Don't stop dating

There are plenty of sources for dating advice. The magazines that are grace the check out aisle at the grocery store preach various methods of getting that dream guy/girl, or fixing a problem in your relationship. For some reason, a few of my friends come to me seeking advice. Being a friend, I don't tell them to pick up the most recent edition of Cosmo, but rather tell them to calm down and try to fix whatever issue is going on. Advice varies case to case, and I have really no idea why my friends ask me for advice. I have never had much success in the dating realm, so most of my advice consists of listening, telling my friend to calm down, and then working through some compromise.

Every Cosmo cover offers 100+ tips to improve... well so I chose this cover instead. 

Now, some of the advice you may read is "Try something new in the bedroom!" or "Explore this part of the city!" or "Try these new date ideas!"The only one that seems like a good idea that I have seen is the "Never stop dating".

This is advice from a florist shop. Definitely been there in my life...

Why do I think this is a good idea? Because the beginning part of dating is the most fun part. Figuring out who the person is, what things you share in common, trying new things, going to new places, etc. This is not a post on dating, however, but staying motivated in training.

While I have not had success in dating, I have had some success in training, and staying motivated with it. My coach, Martin Spierings, has kept things pretty entertaining, but eventually, it gets dull. So how to fix that? Start dating again. So below is a list of tips that start out as a list that you could find in a grocery check out rag, but is meant to help you get started training or push through a rough patch in your training.

This is what my log typically looks like for a week. Lots of boring without some spice. I don't think that dating comes with logs. That would make my life way easier. 

These are in no particular order.

1) Get out. Can't find something to do? Then check out the local gym/pool/track. There are bound to be other people there. Go talk to them. See if you can find a group to latch on to. The more the merrier. They will help keep you committed to whatever plan you have. And you will meet new people.

2) Go some place new. Tired of going to the same restaurant or renting movies from Blockbuster? (Do people still go to Blockbuster anymore? I recently rented movies from a nearby place that I used to go to as a kid. I forgot how fun it was). But in terms of training-try a new trail, bike path. If you are a swimmer, go to a lake/open water place. A change of scenery will do a body good.

3) Take a personal day. Need some alone time? We all do. A day off, or days off, can help you recover from a particularly strenuous string of workouts. The track/gym/road is not going anywhere, and the time off can be an opportunity to refocus your goals. Use the day to do things that have been pushed back on your to do list. Catch up on those episodes of Game of Thrones (assuming you haven't already read everyone's facebook statuses that give everything away).

4) Get cleaned up. One of the perks of dating is getting all put together to go out somewhere nice. Do that for your workout gear. Take extra time to clean up your bike, or to wash your workout equipment. Take care of the equipment that takes care of you in a workout. That includes your body. After a workout, take an extra long shower. Scrub with that fuzzy thing that has a fancy name. Soak up the heat.

This is called a loofah, which is apparently also spelled loofah. Convenient. Use it.

5) Make a playlist. Remember the first time you made your sweetheart a playlist on iTunes and then burned it on to a cd? Every song had some significance. And then after you burned it on to a cd, you wrote on it in sharpie for the track names and artists? Those were the days. For your workout, do the same. So that when your legs start telling you can't do it anymore, you have that track that will push you through whatever workout you are struggling with. Then you can take Jens Voigt's advice:

We can't all be like Jens, but we can all tell our body to shut up and push through whatever perceived threshold we have reached. And if for you it takes the latest Rihanna/David Guetta song to do it, then so be it. I personally go for something along these lines:

You generally don't want to be around me when I am doing intervals and this is going.

6) Try something new. Tired of hitting the saddle for hours, or pounding the pavement, or pumping iron? Then go to a yoga class. Or try a session of crossfit. Or maybe something crazy like aerobic dance. If you like it, incorporate it into your routine. 

There are times I should take my own advice. Some day, I will find someone looking for this: