A Simple Question....

Last week I had a 1-1 session with my personal trainer. The idea is that she writes my gym training plan and then I work on it for a few weeks or so and then I go back and we tweak it. It’s helpful as my technique leaves a lot to be desired so she has been helping me a lot. Except I hadn’t been to see her for over 6 months. I know. Shocking.

My excuses range from injury, moving house, injury, travel, and then just feeling a bit bad for not going. So not going some more. And life was life-ing for us both.

Anyway, while we were chatting in between reps, (I say chatting, but actually I was lying in a pool of sweat and grunting replies to a series of questions) she asked this:

‘How has your running changed now that you aren’t running every day?’

Well that stopped me in my tracks. My reply at the time was:

‘I don’t think it has really’.

I immediately felt bad. The implication, of course, is that it should.

So the question has stayed with me. I’ve been rolling it around in my head a lot. Has my training changed? Should it have changed? How should I change it?

To be honest, I still miss the simplicity of the run-streak.

Newer readers may not know about my run-streak- you can read about it here:

When I was running everyday, it seemed easy to decide what kind of run to do and a pattern formed: easy runs followed long or hard interval runs, short runs on days where there were intense gym sessions. Saturdays for parkruns. Sundays for long runs. I didn’t think too hard about it. I didn’t need to.

The problem is I don’t think about it too much now either. I kind of tend to do what my watch tells me to do (mostly). Which maybe isn’t always the best idea. And to be honest I probably still prioritise running over other forms of exercise, which may be one of the reasons why strength training can feel so hard.

Me with my running bestie. Of course it’s actually Olympian Dame Kelly Holmes, parkrun ambassador, who I met at a recent parkrun.

Running is easy, not in the sense that it is carefree and low effort. It is hard. But it is flexible. It is free (after the initial outlay). I can go when I like and fit it around other things. I don’t have to be organised and book a class, send a bank transfer or set an alarm. Also, I do like to clock up 10000 steps and running helps to do that if you don’t have enough time to walk everywhere.

BUT I do want to do the other things, because my body does feel better for it.

Ideally I would like to do:

1 Barre Session (it’s a bit like Pilates but with some ballet thrown in)

1 long walk

1 gym session (at least)

1 HIIT session

1 group strength and conditioning session

1 swim

Ideally some sort of mobility session

I would also quite like to get the bike out from the shed and ride that too

But how much running? How much running is too much running?

When I was training for Manchester Marathon (back in 2018, pre cancer and pre covid), I ran 5 days a week and my only other exercise then was a weekly Pilates class. Times have changed. I may not be running as far or as fast, but I can lift up my husband. I don’t think I could do that back then. So I guess that’s some sort of progress!

See I told you this question was playing on my mind.

So, for now, I am going to try and plan on a week by week basis. Building in a range of opportunities when I can. It’s not perfect. Life isn’t perfect though. I tend to go with the mantra that ‘something is better than nothing’.

And also, shouldn’t we do the things we enjoy?

How do you plan your training? What do you prioritise?