Amber Ooley is the Socialista here at Swim Creative. She manages all of the digital content and ads for our clients and is also a certified Google Partner. In her free time, you’ll find her running, reading and most recently, biking. Follow her on Twitter.
Everyone has their “thing,” and mine happens to be running. It all started last October when I completed my second half marathon. You could say that’s an accomplishment, but the experience I went through to get to that finish line was painful. What happened? Well, I decided to relax a little too much at the cabin and before I knew it, it was race day and I hadn’t trained one bit. Lesson learned!
Like anything, planning and preparing are the most important steps to running, but also marketing. It’s when you hash out all the details and layout a plan that works for you and your timeline.
After I wobbled away from the finish line, I called up my friend and said “if we’re going to do this running thing, we’re going to do it right.” So, we jumped in headfirst and signed up for the Team Ortho Series, that’s five races, ranging from 5k races (3.1 miles) to half marathons (13.1 miles).
In total, I had signed up for seven races to run in 2015. Now, it was training time and I needed a plan.
STEP 1: MAKE A PLAN
To prepare for race #1, I ran once a week for the month leading up to it. For a New Year’s Day run and little training, it went okay.
Mid-January, I kicked it up a notch and joined a running group–running three days a week as a group plus two days individually.
Unfortunately, I put too much strain on my body too quickly and got injured.
I needed a new plan. What happens now?
STEP 2: RE-EVALUATE
I took a couple weeks off from the training group and ran solo as much as I could until the next race.
Race #2 was luckily pain-free for the most part, but it still wasn’t 100% of my effort.
Post-race, I slowly got back into the rhythm of the group, but listened to my body more carefully. When it hurt, I stopped.
I learned it’s okay to change the plan. Not everyone is built the same, and we each have our own challenges to overcome.
Just like with any business, each one has their own obstacles and you should take a few minutes at the end of the month/quarter/year and re-evaluate the plan. Figure out what’s working and what isn’t.
Weed out the ineffective methods and focus on what’s serving your business best.
This evaluation could be looking at website analytics or surveys and having simple conversations with your team members and customers. Hearing straight from the source how they learned about you and why they chose your product is a great way of acquiring information.
STEP 3: MODIFY THE PLAN
And the (new) plan is: run as much as I can tolerate, and focus on strengthening and resting the other days.
Race #3 came just a couple weeks after I modified the training plan. Between Mile 3 and 6, the knee pain kicked in.
Now it’s the beginning of May, and I’ve got two half marathons in the next two months. What’s a girl to do?
STEP 4: STICK WITH THE PLAN
Don’t give up after the first roadblock. Set a timeframe of when you’ll re-evaluate again, but until then, stick with it.
In a nutshell: Planning is the most important step to the process.
- Create a plan
- On a set date, re-evaluate
- If needed, modify the plan
- Stick with the plan
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