Ball dropping experience.

Ironically after the last piece which was all about failing to plan is making a plan in itself I somehow managed to drop the ball myself! So the last few weeks of training for a few in the BP contingent has been geared towards a duathlon at a world famous racing circuit in Cheshire. The Oulton Park duathlon comes in a series of distances, but for our trio (or what should have been) the chosen distance was the middle distance. The middle distance entails a two lap run, a fourteen lap bike, and another two lap run, all of the same 2.7 mile track. For many, just the sheer monotony of lapping the same course multiple times is a huge turn off, but I personally feel that this mentally demanding setup adds to the overall physical challenge. Anyway, I don’t want to sell the event too much, but if you’re into that kinda thing, or think you might like to give it a go, then it comes highly recommended from myself, and probably the others who have done it, just make a ‘Equipment Required’ checklist, and pay particular attention to the ‘Bike Helmet – Compulsory’ part.

What I really want to talk about in this piece is, what happens when you drop the ball? Ya know, your training is going good and everything seems to be right where you want it, then something comes up at really short notice that means you can’t get your session done, or in my case, race. Naturally, other things can, and do indeed knock peoples duck off, but for the majority people get way too hung up on that very point.

These days, life is busy, its always busy, and if you’re not busy doing one thing, you’ll be busy doing something else. I’ve even known people be busy doing nothing, so we get you. We rely heavily on every tiny little detail in our day to day plans to be going off in the right place, at the right time but one little hiccup, and the show stops altogether. Whether you just plain forget, like I plain forgot my bike helmet, or someone else does, or something doesn’t come off there’s absolutely no point dwelling on it too much. It’s easy for me to say when the only thing I had to show for the day is losing the small ish entry fee, gaining a bit of embarrassment and having a bit of light hearted Micky taking probably forever but in reality, compared to the scale of how long I want to be doing these events, and where this one single event stacks up in the things I’ve done and I’m yet to do it really is insignificant. I mean, I lose out on that race specific stimulus, and a good calorie burn, but on the other side of the coin I got an extra days recovery, I got to just relax out in the nice weather and get a little bit jealous watching the other helmet wearing lot going round and round.

I’ve been doing this long enough now and had this conversation with others many many times where the hints at playing catchup are made, and the statements of being even more on it are spoken. The truth is its all unnecessary, and I’ve found that the trick is to catch the ball on the first bounce. Nip whatever it is in the bud, put it behind you and stop letting it have any bearing on your future sessions. You were doing fine before and its very likely you’ll get back there, as soon as you regain your focus. Like I said above, it’s just a drop in the ocean but that drop in the ocean creates a ripple, and the more the drops occur, the bigger the ripples will be and the more this problem escalates. I always advise the people I train that if a session is planned, and they miss it repeatedly, its not in the right place to start with and this is where the program in its entirety needs a bit of a reassessment. The culture in todays world when someone drops the ball, in whatever context is that the person dropping the ball is chastised by others one way or another for dropping the ball, very little is done to help the person dropping the ball either understand why, or help them figure out a way to stop it happening again. One things for sure, I won’t be forgetting my helmet again, I’ll be taking along a spare! i will be learning from my mistake and not becoming a repeat offender!

This ones more of a personal experience, obviously, and so immensely well timed its un true following on from our failure to prepare article, but that just goes to show that your plan is always vulnerable, and ‘things’ can strike any time with a multitude of circumstances but the chances are we at Body Planners have helped a client through the very same thing, so you’re in safe hands.

If you keep dropping the ball, or find yourself ‘playing catch up’ or being ‘even more on it’ than before it might be worth having your program checked over by one of our life experienced Personal Trainers to see where you can optimise your time, and start achieving results you can measure.

Or it might be even more simple as an exercise in a session you are struggling with. We can help you simplify it and build back so you do it right next time. Rather than giving up, we will help you learn from your mistakes. The most important thing is you are attempting the exercise in the first place.