This is the first deep dive piece into my training plans and boy have I picked a poignant time to tell you about them…
CHRISTMAS!!! 🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻
I wouldn’t usually talk about how I’m training because it’s so circumstantial. Everyone is different. And besides, no-one cares about hearing about what a mediocre athlete is doing anyway…
Yet, training over Christmas is a toxic time for those who train hard for the other 50 weeks of the year.
Do I plough on as usual, despite social pressure to relax and gorge?
Or do I sack it off? 11 days off is only 3% of the year anyway.
Sorry to not cause polarising chaos, but my approach over Christmas is in the middle ground.
Be assured, this is not a ‘survival guide’. Your hobby is not a case of life or death ffs.
At the heart of it, life is moving faster and faster.
Needing to ‘feel busy’, having a full-time job, a coaching business, and getting fitter and stronger, takes its toll.
Of course, this doesn’t mean going full cold turkey on running (intentional pun) though. You can still be ‘on track’ with your goals though. The trick is YOU defining what ‘on track’ means.
And so, my first principle is to be intentional about it all. Give yourself the permission to indulge and take your foot off the gas, briefly. Besides, you’re already planning how you’re going to get back on it after Christmas…
My second is to give myself some slack over the reps I do (weight lifted, distance ran, etc.). I’ve been running for almost 3 years now, training for 6 years. That experience is what’s developed, what run coach Greg McMillan coins, my internal GPS. A barometer of how in the bin you put yourself, effort in other words.
If I don’t feel like pushing myself past my limits as usual (coz that’s progression), then I won’t. But only for the festive period. Nobody cares if you put yourself in the bin over Christmas. People will only sit up and notice if you’ve put yourself in the bin over the last 50 weeks, because consistency is key.
My last principle is simple. Never say no to a mince pie. Say yes to seconds, then thirds, etc. Festive feeding is fuel for performance later. Thank your third helping of sticky toffee pudding (coz who tf actually likes christmas pudding??) for your marathon PB basically.
Anyone that trains over Christmas has my respect. The discipline to keep that fitness system going. To seek solitude from chaotic family time and signal their commitment to themselves.
Anyone that trains all year round, then decides to take the festive period off, then slip back into routine also has my respect as much.
But if you think training hard and eating clean through Christmas will give you some kind of edge. Then take a long hard look at the other 50 weeks of the year you’ve wasted…
I’ll end on a cheerier note with a Christmas story about Seb Coe’s intense rivalry with Steve Ovett. 🎄
Christmas Day, 1979. It was a harsh winter but Seb ran 12 miles on a snowy morning and was pretty satisfied with that effort.
Later that day, sitting back after Christmas lunch, Seb started to feel uneasy but wasn’t sure why. It dawned on him…
Seb thought “I bet Steve Ovett is out there doing his second session of the day!”
With that, he put his kit back on and headed back into the snow to do some hill reps.
Seb then told Steve the story. Steve laughed and replied “did you only go out twice that day?!”
Merry Christmas 🎅🏻
Lawrence x
