How to Stay on Track with Your Training Plan (Even When Life Gets in the Way)
By Coach Raeleigh | Feb 2, 2025
Ever feel like you’re the only one struggling to stay on track with your training plan?" Do you ever wonder if moving a workout around, swapping another in, or dare I say it, skipping a workout completely is a-ok?
Why Sticking to a Plan Feels Hard
In a constantly changing world, with competing demands, and conflicting circumstances, it can take everything you have to stick to (what I call) “the absolutes” of a training plan. For decades, I have heard of the angst that a busy lifestyle can place on competing goals as they apply to endurance sports training.
In the past, sticking to the absolutes of a training plan has been challenging for many of us to manage. So, no, it is not just you.
The real question is, “How can I be flexible and still have the confidence I’m getting the most out of my training?” The reality is that we all need a solution.
And thank goodness, Hugo, our AI-powered training coach is the answer we have all been needing.
Meet Hugo: Your AI Training Solution
Hugo, HumanGO’s virtual coach empathizes. It knows life can get “lifey.” Time warps (yes, folks, time warps are real), kids need attention, and work needs you more than ever. BUT you will go feral if you don't get ”me time”—your precious training time.
Hugo has superpowers.
It creates adaptive training plans, can re-plan your training, and adjust your sports and time in zone while considering intensity, duration, and recovery so you remain confident you're getting the most out of your training.
The list of excuses is long: “I don’t feel like it,” “my goal isn't that important,” “the dog ate my goggles,” “my socks don't match.”
You know, the things people say.
But for many of us, this is a serious conversation. Your goals are important, you want to build healthy habits, you want to back yourself, you want to be prepared for race day, you need training plan flexibility, and you’re willing to do the work.
How to Adjust Your Training Without Losing Progress
A typical week may be unpredictable for some, and very predictable for others. The amount of predictability can be determined by the type of work you do, your family situation, health, injury, holidays/travel, location, sickness, new or changing races or events, other commitments, and so on.
We need our training to be flexible enough to manage all these scenarios.
As recently as this past week, I took advantage of Hugo’s superpowers. I wasn't able to get to the running prescribed on my calendar. Two things happened, and life got “lifey.”
Is it okay to skip a workout in my training plan?
It was stormy (we are talking snow, ice, and sub-freezing conditions) and I was also traveling for 3 days and couldn't access a pool. I moved the workouts around that I knew I could get to, made a slight adjustment to my availability, then set Hugo to work by selecting “re-plan."
I knew that although my training was different from the initial prescription, it was optimized to my needs. I felt good I was still making the most of my available training windows and didn't feel guilty I was missing out.
What is Hugo’s re-plan feature?
Hugo performs weekly analyses of your training and suggests a replan if it detects any fatigue or discrepancies from your training plan. Differences in fitness, fatigue, and training load are considered when regenerating your plan.
How do I adjust my training when I’m busy?
Humango allows you to manually and automatically adjust your training when life gets in the way. There'll be many reasons why you might want to replan your training.
Sometimes you might want to replan your training manually and sometimes you want Hugo to automatically replan for you. Manual replanning is when you initiate a re-plan, while automatic replanning is when Hugo notices a change in your training, your compliance, or changes in your availability or goals and automatically triggers a replan.
Take Control of Your Training with Hugo
Next time you wonder how to stay on track with your training, I hope you use Hugo’s re-plan feature. Let HumanGO give you training plan flexibility and allow Hugo to adjust your workouts so you can continue confidently towards your next goal knowing you are truly optimizing your training to your life.
