This time of year can bring a lot of stress for a lot of people.
Between the family obligations and the travel and the forced capitalism and the continual lack of structure…
It can be pretty easy to start feeling overwhelmed.
A lot of us also feel like we’re going to lose some of the progress we’ve worked so hard to achieve throughout the year.
We eat differently than normal.
We can’t get to a gym for whatever reason.
We might not be able to follow our usual running schedule.
For a lot of us, the holidays can feel like a mess.
Hell, they don’t just feel like a mess.
They often ARE a mess.
But if I had one piece of advice to get you through the next couple of weeks, it would be the same piece of advice on the cover of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Don’t panic.
That’s it.
Do what you can.
Maintain some level of training volume.
Realize that a little bit counts.
And just don’t panic.
Oftentimes, we get almost too accustomed to our current level of training and we think that we need to maintain that every week for the rest of time if we don’t want to lose all of our progress.
That’s just ridiculous.
For one, unless you’re in a coma – which if you were I’m going to guess one of my emails would be both impossible to read and incredibly low on your priority list… – you aren’t going to lose any appreciable amount of fitness in a week.
As long as you’ve been fairly consistent for the rest of the year, you could completely skip the week from Christmas to New Years and it just… wouldn’t matter.
It also takes a lot less work to maintain an adaptation than it does to create it.
So as long as you keep up some level of running, you aren’t going to fall back all that much.
Let’s use me as an example.
For the next week, I doubt I’m going to have access to a gym.
As a result, I’m going to be very limited in terms of strength work that will make any real difference for me.
My foot still isn’t fully healed, so without machines, there’s very little I can do that will help me do anything for my legs.
Am I worried?
No.
Because I haven’t missed a full week of lifting in… let’s just call it many months.
And that level of consistency affords me a little more leeway for a couple off days.
Same about running.
I’m about halfway through the recovery period for my foot, and if I’m being honest, I’m a little worried about losing progress.
But the worst thing I can do is try to rush it.
All that would do is lead to a reinjury and further time off.
So I’m gonna take a breath, get on the bike, and keep doing the slow rehab work I know is necessary.
In short, I’m going to hope that an entire year of consistent training allows me a little freedom as it’s currently needed for life reasons.
I’m also going to do my best to maintain some level of volume by taking some long walks with Teddy, hopping on the stationary bike, and using whatever weights my mom has to train my upper body.
But most of all, I’m just going to try and enjoy the week with my mom and my dog.
Even if my training had gone completely, 100% to plan this year (ha!), the purpose of this week would never have been to greatly improve my running.
It would have been to enjoy the time with my very small family.
So don’t panic.
If you’re able to train hard this week and it’s a big priority for you, I completely respect that.
But if it’s just not in the cards because you’re spending time with family…
That’s okay.
It’s gonna be okay.
Your training plan has to fit your life.
Not the other way around.
As much as we love training, there are things in life that we will almost always have to exist as a higher priority.
So if your training plan can’t integrate into your life and account for those things…
Then it’s a pretty bad training plan.
And if you’re looking to hit some big goals in 2025 and not quite sure how to make a training plan that works for you…
Then just hit me up.
We’ll set up a time to chat and figure out a way for you to chase those goals as well as you possibly can.