Together we stand

There is an old saying around the medical community that a physician should not be his own patient.  That could be said of the adult athlete that is their own coach and trainer as well.  When we go it alone we error in a couple of ways.  We tend to not stop ourselves when we are on a path of self destruction and we often don't push hard enough at other times.

Having a training partner or even being part of a group that trains together helps to keep us motivated and we gain the benefit of their knowledge as well.  A buddy can tell you when your pushing to hard and when your not pushing hard enough.  Amazing that others can see things in us that we ourselves can not.

Being part of a group or just having one friend to train with helps to keep us honest about doing our workouts.  When someone else is depending on us to be there we will usually go no matter what the temperature or how unmotivated we feel at the time.  Even when we really don't feel the love, that feeling soon changes when we get there meet up and get in motion.  Even the coldest day is warmer when we add good conversation.  When my training partners and I are on our long training walks we will have all the worlds major problems solved before we are done.

Sounds easy doesn't it, just get a friend and get going.  But what if you don't know anyone that wants to train when you do or don't know anyone that wants to train at all.  Well you could buy a dog but that really isn't the same as having someone to train with.  On the days that you don't feel like it the dog is probably going to be very content being lazy with you.  Local running/walking/biking stores are usually a good place to look, most of them even have a web site with a bulletin board for athletes to arrange to meet others who are training at the same time they are.

Being a race walker I had a very hard time finding training partners since my sport is still not main stream like running or biking.  I talked the local health club into letting me teach a class in race walking.  I had a total of 2 students, one has become a best friend and trains with me weekly.  When he and I started training together we picked up two more guys that wanted to give it a go and we have been training together weekly now for 6 years.

Often your training partner can be your significant other.  It's an awesome time, while you're clocking the miles, to have good meaningful discussions.  Our brains work better, when we are in motion, so we are at our best at finding solutions to things that have been worrying us.

Take the time to find someone to train with or join a group that trains weekly.  You will be glad you did.  If you're already with a group please be open to having someone join you, it will be good for everyone.

Thanks for reading.