How Much Planning Is Really Necessary

I'll start this post by saying that I wish I could be as organized as Brian and Danny in their approach to their workout regiments. Reading their posts reminds me that I had great plans to tailor a mix of Insanity, P90X and running, but just never seemed to get organized for that.  I ended up doing Insanity by default.  I'd gone through it before.  I enjoyed it before.  It definitely gave me the cardio to run a mudder, but, in some ways I feel like I just fell into it again because I didn't get organized to do anything more extensive or different.  I'm on day 46 of 63.  I'll finish one week before the Miami Mudder, and have only really modified it by including a 10.5 mile run on the "off" days and a 5.5 mile run on the "recovery" days.  During previous training routines, I've tried to build to running longer distances (I think my longest was 14 or 15 miles), but I thought I would stick with the same length runs and go for speed this time.

Of course, as the mythical "they" say, the best laid plans end up going haywire.  I've had to deal with various injuries over the months since South Carolina.  Some are of the "nagging" variety (for example, a case of turf toe from SC that just won't seem to go all the way away), but others are of the "hey...that's new...I wonder what caused that to happen" variety (for example, a new arch injury on my left foot that has kept me from running since last Tuesday). None of the injuries have caused me to take extensive time off, and they all seem to be improving without having to resort to "shut it down" kind of rest, but they do raise a question as to whether a more rigorous planning phase would have saved me some of these aches and pains. I guess I could have been more alert to the "off" and "recovery" day concepts in Insanity.  I would guess that there's a reason why people who design these kinds of training regiments actually build in slower days and days off, but I've always thought of the "off" or "slow" days as opportunities to do something else - not necessarily an opportunity to rest.

Of course, these are all hypotheticals, but I'm not sure that greater planning would have done much to improve my situation.  I've come to the conclusion that I naturally "fly by the seat of my pants" to a certain extent.  This has made me adaptable to changing situations and circumstances, but can also mean that I've been disorganized at times as well.  At nearly 41 years old, though, I'm not quite sure how much I'll be able to change to become more organized.

I used to think my life would be better if I was just a little bit more organized.  I always wanted to be a list-maker.  I always wanted to be the guy who had his calendar scheduled out months in advance.  I wanted to be the detail-oriented guy who knew every step of a process before I took the first.  And, I was always disappointed with myself when I didn't meet those self-imposed, and completely arbitrary, goals. Perhaps hitting my 40s has brought perspective that I didn't have as a younger man, but I've come to realize that I should be placing more value on the benefits that my strengths offer than focusing on the weaknesses.  I may not have my calendar arranged for the next six months (except for knowing which Mudders we'll be participating in, of course), but I have been able to build my life around the flexibility that I desire.  I've been able to recognize and seize opportunities that I may not have been able to accept if I'd been more rigid in my planning.  I've been pretty adaptable about my life, and if I have to give up my list-making dreams, then I think that's a more than fair trade-off.  I still envy list-makers. I still wish I could have that mindset. Detail-oriented people will always fascinate me, but I have come to realize that's not a skill set I'm likely to master anytime soon - and I'm okay with that.

What does this mean for education?  Well, for me, one of the themes that's emerging from this blog is the need to prepare for what confronts us.  Whether it be standardized testing, a new technological innovation, or the various obstacles found in a Tough Mudder, we have to go in with our eyes open and a sense of what we hope to accomplish.  But how do we make it work if we are naturally "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of folks?  Do we have to change?  Can we succeed without changing?  I'm not sure that I know the answer to these questions, though. I have actively disliked most of my jobs that required a rigid structure.  I would like to think that we can succeed through some level of self-modification merged with some level of environmental-modification, but sometimes that's a tall order to ask of otherwise busy people.  And, more importantly, it's naive to think that everyone can "make it work" regardless of their external situations. If we're lucky, we each work things out in our own ways and to whatever extent we can manage.

In my thinking, this is an important lesson for educators to learn.  We each have to learn how to work with our own strengths and weaknesses.  We shouldn't avoid trying to improve, but we don't have to become completely different people to succeed either.  I've found a system that has worked for me, and - perhaps most importantly - has kept me motivated to stay in shape. Of course, having said all this, I still plan to modify my workout regime after the Miami Mudder to include more P90X...

Postscript: I would like to say that I don't think my shoes are at fault for all of my foot-related injuries. It's not like I went to Walmart and bought the cheapest cross-trainers I could find.  I spent quite a while researching my last shoe purchase, and ended up buying a pair of Merrell Trail Gloves.  These have been very nice shoes - lightweight, comfortable, durable.  All of the things that you could ask from a running shoe when putting 16 miles of trail runs a week on them.  In my experience, though, a pair of shoes is really only good for two Mudders, and the Vibrams have been with me for the training up to South Carolina, two laps of that course, and two months of training since South Carolina.  All together, I've probably put about 200 miles on them since July of last year (assuming Runkeeper.com can be trusted to keep accurate records). I'll keep them around, but may end up donating them at the end of the Miami event. I recently went and bought a pair of Saucony Kinvara TRs that feel great so far, so I can't fully put the blame on my equipment.  Both pairs have worked well for me.  I think that it really just comes down to working on my form as I run.