Relax

So the other night I wrote a post about maintaining training when the weather is bad, being flexible, working out alternative forms of training etc. Tonight I thought I would write an accompanying blog to that one.

One thing I don't like about trying to train this time of year is the uncertainty. I love a good plan, I love having a program, knowing what I am doing tomorrow and the day after. Wake up, this is the session, off you go. Just perfect for me. However, this time of year, by necessity, that plan has to go out the window a little bit. You can have a rough idea of what you are supposed to be doing each day, but perhaps you are going to be on the trainer, perhaps you might have to head to the pool instead, perhaps you need to rest today and train tomorrow instead. I really struggle with that uncertainty. I suspect I am not the only one in the athlete world to do so.

For example this morning I was going to go paddling, that was plan A, plan B was running, I don't have a treadmill handy so Plan C was staying in bed. In the end the weather this morning was atrocious, predictions are that our current weather system is probably the worst we are going to have for the year, so fairly nasty for us. In these circumstances staying in bed is fairly understandable I think. However, it wasn't what I had planned and as such I couldn't help but be bugged by it. This change of plan was unavoidable to a certain extent, but frustrating nonetheless.

So, I think one important thing to keep in mind when it comes to training this time of year is that yes you need to be flexible in your training, yes you need to have alternative forms of training available so that you can get in the sessions when the weather is horrible. But you also need to be able to let yourself do that. You need to be able to cut yourself some slack, relax your Type A personality a little and go with the flow when you need to. If you can let yourself do that then you are likely to find training at this time of year both more achievable, but much more enjoyable.

A lesson that I am still trying to learn after many years.