October and November
The dark nights
are the problem.Nobody stops training in Clydebank because the training got harder. They stop because it is dark at half four and the couch is closer than the gym. Every session coached by Stevie.
What happens in October
The weather turns, the clocks go back, and finishing work in the dark does something to the plan that no amount of wanting it fixes. Sessions get moved to tomorrow. Tomorrow gets moved to Monday. By the middle of November a lot of people have quietly stopped, and the story they tell themselves is that they will pick it up in January.
January is ten weeks away. Ten weeks is an entire block.
Why a fixed block beats willpower in the winter
- It has a start date and a finish date, so there is no rolling membership to drift out of.
- There are 30 places in a class and somebody knows whether you are in yours.
- You are measured in week one and week eight, so the dark fortnight in the middle is visible instead of invisible.
- It is coached. On the nights you would have done twenty minutes and gone home, you do the session that was written.
The practical things that make a winter evening possible
Free parking at the door of Spectrum House, lit, on a business park rather than a side street: the parking page has the detail, and it matters more in November than it does in June. The evening classes run at 5:40pm and finish at 6:30pm, which is early enough that the night is not gone. If evenings are the thing that has beaten you before, the 6am classes exist for that reason: 6am classes Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, done by 6:50am.
What to do about the food while it is dark
Appetite goes up and daylight goes down, and both are normal. The plan does not change for the season: protein at every meal, carbs around training, nothing banned, ninety per cent of meals on the system and the other ten per cent is life. The nutrition plan is written at the consult and written round your week, dark nights included.
Next start
Questions
Is it not easier to just start in January?
It is easier to say. The people who start in January are starting from ten weeks further back, which is the whole cost of waiting. A block that starts now finishes before Christmas.
It is dark when I finish work. Does that not make it worse?
It makes going home worse. The gym is lit, it is warm, the class starts at 5:40pm and you are out at 6:30pm, and you park at the door rather than walking from a side street.
What about the 6am classes in the dark?
Same answer from the other end. Free parking outside the building, in and out before it is properly light, and the rest of the day has already got something done in it.
I stop every winter. Why would this one be different?
Because a block has a finish date and somebody is expecting you at the door. The reason most people stop in October is that nothing notices when they do.
Can I keep it going over Christmas?
The timetable and any changes to it are published, and the Christmas page is about exactly that fortnight. Nothing here needs you to train through it; it needs you not to disappear in October.
The rest of the year: Christmas, January, summer, holiday prep. Coming back after a break: back to the gym after summer.