'Tis the season!

With the weather here in the UK getting colder and wetter, the days getting shorter and darker I decided it can only mean one thing..... training season!

I know it sounds like complete madness but stick with me. 

For a very long time now I have been training roughly along the following cycle - cut, build, race, recovery - "The athlete cycle" if you will.

Here is a quick breakdown of what I'm actually talking about.

Imagine your year broken into 4 parts - 

January to March 

April to June

July to September

October to December 

The end of the year triggers the "Cut". Ditch the crappy food choices, the alcohol and the lazing around. The focus is on dropping some weight, shaking the rust and dust off and getting back to a good workout routine.

January to March is probably a little too long but it's a great way to ease into the next phase, the "build".

Using the base level I've built since January I can start slowly upping the milage and calories and start looking for some nice races!

That leads us very neatly into the "race" phase. Providing the training has gone well and no injuries have popped up, I should be pretty much at the peak of my fitness for the year so it's time to go all in on my "A" race for the year.

As the weather turns and the race season drys up I slow things down and focus on "recovery".

What a neat and tidy year plan eh?!

Yeah you're right.....it hardly ever works like that! Life, weather and holidays all seem to collide during the "race" block so this year I've decided to flip my cycle!

I absolutely love the sun but I like to ENJOY the sun, not RACE in it so now the summer is going to be my "recovery" block. I'll still run but as and when it's not crazy hot or I'm just not doing something else! This way it means I can really enjoy the summer without feeling guilty that my training is eating up time with my family and friends. The moment the weather turns... which seems to be around August...I'm onto the "cut and build" phases. 

Mentally I'm finding that it's keeping me motivated to get out in the dark, crappy weather, squishing through trails and braving the rain, rather than hiding in the warm. Maybe it's something in my DNA, I'm just programmed to enjoy awful weather?! Who knows!? What I do know is so far it's working. The only downside is I've picked a terrible time to be skinny! 

It must be noted while I'm talking of phases, that I don't stick to this as a hard and fast rule, it's more of a guide. The phases will shift around a bit depending on the timing of the events that I want to do. Mostly as a reminder to get out of the door, speaking of which...the trails are calling!

Thanks for reading!

Cardiosaurus 

Motivation will only get you so far

I`ve been thinking a lot lately about motivation, goals and dedication. The holy trinity. 

Some big words in there. They hold a lot of weight behind them. Everyone talks about them, how to keep them, how to generate them and how to succeed. They all work together, you think of a goal, motivate yourself to get started and with enough dedication you achieve said goal. But what happens when the motivation runs out? What happens after that goal has been reached? This has been my personal journey for a very long time. Sometimes its hard to just get out of the door. Its only been over the last year that I have truly started to acknowledge the most underappreciated side of the triangle, dedication. Training other people over the last year has given me a very different outlook on my own running. I catch myself telling other people things like "motivation will only get you so far, dedication will get you there every time!" I know....cliché, but it just popped out one day and has kind of stuck with me. I found my dedication to my clients was actually outweighing my dedication to my own training. Obviously this has lead to an increase to my own base fitness simply by doing it but more importantly it changed my mental approach. 

Dedication. Do the thing anyway. Don't feel like going for a run? Go for a run while you think about it. Forget motivation, motivation will come and go. What we are really trying to build is habit. Yeah I know, it also takes a little motivation to still get out of the door so focus on that much. Get out the door. If you can summon up just enough to get out of the door, habit will take over. You don't have to be motivated to run 10 miles today but with dedication, you will. 

If you can be dedicated, persistent, consistent, whatever you want to call it, you will reach that goal, sometimes simply by default! I know it once again sounds very cliché but if you are consistent with your training when everything else seems to fall apart your progress will creep up on you. Maybe in a conversation with a work colleague;-

Them - "Get up to anything at the weekend?" 

You - "Na, nothing much. Went shopping, watched that new movie....went for a run on Sunday"

Them - "Ah nice, how far did you run?"

You - "14 miles...erm...22.5km I think?"

Them - "Woah! Was that an event?! That's so far!"

You - "Erm....nope...just my normal Sunday run" *considers what you actually just said out loud*

Them - "Wow, super fit!"

You - "I...I guess I am!" *considers what you actually just said out loud*

You both walk away a little surprised and slightly impressed. 

Ok so this may currently seem far fetched depending on your current training but I promise, it happens. It happened to me very recently while catching up with someone I hadn't seen for a little while and it suddenly dawned on me how many miles I had run that week. They then asked if I was marathon training and I said currently, no. This lead me right back to thinking about actually starting to book them again, kind of a "well the fitness is nearly there, I might as well put it to use!" coming full circle, or in this case triangle, back to a goal and feeling motivated again!

Ok so what is my goal? I`ve been pondering this for a while and found that one event just doesn't seem to cut it for me on the whole motivation, dedication, goal triangle so I going to expand my target in favour of dedication. 

So here we go, *GULP* I`m putting it out there in writing to try and hold myself accountable for when I undoubtedly lose motivation somewhere down the line. I have just turned 43 and have finished 29 marathons and ultras to date. My goal is 50 before 50.

There I said it...50 marathons and ultras before I'm 50, giving me 7 years to do 21...phew, that felt very odd to type!

I guess I should probably wrap up this post here and go for a run, I`ve got some work to do!

Love as always,

Cardiosaurus

A new page

I`ve tried to write a new post so many times over the last few....my goodness, has it been that long?! At the time I was blogging regularly I was also training a lot and working a lot and it was all...well...a lot.

I think the last time I posted was during my attempt to complete 12 marathons in 12 months. Everything was going great and I was due to complete it in March 2020. With just 2 weeks to go and 11 marathons under my belt for the year everything ground to a halt and the world changed.

Obviously I don't need to tell you that 2020 was a rollercoaster. 

On a personal level it was pretty crazy. We lost some people, gained some people, seen marriages, new homes, new jobs, lost some more people, redundancies, lockdowns, health scares....its a lot to summarise, its a lot to just put into words. So I ended up, well...not putting it into words. This little blog scurried under a rock and patiently hibernated, waiting for my brain to remember it again.

I have waaaaaay to much to catch up on that its actually pretty overwhelming so instead I'm going to just jump forward a bit and maybe in some later posts we can back track, ok hang on.....

*insert your very best warp noise here*

Like a lot of people I was on furlough for the longest time. It was a very odd time but I slowly felt a mental shift towards really liking my own space and time. Like a lot of people I was also made redundant shortly after as the financial implications were too much for the company I worked for to sustain. So now what?! This was my life for the last 12 years! I searched around for a new job but it all felt kind of pointless. Everything was still locked down or partly so finding a job somehow felt secondary to just living.

I also noticed very quickly that I was just massively depressed after doing my, now daily, job search. Do I actually want to go back into the same career? I have my redundancy pay-out, do I need to go back?! What now?! I felt very lost for quite some time. 

During one of my searches for inspiration looking at random jobs, I came across an advert to become a personal trainer and my brain lit up like a Christmas tree! All of my friends and families voices came pouring into my head. "You would make a great PT!" or "You would make a great teacher!" that I had previously laughed off  as flattery or just jokes now didn't seem so funny. It now seemed like a viable option. Could I? Should I?! Is it a stupid idea?! All these questions seemed to equate to "If not now, when!? You currently have 2 of the biggest luxuries I can think of, money and the most important, TIME!"

So at 41 I took the plunge and started my journey towards becoming a personal trainer. It was exhilarating and absolutely terrifying!! The course was all online as everything was still in lockdown. This at times was extremely frustrating because I couldn't just simply ask a question like you could in a classroom, I had to email it and wait for a reply. It was slow going. It took me a year overall to pass as I had the level 2 and level 3 to complete as my goal was to work for myself and hopefully not a gym. Looking back I totally could have done it faster but at the time my brain was a basket of cats. 

Starting a brand new career, especially one that is largely regarded as a "young persons game" plays a lot on the mind. It makes you second guess everything when you have the quiet moments. It makes you really think about why someone would pick you. Why would someone pick "the old guy"!? This obviously gives you lots of time to freak out and wonder what you are doing with your life. It also gives you a fantastic opportunity to actually come up with an answer. Exploring this question has given me a great sense of focus, confidence and happiness. Realising the things I am good at, the things I need to tweak and actually how much fun I'm having! Fast forward a year...

*insert your very best warp noise here...again*

I am now coming up on my first full year as a personal trainer at 43. Seems very odd to write, both the year of business and the 43. I have learnt so much over this year but mainly about myself. Actively trying to embrace happiness and fun have been my primary goals. Realising that I absolutely thrive on other peoples fitness achievements has been such and amazing revelation and a huge driving force.

I guess this is also why I`m back blogging again! Trying to embrace that happiness and fun and if I can pass a little on along the way then I feel like my work is done! 

Whether you are returning to this blog again after all this time or are a new reader, I thank you for from the bottom of my heart for your time!

Now go outside, point your face at the sun (if you have any) and just take a moment to breathe. Go for a walk, touch some grass, smell the flower, go find your happy place.

Much love as always,

Cardiosaurus