My plan? Um...

With the first week of officiating well underway, I've had to think about my workout plan. I have come up with a plan that I think will help get me through the next month or three.

My plan is not to have a plan.

I was well aware of the amount of running involved in an average soccer game, even at the high school level, and even when you are dealing with 14-year-old girls. They can actually zip around quite a bit out there. I am not having a tough time keeping up with them; in fact, it's been quite pleasant to have had the chance to run up and down the field, sprint a few times to get in position if need be and really stretch my legs in quite a different setting as the one I've done.

Actually, part of my plan actually does have some structure. I need to get myself a pedometer. That way I can keep track of how much running I'm doing. It's quite a bit as I've burned more than 1,000 calories during each of my games this week and my heart rate statistics have been excellent. I averaged more than 150 and hit a max of about 180 during each of the halves today, and again I felt like running a mile or three to finish off the workout once the game was over.

(On an aside, I wonder if I'm the only official in the county who wears a heart rate monitor during games)

I'd wanted to try and figure out trips to the gym to get some runs but it's not looking like that's the greatest plan. Not that I can't handle the extra running - I probably need it to be honest. But for instance on Thursday I have no game and while a trip to the gym is possible, I have my dad-duties to tend to, the same ones that have been pushed back a bit because of my reffing.

Squeezing in a three- or five-mile run every now and then will still be something I'll try and get to but trying to plan it or say "every Tuesday I'll run 3-5 miles" I think is not practical right now. Maybe in two weeks I might be able to figure something out but for now, not having a plan is the best option.

I had pretty much all but decided on running the Ontario Mills 5K on Jan. 24 that is set to a "maybe" status on the right hand side of this page and I figured at some point I'd start to train for it. But with all the running I'm doing I think that has to count for something. I have games on Tuesday and Thursday the week leading up to it so maybe by then I'll have come up with a better plan than my current one.