Running Home

Squeezing in some training is not always easy. It takes lots of planning, time management and the ability to ignore all the planning and time management and just make things up.

The other day I had to get a run in. The weather was great - not the -47C like it is in the death march picture. But there was no time in the morning. Lunch time couldn't work. After work was a non-starter too.

But the plan had me running for 50 minutes! Improvisation is a much ignored component of training. Sure, when training for an Iron-distance race you have to spend lots of time sitting in the saddle and countless hours staying wet. Then there is the excessive overuse of running shoes with every stride, pace and hit of LSD.  And nutrition, can't forget planning what will get ingested and digested

But after all that. One little curve ball on race day will change the game. Mind you with the public nudity regulations,  any ball play should be avoided on race day.

A flat, too much heat, constant rain, dropping your nutrition stuff, a delay in the start, a crash, a blister - there are more adverse things that can happen in a race than can be imagined.

What's a triathlete to do? Be prepared to improvise. Change the game plan and make it up right there and then. Just keep going. Use leaves if you have to!

There is a peace of mind that comes with knowing that you can improvise and that you have the mental toughness to get through most situations. As oxymoronic as it may sound, practising improvisation in the safe and relatively easier setting of the training season is a good way to fill one's mental tickle chest with all the savoir faire and presence of mind to survive what would otherwise end a race.

So I had to run. I got a lift to work. I worked through my breaks and this little piggy ran all the way home (and around the park too).