Today I planned a 6 mile run right after work at a nearby park. However, after commuting across town and sitting down for coffee, I looked down and discovered I hadn’t equipped my Stryd footpod.
While I could do the run at the park anyway, I’d not only lose crucial power data that I use to track ongoing progress, but I’m now in a place where those real-time power readings are for me crucial to maintain proper effort levels through the run and not screw up future workouts.
Admittedly, in prior years, if I found I forgot something important like this and couldn’t easily get back home to get it, this would have pissed me off and thrown off my entire day.
But today, having (hopefully) grown a bit wiser and more knowledgeable since, I rolled with it and figured out what I could do to not only adjust and do the run after getting home from work tonight (and retrieving the needed pod), but also figured out adjustments I can make to effectively use the extra time to best aid recovery before and after the run.
Instead of having to ensure I’m fueled and ready at 5pm, I can take it a bit easier on nutrition after lunch, I have more options to fuel right after work, and the meal I eat at dinner tonight will be better utilized for run recovery since it’ll occur right after the run.
Generally I avoid evening running near home because I’d have to do it later in the evening and it can mess with my sleep, because I’m doing it on streets and have to be more careful with traffic, plus even with street lights my routes are somewhat dark, and being closer to arterials and the freeway there’s a bit more pollution which doesn’t help with breathing.
I also avoid the treadmill for reasons I’ve gone into before (injury risks, higher indoor temperature than desired, the monotony of the treadmill, difficulty setting an appropriate pace to match outdoor conditions). But for tonight, at a steady pace (previous treadmill sessions were a bit faster), near places where I can get food afterward, I don’t think a treadmill session at the gym will be a big problem this time around.
I also could, if feeling okay, get in a strength workout following the treadmill session… as I’ve actually not gone to the gym in a week. I’ve made a point to go home after work, in part because my oft-weary body is adapting to current training and not feeling up to it, and in part because New Year’s Resolutions are still crowding gyms in these initial January weeks so working out may have been too difficult anyway. Crowds may be a bit thinner by now, but even if not the treadmills should be readily available.
I haven’t missed a run workout on my current training plan yet, and I don’t plan to.