Overcoming The Bear

Boston saw its first snowflake this past weekend, so it's official. Summer is over.
If you're like me, training over the winter is really hard. Something switches, and I suddenly crave naps, cheese, and whiskey. The athlete in me wants to keep my training schedule, eat lots of veggies, and spend time outside. But The Bear in me wants to eat that athlete with a side of cheesy-bread and then hide in a cave until the sun comes out again.

Every summer I think This is the year I overcome The Bear. But the following summer I always find myself slowly working off the extra pounds, and wondering why I couldn't have been more diligent. This year, I'm hoping to do better by combining a dose of realism - I probably will gain some weight, and that's ok - with a plan of attack, following these tips:

1. Be realistic, keep it small: If you struggle to stay active through the winter, don't pretend you're going to be running a marathon a week. Make a few small commitments, set reasonable goals to ensure you are meeting your commitments, and then give yourself a break. If you want to run consistently over the winter to keep your base, set a reasonable weekly distance goal and let yourself meet that goal anyway your body feels like it. Enter a few winter races to keep yourself accountable (I do the Super Sunday 5 mile race in Cambridge every year).

2. Find a buddy: If you can't find it in yourself to get up and workout, find someone who will make you. They don't have to actually be there physically, although that's nice; the key is accountability. You have to hate the idea of letting them down more than you hate getting out of bed. For me, November Project is my buddy.

3. Make a schedule: Or a training plan, or whatever you want to call it. It needs to be something that benefits you, not something that makes you feel guilty and angry, so keep Tip 1 in mind. And remember, it doesn't need to be daily or even weekly, and it doesn't even need to be specific. For instance, my "schedule" looks like this: Wednesdays - November Project stairs, 2 swim workouts/week, 1 trainer session/week, 3-6 miles running. It's loose in terms of schedule, because I tried regimenting my training, and it made me cranky. And it's low on activity, because if I do more than scheduled, I feel awesome. No shame here.

4. Prioritize: You'll notice that my "schedule" above has more swimming workouts than anything else. That's because I prioritize swimming in the winter - it's easy to ramp up that training because it's not weather dependent.

5. Focus on water: Drink lots of water. Winters are dry, and you are probably spending more time at the bar. If you can't resist the whiskey and cheese, at least chug water like it's your job.


What's your strategy for fending off The Bear? I suppose I could simply avoid him by living in a warmer climate...