Flexibility (literal and figurative)
Contents
Flexibility is King
Anyone that knows me knows that I am a planner. I’ve put extensive spreadsheets together for certain trips with details on where I could stay, what the costs will be, what time I expect to arrive and depart places, and what kind of foods I might want to eat while I’m there. As I have been putting in a more consistent effort in my training and my research I am reminded at how frequently one must readjust to everything happening around, and to, you.1 No plan is perfect, despite my efforts, and so you must be willing and able to change the plan when you need to. Below are a few examples from my own training that I have run into recently.
Annual Training Plan
It has become pretty commonplace for competitive athletes to develop an annual plan for their training. Even though you are not racing the whole year round does not mean that there is not specific work you can be doing to prepare for those endeavors. You can probably think of similar parallels in other aspects of your life.2 Over the years I have put an increasing effort into such an annual plan. I find it helps to keep me rooted in what I am supposed to be doing each week. It enables you to keep your eye on the horizon even when the sun hasn’t risen yet. I am likely not qualified to go into the details of everything entailed in such a training plan but think that a quick visual might help those unfamiliar with the idea. Below is a visual representation of my own annual training plan (ATP) for the 2017 season. (Click to enlarge)
Depending on how you want to think about it, the vertical bars are essentially duration or distance. The trophies represent the different races I plan on doing (A, B, C are priority designations). The different colored sections on the bottom represent the different “phases” of training.
I’ve already had to change my priority races due to the unfortunate canceling of the Wildflower Triathlon. 3 Fortunately, that is far enough out that it doesn’t really affect my current training. While I’m bummed about missing that race it means I can prioritize another one. In this case it means I’ve currently decided to take another crack at the Oregon Dunes triathlon, where I hope to better my performance of 2:27:09 (5th place) to a sub 2:24 time and a 3rd place or better finish.4
Running (or lack thereof)
Despite some of my racing performances I have actually been doing very little running since my ultra-marathon in Iceland. Even before that race I had been having some tenderness/pain in my left heel. I’ve been through a few injuries here and there over the years and as my maturity and understanding of my body has grown I’ve learned to give myself rest over “pushing through it.” This has been a different beast though. After the ultra I basically stopped running and supplemented my need to workout by swimming and biking more.5 Despite these efforts my foot has not gotten much better. I’ve been through PT, acupuncture, and x-rays and nothing raised any red flags as to the cause. The general consensus has been an imbalance/weakness/tightness of my leg as a whole might be the culprit and stretching will help.6
Time will tell but it has served as another reminder to how important those “little things” like stretching can be. I always tell myself I don’t have time to stretch but if I have the time to sit in front of the TV for more than 30 minutes each day then I have time to stretch. There are different sources out there that will say you do or don’t need to stretch, especially if you already have a habit of doing it or not already. 7 It is too easy with those kinds of things to cherry pick the one that you want to apply to you and continue doing what you are doing. Change is hard after all so why not avoid it? Pay attention to your body and continually test to see what works and what doesn’t.
Make Time to Improve
My wonderful fiancé gave me four swim lessons from local USAT coach Scott James8 for my birthday. My first one is tomorrow afternoon. Despite my normal Wednesday workout routine I am prioritizing this over that so I can focus on improving my weaknesses. I will likely tailor a number of my swims over the next several weeks to emphasize the skills learned in the lessons, which will be difficult for me since it is easier to just swim with the form I have than to try and work harder to improve upon that and make that the focus instead of what my pace is. Identifying what you can do to be better at whatever you are doing is vital for your success. I believe we must constantly push ourselves to be better: physically, mentally, and personally. There is a time and a place for the phrase “That’s how I’ve always done it” but your personal betterment is not it!9 Take time to assess your strengths and limiters and then make time to work on your limiters.
- It could be a rainy day that keeps you from riding outside, it could be getting sick and being incapacitated for a day or two or twelve, it could be your research is too enthralling and you need to postpone lunch until 5 PM because you need to finish “just one more” experiment first. Something can always come up that changes what you had planned. ↩
- In the home: You cannot fix everything that needs fixing today. You’ll probably plan more outside work when the weather is more accommodating in the summer. Likewise you’ll do more interior work in the winter. At work: You might have a process by which you establish what your objectives are for the year and develop projects to work towards those goals. Maybe you need to sell X amount of widgets, or reduce costs by Y%. You need a plan to figure out how you are going to get from where you are to where you want to be. At school: You outline which courses you will need to take each term to progress through the material. Within each class there are certain objectives you may have, and certain action that is needed to complete each. ↩
- Slowtwitch article on Wildflower being canceled: link ↩
- This is where some of my excessive planning helped because I already had a list of most all the races in the area that I was interested in so I was able to quickly identify another race around the same time. ↩
- It may still seem like a lot to some, but since the ultra I haven’t run more than about 30 miles in a single week and have averaged less than 4 miles per week. ↩
- Various stretches and strengthening exercises have been prescribed. It’s been my challenge to keep up with them. Recently I decided to take a scientific approach to it in order to try and isolate the variables and establish what the root cause is. I can’t make any conclusions yet, but I think a more consistent stretching routine is helping. ↩
- For instance, a quick google search turned up both of these articles: “Stretch or Die” & “Reasons Not to Stretch” It is important to note that these articles are not talking about the same thing. Yet another reminder why it is important to actually read the article and not just the title. ↩
- Scott’s Website: link ↩
- I think an example of an acceptable time and place is when you are defending your favorite pie recipe ↩
