I should’ve guessed that during a week where one of my nieces got married and less than 24 hours later another niece graduated high school, my training schedule would probably change. A glimpse into the first draft of the calendar for that week: a couple of long runs, 2 open water swims, an outdoor workout, a long bike ride, and a track run. Guess which ones didn’t happen! If you answered, “Most,” you’d be right. Logistically speaking, a few of the training exercises just couldn’t happen.
I’ll give you a look at the 7-day stretch. What do you notice about each day?
Every day has something crossed out and that’s OK. While training is important (and very, very necessary) for sprint triathlons and the longer races, of course, there are 2 reactions to a change in schedule. One is to panic. The other is to adapt. I guess there’s a secret third option: sell everything you have and move to South America. Don’t do that!
Panicking is rarely helpful in any situation so if you find yourself having to revise and adapt your training schedule, stay calm and train on (as the cliché t-shirt phrase goes). It will probably be a situation where you just do what you can when you can and once the calendar chaos passes, then get back to a schedule. The race I’m training for is about 3 weeks away and recently I had written about doing a big workout to start the 4-week countdown. That’s the day I ran 8 miles. I’d planned on good workouts but guess what happened in the following 3 days: I did a 5K distance one day and nothing the other two.
Argggh!!!
How do you cope, or manage your emotions and all that, for when your training changes from the original plan? It could be an injury that forces the change, or some unforeseen event that needs your attention. I guess a wedding isn’t really an unforeseen surprise so I should’ve planned better but in my defense, I’m just the uncle! If the groom’s main objective is to make sure he shows up at the wedding, shouldn’t the uncle of the bride have even less to think about? Turns out that’s not true. When the wedding is in the city where you live and the mother of the bride is your sister, you *might* be assigned tasks and it’s best to keep your head down, say yes, and take your bike out the next week.
-Out of the Wilderness
Out of the Wilderness 