Sunday, January 3, 2016

Let's Talk About Plans

I'm not going to subject you to pictures of food today, mostly because I haven't eaten any meals. Unless you count toast as a meal. And I don't. I should have eaten meals today, but I got busy and forgot. I'll have a proper dinner, though, promise.

We took the kids out to dinner and to hockey last night and it was okay. They were very well behaved at dinner, the game was a good one, and the Gamblers won by a ridiculous margin, so there was lots to celebrate. We didn't get the kids in bed until damn near 10pm, which should correlate with them sleeping in. Every parent knows that's horseshit, though. Kids don't sleep in unless you need to get them up for something that requires being dressed and on time. Then they are sooooo tiiiiiirrrreeeddd, Mooommmyyyy.

Today I decided that 5 days of multiple workouts in a row was enough and took a rest day. Well, a Mom rest day which means I still did dishes and laundry and cooked things. I finally washed our sheets and finished all my personal laundry. Is there any better feeling than a nice clean bed and all your favorite workout clothes clean and properly sorted? I didn't clean the floors though. That's excessive.

Yay! I made my bed! My Mom would be so proud.

The last couple of weeks I've been gathering my plans for 2016. I got the first installment of my sub-2 half marathon plan from Nate-the-running-coach and put it in my calendar. I had a consultation at Nutritional Healing and had my blood work for my initial appointment later this month. I spent some time reviewing our family calendar and plotting out my yoga visits and WOD days.  I'm all about the plan.

Red = run, Blue = CF, green = yoga, black = other

And yes, I use a paper calendar. Phone calendars are fucking frustrating. I want to see the whole month laid out. I think in broad strokes, not minutia. 

Running this month is about teaching myself to gauge pace. Right now I have 2 paces: "This feels awesome!" and "Kill me now". These two paces might be the exact same pace depending on the day. I have run 11 minute miles that felt like flying and 8 minute miles that felt like running through concrete. If you asked me during each of those runs what my pace was my answer would've been "I dunno, maybe like 10 min/mile?" I just can't tell. So this month I'm supposed to run 10:30s, 10:40s, and 10:45s and try to feel the difference. I also have a 3 mile time trial so Nate can assess my current level of fitness. I'm a little worried about that, because it could be 24 minutes or it could be 33. I am nothing if not inconsistent. 

I did get a new toy to help me. I do love new toys.

Garmin 620. 

I have a Garmin 10 that is perfectly serviceable for distance and mile splits, but this one is programmable for intervals of time and distance and can cue me if my pace falls too far off goal one way or another. It also has a tracker on it so that people you designate can see where you are at any time. Like a lo-jack. So from a funsies and happy place "Your friends can see your progress in races and on training runs!" and from a morbid place "We can locate your corpse when you don't return from your run!". 

On the nutrition front, I decided that I need some help learning to eat for performance. I really want this sub-2 half marathon. It's been a goal for a long time and I feel like I'm positioned to achieve it, but I'm not eating enough. It sounds stupid for someone who has fought her weight her whole adult life to say she's not eating enough (especially if she's still a little bit fat)...but I'm not. I've spent such a long time trying to reduce weight that I fear overeating. I know I need to eat more to build muscle and perform at my best, but it's hard to shake the small portion habit. All it takes is a day of my jeans feeling too tight and I'm panicking about regaining all my hard-fought weight loss. As active as I am I need to eat to perform and to recover, but I end up sort of flailing around trying to figure out what goes where from a food perspective. I don't need to lose weight, and I'm not averse to gaining as long as my body fat percentage falls, but I need guidance. So Kerry-the-sports-nutritionist at Nutritional Healing is going to look at my bloodwork, do some in depth analysis of my body composition, and formulate a plan to help me move from "Oh no! Gains!" to "Hell yeah! Gainnnzzzz!"

Fantastic husband planned out the monthly menu.

We always do better with a plan.

We were sort of off book with the menu planning for the last little while. Doing it helps both me and fantastic husband. We know what to prep and when, what to buy at the store, and what's for dinner every night. It's also built in variety. I simply can't eat the same thing every day. I mean, I can, but after a while it makes me hate life. Now I can take out menu plan and my training plan to the nutritionist and tailor make an eating plan for my needs. I like to do this as a whole month as well. Again, broad strokes, not minutia.

A good plan is like a roadmap. It can take you anywhere. There are few things in life that top the high of executing a well organized plan. Well, for me. But I'm bookish and dull, so take that with a grain of salt.

Someone told me recently that developing a plan and sticking to it is boring. Well, that's me. I've been a planner all my life. Not just a planner, but a contingency planner. If there is a scenario you can think of, I've thought of it and 6 different ways to deal with it including contingency plans for failure of each of the 6 plans. And contingencies on the contingencies. I am rarely surprised and rarely unprepared. If plan A fails, no big deal. Implement contingency plan A-1. That failed? Plan B. And so on and so forth. If we get to plan Z and there's still no result? I was wrong, there is a god, it's fucking Armageddon and I'm about to be walking through hot shit with Christopher Hitchens for all eternity.

With a solid plan, I don't fail. I'm methodical, and I'm patient when something is interesting to me. Even if the progress toward a goal is minuscule. I am relentless. This spring is going to be made of awesome. I can't wait to rule the shit out of my fitness. 

I'm also organizing my non-fitness hobby. My yarns. Holy shit my stash is crazy out of control. I don't even know what's in there. But I will. I spent 2 hours today beginning the sorting and cataloging process. 

Barely controlled chaos.

As of right now all my tools are sorted, my needles are identified and stored, and all my random notions and finishing supplies are bagged and binned. Relentless forward progress.  Once I'm finished with this project I can get down to the business of planning my projects for the year. 

Plans, plans, and more plans, motherfuckers. It's how the world goes 'round. What's my plan for the rest of today? Mittens and tea, because I am interesting. 

Tomorrow is training plan Day One:  3 miles at 10:30min/mile, 10am yoga at Jenstar with Laurel, and 11:30 WOD at CFGB. Then an afternoon full of fuck all, because while I love to plan activities? I also love to plan huge swaths of downtime. Solitude is good for my soul, and this new pair of Cold as Fuck mittens ain't gonna knit itself. 
That second ball isn't grey, it's a gradient.

Are you a planner, or more fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants? Does my plan make you want to punch me?





1 comment:

  1. I love to plan. I have paper calendars that I print myself: monthly, weekly, short-term to-do lists, long-term to-do lists. I use a hole-punch and put them in a three-ring binder, complete with pretty-printed-covers. (I promise I'm not making this up. I can provide photos.) I love planners and lists so much that I spend 99% of my time perfecting them, and then realize I've got to fly-by-the-seat-of-my pants to the essentials done.

    It's the same way at my house. I get on an organizational jag, start with cupboards no one but me opens. I pull everything out, I start sorting into piles. Before I know it, I'm exhausted, out of time and while I've managed to toss out a substantial amount of clutter, the rest winds up haphazardly wherever I can find a spot. Sometimes that spot is in the middle of the floor.

    I think I need a plan for learning how to plan ... and yes, my comment is long enough it could have been a blog post of my own.

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