took me 4 years to build up to

4) enjoy what you're doing. I can think of few things better than a run( any weather, at any time). If I hated this I think I'd have to find something different.

Thats the problem I'm having right now. The pool here is outside and it's in the 30's this morning. I really don't feel like swimming in this weather.

They will put a cover on next month but November really sux. 

Although I love running in cold weather, sometimes I dread getting out there and dealing with freezing for the first half-mile before I get warmed up. 

What helps me in that case is putting on enough layers so that I'm warm from the start. It means shedding clothing and wrapping a jacket around my waist, but it's somehow easier to deal with if I don't have to be cold in the beginning.

I have discovered if you can keep out of bed for those first five minutes everything else gets exponentially easier.  Its "the fog" as I like to call it, when you are incapable of making decisions so you need to set up obstacles to making bad decisions.

Get out of the bedroom.  Remove the temptation of the bed while your brain is still warming up.  Go to the kitchen, get a drink, small meal, hit the potty whatever just get away from the bed.

I have found that if I can just avoid crawling back into bed for those first five minutes then getting a workout in is a lot easier.

1.  Get clothes/bike/shoes/whatever ready the night before.

2.  Set an alarm away from the bed so you have to get up.

3.  Hot shower before you go out to warm you up

4.  Make a rule no breakfast till your done with the morning run/bike/swim

5.  For 2 hour plus workouts I know I will reward myself with going to my favorite breakfast cafe' when I'm done.

I appeal to my competitive side. On especially cold morning or miserable weather I think, "A lot of people will stay home today, but I won't and I will be stronger than them and beat them in the race."

Or I think about some great triathlete ( I usually think of an Xterra Pro...I like Xterra) and say "Conrad wouldn't stay home and sleep in."

I've also been on some miserable (due to weather) motorcycle and bicycle trips with unending cold, heat, rain, and snow. I think, "Well, at least it won't be as bad as that time on the motorcycle."

It usually works. I really want to win a local sprint this summer and get a good place in a few other races, so I think about that goal.

Those reasons are why I was running two days ago on the beach when it was 40 and raining. I felt hardcore.

Remember what it was like to not have the choice, and that it can (and will) be revoked at any time.

Someday you won't have the option. Don't waste it.

Think about it this way:

You're walking to work. You see a $50 bill laying on the sidewalk. It's been there for days. There is no one to find to give it back to who may have lost it. It's just there.

Do you say, "Wow! $50! I'll pick that up in two days when I walk by here again." Or, do you pick it up then and buy everyone lunch at work?

Make hay while the sun shines, because it will set.

This is advice that floats around BT in cases like this.  If you are not up for it, just say you are going out for just 20 minutes, and if after that, you feel like quiting, quit.  But give it 20 minutes.

99% of the battle is getting out the door for me - so just getting OUT there in the first place solves the problem.

Anyone remember the Duncan Doughnuts commercia "Time to make the coffee".  That's me.  I turn myself in to a drone and mindlessly put on my gear without thought and get out the door.

Now, if you are going to win any battle, you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon and night, but the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.

Gen. George S. Patton

Bingo. No matter what's in your brainz, get out the door. Now you're committed. You didn't get up that early to quit; you'll finish the workout.

I used to set my alarm with a 10 minute cushion so I could hit the snooze before I actually had to get up.  I was setting myself up to fail.  I now set my alarm at the exact time I want to get up, and my foggy brain knows that it better sit up, swing the legs off the side and roll out. 

I also have a little sticky note on my snooze button that says, "Wake up and Lace up!"  An avid runner friend of mine started me on that saying as her slogan while she battled cancer several years ago.  As a previous post said, cherish the day and the ability to get out of bed to do something that many cannot.  If that doesn't work- remind yourself that you will feel like a bad a$$ when its over!

Tom said it very well.

I will add that what often gets me going is knowing how much better I will feel after I do a workout than how upset I will be with myself if I don't do it.  Plus, weight loss is a goal for me so I tell myself I won't get skinnier and faster by skipping workouts.

Last winter, I found that I couldn't get motivated to run by myself in the cold/dark/snow, but could easily (relatively) get myself in gear if I knew that my wife would be running with me.  I imagine the same works with any running partner (spouse or otherwise) - if you know someone is counting upon you being there, it adds the extrinsic motivation necessary to overcome the elements.

SYJ

I use the basics - get out the door, tell myself to "just give it a try", etc.  Also, packing/layout clothes in advance is a must.

My nemesis is not the morning (gave up on that long ago), but getting out into the cold.   One thing that helps is having all the right gear. I splurged on a super cool reflective vest with built-in LEDs.  I feel like I HAVE to use it, to justify the cost.   I also found a great headlamp that lights up a magic bubble for me, it's like daylight.  I also allow myself to splurge on nicer (and plenty) jackets and other good layers.    The thing is I LOVE running at night and in the cold, but that first step out the door is a tough mental one.