Tweaking plans

I've been watching my husband with fascination. He is a runner and he is preparing for a big race, 50 miles over trails and through rivers. Yes, that's right 50 miles and I did say "through" rivers not over rivers. He's a little crazy but I love him anyway.

He's run this race before so he knows exactly what he's getting into. The catch is he decided to run it only 6 weeks before the race. This is something you would spend months training for, not weeks. Being a running coach he set up a training plan for himself and this is what's I am fascinated to watch.

He keeps tweaking the plan.

Yup, lots of tweaking going on. So the question is: Is that good or bad? Answer: It's brilliant! He set his goal, outlined a plan and he's making adjustments to the plan as he goes along. He isn't changing his goal, just the techniques for reaching it. And he isn't making his decisions based on a painful moment, he doesn't quit a training run after 12 miles or after 2o miles because it hurts. If he can't run he walks because he knows the ultimate goal is time on his feet. In between runs he looks at what he accomplished and what's coming up in the training schedule - then he tweaks the workouts based on his ultimate goal. Sometimes he trades a long run for some speed work on the track. Sometimes he ditches a long run because he ran long yesterday and has another important long run coming up. Everything is designed to help him reach the finish line on race day. Nothing else matters in the interim; no ego, no rigid structure, just doing what it takes day-by-day to reach the goal.

The race is September 6th. The kids and I are crewing for him (meeting him along the way with dry shoes, water and food) so I'll see what happens and I'll know the truth with all the gory details so I can share it with you.