The answer to this is yes. They are important for multiple reasons but understanding what should be included and when to change it up may not be well understood. Though it is equally as important. Not really having a clue as to what it was before I started looking into it for my goal made this a rather daunting yet needed experience. What type of plan would I need? When should I move to a different harder one? Are there plans that will see me all the way to the end of my goal? Do I have answers to all of these no, do I have answers to some of them yes. Through what I have learned as I will explain in more detail Training schedules are not as scary as I first thought. They are important but they are also flexible for you to be able to succeed.
Training schedules like most plans can be altered as needed. Now the general idea is that you are not supposed to or going to need you, but life can demand some alterations. Like, say how teachers may need to alter their lesson plans or parents alter plans based on the needs of the kids. The internet I quickly have learned is full of different ones for any sport or activity that you could imagine. Then they go further, and people have posted them across the internet forever level of that activity. Which made it a little daunting at first looking through them. Taking the time to scroll through and not just trying to find any old one allowed me to see what types of things there were inside each level of ability.
Google to me was the most obvious place to start, that may or may not have been the first issue in getting overwhelmed that I had. I started with looking for one for runners, but quickly realized I need to work up to that as I am not even to that yet. So, I redid my search for walkers which seemed like a better place to start. Even looking for a walking training plan there were a lot of options and while I have not found one yet that I will follow I have found a lot of ideas of what I want to include in it and what I should be aiming for. All of them had a time or mile amount that you were supposed to do each day. Depending on the day I may prefer one of the other, I am sure I am not the only one who has noticed this.
As I am going through looking at the different training schedules a common thing across all of them is that they do not have you doing the same thing every day. They have to cross-train involved at least once a week. Now I cannot be the only person who often finds the cross-training activity preferable to the regular activity. Or is that how it is supposed to be. I have done the walking so much that the activity that is supposed to break it up is preferred. Throughout the week though even with the cross-training, they want you to increase the time or distance of the regular activity, which in my case is walking. This is still the setting of alarm bells in my head because of hurdles in this adventure that I am still dealing with. For the record this week has not been a good week for them. They have been winning. But I get the idea of wanting to increase these areas because you are wanting to push yourself to improve to reach your goal.
Some great ideas if you are looking for cross-training ideas are cycling, swimming hiking, rock climbing, inline skating. These are just a few from the list that I found and the common theme to me seems to be just keep yourself active. Which for this type of plan sounds smart. Two of the things listed sound like a lot of fun to me and more enjoyable than just walking. But again, that is probably because I have been doing it so much. I told you already the cross-training ideas are more appealing to me than the regular activity. Now if you are like me and struggling with this idea of time and are wanting to do cross-training there are also YouTube workout videos. Yes, those videos at the beginning of the pandemic that everyone was doing because all the gyms and workout classes that we went to in person were gone. I have also been trying to go hiking more. Not as part of a cross-training thing but for fun so as more of in addition to all of this. Though I would have to say aside from workout videos a personal favorite cross-training activity that I can not do often is swimming.
Being consistent with the training plan is obviously how you will see improvement to it. Challenging yourself by increasing things to keep them challenging and interesting is important. Being consistent with just trying and doing something in addition to whatever your normal daily life activity is how you can even just simply create the habit. To be honest this has been my focus, just being consistent with doing some form of a workout to grow the habit that I am trying to make. Now if you had asked me yesterday what else I want from the plan I would have said to learn how to increase what I am doing to reach my goal of moving toward running. But today I am thinking that I need to start a little further back than that. Just going for a simple walk every day. Then increase the distance week by week before I even go into training plans and schedules.
Some people may try to power through and go straight to a running training plan and schedule. To me, that sounds like a great way to give up and not complete this. I am going against a lifetime of bad habits and a mindset of not being good at running. It is going to be breaking one habit after another and then replacing that with a good habit that goes toward my goal. So, no I am nowhere near ready to start looking at running training plans. And I had thought that I was ready to start looking at walking ones but realizing how much I do not like this form of exercise I am rethinking that for where I am in this process. A month in I am still very much struggling with the time thing, so a friend helped me break it down even further into what would appear to be more manageable goals to help me get to a point where a training plan might make sense.
What would you do if I told you that how you have been sizing your shoes for working out is wrong? As I have been progressing in this adventure, I have been excited to get a new pair of what I dub running shoes. Which is what they are, but I use the distinction to know they are shoes specially sized. If you are a runner or not, I highly recommend that you go to a running shoe store and get sized. If you are on your feet for long periods of the day without the opportunity to sit these shoes can make a world of difference. I will not recommend a brand or anything like that but more that you get this done as it is life-changing.
Having the right equipment as well as the right level of a training schedule for where you are at in your journey, I have learned is important. While you hear a group of fitness professionals consistently say just do it, you have the time. As I have been working on this goal and figuring all these steps out, there are a lot of mental blocks that people have to overcome, that those professionals do not seem to know or give credit to. Yet I have heard many more fitness professionals will work with you to help you go through the mental things and encourage you through them. Now I am not saying you need to fork out the money for a trainer. But in researching and going through the process of where I am at and what is causing my pitfalls, I have had to become even more aware of the voices that I am listening to and giving attention to. This has caused me to need to break some goals down a little bit further but the more important thing is that progress is still being made toward the ultimate goal.
Lemons or Lemonade 