Why I Generally Ignore Training Plans

Often times, when I sign up for a race, I get urge to find a training plan. I have never successfully completed a training plan and have given up on the pre-made ones for the following reasons.

1. Psyched Up For A Second - When you first find a training plan you are excited. You think, "This is what will lead me to my dreams and goals." But after a week goes by, and you have a day that you can't fit a run into and you get bummed. Really bummed. Your training plan looks like another obstacle to traverse. This leads to many days of beating yourself up as you fall short of your scheduled plan. And that's no bueno. 
2. Because I'm Always Available - Training plans assume a lot. Perfect health, that you don't have a social life, and that you don't like to do things spontaneously. When you have a 10 mile day, but only really have 45 mins to run, for some reason it's easier to scrap the whole day then to just do what you can in that 45 minute window.  Do the 45 minute run, your training plan isn't going to yell at you for going against it, it's just a piece of paper.  Be aware of the inner critic who is talking down to you in these moments.  Choose to ignore that voice.
3. Put Me In Coach - Many training plans are based off of High School and Collegiate running programs and mentalities. Five days of hard running is just too much for those of us who aren't in college or High School. Interval training? Now we are adding a lot of complexity for guy or gal who is just trying to get in shape and have fun with running.

I've gotten really burnt out trying to follow programs. If you are just starting out, make a goal to run or run/walk for 3ish times a week for about a half hour each time. If you can't run the whole time, that's fine, you will work up to it. You want a plan that empowers you and makes you think, "Ok, I can do this!"

After some experience and understanding of yourself as a runner, make your own training plan. Modify ones you find on the internet and understand that it's just a guideline to help you run, it's not the end all Biblical truth. Running should be enjoyable and challenging. You will be more likely to follow a plan that reflects more fun.

Suffering

Photo by: Jay Mantri

Romans 5:3-5 (ESV) says,  "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Let me be a good Biblical Scholar, and take this out of context.  Suffering is actually good for you.  When was the last time you as a good American suffered?  We spend most of our lives avoiding suffering at all costs, but maybe that is at our own detriment.  Endurance, hope, character... these are big things!  Great things!  Maybe we are missing something in our lives when we avoid suffering.  Or even on a lesser scale, difficulty.  The most difficult thing a lot of Americans will do this year is file their taxes.  We are privileged in America to not have to face much suffering or difficulty, unlike other parts of the world.  Maybe this lack of suffering makes our lives feel stale and hollow.  Hollow lives tend to be filled with self inflicted suffering, as if it is built into our DNA.

A life without difficulty.  We will always find ways of filling it with suffering.  Maybe it's no wonder that heroin is on a rise in the suburbs.  Relationship issues can be a great source of self inflicted suffering too.  But maybe in America we don't chose our suffering well.  Our suffering doesn't produce endurance that leads to character and hope.  It leads to destruction.  We don't invite the right types of suffering into our lives.  We ignore our diet, physical and psychological states, and self medicate with TV, alcohol, relationships etc.   

Here's a solution, stick to your diet and exercise!  Suffer in the right way by keeping your negative thoughts to yourself!  Running is a great form of suffering!  It is one that I have found to lead to endurance physically and psychologically.  It encourages a healthy diet and surrounds us by good influences, you know, the ones who aren't into heroin...  If you are running, you will find you have little energy to fight with your significant other.  

Choose the good types of suffering.  You will know it's a good type if it produces endurance, character and hope in your life.

Running Nonsense

Runners often get the question, "Why?" I think for many runners, we are just as surprised by the question as the person who just found out you actually enjoy running. I like to ask people, "what about distance running seems so strange."  The answers vary, but usually are attributed to the time commitment, their own hopelessness of getting into shape, and those who believe that running is actually bad for you.

Time Commitment - I think there are a lot of us who get into our own heads with this one. People naturally avoid things that cause stress and committing to run a couple times a week or signing up for a race can cause stress. To avoid this stress, they don't follow through with the training. Everyone gets touchy when it comes to "me" time. Running is often perceived as something that is going to take away our precious "me" time. What most find, is that running is a great way to energize your day, allowing you to more fully invest yourself in your pursuits. Unless you are trying to break some records, just start out small. Run 1 day a week if that's all you can commit to, it's better than no days a week.

The Hopeless Folks - Some people are so pessimistic about their own health, that they can't avoid but spreading that negativity to others. "Oh, 3 miles, I could never..." and "You ran 31 miles?! I don't even drive my car that far!" Fact is, you can and you could if you would tell yourself a different story about it. "3 miles, I could work up to that." Don't put yourself down, you have the ability to get into shape to do anything, seriously, stop telling yourself no, and start giving yourself excuses why you can.

Running Is Bad For You - Most of these folks have some personal story or have a random fact from some study that they didn't read but heard about on the News. "It's bad for your knees." This is true, if you have crappy form or try too much too fast. Running is a discipline, you need to watch some youtube videos on good running form, like this one ---> http://youtu.be/zSIDRHUWlVo. Just because you are born with legs, doesn't mean you know how to use them... Don't run when things have some sharp pains, take a few days to rest. "It's bad for your heart."  This is true, if you are running a marathon every weekend at a race pace... don't be that guy.  Start slow, and gain some knowledge about how to run well, that seems to be the key to running for a lifetime.

Dilemma: When Your Ideal Self Conflicts Your Inner Wimp

When creating a goal, its important to realize that you are eventually going to get to the point when you are faced with the dilemma of following through with it or not.   You will wake up some morning and the bed will feel more satisfying in that moment than getting out of bed to heading to the gym.  Or that bag of candy will seem more appealing than the mere goal of reducing the amount of sugar intake you allow yourself.  The Dilemma.

If you are anything like me, that little voice in your head telling you to sleep in or eat the candy tends to be more loud and annoying than your will power can handle from time to time. I like to call that voice my inner wimp.  When in a dilemma, caving in is a simple way to stop the anxiety your inner wimp provokes.  So what is one to do?

History books are full of people who have been able to overcome difficulties in their own minds and live out their lives in a way that doesn't yield to the inner wimp. So how do we overcome?  Psychology will tell you that people change for many reasons but for the sake of achieving a goal such as getting to the gym or eating properly, the change has to be seen as an extremely positive thing.  In fact, it must be so overwhelmingly positive that it is seen and felt as the truth.  You must believe beyond a doubt that going to the gym isn't just going to help you shed a few pounds, but it is actually going to save your life.  You must be compelled that, this "going to the gym business" is the only way of life.  The old is gone, the new has come.

Expect some "set backs."  These are normal.  At least I hope so because I have them all the time.  I haven't run in two weeks, but have a marathon this month! That is, a great example of the inner wimp getting the best of me.  But during these times, beating yourself up about it isn't going to help.  Just know that the real you, the best version of yourself is out there waiting, you just have to get back up and start where you left off.  Set backs don't equal you not reaching your goal.  They only appear in the moment more catastrophic than they really are.  It's another example of the inner wimp blowing things out of proportion.

Your Goals Await! 

Outlandish Goals

Without a big goal, I get lazy. (Even with a big goal, I get lazy... more on that later) But I need big goals, ones that kind of freak me out to get me motivated.  This is especially true for running or general exercise.  I like the idea of being the type of person who can show up any given weekend for a marathon and do it no problem, but that takes a lot of work.  So last year I came up with an idea for myself.

I was training for a 50k and as I was putting together my training plan, I noticed my 26 mile run was going to fall right around my 26th birthday.  So I thought, "Hey, would ya look at that, a mile for every year."  I did it, and I liked it, so I thought this would be a good goal to help me maintain the lifestyle of a runner.  The older I get, the more sure I have to be to stay in shape.

A week ago today was my birthday which means a day of celebration and a day of running.  This isn't a new idea, people have done this before me but it's very compelling to me.  They say a male is at his peak athletic ability at age 27, I don't want to miss this year of my life by sitting on a couch somewhere wishing I was the person who could go out and run a good distance, no problem.  So I did 27 miles this year, not nearly as good of shape as I was in last year, but it was still fun and rewarding.  You can check out my run by clicking HERE

Dream big, make outlandish goals, then do them.  It's much more exciting for me to do that, than to making sure I have watched the season premiere of Breaking Bad and its my guess that it's much more exciting for you too.

What are your outlandish goals?

Just Another Day

7-11-13 is just another day, nothing too special about it, unless you like free slushies from 711, then its an awesome day.  Other than that, today is just another day... or is it.  The fact is that everyday is what we make of it.  We have the ability to do anything we want to do with our day, yet we often forget that fact.  Sometimes, we can get into a rut that determines our day for us.  For instance, our mind says, "Thursday, wake up, put on pants, go to work, come home, relax..."  Our minds are always looking for the shortest, easiest way to get through any and every situation in life.  This, will lead to extreme boredom and possibly even depression.

Confuse your mind, play a trick on it today.  It will tell you, "Relax, you deserve to watch TV for 3 hours because of that hard work you put in today." But if you do something that it doesn't expect, like going for a walk or reading a book or doing one of those hobbies that often get neglected, your brain wont get mad at you, it will thank you.  It will say, "OH! well I guess it wasn't just another day after all... what does tomorrow have in store?"

Excuses

There are a million reasons why you can't.  

Focus on the few reasons that you can.

- Kara Goucher

Feeling the weight of this quotable fact today.  It's raining, kind of cold, "I need to enjoy my day off," my mind tells me, yet this sort of thinking gets me no closer to my goals as a runner.

Reasons why I should run today:

- I won't melt if I get wet.

- I have cold weather gear.

- Running is enjoyable, so I should do what I enjoy on my day off.

- It's not snowing, get outside!

- I will be more energized afterward.

- I will be making progress on my goals as a runner.

What are your excuses holding you back from exercise today?  Answer that, then forget them.  Give yourself an excuse to exercise today!