Training, recovery, nutrition and races don’t always go according to plan. Life gets in the way, and you can hear God laughing (or Goddess). It’s not that one shouldn’t make plans, personally I think without a plan it’s much easier to get lost, without a destination it can seem like there’s no where to go.
My plan for this weekend was to run a 10k in hopes of making a PB and gauging how prepared I was for the marathon in two weeks. Well, that’s not going to happen. Normally, a cold wouldn’t stop me running, having the flu does. I do feel better today but running tomorrow could mean not running on July 1. Sometimes it’s better to be safe than sorry.
The past seven days were neatly planned out too. A couple of runs, a swim, a few weight training sessions, and some cycling. Instead they were spent in bed, with tissues, minty chest rub, lots of tea, and definitely no training.
Plans just sometimes turn to shit. You’ll have good weeks where each training scheduled will be just the way you planned it, then there will be those weeks where training will be put the side due to illness, an emergency, a party, work, or lack of motivation. These things happen. It’s life.
The only thing to do is start again on Monday, or even Tuesday. Off weeks are going to happen whether we like them or not. Occasionally it’ll be your body telling you subconsciously that it needs a break, and that’s ok. The important thing is to get back up tomorrow, or the next week and keep going with your training, continue planning and setting goals, and just remember that life doesn’t always go according to plan, but that’s ok too.
I’m not happy about not racing tomorrow, but I know that when looking at the bigger picture it’s probably for the best. After all, it’s the Gold Coast Marathon that I’ve been waiting for the most.
This is totally random, but when I ran with the middle school track team we always said “personal best”. But at some point I started hanging about with runners who say “personal record”, so now that’s what I say, too.
Bummer about your race! 🙁 Hang in there through your taper. Can’t wait to hear about your marathon!
Back in my days of swim training at school (long long ago) we used PB so it kind of stuck, though now I use PR sometimes as it’s commonly used when I read about other people’s results. It’s always nice to set a PB or PR, though sometimes when I think PR, public relations comes to mind – weird.