The Best Laid Plans...

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,

In proving foresight may be vain…

- Robert Burns, To a Mouse.

So this Scots old-timer who I pretentiously quote above... first he ploughs over a field  mouse’s nest, pretty much ruining its life… and then gets all profound and writes a poem about the futility of planning.

I bet that poor mouse was thrilled to bits…

I used to train almost completely by instinct last year, getting by with anything from two to five runs in a week, never overthinking it.

“Yay! Weekend!" Go Long.

“Bloody hell, It’s chilly today…” Speedwork.

“Ouch. DOMS on my butt…” Crosstrain.

“Weekend, but its cold out and DOMS on my butt…” Sleep in.

It was a nice, laid back, safe way of doing things. If you don't plan and plot too much, you are insulated from disappointment when things don't go as expected. This approach saw me through my first marathon in Gurgaon, and just two months later, my second in Mumbai... both in well over four hours.

Early this year, however, after running a couple of strong half-marathons, I was suddenly overcome with BQ fever. After much agonizing, I set up a realistic long term goal of getting to Boston over a period of two years.

And I knew I wasn't getting there without a plan.

To my mind, a good plan had to have three essential components...

What to do.

When to do it.

How to do it.

I knew for sure that I was neither competent nor capable of designing one for myself. Not enough experience, expertise or insight. The last thing I wanted was to end up investing months of effort into something that, ultimately, didn't work...

So, like all seekers of truth, I dove headfirst into the sea of Google, mucked about thoroughly confused for a goodly bit and finally, at random, almost... fished one out. It had everything I needed. What type of runs to do, what pace to do them at, what distance to cover and when to rest. The best part, it predicted a finishing time for my race.Peachy keen!

I printed it out, and pasted it on the inside of my closet and set about it with the stubbornness of a particularly ornery mule. 71 runs over 18 weeks in peak summers. A total of 950 odd kilometers to be run.

I was determined to not miss a single one. And I didn't. Not one. I actually went for a run at 3 AM once because I had a 6 AM flight to catch. I made a ritual out of coming in and striking through the run on the schedule in my closet with a pen.

I'm aware I'm blowing my own trumpet here, but it's necessary to illustrate that for me, an inflexible, uncompromising training plan worked like a charm (plus I really enjoy blowing my own trumpet...) .I crossed the finish line of my last marathon with effort to spare, more than a minute under my goal time. And if it worked once, what's to say it won't work again?

Now, post-race, I'm almost done with three weeks of low mileages and rest. And it's almost time to kick off the next phase in my BQ journey... break 3:20. Eighteen weeks to go till the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, and my training plan is printed out and pasted on the inside of my closet.

Here it is, if you're curious... 

SCMM 2015 Training Plan (pdf)

And so, despite the cautionary tale of  the homeless mouse, despite the possibility of the metaphorical plough devastating my best efforts, I will be following that schedule with all the OCD that I can muster. 

Stay tuned.