Reason vs. Excuses

We have all been there. Life gets busy and we do not feel like we can hit our goals the way we want. This has been my weak. In this post I am try to decipher between my legitimate reasons and my excuses to find my weak points and also talk about a conversation I had with Charlie Engle about all of this and training for this run overall.

My week has been busy! Students coming back to school, computer based state testing prep, meetings and calls about The Pain in the Canal Virtual Challenge, and a few board meetings all have been on the schedule. Mix this with being a father to an active 5 year old and you have a perfect mix of a hectic schedule. 

I honestly have been beating myself up over this all week because I often feel like if I really want something nothing will stand in my way. Did I make excuses this week that impacted my training? The answer to this question is always yes! I actively chose a few times to do something else that could have waited rather than training. These are the obvious excuses. Fortunately for me there were only 2 or 3 times this week that happened and really only provided me at most an hour or two of training. I did however look at it as rest for my sore calf and wanted to make sure I did not overdo it on my right leg just yet.

With all of that being said I need to make sure I remember that I have priorities and obligations and there are times where I am not going to be able to train the way I want! This is not the important thing from what I what I was told earlier today.

On a call with Charlie Engle who has done more running than just about everyone that reads this combine, Charlie pointed out to me that the number of miles is not the important factor for going into my run this August. The important thing is to focus on going in to August HEALTHY!

The fact that my days have started at 6 and end at 10 providing me only 8 hours to sleep and train is not nearly enough. I know this and anyone that has trained for any endurance event does too. So this week is going to have to be a light week and I have to focus more on getting the sleep I need to recover. That doesn't leave me off the hook for this weekend however! I still need to make sure I take some time to train and get the work in that I can.

Another shift I need to try and make is not to focus on the amount of miles I am putting in. Charlie stressed this to me early on our call. I need to focus on time on my feet. Walking and hiking count as much as running because this summer there will be a combination of all of this! With the plan, as of now, I need to spend 8-10 hours a day running (12 -14 if I walk a lot). That means I need to just get comfortable with being on my feet as much as possible!

With that being said I plan on taking a few calls while walking on the treadmill this upcoming week and maybe even a few calls while on a run. Charlie pointed out that he was out training during our conversation, so it was not too hard to do!

To start my weak though I get to see what it is like to be a lab rat! I will be going to Syracuse University's Sports Lab and having a whole bunch of tests ran on me. They are going to chew me up on Monday to see what kind of shape I am in and provide me with a lot of data points. The tests they are running are going to be:

1. V02 max test on a treadmill for aerobic capacity (15-20 minutes)
2. Wingate test for power (cycle test - 5 minutes)
3. Bod Pod and 3D body scan for body composition (15 minutes)
4. Heart and blood flow scans (20 minutes)
5. Heart rate variability and 12-lead ECG to see if you're overtraining (10 minutes)
6. Pulmonary function tests (10 minutes)
7. Saliva test to check your inflammation 

I will be very interested to see how these tests go and where I stand. We plan on running these tests again in May and possibly June, July, and August to see how my body has adapted through the training. I am excited and scared to find out a few things about my body, but this will be very helpful!

Also, later tonight I plan to launch the new YouTube channel for this and get a few videos I have recorded up. This was not my idea, but I do love the opportunity to use my voice as well as my blog to let people know where I stand. More updates about that will be coming soon.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to hearing your feedback. See you on the canal!