(Lack of) training structure

It is always the same when I am able to run. During the periods when I cannot run I start appreciating running much more (although…if my love for running increased every time I am not able to run then in last 3 years my love would go to infinity. But my appreciation for running always (slightly:)) decreases when I can run and therefore in the long-term my appreciation and love stays leveled.) and then when I am able to run again I do not want to do anything but run run run.

By the way, those two back to back long runs (*cough* 42min runs*cough*) did not cause any damage. I took yesterday off running (I was supposed to bike but I skipped that one as well and did it today instead for not reason but pure laziness) as a precaution. I did not feel any pain but I wanted to be safe. I did a short 20min run this morning and no problem.

I have hard time finding a motivation to go biking and not go running. Not sure why, I love biking, especially now with these great roads here. But still have sometimes hard time persuading myself to bike (but once I am on a road I love it!). I think that part of it might be that stupid bike and very uncomfortable saddle and just the overall relative complexity of biking when it is compared to running.

And swimming….I lack motivation big time. I know that I need the most work to be done in that department and it is one thing that keeps me going. I think that the problem here is that I do not see any clear purpose in those workouts. Last fall, Michelle’s workouts were to prepare me for IM swim. Then in winter, CH’s workouts were…actually I am not sure what those were for either but since I was paying him to teach me how to swim and make him faster I did not think about it. He was a coach, he knew that I wanted to race Oly distance and I did what he asked me to do.

I mean, I know what those swim workouts I do now are for (Tue is longer intervals, Fr is short and Sun is loooong and easy technical work in between and each serves it purpose) but there is no bigger picture/structure behind.

Let’s say I wanted to race such and such race on such and such date, then I would have a structured plan to get me there, right? But since now I have no races on my schedule, I am just swimming with no clear purpose.

I know that I am swimming to make me more efficient and faster and that counts but even in this macro-cycle/long-term/3-year whatever plan there should be at least some structure, shouldn’t there? And I do not have that structure. I am doing WHATEVER! And that makes me quite mad and is behind my lack of motivation to drag my ass to the pool.

I do not have that structure in anything actually but I somehow feel the lack of structure only when it comes to swimming.

Running- easy. There is no structure because I am getting back to running and just building base by putting miles and miles (even doing it by 2.5mile increments counts:)).

Bike – easy. No structure but I think that I can get into decent biking shape quite easy thus I am not worried. Plus, I cannot really do any 30min max sprints or threshold intervals because I am seriously worried about the bike. You might think that I am exaggerating but I am not! It is ok for cruising around but not for real bike training. I just hope than when it breaks down that someone will give me a ride home. Thus I am telling myself that it is all about volume now and all those longish steady rides are just base building and I will be able to build on that later.

So that’s it. I like having a clear thought-over structured plan to follow. I am not complaining or anything, this is very easy to fix. But for the moment it is just something I need to endure and then when the training conditions and my life settles down a little bit I will take steps necesary to have some structure in all this.

And by the way. You know that 10k running race I was thinking about doing last weekend? I completely forgot about it:) Of course, I would not have forgotten if I was going to race it, which I was not, but as soon as I decided not to race it completely slipped out of my mind. I remembered it later than day while biking when I realized that I could have biked there to have a look. But I completely forgot about it. Which means that it was not that important for me:)