Making running fit into your schedule!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 · Mike Davis

The past few months haven’t been my best months of running and I am somewhat disappointed with my current conditioning. I always find it a challenge to maintain consistency in my running while coaching the half marathon group. Finding a balance between leading a large group, working with individuals, strength training, working, home life and life itself is always difficult. My running and strength training become sporadic void of conditioning and direction. For me this is a frustrating feeling and one that I continue to seek a solution.

Let’s look at my past week for a good example of my point.

We will start with last Monday where after coming off working the weekend, I did get out of bed early and strength train. Good job! Monday night I met a client after work for an individual workout.

Tuesday was group training and we ran 45 minutes, where I did enjoy a nice run.

Wednesday I was to get up and meet a client early for her strength training, but she pushed it to the next day. So Wednesday ended up being a nothing day for me. Should have done something!

Thursday I met my client for strength training and that went well. Thursday night was a 50 minute group run which was great.

Friday after work I did get a good strength training workout in.

Saturday I actually biked alongside my group as they ran the race course. Personally I don’t feel like I get a lot out of biking but I did bike 21 miles. Saturday afternoon I did mow my lawn and that’s a workout for sure!

Sunday I did nothing except eat! After church, I made waffles, later on we went to the movies where I ate way to much popcorn!

To sum it up, I ran a total of 95 minutes, biked 21 miles and strength trained twice. I suppose that’s not a terribly bad week, but ideally I like 4 good runs and 3 days of strength training. I’m not beating myself up or trying to sound ridiculous because I understand the ups and downs of running all too well. Beating myself up isn’t productive and looking forward is far more beneficial. What last week was no longer matters and what this week will be does matter. So now I have to plan out my week based on what I know my schedule looks like. Taking into account my time, commitments and even the stormy weather, I will try and get in 3 runs, 3 strength training sessions. Today will be a strength training workout, tomorrow hopefully a run, Wednesday another strength training, Thursday night run, Friday my third strength training and Saturday I will complete my workout week with a run.

I find it equally as difficult in my dealing with many of my clients and their schedules. Very few are able to maintain a regimented training schedule within their busy life styles and that often leads to their training suffering. There have been a few that have followed the training plan I laid out to almost the letter, but most struggle to make it all work. This has been consuming my thoughts lately and how I can not only provide someone with a great personal training plan, but how I can help them stick to it. The training plan itself designed for the particular individual and their schedule, but that means they have to be consistent with their schedule. Not many people are and that usually means running gets the short end.

So I think I have come up with additional strategy when training individuals. Without getting into the details, I am going to continue to personalize individual training but even more. What good is a great personalized training plan if the client can’t make it work? My plan is to set up training with the runner in mind and evolve as the runner progresses or in some cases cut back if the runner dictates. There’s no sense in trying to force the runner to progress if their training does not indicate that they should. My goal is to help each individual on their terms not mine or some set plan. Now that’s what I call personal training!

I started this rambling out earlier this morning and now it’s nearly 8PM! I did do my strength training today, so I have one of six done for the week.