Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Are we all like this?



I'm not sure if it is just me but I reckon that I have a good idea that I'm not alone in what I do. Every week/month I set my training schedule and plan certain key workouts that are a must-do and also try to include targets in terms of numbers of hours or mileage etc etc. So every workout is generally planned, except for those which are recovery or "go as you feel" workouts. This brings me back to my original line...."Are we all like this?"

Imagine these scenarios:
1) you wake up and have a 50 minute swim planned. You get to the pool and after 48mins you have completed your sets and are ready to get out, mission accomplished! no, no, no, you still have 2 minutes to go to get to that 50min workout, 48mins will not do, IT HAS TO BE 50MINS. You end up turning again and doing a few more laps just to get to that 50mins.

2) your weekly run mileage was scheduled to be 30 miles. It's your last run of the week and you have planned to run for an hour. You also need to do 9 miles to get the weekly total to 30 miles....after an hour you have covered 8.6miles and you are back at the front door! Do you stretch and enter the house? no,no,no you go once around the block to get the 9 miles you needed for that weekly total. IT HAS TO BE 30 MILES

3) you have a 4-hour ride scheduled and your route has got you back to your neighborhood after 3hrs 50mins. You come to an intersection, straight on is home and a 2min ride or you can go left for that extra 10mins....yep you've guessed it, left is the way to go....IT HAS TO BE 4 HOURS.

All of these scenarios have happened to me in the past week and do so on a weekly basis....Sarah will testify that getting the planned workout done as per the schedule generally makes me get back to house at least 5-10 minutes later than I always say.

It must be known that I am a huge number cruncher when it comes to training and have training logs going back for as long as I can remember, but for me the main reason for being obsessive about training numbers isn't just to make it look good in the log. The main reason is pyschological.....if you complete what you started out to do it makes everything that much more worthwhile. Completing a training session as scheduled gives a sense of accomplishment and over time all of those accomplishments will lead to the end goal, which may be a certain race result, qualifying for the Worlds, getting to the Big Island, or just hanging onto the wheel of the guy (or gal) that normally rips your legs off on the local saturday ride. Every single workout can make a difference!

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