Planning your training
Second part of a four part series
Kyle M. Meintzer
Other than the just-kidding-themselves wannabes, most hunters are at least somewhat serious about getting in shape. But will they do it?
Early in my running career, I read an article regarding setting a training schedule that really hit home. Basically, it said, “Never make a decision under pressure.”
That advice proved to be enormously valuable to me, as it can be for you. The idea is that you need to sit down during a time when you are relaxed and can focus on your goal. Get out a calendar, then, with solid and rational thinking, develop a plan for your training and for your race (or hunt), well in advance. Write it down, stating exactly what you WILL do each day. When each day and time arrives, you then simply execute the decision you made earlier when you were not under pressure.
For example, if you want to run/cycle/hike before you go to work each day, Do NOT decide if you want to do the workout when the alarm clock goes off at 5:00 AM! When the alarm goes off, you’re under stress. Who the heck wants to get up and go work out at 5:00 AM? And who wants to work out at the end of a long day at work when the preferred decision would be to plop down in the recliner, turn on the game, and open a cool brew or a bottle of wine? Instead, decide NOW that the alarm clock is simply a signal for you to go out and execute your plan. No decision required. You already made the decision! Now you just need to keep your promise to yourself. Trust me, this works! The same thing, obviously, applies if you do your workouts at lunch or after work.
Long ago when I was training for the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run, I got home from an appointment up in Napa at about 10:00 PM. My training schedule called for a 6 mile run that day, and I hadn’t been able to do it in the morning. Never-the-less, although dead tired and still needing supper, I laced on my running shoes and hit the streets.
A couple of days later, while talking with a friend who was also training for this race, he called that late night run, “making your deposit.” He went on to say that, “Late in the race, when the wheels are falling off for the other runners, you’ll still be picking them up and laying them down, while the rest of the guys will be dying. And all because you ‘made your deposit.’”
Truer words were never spoken. Between the 60 –78 mile mark, I became seriously dehydrated and dangerously short on electrolytes. 200 yards before the 78 mile check station, I cramped up horribly and fell to the dusty road writhing in pain, then finally was able to struggle into the check station. There, the medical staff put me on hold and told me I could not continue until I got my weight back up and started to urinate. For 2:30, I laid on a cot in a medical tent, feeling horrible, but hoping to recover. Finally, after two hours, my stomach returned to normal and I was finally able to start eating and drinking again. Soon, I needed to urinate and the medical staff then quickly released me to continue. Because I’d spent so many hours in the prior months “making my deposit,” I then ran the last 22 miles faster than all but two people in the history of the race. I could not have done this but for two things:
- For the previous six months, day after day, week after week, I’d “made my deposit.”
- More than anything in the world, my total focus was to finish the race in under the magic 24 hours it takes to earn the coveted silver belt buckle the race awards to sub-24 hour finishers. All I could think about was, “I’ve got to get to Auburn. I’ve got to get to Auburn.” (where the race finishes).
What’s your focus? How serious are you in training to the highest level? How important is it to you that you “get to Auburn?” Or are you going to rationalize, give up, sit down in a chair, and pop open a cool brew?
Without a passionate focus and a serious commitment to getting in great shape, you won’t get it done.
Decide NOW which result you desire. Do you want to hunt hard all day, every day on your hunt? Or are you going to rationalize and end up spending valuable time laying around camp, sleeping in, or perhaps not being in good enough shape to cut off that screaming bull on the other side of the canyon before he reaches his bedding area?"
You get to decide. What’s your decision? Make that decision NOW!
Popeye the Sailor Man often said, “I am what I am and that’s all that I am.”
That’s true. But I would say to Popeye, and my challenge to you is this: “YOU DON’T KNOW ALL THAT YOU AM! “ Human beings are capable of achieving so much more physically than they ever dreamed of. So much more. And so are you!