Today's post is about the art of staying flexible and maintaining organization. It is also the first blog I am writing from my iPhone so please forgive the occasional auto corrected word that I may miss in my editing.
Staying flexible is about more than your best yoga poses. Staying flexible means, to me, incorporating a personal policy much like the Marines policy... Improvise, adapt, overcome. I'll give you an example. We received a great deal of snow here this weekend. I am ramping up for Hardrock this summer and trying to fit in all the training I can. While snow at the cabin is pretty and fun to train on, snow around town is often treacherous and almost always leads to some sort of injury (read: time away from training, probably when the weather is nice). So, I improvised a solution. I first shoveled our complex's driveway then rode my bike on the trainer for the same time I would have spent on the road. This was followed by some weight exercises using 5 gallon buckets filled with snow (rocks would have been better, lesson learned). This workout, while not in my training plan, served as cross-training, recovery, and strength all in one. I suppose in an ideal situation, I could buy a gym pass and run on a treadmill but the idea of getting more than just a recovery run and not leaving the house sounded appealing. Stay flexible.
On the other side of that coin is to stay organized. I sat down about a month and a half ago and came up with a training plan from then to Hardrock, knowing that I would probably not get 100% of the workouts due to life, weather, or work but I will get the vast majority of them and all the important ones. Having a game plan for the whole season lets me be on auto pilot when it comes to the day-in/day-out planning of workouts. I never question if I am doing the right work because I have already done that thinking. This mindset requires a fair amount of trust in your ability to program workouts. You may find it more helpful to employ a coach or trusted friend to help with your plan. One of the things I like about running ultras is that there is a little bit of mad-scientist-type thinking involved. We, or our coaches/mentors, must realize that there is no single way to prepare for events of this magnitude. In a 5k, there are only so many things that can happen in the 13-20 minute range. Maybe double that number for a 10k and quadruple that for a marathon Now, quadruple that and add in elements like changing weather, running in the dark, for 15-48 hours. This is where having a good game plan both in training and in racing will pay off. If your training is where it should be, you can rely on your game plan come race day. The occasional oddity will not knock you off kilter if everything else is normal. This oddity need not always be negative; maybe you find yourself leading the race with 10 miles to go and decide to push it to go for the gold. Keep your game plan in mind, plan your drop bags and crew carefully. Race day need not have the drama of bad preparation. I would also suggest laying out all your gear and walking through the race in your mind to detect any miscalculations ("start to May Queen, 13.5 miles, 1:40, 2 hand held bottles, one at start, one at boat ramp, 3 Gu's, headlamp with fresh batteries, gloves and hat... Repeat this process for every section of the race). Try to divide the race into 6-8 mile or 1 hour chunks. The other element that helps me is to pack just slightly more than I think I'll need. This usually means an extra Gu and a few S-Caps, on training runs in the back country, I have a small survival/first aid kit, knife, and fire striker. Sometimes these are for me, other times you come across someone in need. Either way, being organized really helps here.
This also goes for music. Knowing your music well can make a little bump in the road very easy to overcome. This breaks down to understanding the rhythms, pitches, and other players' parts in a very deliberate and systematic nature. Sometimes things just come apart a little and if you are either unprepared, unorganized in your practice or inflexible because of this, it is really hard to get back in the swing of things. It is easy the other way.
Additionally, I carry a bag of emergency musical supplies. Yours may vary but I have a hemostat, lighter, screwdriver, cigarette paper, extra batteries for my tuner, reed knife and sandpaper to name a few items in my kit. This way, if anything minor goes wrong, I can make due until a proper solution can be found... and hopefully no one will be the wiser.
Additionally, organization must be maintained. Keep up with your supplies, gear, music, and any other needed items. Keep your training and practice plans up to date and trust that you, your teacher/coach, or whoever else is helping you. This takes out the second guessing.
Good luck, stay organized and flexible (and thirsty, my friends).
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