Comes the inevitable low…
So I’ve been very open about how I love my training, how it’s all going swimmingly and I’m rocking PB after PB…
I’ve been less open about the downs. But I get them too… So I’m sharing it today because there are some good lessons in it for everyone…
Well, that didn’t go as planned!
Um… Yeah. For those of you asking about how my competition went last weekend, my radio silence has probably been a clue. It didn’t go well.
What follows is an attempt to dissect, learn from this and ultimately put it to bed. So here goes:
As you know, I was competing in the 100m and the Long Jump and the problems began before I even got there…
FOMO, fear of missing out. We were talking about this after training today. Particularly on how a fear of missing out causes us to overeat, over indulge, to make sub-optimal choices regarding food. Here’s some examples:
– You want to be more healthy, but you don’t want to miss out on drinks at the girls night out.
– You want to fit into that new dress, but you’re out at a fancy restaurant and it would be a shame to miss out on pudding.
– You want to lose weight, but there’s that last slice of pizza and it’ll be cold and wasted in a minute…
Since I last wrote, the miles in my marathon training plan ramped up quite quickly. In fact, when I saw the second stage of the plan, slight panic set in. The honeymoon stage of training for a marathon was well and truly over. I told myself not to get overwhelmed. Break it down. One week at a time. One day at a time. Nothing was really that different from before, other than the increase in volume….
Conversations that wind me up – Episode #643
Note: this is a fictional conversation. But one that is inspired by several conversations I have in my life as a PT.
Chris: Hi, how are you?
Fictional Mum: I’m OK. Well, sort of. I’ve still got that problem with my [Choose one: hip / back / knee / neck] which means I can’t do [Choose one: sleep / run / exercise / drive]
C: Oh, no. That’s a shame. How long has this been an issue now?
FM: Well a couple of weeks, I think. Actually probably more… It’s been a least since before xyz and that was 6 weeks ago. So it must be a couple of months now.
C: That’s a long time. What have you been doing about it?
FM: Mmmmmmm. Well not much. Resting, I suppose…
The other day I was having a chat with someone at school.
“I’ve got to get back on track with my weight” she said…
“Excellent! What’s your plan?” I said…
Person: I’m gonna go back to Slimming World…
At this point I think I literally banged my head against the wall…
Person: Oh, you don’t like them then… but it always works for me.
Now, I’m not the type of person to slate people’s efforts to get healthy. Quite the opposite in fact, but I lose track of the number of times slimming world / weight watchers comes up in my world.
Me: “Oh it worked for you. Tell me what happened…”
Person: Well yes. It worked. I lost some weight. Then I stopped going, because (Choose one: I went on holiday / I got ill / it was my birthday, husband’s birthday, dog’s birthday) And, you know, the weight came back on again…
And this, my lovely readers is THE reason I don’t recommend slimming world or weight watchers.
The Funk.
“How are you?”, asked a mum-friend at school this morning…
“Tired, achey, grumpy and fucked off”, I answered, honestly, for a change…
“Oh!”
She was expecting the usual: Fine. Great. Happy. Energetic. Lively.
Bleurrrgh. I CBA-ed.
The hard thing with this job, is that that’s what people expect from you. All the time.
“You got 15 minutes to find your happy face, Chris.” I think to myself…
We all get funks. We all deal with them differently. But there’s a whole spectrum to bad, good, better, best ways to deal with them.
Which is what this post is about.
How Charlie Grew to Love Hill Sprints
Once upon a time there was this mum called Charlie. We’d just started the Newland Corner sessions. Which as many of you know involve hills. And sprints. Or even hill sprints…
This one time, Charlie was in a bit of a grump.
“I hate sprints. I hate hills. It’s so hard. I hate it…”
Now, if any of you know Charlie you’d be thinking… What? Charlie? But she’s so strong. And so fast…
And you’d be right… She is!
Last week I wrote about some of the reasons it’s so hard to consistently do the things we KNOW are good for us.
And having spent more time thinking about it, I think Reason #4 is really the crux of the matter…
Why is it so hard to do the things we KNOW we should be doing?
This morning, I was speaking to a mum…”My hamstrings are really tight…” she said.
Or checking in with a mum’s food diary “Not enough greens, I know…” she said.
Or me to myself after 120m sprints… “ I’m losing form after 80-90m…”
We know what we need: regular stretching, more greens, eat less rubbish, or do more ab work in my case.
And we know what the benefits would be: remain injury free, better health, stronger finish.
And it reality it doesn’t really cost us that much does it… 5-10 min every other day?
So why, oh why is it so damn hard to get it done, and done consistently?
Now confession… as I’m typing this right now, I’m not entirely sure I have the answer. In part, I’m writing this to make sense of my thoughts. So bear with me!
Let’s start with some reasons…
