What I’d Tell You If You Could Only Train Twice This Week

It’s Tuesday. You’ve got one night tied up with work, another with something for the kids, and you’re looking at the class schedule trying to figure out where the gym fits. You can see two openings. Maybe three if absolutely everything goes your way.

I’d put the two on the calendar.

When the week gets tight, it’s easy to look at the schedule you wanted and decide the one you have barely counts. But if Wednesday and Saturday are the days you can actually get here, that’s enough information to make a plan.

Pick the two days before you pick the workouts

It’s tempting to wait until you see what’s on the whiteboard. Maybe you’d rather lift heavy. Maybe the bike has been in enough workouts lately, thank you very much.

When your schedule is tight, start with when you can make it. Pick the two classes you’re most likely to attend. If one of those days depends on a meeting ending on time or someone else handling pickup, give yourself a backup while you’re looking at the calendar.

“I’ll go Thursday” is a plan. “If Thursday gets away from me, I’ll go Saturday morning” is a plan that can survive Thursday.

Take the workout that’s there

If you only get two classes, you might feel like each one has to do a little extra. You add weight because you missed Monday. You try to make up time on the bike because you’re unsure when you’ll be back. Pretty soon you’re making decisions based on the workout you missed.

Tell your coach how your week has been and ask what the workout is meant to feel like. If the goal is to keep moving for 12 minutes, we can help you pick a weight and a pace that let you do that. If it’s a lifting day, you get to spend some time lifting. You can get something out of either one.

That’s also where the rule from Two Things Can’t Be Hard comes in. If you want to push the pace, use a weight you know you can handle. If you want to challenge yourself with the weight, give yourself room to slow down.

If one day falls through, keep the other one

This is the part I’d pay the most attention to. When Thursday falls apart, it’s easy to mentally call the week and start looking toward Monday. But Saturday is still on the calendar. You can still come in, get coached, and get a workout in.

The next week might look completely different. You might get three days. You might get two again. Either way, you’ve already practiced figuring out how to train when the rest of your life is busy. That’s a skill worth getting better at.

Pull up the class schedule and pick your two days for this week. If one of them is a toss-up, pick your backup now.