I need someone to write me a plan for the winter ahead! If I have a plan I’ll follow it!
If we had £1 for every time we’d heard this, we’d be wealthy people. We all love a good plan, the more detail the better. Throw some metrics in there that we can analyse and the excitement continues to build. The issue is, that whilst the plan may be perfect, we often forget that there’s a person who actually has to do it.
Training plans focus heavily on things such as physiology and biomechanics, but rarely take psychosocial factors into account. Here’s the key point to understand… writing the plan is never the problem, we can write plans all day long with incredibly intricate detail… the problem is that the ‘athlete’ doesn’t do the workouts.
For 99% of people who are not training regularly, the issue is not ‘a lack of plan’… the issue is, they can’t be arsed to get off the couch. It comes to us all, a lack of motivation and getting someone to write you a training plan isn’t the answer to the problem.
Now there could be a variety of reasons for the athlete not doing the workouts… they may be injured, they may have a busy work schedule or family life, or more common, as above, they simply can’t be bothered and have no motivation.
We live in a world full of people who are determined to stick to a January exercise routine or healthy eating plan, but repeatedly fail to do so. Writing the exercise or dietary plan is not the issue… there’s thousands of them available on the internet. The issue is, we simply can’t get into the routine or the habit and we fail far too easily.
The words ‘routine’ and ‘habit’ are critcial. When people ask, “what should we be doing at this time of year” then the answer is ‘developing a routine and creating habits’.
If you’re a runner, that might simply be running 5 times per week at specific times on specific days. For triathletes, it might be 2 x swim, cycle and run sessions per week at specific times on specific days. Here’s the important bit… the content of those sessions is NOT IMPORTANT.
Until you can manage to get off the sofa 5 times per week with no issue, the actual session content is irrelevant. Just do whatever you feel like and enjoy the most, just go and jog for 20-30 minutes, 4-5 times a week, that’s enough for now!
How do you develop routine?
1. Pick the days and times that you’re going to exercise in the week and stick to it. If you plan to run at 8am, don’t ever wake up and think… I’ll move it to a later time in the afternoon… we all know how that will end. The times and days need to be a set routine. If you’re short of time do less, but still go at the planned time.
2. Do what you enjoy. It’s easier to stick to a workout if you enjoy it. Going for an easy social run with friends 5 times per week is perfect. They’ll motivate you to turn up and enjoyment means you’re far more likely to stick to it. Group sessions always encourage commitment.
3. Drop the technical stuff. “I can’t just run with friends as my coach says I have to do 6 x 3 minutes at lactate threshold 2” … well isn’t that just the killer of joy when you get home on a cold and wet evening. At this time of year, consistency is everything, structure can come later once the habit has been established. Too tired to run at all? That’s fine, make it a 30 minute walk.
4. Changing / being flexible is fine. Training plans often make us feel like it’s all or nothing. If you normally run ‘hill reps’ on a Tuesday evening, but you get home exhausted, then go for a short easy run instead. Even if it’s 15 minutes, you still did something and you maintained the routine.
5. Whilst training plans can help you achieve great things, one of the wider issue with ‘having a plan’ is that you’re far more likely to feel like a failure, because you failed to achieve what was written on paper. If your plan says run for 2 hours and you only manage 30 minutes, or the plan says cycle for 4 hours and you only manage 1 hour, then the plan can make you feel like a failure.
In many cases, if people have been prescribed a ‘2 hour run’ and they don’t have the time or energy, then their first response is to do nothing, as they can’t do what’s scheduled on the plan.
It’s the all or nothing mentality… “The plan says run for 2 hours and I can’t run for that length of time, so I’ll miss today’s session and pick up the plan tomorrow”
It’s fine to be flexible, just go and jog for 30 minutes, do not let the plan become a cause of stress and pressure which will inevitably make you feel like you are failing.
In conclusion, consistent exercise is always the most important target. Be flexible, choose what you enjoy, do it with others if that helps and simply just do something. Be wary of following a specific ‘plan’ as this can bring it’s own pressures which sometimes have negative consequences.
Regards
The Endurance Coach