Control.

How much control can you have in 2021? A lot in some areas, not a lot in others.

It seems crazy to be planning races and adventures and travel. It feels more exciting than it has in the past, more risky, more privileged. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t travel 5km last year, or because travel just crept into my lifestyle and like other lifestyle creep, you don’t realise it’s happening and how lucky you actually are until it’s taken away or someone bluntly reminds you that you are being a privileged arse.

Even though the races are booked in, I’m still finding it hard to stretch my brain across the giant chasm that is the reality of COVID 19 cancellations and the fact that I might work my arse off only to have it all come crumbling down the day before due to no fault of my own.

So, I’ve been trying to focus on one training session at a time. At the end of the day, even if all the races get cancelled, the fitness doesn’t, the love of the daily running doesn’t. This I can control.

Well at least that’s what I’ve been saying to myself but it’s much easier said than done.

I’m officially on week 4 of actively following my program and I feel like I still haven’t got it right.

The first week was all or nothing, if I couldn’t fit in the planned work out or it just didn’t work for me because I had to drive to a hill or a track, then I just did nothing. Fail.

The second week I was on leave, so running wise I smashed it. I did my double up long run and even did the hill sprints, but I missed my PT session so that annoyed me. No strength training that week.

Week 3 just seemed like an endless flow of good intentions that soured.

I was absolutely exhausted and holding an absolute crap tonne of water. At one point, I gained 1.2kg overnight. Usually I feel awesome at the end of my luteal phase but not this cycle. I didn’t get up early to take the dogs running which left me having to run in the afternoon which I hate even when I’m not feeling crappy.

I made it to my PT session which only added to the running rest days because my legs were rat shit.

This week I did a little bit better. Even though I didn’t hit as many “workouts” as I would like but I still did something, which is better than nothing.