Wednesday, 4 July 2007

To Plan Or Go With the Flow?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have a tendency to plan things in great detail. I do this with all things related to my fat loss goal such as planning of all of my food and my exercise routines. The main reason I do this is because it gives me a sense of certainty. For example, if I know that I need 2000 calories a day and I plan my food to exactly 1500 calories a day then I can be fairly sure that I'll lose 1lb of fat in a week as there are 3500 calories in 1lb of fat.

Planning Problems

However, there are problems when it comes to planning, especially when that plan relies on a certain amount of progress being made. Here's an example: when I first started running I had a goal in mind. I wanted to run 5k on the 22nd July for the Race for Life event. I also knew what my starting circumstances were so I took a logical approach and drew up a plan of how I could go from where I was to where I wanted to be (in running terms) in the time that I had available.

The plan went something like this... I started out running something like 10 minutes in blocks of two minutes at a time and walking for a minute in between. Each week I would increase the overall duration of the run and over time I would increase the length of each block. The aim was to get me to a point where I would be able to run for 40 minutes non-stop. I did this on a spreadsheet in a very linear fashion and it all looked fine but there was a fatal flaw in the plan - it did not take into account my physical and emotional states and capabilities.

Plans Have to be Executed by People

When I first started out I made progress quite quickly and looking back I think the reason for that is that my fitness has increased quite a bit from my other exercise so I started out being able to do more than I realised. However I soon hit a wall and then workouts became serious effort and this is where the problems started. I find running hard, really hard. And painful. There were times when my legs were screaming and I can't put myself through that kind of pain unless I'm in a certain emotional state. I have to be feeling highly motivated and fired up, and physically feeling fresh and strong. But of course I simply don't feel like that every day.

Many days I would drag myself down the gym early in the morning, I'd be yawning away not looking forward to another day in the office and just feeling generally low. On days like that I just didn't want any more pain. Yes I'd think about my goals and visualise the results I wanted but on some days I simply didn't care! I was happy to do a workout as long as I didn't have to push too hard and for me, running was always hard.

Plans Must be Able to Accommodate Change

I found myself getting stressed because the routine was not going according to the plans I had laid out. In my first plan I was trying to increase my overall duration by three minutes per week and at the time I ran three times per week so that equated to a minute more on every run. Once I began to hit that wall I couldn't find that extra minute in me and then of course the next day I'd need to run an extra two minutes if I wanted to stay on plan and that's the problem with a plan that relies on a linear progression - one slip and the whole plan falls apart.

Another problem is that if I push myself really hard it tends to have repercussions later on. Sometimes they are physical - I'll get such cramps in my legs that I wont want to run for a few days or they are emotional - I keep thinking about how much the last run hurt and I end up skipping gym sessions in the following few days. This is counter productive - two average workouts would be better than one great one and one skipped one!

Ditching the Plan

I've already decided to pull out of the race so I feel like the pressure has been lifted but I would still like to persevere with running simply because it's such a convenient form of exercise. I don't need a gym and I can run anywhere. A week off work doesn't have to mean a week of missed exercise.

After a holiday in France I wanted to get back into it but I didn't want to dive in and push too hard and just put myself off again so I started off very gently. I went right back to basics. I had plotted out a 3k route and my only objective was simply to complete that route on foot, be it walking, jogging or some mixture. I started out just walking and I didn't look at my watch at all. Of course after a while I was warmed up and I felt fine so I moved into a jog. When I got tired I just stopped and walked again. I didn't check my watch, I didn't try to 'reach the next milestone' - I simply did as much as I felt like without pushing too hard.

Of course it was not a fantastic workout. I would have burned more calories by doing a workout on one of the elliptical machines at the gym but that's not the point. What I am trying to do here is reintroduce myself to the idea of running as a form of regular exercise. I can supplement my routine with gym sessions to ensure I do enough real fitness but as far as running goes I just want to try and get comfortable with it.

Progress Still Needs to be Measurable

The question is, will I get any better? If I just go with the flow in this way and don't try to set myself any goals or time myself in any way then how will I know if I am getting any better? And if I don't get any better then what is the point? What I think I can do here is use a couple of methods of measurement that are much less formal than the plans I used to draw up.

Firstly, I can plot new routes that are longer. My 3k route took me 30 minutes and I walked most of it. Ideally I'd like to be doing a 30 minute workout that is mostly running but as I physically can't do that yet I'll settle for longer routes that I walk large chunks of. If I make the route longer then I know I am doing more without having to explicitly measure anything.

Secondly, I can time the overall route. Where as before I would have a strict schedule such as run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes, and repeat three times, now I can just do a run/walk mixture as I feel able and time it on a regular basis to see if I am getting any faster. Plus, I can use my intuition. How do I know I walked most of the route if I didn't do any timings? Well I just know! I can use that same sense to give me an idea of whether or not I am running more than before. Every week or so I can time the run so I have a better idea. If after a few weeks the same route is taking me the same time to cover then I know I am not making any improvement. Perhaps then I could try and use more formal methods to step up the effort a little.

For now, I'm going to just go with the flow and see how that works out.
(01/07/2007 13:40 | delete)

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