Around the Fleck household, Sundays are for recovery, planning, laundry, cleaning, lunch making, sorting, and other things we never seem to have time for during the zippy workweek.

The week ahead becomes totally disorganized if Sundays don’t go as planned, which was the case last Sunday after my wife and I attended our first concert together! It was a blast and real treat for both of us. I made her a new music fan of one of my favorite bands, Rusted Root.

Unfortunately we made it home around midnight that night, and I only slept about five hours - definitely not a good way to start out the week of training. The week only got crazier from there.

Monday, the car needed work done. Tuesday, the dogs decided to wake us up at 3:15 am. Another night, I picked up a great patio set my wife found a great on Craigslist. By the end of the week, I was worn out, and I hadn’t even ran half of my workouts.

Running takes time and dedication in order to succeed. Here a few things to remember as you progress in your training plan:

1. Treat training sessions like medicine. You wouldn’t take 5 pills on a Saturday because you missed your doses all week, right? The same applies to training. Don’t try to squeeze a week’s worth of training back into a weekend. If you miss a day, continue on to the next one. Otherwise, you’ll end up over-training, or worse, you’ll end up with an injury.If you have any questions, you could always ask your Coach! (You have you signed up to train with Educated Running, right?)
   
2. Think medium-term and long-term. I used to focus just on completing a given day’s workout, and wouldn’t give much thought to the rest of the week or month. What I’ve noticed, however, is that because races are planned weeks or months ahead of time, it’s important to be mindful of the long-term.For example, think about your training on a Wednesday during the Monday of that week, and anticipate what might trip up your planning.
   
3. Have a “Why” to return to for inspiration. There needs to be a reason for why you do what you do. It could be to lose some weight, or feel stronger in your athletic ability. Maybe it’s just to run your first race. Whatever it is, you’ll want to define that reason and return to it regularly.Write down your goal in a place you will see it every day (the fridge, your phone, your calendar).My reason is that I really want to achieve my goal of a 1:30 Half Marathon PR. I will do whatever I can to make that happen.
   

There will days when your kid breaks his/her arm, a huge project comes up at work, or the A.C. breaks. When these interruptions happen, and they will happen, it’s important to pivot and plan how you will react and recover. Remember to keep in close contact with your running coach, so that you retain the most success in your training, and to stay focused on your goals.

Ethan Fleck and his wife, Kristin, blog  about health and wellness at Hello, Flecks. Follow them on Facebook and  Twitter to keep up with his training updates and more!