Friday, June 01, 2007

Change the question, change the mindset, change the solution.

Other than talking about pink pants in my previous post, I mentioned about changing my mindset.

Last night was a good example. Every Thursday, I have fellowship and I also have to do a swim and a bike session.

If I plan to ride for an hour, I always end up riding less. Last night, I accept the reality. The fact is I can't fit two training sessions plus fellowship in one day. That's just not enough time.

On Tues, I have the same two sessions. Swim in the morning and bike after work. Yet I was stress free. I wasn't rush.

Why is that?
Then the solution was staring in my face.

My rest day is on Monday. Why don't I move the rest day to the Thursday?

Then my training won't suffer. I can attend fellowship. And my stress level can be kept low.
.....

Here is another thought I had last night:

Every season when I started training, I asked myself this question: "How many hours do I need to train for X race?" There will be no solid number but the mentality is to cram as much hours as possible. I have done that last year and there were a few times where I almost burn out.

The question should be how can I adjust my lifestyle so that I can sustain a high volume of training?

Once again, a change in question led to a change in mindset. For the past few weekends, I kept my schedule lax. Any activities that doesn't support my training are reduce or eliminated.

Last season, I will get up early, rush to train, rush to go out. Every minute counts.
This season, I give myself more buffer. Get up at 9. Take my time to get ready. I make sure I have adequate recovery before heading out at night. Mentality is to keep it lax, keep it fun.

Tomorrow..a long bike ride, a good swim then a movie at night.

Life is good....

3 comments:

Brent Buckner said...

As I'm upping intensity I have to restructure my week too - interval workouts late in the day muss with my sleep.

The jigsaw puzzle challenge of getting things to fit can itself be fun!

Enjoy your weekend - sounds good.

Dances with Corgis said...

What movie are you going to see?

It's funny how swapping around and figuring out the workouts is such a key component of Ironman training.

Unknown said...

Interesting approach - that's the way to get the right answer, ask the right question!