Training Through Holiday Hurdles

This is the time for gathering with family and friends. For those of us more fortunate, we may have friends and family that are on the same fitness endeavors. For others this could be a time of chasing hours, crunching the numbers, and surviving the holidays – with a moment of respite seeming more like a need for recovery from life itself than exercise. Let’s look at some of our favorite ways to keep on track, make the most of life and its non-fitness oriented events while realizing that there will always be time for that next workout even if it’s not today.

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Summary Outline:

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• Stress Is Stress
• Top 5 Tips For Training Through Life
• Life Is A Process

Stress Is Stress

When it comes to human physiology, your body does not know the difference between fighting with the school bully or getting into a quarrel with your sibling. Both are going to drive your stress levels up and probably place you in a fight or flight response (i.e. that feeling where things become more focused and you feel like you need to do anything to end the moment). This is great as a survival mechanism since it prepares us for almost any stressful situation, but it also takes a toll on your body.

So when you do go out for a run, that run is adding to the physiological stress meter that our body regulates to make sure you adapt and do not burn out. This does not mean to stop working out all together or that missing a workout day for unforeseen circumstances is the be all and end all either. It just means it’s time to consider your options and formulate a plan.

Remember from our article on Detraining that it takes more than a single day to lose your fitness and that the fitness you built does stick with you for a while just from having put in the work. Let’s look at some tricks and tips to make the most of maybe less than ideal situations during the holidays or in general that you could use to help stay fit, keep your stress under control, and still keep family and friends happy during busy times of the year.

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Top 5 Tips For Training Through Life

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Maintenance Is Easier Than Building - If you cannot get out for a full workout like you had hoped, the same principles that let marathoners cut their mileage for two weeks before race day to get a peak performance can apply to helping you get through a busy week.  While you may not be actively building fitness, reducing your weekly volume of training by as much as 66% as long as intensity is increased can result in continued maintenance of the ability to perform. Remember that if you have to make these adjustments regularly you may need to re-evaluate your training goals; but, in the short term, something is better than nothing.

Find Friends For Accountability - When you have friends or other workout buddies who have the same life stressors as you, the social atmosphere can actually help alleviate some of the general stress that you are getting both from your workout and from life. Feelings of acceptance, accountability, and community can be the difference between success and failure in life and your goals. There is a reason they say you are who you surround yourself with – choose wisely and candidly.

Plan Ahead - You can’t always plan for the unexpected, but sometimes you can see a storm coming before it makes landfall. Instead of planning a higher mileage week or introducing new workouts to your schedule, consider a down week or a planned respite from activity that your training plan expects so that you decrease the risk of overtraining or disrupting your training plan. There is a reason that the Boy Scouts Motto is “Be Prepared.” 

Rest Don’t Stress - Sometimes life really is just unexpected. In those cases it would be better to remember that your fitness was not built overnight and that one day is one day. Depending on what you have going on, taking the time to embrace life through rest or just being in the moment might be the best decision. The stress and worry over not missing the workout might actually lead to injury which will impact your training far more than a single day or even week ever could.

Hire A Coach (like RunByRyan) - Every person has a different set of needs and being able to evaluate what the best way to approach each scenario might be different. Being the protagonist of your own story it can be easier to get an objective approach with an outside perspective. Always be honest with yourself and your coach to make sure that what plan you come up with is the best for the actual you – not the you that you wish was present. 

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Life Is A Process

At this point it has become cliche to say that life is not linear so we will not say that here. Life is a process. Embracing that process is the best you can ensure that training does not take over your life and your life also does not take over your life. While we write about training, physiology, not therapy, the one thing that is abundantly clear is that maintaining a healthy balance in life - which likely looks different for everyone - is a cornerstone of many a fulfilling life.