During my four year career in college basketball, I often looked forward to the summers. Those few months were filled with no strict training plan, no scheduled workouts. I knew I had to be in shape come September but there never was a plan on how to get into shape - I just ran. Those summers were filled with weeks of morning runs and track workouts. I was out on the road (or the track) all by myself just putting one foot in front of the other, letting my heart guide me.
It was thrilling to not have a coach telling me what to do. I could choose to run long or short, fast or slow. I didn't care about mileage - I knew my routes and my best times for those routes and I would just try to beat those times every time I ran the route.
Not much has changed since I left the world of organized sports. I still don't really have a training plan. I tried to follow one last summer and it worked well but I ended up having hip/knee problems. When I finally got back into running, I decided that training plans weren't really my style. The excitement for me is sitting down the night before and planning out the next mornings run. I think with a training plan, I take it too seriously and push too hard. I don't need the pressure, I just need to run.
I am not saying that training plans are bad or wrong. I basically have a training plan - it just isn't written down. I know each week that I will do a slower run, a longer run, a faster run, a track workout. Each week just doesn't look like the last. It is all about flexibility for me. Maybe someday I will give a training plan a try again and see how it goes.
So what am I training for next? Well there is the Boilermaker 15k (my 6th year running it!) in early July and then a half marathon in September that I am running for fun with friends along with many other fun races scattered in between (most likely 5ks or 10ks). What are you training for?
This mornings run was anything but uneventful! I was running a hilly out and back route and as I was about half a mile from home I was passing by a walker and tripped, rolled my ankle, scraped both my knees and one hand. It was not pretty plus I was embarrassed because I fell right in front of the woman walker! I half ran, half hobbled the rest of the way home to clean myself up. My ankle is still a little tender, I will just have to keep an eye on it all day!
4 miles/31:59/8:00 pace
Happy Tuesday!
28 comments:
Having never been pushed by a coach or needed to follow a certain training program before...I wouldn't know the first thing about preparing for races. I guess training plans are great for people like me :)
Those knees look sore...hope the ankle does not give you any trouble.
Been there, done that..... just not right in front of someone :)
The time I did it I was running *near* the high school track team doing their training. I was soooooo glad they were not right there, right then :)
Hope you knees and ankle heals quickly!
don't take this the wrong way but i love your knee injury!!! :) i hope you recover quickly though. and remember to wear skirts to show off the battlewounds :)
hooray for 6th year in a row running the 15k= WOW! that is just incredible. i'm doing that with the tufts 10k (this will be my 5th year). let's do that til we get old, okay? :) no excuses. i'll bring a wheelchair if i have to. heh.
Oh my goodness! That is a sign of a good workout :)
Ouch!! I hope your ankle is okay and that your knees heal up quick.
Awesome that your Boilermaker is coming up soon again, and that you have a half in the fall!
ouch to your knees! i can imagine how painful showering must have been after that!
currently i'm not training for anything but it's so cool that your doing #6 boilermaker!
OUCH!!!!!!
I'm so terrified I'm going to fall down! Glad it wasn't worse!
Owww. I hope your ankle is fine!
Hope it heals quickly!
Ouch! Hope you are ok. I'm like you--I pretty much have a training plan in my head, but don't write it down. I also don't log afterwards (probably should)
I have one good tumble a year it seems. Get well soon!
Ouch! Quite the fall- hope you heal quick!!
I want to do Boilermaker so bad!! a few of my friends are going up for my friend Bill's Bachelor extravaganza!
Ouch, glad your okay!
OUCH!!! We should try and say hi to each other at the Boilermaker this year!
Ouchie! That looks painful!!! Nice run though... ;) Hopefully you have them bandaged up and it dosent look so painful now!!! :)
Oh no, I hope you heal quickly!
I need a plan to keep me accountable or I tend to not do the workouts. However, I've been planning races that don't fit within a schedule well, so... eh, we'll see how it goes1
Ouch! That looks quite painful. I hope it heals up quickly. I am prone to tripping/falling but haven't taken a spill in awhile. For me the pain of the embarassment of doing it in front of someone is worse than the actual physical pain! :P
I feel lost without a training plan. I am just so anal - I like having a spreadsheet telling me what I need to do every day... I have tried 'going off the grid' but it never feels right!!
Oh, ouch! I hope you are not scrapped up too bad!
I think that your plan is the way to do it. Official plans only make us feel pressured, and we push ourselves too hard, like you said. I use a plan for guidance, but modify it.
Sorry that happened! I have a picture of a good knee scraping too! Hope your ankle feels better fast.
owieeeeeeeee!!!
Ouch!
I totally forgot about physical fitness tests until your post! Ah, memories!
I know what you mean, seems like running is a lot more fun when you don't have a set schedule, it takes the pressure off and the flexability is nice. I've only fallen once while running but it was definitely one to remember. It was at the start of a high school cross-country race and all I could do was tuck and roll and hope to avoid getting stepped on... let me be the first to tell you cross country spikes hurt!
Ouch! Hope the knees and ankle heal up quickly!
I agree I hate training plans, it makes it all less fun...but this marathon I really wanted to get faster and I didn't know how to do it clearly because I wasn't :) So I have been generally following a plan...at least more so than anything in the last 8 years!
Oooh those knees look painful!!
I kind of NEED my training plan - I thrive off of them! But I think it's super cool that you can train without one!
omg. hope ur ok! hope that heals well
J- you *do* have a training plan. It isn't all ticked and tied in a spreadsheet, but the fact you have a plan the night before is a plan! You have a big advantage over many of us too. Since you were an athlete, you are much more in tune with your body than most of us weekend duffers.
Keep up the good work!
I just fell a little over a week ago and had blood running down my leg. Of course I finished running...mainly because its too long to walk. I too found that my boo boo hurt for a number of days.
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