becoming “in training”
The idea of how we as coaches look at training cycles can be a tricky one! There are a lot of different ways to approach training, but I’ve always liked the idea of having times that you are “in training” and having times that you are “off season.” There are two reasons for this:
I find benefit in telling your brain “Hey, we mean business. It’s time to execute.” It’s true, no one run is going to make or break your training cycle, but it is good to understand when there’s more wiggle room. When we’re “in training,” we can certainly still have flexibility! We can have wiggle room! But there’s a little extra accountability that I like to pair with it.
It is not sustainable to always be at peak performance. It is not sustainable to always be building, building, building, until we get tired and burnt out. It IS sustainable, and reasonable, and realistic, and not shameful or embarrassing, to get “out of shape.” Our bodies need a break! Our brains need a break! Even the best of us isn’t a machine. For some people, that break might be a week or two where they get to run for the fun of it without worrying about data or mileage, and then they jump right back in, refreshed. For some, that break could be a few months, a season, a year, an amount of time where they like to focus on other aspects of their life and not have it revolve around a race. Or maybe they just need to give their body some time to focus on walking, strength, that adult soccer league they keep meaning to join.
I think a lot of coaches feel that there should be ebbs and flows, cycles of rest and cycles of builds, but the way we structure and describe and name these things can be really different! Some people prefer thinking of periods in terms of “transition periods” rather than “off seasons,” and I like that, too.
So what the heck am I even talking about today, what is my point, aren’t these blog posts usually just rambling diary entries about my running and whatever else is rattling around in my brain and not essays on the Theory of Run Coaching? Yes, and this one is, too. Hang on.
I’m on week 5 of my 17 week marathon training cycle. The weeks up until now have gone like this:
Week 1: Off to a great start, mileage is in, let’s build some momentum!
Week 2: The flu. Down for the count. 0 miles. Momentum is interrupted.
Week 3: Coming back. Getting some runs in. Long run didn’t really go as planned (see my last grumpy blog post).
Week 4: Weekday mileage is in. Momentum is building. Life happened and I missed another long run, the third in a row. Felt a little crushed and panicked. Moped for the allotted 24 hours and moved on.
Week 5: This is right now. Let me tell you about it.
Today’s long run was BEAUTIFUL. It was sunny. It was that perfect mix of warm from the sun but chilly from the air and if you push your sleeves up, you’re in heaven. I finally ran on a trail I’ve been excited to check out since we moved to Philly. I stole Sam’s New Balance Super Comps for a bouncier ride, my new knee pain (unimportant to the story but annoying) didn’t bother me, I finished an audiobook, all was more than well. I felt really comfortable through mile 9, got tired for the last 3, and told myself “this is the part that builds the fitness, take it slow and tough it out.” It was a really good run.
But during this run, I had some thoughts about training and what it means to be “in training.” I noodled a bunch on my own struggle to gain momentum and allow myself flexibility while also actually getting my miles in. There’s a real “life happens, be nice to yourself” versus “you can’t acheive your goals without putting in the work, suck it up and run” conflict inside of me. The coach version of me that holds my athletes accountable and the coach version of me that reassures my athletes when things go wrong meet the runner version of me and we all go into full paralysis. And on this run, I let all three versions of me hang out and voice their concerns in a productive manner (is this metaphor still working?) and we came to an agreement.
Running is important to me. My goals are important to me. And, for me personally, my goals can’t happen if I don’t flip the switch and tell myself that I am In Training, now. My goals can’t happen if I don’t find the mindset where I make sacrifices, run when I don’t feel like it, go to bed early and wake up early and eat the right foods and make smart decisions and do my strength training and stretch my stupid quads. And my goals can’t happen if I’m not nice to myself when things don’t work out, when I listen to my body and hear it asking for a rest day, when life happens and I need to pivot. But I’ll feel a lot better about giving myself grace in those moments if I know that I have flipped that switch, that I’ve become In Training, and that I’m doing the work it takes on the rest of the days. So after 4 weeks of floundering and being nice to myself and then mean to myself, yelling that I need discipline and then that I need rest, alternating between flexibility and accountability so rapidly that nothing gets done, I think I’ve finally found that last piece I needed to move forward productively. 5 weeks in, I am officially In Training, my friends. Let the games begin.