Down time

The last few weeks have been a bit of a struggle for me exercise wise.

Weeks ago I had a great trip up to Kalbarri, did a race and a had a nice time in general. That trip was the culmination of a really good period of training and so I thought I had earned a bit of a rest before my next training block so I had a cruisy week off.

After my week off I had tom travel for work and so I had another week of reduced training. I wasn't cold turkey, but it was significantly down on normal. That was cool though, it was all part of the plan, once I was back from my travel it would be all systems go and back to training. Well that was the plan at least.

Best laid plans and all that though. No sooner was I back from my trip and I got sick, proper sick. That cold knocked me out for an entire week. Three weeks down.

Last week I was finally able to start training again, however, it was a slow process. Training on Tuesday was pretty mediocre and while things improved by the of the week the training was still far from good quality.

This week things have taken another step forward. So far I have managed to do some exercise every day this week, two sessions today in fact. The quality and the duration of the training is still lacking, but it is coming along. The training I have been doing isn't exactly what I was hoping to be doing though. I would love to be out paddling, however, the weather has kept me off the water. The training I have been doing is better than nothing, however, it is frustrating not being able to train in the way you want.

All up it has been a pretty annoying 4 weeks.

However, the reality is that everyone has periods of frustrating training. It can't all be sugarplums and fairy rings. Anyone who is training for something, whether it is general fitness or an Ironman has good periods and off periods. The trick is to make sure that the bad doesn't derail the good. As an old coach used to tell me, after a bad patch it is time to regroup, reevaluate and get on with it.

This last few weeks of training has been pretty average, but now that things are ticking along again it is time to put those weeks behind me and get on with things. These periods of poor quality can be really annoying, but there is nothing to be gained by dwelling on them. The missed time can derail plans and slow things down, but in the end if you focus back on the plan and get back to the work then those interruptions will simply be temporary delays. That is where I am at the moment, time to get back on with things.

Speaking of getting back on with things, this weekend I am going to be up at Guilderton for a bit of family time and some training. One of the nice things about Guilderton is that there is no internet connection, which unfortunately course means no blog posts while I am there. That means no post tomorrow and Saturday, although I should be back up and typing either Sunday or Monday.

Be back soon.