Life is busy at the moment. I don’t have a free evening until December 18th and my weekends are pretty packed. Not that I’m complaining. It does mean that exercise is taking a backseat, especially as I’m not training for anything specific at the moment. When there’s no defined end goal, it can be easy to skip workouts or simply fail to schedule them in. My run on Saturday morning was a timely reminder that my fitness is waning, and I need to pay attention to it. Which is where my ‘Training for Life’ plan comes in.
When I’m training for something, namely a marathon, I am far far less likely to skip a pre-determined workout than if I’m doing it just for fun. As Ashley says, I’m currently ‘training for life’ so why not have a training plan for that.
I printed out calendars for the next few months, one copy for me, one for Tom (his is for his marathon training plan!) to stick to the fridge and tick off my workouts like I would any other training plan.
I’ve included my upcoming races, weekly Wednesday morning Project Awesome sessions, as well as the odd class that I know I want to try. My goal is to fill up the training plan each Sunday for the upcoming week to include at least 4 workouts each week plus a run! This way I am far less likely to skip a workout or fail to make time for them.
Obviously these plans are far less rigorous than a marathon or half marathon training plan, and my run plans will probably just be between 3-5 miles- until I join Tom on some of his runs, but I think this will be enough.
I’m ensuring that rest days are scheduled- probably two a week, as well as lower intensity sessions such as yoga/pilates (if these weren’t on the plan then I would definitely skip them!) I’ve also got two months worth of passes to Project Fit classes- (read my full review here) that I’m excited to attend for January and February to keep me motivated. I love the combination of cardio and weights in the classes- killing two birds with one stone! I love having at least one workout- Project Awesome– that’s in the plan every week, they name and shame if you say you’ll go then don’t show up!
What would be on your training plan for life?
Hi Charlie – you’ve inspired me to do something about the way I’ve let my workouts slip. Creating a written Training Plan for Life is such a good idea – it will help me re-prioritise my fitness. I’m going to sort one out and get a new goal to work towards. Thanks for this timely post!
I think it is definitely important to have some sort of plan, even if it is just for a couple of runs a week. If i don’t have a specific event that i’m training for, i find i very quickly stagnate & become the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. Any food is fair game and the trousers start getting tighter. We don’t have anything like Project Awesome (which does sound bloody awesome by the way) up here in deepest darkest Suffolk so i find the best way is to make sure that i always have some even lined up that needs to be trained for. Otherwise, this fatty fatty boom boom might never get off the sofa!!
I know what you mean about being busy. I’ve had a colour coded Google Doc with my training on for this last few weeks even though I haven’t been training for anything specific. I need it all written down and planned out or it won’t get done! Luckily marathon training starts this month so I’ll have the structure I crave 🙂
Ha, I totally do this too! I have a printed-out timetable and I plot down every Sunday what fitness I’ll do each week and on what days. It has to change every week due to studying and college weekends. I’m trying to find a set yoga class now I’ve quit my studio and I also want to join a running club in Oxford. But apart from that I mix up lunchtime runs with early morning runs depending on my week! It keeps you on-track 🙂