Day 21: Something is better than nothing

A nice short tip for today, again with the aim of maintaining your motivation and momentum:

Tip 21:  Something is better than nothing

Imagine that you have set yourself the goal of running your first marathon this year.  You are committed to your goal, you are tracking your progress and you have broken the task down into manageable and actionable chunks.  Your training plan today says that you should be taking yourself for a 'long, slow distance run, off-road for 2 hours, focusing on cadence'.  Unfortunately you live in the city and your nearest park is a 20  minute drive.  Your daughter neglected to tell you that she needs a lift to the station, your boss phones the night before and asks that you get to work early as there is an important client who will be visiting, and by the way 'expect to be working late too'.  Your partner then tells you that they need the car for the day and then you remember that you left all your running gear at the gym last night.  Running for 2 hours today is about as likely as the sun going round the moon.

We will all face times like these.  Life will sometimes get in the way.  The key to coping with these days is to be flexible.  The worst thing to do is nothing - if you can do something that is always better.  It will keep you in the routine of following your goal (remember the way to achieve your goal is to take action and 'little and often' works better than 'one big hit').  If you do nothing it may be just a bit too easy the next day to roll over in bed and not go out running 'because it's raining'.  Now the situation has changed - you had the time, it is the commitment that is missing.  So, what are your choices if life gets in the way?

• Can you swap your activities with another day? (Eg Half our sprint session planned for tomorrow instead of a 2 hour run?)
• Can you do part of your planned activity?  (A one hour run round the streets?  Cadence work on a running machine at the gym?)
• Are there any other ways you can think of to integrate your training with your day (Eg take the stairs all day instead of using the lifts?)

Remember, if you do have to lose a day, do not try to make up by doing double the next day.  Accept that the opportunity has gone and plan for the future.  What we are really emphasising here is that by doing something rather than nothing you will still be moving towards your goal and you will be maintaining the routine that is going to get you there.  Keep calm and keep going!