Training in the Rain
So as most of you in the South East of Queensland will know, we had a pretty big and beautiful storm come through yesterday that gave us all a very impressive lightning and thunder show! Absolutely beautiful, and definitely a welcome relief from the heat felt on Saturday. But what about our training plans?
Have you ever planned your day out, timed things and then had something happen that meant you ‘couldn’t train’? Not something huge like an accident or an apocalypse, but something as simple as rain when you had planned on an outside run. What was your reaction? What did you decide to do to either deal with it or work around it?
Quite often we hear the simple – it’s raining, I can’t train. It’s getting darker earlier, I cant get up for training. It’s getting really cold! Too cold for outside training. But is this really the case? Of course not! There will always be some obstacles that will come up and create slight road blocks towards our fitness goals. But this isn’t just the case for fitness – this happens with everything! Vary rarely do we get to do what we planned EXACTLY as we planned! We learn to adapt, change course slightly to continue on to where we need to go. And this is the case for our fitness training as well. I personally am not a fan of the cold (by any means!), but every time I start to think of using the cold as an excuse to stay in bed just a little longer I think of my friend who lives in Denmark who, during winter, rides to work and home from work in complete darkness. Not to mention the large amount of layering he needs to do to function in their cold weather! And while I still don’t particularly like getting up during these times, this helps it just a little bit.
What tools do you use to help you get to your training when the weather or the season provide obstacles?
Learning to adapt your training plans if needed is an important point for everyone to be able to take on board. If you have an outside run planned and its raining, find somewhere you can run on a treadmill. If it was a very long run planned, swap your run day with your weights day. Set up a circuit in the comfort of your own home, and enjoy the sound/smells of the rain from inside! I am not the hugest fan of changes in timetable plans, however since I am not willing to run in the rain these are the kind of adaptions that need to be made.
Next time you are thinking of canning your planned workout for a slight obstaclesthat you know is just a speed-bump rather than a road block, think again. Make it interesting and change it up. Remember that your body is a beautiful and important piece of you. It is important to look after it, so that it will look after you.
