Friday 5 October 2012

Failing to plan is planning to fail

When preparing for Ironman I had a daily, weekly, monthly plan which I followed to the letter as on a weekly basis I had to go over my results with my coach. Having this "control mechanism" in place helped me stick to the plan and push myself through the tough sessions. For Marathon des Sables I have no coach (as yet) and am making the plan up as I go. Part of my reasoning is that in the desert it is down to me so I'd better get used to disciplining myself in training. However the downside is weeks like this one. Having finished the run challenge which lasted the month of September and had me posting my results daily to the rest of the team (a control mechanism)my motivation has failed. I did a hard yoga session on Tuesday morning followed by a tough swim session in the evening. I took Wednesday off to rest (I only normally train 6 days a week) but yesterday only managed my morning yoga. Today I was going to practice my yoga before swimming but didn't manage to get out of bed. Had I a coach there would have been no doubt I would have got up, even though I am feeling very tired. Guilt is a normal part of this journey and I've analysed my week and realise I am tired - too many very early starts and two late nights which is not normal for me. But on Wednesday I will be travelling on a train all day so I am going to set out my plan. That way I won't be like a rudderless ship and get back on track as there are only 25 weeks to go and a lot of hard work to be done before then.