Mike’s Middle Distance Magic: Don’t Dwell on the Red!

Anybody that is a user of Training Peaks will understand this – briefly red is a failed session, amber is partly completed and green is a fully achieved session. Well I’ve quite often dwelled on missed sessions and never really looked at the bigger picture!

For myself in the past I feel I have always looked backwards and never forward. This has been a big problem for me as once one session has been missed this generally spirals into two, three or more sessions resulting in a “non” training week and massive inconsistencys in my training. Therefore as mentioned in my previous post my training has never really progressed and my fitness has just stagnated and never really improved.

What I have come to realise in the short time I’ve been with Ray is it’s the overall training week/month that counts and overthinking and stacking my training together really doesn’t help – not with the session I’ve missed and not even with the session I actually perform as I’m either too fatigued, annoyed or just generally been fed up trying to balance everything.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is think positive, believe in the training and get as many green sessions in as you can! But don’t dwell on the odd missed session!

Now having a coach is great.  It relieves  a lot of the pressure of writing plans and structuring workouts myself knowing that Ray is in the background making sure every session is tailored to me and my goals. However it is only myself that can do the training and structure it into my everyday life. After all triathlon is a hobby, albeit a very time consuming all engulfing one!

The reason I’m writing this is I had my first “red” session under Ray’s coaching on Sunday and I didn’t really know how to take it. I realise all sessions are never going to be completed, but as my motivation is high missing one was a bit annoying and something I don’t want to be happening too often if I can avoid it.

What I’ve learned this week.

1. Plan when the following weeks sessions are going to be completed and have a backup plan in case other commitments take over, but whatever I do don’t stack the tougher sessions later in the week.
2. As the title states “don’t dwell on the red”.  One missed session isn’t going to affect the bigger picture, but don’t let that one turn into two, three or more affecting the entire week.
3. Get out and enjoy the training.  It is what I’ve done this week and I’m loving it!

Bring on the next sessions with #qwikkiwi

– Mike Catton