If you'd have asked me a few years ago, I'd have told you that the only person that matters in training is you. It's you that has to have eat the right foods, make the right choices, put the time in for whatever sport you're doing, get the sleep and rest you need to achieve your goals.
However, I've recently been inspired and helped by a few people close to me. I'm not talking about sports personalities or celebs, but by people I know.
Firstly and most obviously the wife and boy. I know people say it often enough but their influence on me is a key driving factor. In whatever I do, I just want to make them proud of me. I know that no matter what I do they will, but when they put in the time to come and watch me compete, I want to make sure that it s worth their while. They also he in many other ways- For example, when I'm feeling fatigued or want to give up, it's their faces I see. I won't give up because of them, they are the driving force behind everything I do.
The wife is obviously* also the personal chef- she puts up with the thousands of changes and fads that I go through in my never ending finding the right diet and training plan. She also puts up with waking up on weekend mornings alone as I've been out n early morning training sessions.
There are a few others as well. My best mate Simon for example has started with the area's best PT in order to get back on the fitness wagon. He's also pretty selflessly entering multiple races and runs for various charities, in the memory of lost family members. He's been great at helping find suppliers for kit and dragging me to my first ever race (which I won!).
His wife to be is simply great. It was Fi that helped me out with my diet and nutrition. Fi is a fitness fanatic and her commitment to fitness and training is outstanding. Her advice and help with foods and supplements provided me with the biggest gains in both fitness and body shapes. Before talking with Fi, my training was intense but my diet and lifestyle did not support it. Her advice, hints and tips helped me more than anyone to make the changes to my body shape over the least few years.
I couldn't write this without mentioning the training guys from Strike and Submit. Aaron, Joe, Si, Andy and Tom all helped to provide so many different varied workouts, most of which are still the foundations of the exercise that I do today. Sure, I have adapted things to suit and in doing my own research I'm now pretty confident in what I need to do to achieve my goals, but they have helped tremendously with both training tips themselves or providing contacts to training information that I never knew was out there.
Finally there is Mildred. I have never met anyone so dedicated to their sport. Millie will think nothing of getting up at stupid o'clock every day to ride horses, dedicated seemingly every weekend and most days to the sport. Whenever I get to a point where I'm feeling like I don't need to train, or that "I've done enough recently", there's always that nagging thought of "I bet Millie is on that horse today!!!".
People have suddenly become great motivators for me and I've realised that although all of the work is done by me, the advice and support of those around me is such a huge factor in success. I'd strongly urge anyone struggling to hit their goals to look at the people around them as well as to the experts for the motivation and help that they need.
*it's obvious because she's my wife and therefore it's her job. I'll quite happily get in to this conversation on a separate post if requested ;-)
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