I’m two weeks into this AutoBot experiance and things are going pretty much as planned. If any one is paying attention they’ve noticed no more posting of food and there hasn’t been a “real” blog posting since my I wrote a letter to my sis. Like I said, basically as planned.
What I didn’t expect was how hard it would be to get back into the swing of things, into the daily tasks of being fit. That mental fortitude to wake up early and get out of bed to make the time work out / run is missing. Partly because I know how important sleep and rest are, how often overlooked, but I also know how important body movement is to our well being.
We’re back to balance again aren’t we. Balance of a working stiff trying to be as healthy as reasonably possible while (supposedly) pursuing a very unreasonable goal of 100Miles.
That’s another post, so onward.
What I have done is continued to evaluate myself, my resources, and present situation. Understanding ones present situation is key. We have to own where we are and what we are capable of, in both our day to day and our physical fitness capacity.
I keep reading “train at your fitness level”. This is a phrase I’ve heard time and time again but never really paid a whole lot of attention to. When I was “just” a runner I would look at training plans and choose the one that correlated to the speed I wanted to run at. I would fool myself, convincing myself that I could better my 5k time by a minute or two which meant I could reach that Marathon goal pace that I wanted. Then I would choose the program that corresponded to the pace I wanted to run.
This would eventually lead to break down, failure, and disappointment, and looking at the program wondering if it was the right one for me. Often in the middle of a program I wouldn’t be reaching the pace goals so I would switch programs because “this program isn’t working for me.”
Stupidly arrogant.
Instead of looking back at the root, choosing of the wrong program for my current fitness level, I would blame the program. As I just said, I can be pretty arrogant and ignorant at times.
With a weightlifting program I never had this program. It’s very easy to recognize where you are and work from there. I guess that’s because if you try to forge ahead in a program designed for a 500lb back-squater and you’re only at 350lb you get stuck, figuratively and physically, real fast. So why has it taken me so long to really grasp the concept of training at your current fitess level in the arena of running?
Well I don’t have an answer, but I do have my solution. Honest evaluation of my present resources and capabilities. One of the steps in that is honestly accessing how much time can be devoted to training. Not reading programs and thinking I’ll cram that into my schedule, not deluding myself with the “what ifs” and “if I could” wishes. In his podcast Lucho often expounds on not going there. If you only have 2 days a week to really train don’t bother with thinking about what if I could train for 3 days a week. Figure out what you have to work with and do the best with what you have. That’s real life.
And that’s the purpose of my AutoBot experiment. To create life long lasting habits that allow me to realistically achieve the physical, mental, and emotional goals I have for myself. And to hopefully inspire you to do the same.
Now, go for a walk and evaluate what you can do right now to achieve the goals you have.
