I had a coach back in the day, who-- like most religious leaders-- liked to speak in Parables. He was halfway a mad scientist, halfway a wizard. One week, every day (for a whole week), he told a story instead of giving us a workout. It was maddening, but it imparted some wisdom, which I'll analyze afterwards:
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OWL AND TORTOISE GO ON A TRIP
On Monday, Owl and Tortoise decided to go on a trip. They wanted to go Very Far Away. Owl, like most birds, can fly Very Far very quickly, so he spent hours and hours looking at maps, checking cross-breezes, weather patterns, bearings and trajectories. Tortoise, like most tortoises, can walk Very Far but very slowly. Lots of things would change over the course of a Tortoise’s trip, and you can’t plan for everything.
He waited patiently while Owl fretted over his charts.
Once owl he had determined an Efficient Vector to get Very Far away very quickly, he moved on to packing, picking out his lightest provisions, determining optimal arrangements, and possible refueling points along the way. Tortoise sighed as Owl continue to fret, took what he could carry on his back, and set off.
By the time Owl had packed everything, the sun was setting, and Turtle was far over the Horizon. No matter-- Owl could reach the Horizon in no time. He flew like a bullet towards the setting sun, which, as it fell, caused the air to cool and created disruptive convection currents, tumbling Owl this way and that and throwing off his sense of direction. Frustrated, he flew to a tree, perched on it, and poured over his maps to plan out a new route that accounted for the cooling air (it didn’t matter that it was getting dark out-- Owls have very good eyes and can read in the dark, too).
Tortoise, far over the Horizon, wished that he had someone to talk to. Journeys With Someone to Talk To are usually more fun than Journeys Alone, but Journeys Alone are always more fun than Staying Home.
So he hummed a tortoise-march to himself, and continued on his way to Very Far Away.
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Basically, my coach was fed up with us always asking "what's my run today?" We ran the same thing every Monday-- sixty minutes with strides, same as every Monday, unless it was prior to a race, then it was 45 minutes with strides, unless we were injured, then it was nothing, but none of his athletes were injured very often.
In my later years, I get caught up reading all kinds of training plans from great coaches, training logs of great athletes; I can't tell you how many "Day Ones" I've had for a new block of the best possible optimal training that falls apart after a few weeks because, really, the planning is easy-- full of potential, so exciting when you think about what could happen when everything goes right. It's the execution that's difficult, and it's best you just keep it simple and get started right now.
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