Actually, that's too broad of a statement; there are many areas of my life where I feel reasonably sure that I know what I'm doing, I trust my judgement, and I go forth with confidence.
Planning and tweaking my skating workouts is not one of those areas.
I've been lucky that I really haven't had to design and monitor my own workouts for much of the past 8 years--lucky because, before I found a coach, for several years I was responsible for figuring out my own skating program...and it turned out to be a nightmare of overtraining and frustration. Then I found an online coach in the spring of 2004, and then found Coach TieGuy in December of 2006. So I had someone writing my program for me and tweaking the workouts via email on a weekly basis from May 2004 until December 2006, and then from December 2006-November 2010 I had someone standing on the track for nearly every workout, telling me whether to go faster or slower, push harder or ease up, tough out the final set or throw in the towel early. And I loved it--as long as I have someone that I trust telling me what to do, I'm happy to do my best to do it, no matter how much it hurts. When I have to be the one telling me what to do, as I did BC (Before Coaching), well, I start questioning my decisions. And for the past 18 months, I have been somewhat in the position of decision-maker again. Coach TieGuy is still my coach, but due to his moving out of state, followed by a move back, a job change, and his taking on several new career-related activities, he no longer has the time to stand on the track telling me what to do. Which leaves me in charge of deciding whether to go faster or slower, to push harder or ease up, to tough out that final set or throw in the towel early. And I tell you, I am definitely not the best person for the job!
When I first had to plan my own workouts, back in the '90's, I was in my mid-thirties and tended more towards the overtraining end of the spectrum. "Oh, I can do this workout...and that one...and that sounds good, too. Yeah, no problem," I'd think, and then become increasingly fatigued, slow, and frustrated as the season--and the overtraining--progressed. Now I'm in my late forties, and age, thyroid issues, and (perhaps) creeping laziness tend to lead me more toward "ooh, I'm a little tired; I'm sure it's in my best interest not to finish this workout." Take, for example, the past couple weeks.
As I've
But as the workouts progressed and the laps ticked (slowly) by, I started wondering. Am I doing too much? Am I too out of shape to be trying to do this whole workout right now? Should I cut this down by a set or two? Am I really ready to do a tempo this early in the season?
I think I've mentioned, once or twice, that I tend to overanalyze. Just a bit. Maybe.
Fortunately, before I got too far down this road, Coach TieGuy called to answer some questions I'd emailed him. He reminded me that it takes time to sort out my fitness level and reaction to workouts; that I need to re-start taking my morning heart rate to watch for overtraining, if that's something I'm concerned about; that I need to stop overanalyzing and trying to tweak every lap or even every workout.
Or, and I quote, "shut up and skate."
Coach TieGuy has always been good at cutting to the chase.
So for the next couple weeks, I'll be shutting up and skating. Or, well, not really shutting up, because I like to write about my skating...but I'll try not to overanalyze, at least on a lap-by-lap basis. I have a direction for the next two weeks, and since someone who knows his stuff gave me that direction, I'll be happy to follow it.
Because I still don't trust myself.
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