Training Plans

Tonight's training run didn't start off on a good note.  I wanted to run 60 mins of hill repeats, and 15 mins into my workout I was feeling pretty good, but 30 mins into my hill repeats I decided the workout wasn't going in the right direction. 

It appeared to me that I really wasn't having any fun.  I know that not every workout is going to be fun, and most of my training runs are hard and difficult.  Since I was starting to feel like I wasn't really being productive in my workout, I decided to call it quits with the hill repeats and go do something else.

I recently took my son Brandon (age 6) and daughter Ashley (age 4) running at Woodward Park.  I do most of my training there, and this is where I was doing my hill repeats tonight.  I thought about how much fun my kids had running on the trails in the back of the park and I remembered that I specifically took them running on those trails because they're fun.

I decided to ditch the hill repeats and run, in what daylight was left, the trails in the back of the park.  I reset my Garmin and started a new workout.  I was set on making the second half of my workout fun.  For the next 30 mins I would have no real path set, no workout planned, no pace planned, and no real goal... except to have fun.

...and I had a ton of fun for the second half of my run. 

I ran for about 30 mins in the back of the park. I hit what limited single track trail we have at Woodward Park.  One thing I made sure not to do was look at my watch.  At this time I didn't want to keep track of my pace, distance, or really even time.  The goal was just to run around and take it easy when I wanted to, and run hard when I randomly felt like it.  Just a few seconds into my new run I felt so much better, mentally and physically.

One of the many lessons I've learned from running is that I can't be afraid to change my plans on the fly.  While it's good to go out with a training plan, or path planned... it's also important to let yourself deviate from the plan when the plan is going horribly wrong. 

One of the things that I feel is important to figure out, is telling the difference between hitting a rough patch that I just need to muscle through, and hitting a point where I seriously have to evaluate if I'm doing more harm than good by continuing my workout.  During tonight's hill workout I definitely feel like I was doing more physical and mental harm than good.

I'm happy that I've learned to let my ego go, and not be afraid to change things up when I have to.