Too much of a good thing is never enough…or is it?

It’s an age old adage and one that can be used in lots of different contexts.

When training for a marathon, you spend a lot of time on the road. As you would have learnt through your studies with NZIHF, we need to ensure our training is specific to our goals. Given that my goal is running – it would make sense that my training involves running.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love running. If I didn’t, I certainly wouldn’t be putting myself through marathon training just for the sake of it. The issue I have is that running isn’t the only sport I am into. I love all types of training whether it is individual or group, indoors or outdoors, weights or cardio. I just enjoy getting out there and doing things. The unfortunate problem that I run into is the fact that I like to ‘have my cake and eat it too’. This causes problems in the sense that, whilst I enjoy doing group fitness classes and playing tennis, it probably isn’t that beneficial for what I want to achieve with marathon running.

There are so many articles and websites out there documenting what is the best new type of training and there are so many differing opinions on what is the right volume and frequency of training, how do we know what is appropriate for us?

I tend to let my body decide for me what the right amount of training is, although I am not always the best listener!! No pain, no gain is not always the best advice in my experience. I have made the mistake of going for a long run in the morning and then trying to back it up with an intense hour game of netball in the afternoon, I did it, but the pain in my legs and the drop in performance in my speed session the next day were not worth it.

I now plan out my week of training and I know which sessions I need to be completely rested for and which sessions are a bit lower intensity. For me it comes down to what I am wanting to achieve. I have to continually ask myself, is this helping me to achieve my goal? If not, is it worth doing?

There are so many different activities that we can be involved in and so many opportunities to be active, it seems as though the options are endless. How do we know what is best for us?

How do we prioritize the activities that we participate in?

How do we know, what is right for our goals?

How do you decide on what the right level of activity is for you?