Disney Training - Week 13

This was an awful week. I wasn't feeling well, had lots going on at work, was exhausted almost all of the time, and when I finally ran, I somehow hurt my back. Not to worry though, I have a plan to ensure I will still be 100% for Disney.

Swimming
No sessions this week.

Cycling
No sessions this week, although I really wanted to. No idea what is my mental hurdle on this one. My trainer is all set up, my iPad and TrainerRoad are set up and work. I have done successful rides before. And to top it off, I have the TV mounted now with Apple TV hooked up, so now I can watch stuff while I ride. I need to get over myself and just ride!

Running
As I noted, I got in only a single run this week. It was supposed to be my last long week, but sadly next week will need to be my final long week. I did an easy 10-mile treadmill run, but had to cut it short at 7 miles because I was feeling horrible. My back really flared up after I got home and I was having trouble walking the following day. Even as I write this I am still in immense amount of pain. My theory right now is that since I corrected my running form, having a super high-arch orthotic that is extra stiff is causing more impact than is necessary since I don't have the roll-and-collapse that I used to have; I am not mid-foot yet, but have minimal heel striking now. To further this theory, the last time I ran my longest distance I had actually forgotten to put my orthotics into my shoes, and I felt fine and recovered quickly.

So, once my back is better, I am going to try running without my orthotics and see how I feel. I am pretty confident this will do the trick. Plus not having the orthotic in really makes me pay more attention to good form.

Strength Training
I got in some of my stretching, which helped, but not as much as I should have, plus I skipped all of my strength sessions. After reading up a lot, I think my initial strength plan was too generic and not good enough for what I need for Ironman training. Therefore, I just came up with a new strength plan I am going to try and execute starting tonight. I'll post the details later, as I am still finalizing it.

Nutrition
I snacked this past week like there was no tomorrow. Somehow I only gained half a pound. I think this is due to me having inconsistent meals (or missing meals completely). Definitely not a healthy trend, which I started correcting over the weekend.

Final Thoughts
This upcoming week is going to be really telling as to how well my body is going to hold up at Disney. I really hope I can get over whatever mental blocks have been keeping me from my usual motivation and I can get my workouts done. I know my mind and body will feel much better if I succeed. Wish me luck!

Disney Training - Week 4

With my foot doing much better, I decided before I got running that I would work on some endurance and continued with my TrainerRoad program. I completed all three TrainerRoad workouts, although one did not go very well. I was pleased to end my week with getting in a run, which I will go into more detail below. I also got in a strength session, as well as a stretch and light cardio session, which really helped me out as well. Overall, an awesome recovery week for my foot that ended with me ready to get back into my Disney training.

Swimming
I didn't get any swimming in, which, as usual, bothers me and I need to improve on this.

Cycling
I got in three TrainerRoad workouts in. I can honestly say I have never been so taxed on riding my trainer before. This has really opened my eyes to structured indoor training and I love it! My Friday session did not go well though. It had nothing to do with the ride, but rather me. I had not slept well the night before and I consumed an insane amount of caffeine that day, which bit me hard for my ride. I was having severe shakes and my heart was going nuts. Therefore, I had to cut my ride short. Sunday went much better. I am not sure I'll be able to get all three sessions in each week, but I hope to get at least two.

Running
My foot was feeling good at the beginning of the week, but I didn't want to risk anything. However, by the weekend I felt 100% so I went out for a run. It was mostly hills and it felt amazing! For the first time in a long time I not only felt good during and after my run, but nothing bothered me; knees, feet, back, or shoulder. I am definitely ready to get back to my Disney training. Although, I will make sure to alter the distance to ease back into it.

Strength
I was able to get in one actual strength session. It was full body strength with a focus on core. It was challenging and I was definitely a bit sore the following two days. This is just further evidence I need to be getting in more strength sessions because I should not have been sore like I was.

Nutrition
I seem to continue to fight the nutrition monster; myself. Things are starting to get a little more normal with the move-in, and we have some Blue Apron meals planned for next week, so I am hoping to get my nutrition a little more on track.

Final Thoughts
A very good week as I mentioned. I know I have said this before, but I really need to get swimming again and must incorporate more strength training. In addition, I think I need to do actual strength workouts, not just HiiT-style full body workouts. I will probably continue with mostly body-weight strength, but it will be a lot more focused on specific muscle groups.

Some TrainerRoad Things I Have Learned So Far

I decided to take the plunge into structured indoor cycling workouts to both help my endurance and improve my overall cycling training. I have tried doing my own thing for years, where I will focus on drills and do cadence training. Don't get me wrong, it has worked really well. For an outdoor ride with hills, my longer rides have gone from averaging 15 mph to 19+ mph. However, I am training not only for an Ironman right now, but my goal is to qualify for Kona. This means putting out some serious bike speeds in addition to exponentially improving my swimming.

Accuracy
If you don't have a smart trainer or a power meter, don't take the actual FTP value as absolute. For example, I know my one friend can turn out some pretty decent power, but my base FTP after my FTP Test was insanely higher than his; 344 for reference. However, that doesn't mean this isn't a really useful number. Along with FTP/kg, you can really plan and gauge progress. Instead of focusing on actual FTP, I'll be focusing on my percent improvement over time. Therefore I will still be gaining all of the benefits I need from knowing this data. The only time accuracy is more important is if you are competing with friends, which I am definitely not, and would buy a power meter if I was.

Heart Rate Broadcasting - Garmin 935XT
Since I am back indoors, plus TrainerRoad needs at least a speed sensor, I put my Garmin speed and cadence sensors back on my bike. Pairing was easy once I had the Ant+ iPad dongle and the 30-pin to lightning adapter. However, my first workout got me stuck with 2 workouts showing up because my HR was tracked on my watch and power and related metrics on TrainerRoad. I learned the other day that the Garmin 935XT, along with many of the newer and more high-end Garmin devices, can broadcast HR for other devices to pick up. This worked and I am so happy. Here is what I did.

On Garmin 935XT Watch

1. Hold "Up" button then scroll to and select "Settings"

2. Scroll to and select "Sensors & Accessories"

3. Scroll to and select "Wrist Heart Rate"

4. Scroll to and select "Broadcast Heart Rate"

5. Your HR is now broadcasting and your app can pick up the data and you can do your workout

You perform this each time you do your ride. Once this is enabled, you do not need to start the activity on your watch. Just leave it as-is. You can now find and sync it with the TrainerRoad app. Perform your ride and enjoy!

You Don't Need an Expensive Trainer

Most people think you need an expensive trainer that measures power and can automatically adjust resistance when hooked in with training apps such as TrainerRoad. I beg to differ, as I am a very cheap triathlete and hate spending money on gear. I purchased a standard magnetic trainer on Amazon for about $50 and that's as smart as I went.

TrainerRoad, not sure about others like Zwift, has a fancy chart to allow you to match a supported trainer with the trainer you have. This obviously adds to less accuracy of FTP, but you can read above for my explanation on that. You will definitely need to buy a skewer, however, as trying to use the quick release that is common on most road and tri bikes doesn't really fit too well and you will be prone to the bike coming loose and risking some serious injury. Other than that, you will need a PC, MAC or iOS device that has an Ant+ adapter. Once you have these things, you are good to go. 

I hope to add more tips and tricks as I learn more. Enjoy your next workout!

Interim Plan: Week 4 - Complete

All moved in! Well, for the most part anyway. But I am done moving stuff from our old house to our temporary housing until the house sells and we find a new home. I was able to get in some workouts, which was super exciting. I also got in some walks as well. I am looking forward to starting my training plan next week for cycling!

Swimming
No time this week, but I will start back next week.

Cycling
I was able to get a stationary ride in, where I mixed high resistance and single-leg drills. Overall it was a good session, but man-oh-man do I need to work more on leg strength.

Running
I got in both a treadmill run and an outside run this week. Even though I felt like I was going to die from my outside run because I haven't done hills in forever, it was so invigorating. I cannot wait to run outside more often with the weather getting so nice.

Strength
As usual, I lifted tons of stuff all week. And as usual, I completely no formal strength routines. It will be nice getting back to them this upcoming week.

Nutrition
Despite the busy schedule, I did alright with eating well. However, I did suffer a little here and there, and also just didn't have time to log most meals. I will be resolving that this upcoming week as well.

Final Thoughts
Overall a very productive week. My upcoming week will have some missed activities due to travel, but I'll get most of my workouts in. So happy spring is here!

Interim Plan: Week 1 - Complete

As I have noted before, I am in the process of selling my house and moving. So this past week and the next week are devoted strictly to that. I still have a workout plan, but I am not in any way trying to force myself to stick with it, because honestly, most of my days when I am not at work at spent from dusk until dawn doing moving stuff. At least I am getting some good strength building with this.

Swimming
I didn't get any swimming in, although there were some days I really wish I had the time. My muscles were achy all week.

Cycling
I was able to get a 30 min cadence ride in this week. I was even able to bump up another level of resistance for almost half of the ride. I am really excited for cycling training to start in 2 weeks.

Running
I was able to get an outside run in. I had the following goals: 1) Run outside 2) Run for 30 minutes without stopping 3) Start retraining myself to gauge cadence and pace. I achieved all of these. I learned that over 1.5 years without running outside, I have lost most of my ability to gauge cadence and pace outside. However, it was a good start and I am hoping for an improvement on my next run. Also, I had forgotten how hilly my route was, and for having run on treadmill at incline 0 for many months now, it was quite a shock to my legs. I maintained good form though and had no knee issues. My feet and legs were completely dead after the run though. Fortunately, I have been doing enough strength training and cardio that my recovery was almost 100% the next day.

Strength
I didn't get any formal sessions in this week. However, I have been lifting 100lb tanks, yard equipment, furniture, building stuff, and the list goes on for my move and home sale, so I got a lot of strength work in, even if it wasn't structured.

Nutrition
I did pretty well with nutrition this week. I did horrible logging it, but I maintained good eating habits and even lost some weight! I hope to continue this progress, but hopefully with being more consistent at logging my food.

Final Thoughts
Overall a very successful week, as I wasn't sure I would have any time to workout. Next week will be the same. I cannot wait for this to be over.

Building Plan: Week 11 Complete

So this was a rough week. Monday was an incredibly challenging strength routine. I thought I was doing well on Tuesday, so instead of cycling I ran. Well, I hurt myself a little. Nothing major, but I couldn't do anything for the following two days. I adjusted my schedule though, recovered, and finished out the week on a good note.

Swimming
My shake-out swim was rough. I was spent after my run, but I still managed to get in 800 yards. Had to pound 2 nuun tabs after though to keep me from passing out. Although my swims are designed to just help with my recovery and push myself a little extra, I am happy with how my swims are going. My form has been much better, especially my arm rotation along with my pull and push. It will be exciting later in the year when I start my actual swim training to see what I can do on a fresh swim.

Cycling
I got in a cadence ride this week and it was awesome! I was shocked I could hold my cadence for 45 minutes, which is 15 minutes longer than my previous rides. In addition, I had been having trouble keeping that cadence. I am going to hopefully have another successful cycling week and then I am going to bump up the resistance.

Running
As I noted, my first run was really bad. I started my new cadence training week, 7/8. So aside from it being a lot tougher from that, my legs and body were not remotely recovered from my Monday strength session. Therefore, I was having terrible heart rate spikes and pains all over. My foot is still bugging me slightly. So, I took off 2 days and I waited until Sunday to do another run. My Sunday run was awesome though! I completed it and overall my cadence wasn't too bad. However, it wasn't as good as it could have been because my foot still was slightly bothering me from Tuesday. The gym was also so hot and humid that I was having trouble cooling myself and staying hydrated enough. Looking forward to smarter running and more of Week 7/8.

Strength
Even though I hurt myself, I still got in two of my three strength sessions. They were great as always and I keep seeing more improvement every week!

Nutrition
I am getting better with logging my food. Still not 100% there yet. I have not been too good at quality of food in some cases, but I'll get there.

Final Thoughts
Overall a tough week for me, especially since I don't handle being injured very well. However, I fought through my mental hurdle, recovered, and finished out the week strong. I am so proud of myself for accomplishing that. I look to keep the momentum going into next week!

Building Plan: Week 8 Complete

Another week down. I am happy to say this was one of my best weeks! I decided to stop trying to get doubles in and just focus on getting my designated workout in. For the most part, I hit almost all of my workouts.

Strength

I am starting off with strength training this time because this is supposed to be the most important thing for my training right now. However, I only made 2/3 workouts this week. My second workout was heavily focused on legs, and I sadly overworked my legs a little too much. So, this caused me to miss a run, my other strength session, and a ride. I am not too upset though as this is proof I have not been putting the proper training time in. I expect this week to be much better.

Running

I was able to get 2/3 running sessions completed this week. I felt really good for both Week 5/6 sessions and I think I am going to move onto Week 6/7. Overall, my cadence improved significantly for my outside run. I also felt much better. However, the temperature really fluctuated a lot during the short run and that made me feel a bit sick later. All better now though. I am not sure how many more outside runs I will get in, but I will keep trying to get my weekend run to be outside, weather-permitting.

Cycling

I got in only 1 cadence ride. It felt much better than last time though and I plan on slightly increasing resistance this week, as my heart rate stayed in zone 1 almost the entire time. I am hoping to get at least 2 rides in this week.

Swimming

I was not able to get in my swim. I went a bit too late to do my run and when I was done, I had family things to take care of. I will make sure I am not so lazy this week with my schedule.

Final Thoughts

I am still seeing good improvement with my strength and running. Everything is slow, but that is fine because they are not what I am focused on right now. Going forward, I think I am going to structure my weekly workout post to mimic triathlon; Swimming, Cycling, Running, Strength, and Nutrition. I think with a couple weeks of consistency improvement, I am going to tack on nutrition for this week. My main goal for this is to just log everything and try my best to avoid mindless snacking. Hope everyone is doing well with their training.

Building Plan: Week 7 Complete

What a week! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, are enjoying Hanukkah, or just enjoying some time off from work. I had one of my most successful workout weeks in a while, and I am hoping to keep this momentum. I had great running sessions, although my strength sessions were lacking again. I also did much better with cross training.

Strength Training

I only got in 1 of 3 full sessions. I did my usual daily stretches, but that doesn't make up for the 2 days missed. I will be making a bigger effort to make sure I am getting these strength days, as I feel this week was successful because of strength from last week.

Running

I hit all 3 runs this week! I continued my cadence week 5/6 plan. I'll make a post later showing the training progression plan. However, I will note now, and when I post, that this plan was specifically to help correct a running form issue I developed over the last few years due to my injuries and is not a plan I'll be building on. I will be building on my mileage, but this program was focused on my stride and foot strike.

Sunday I was able to get outside and run at a local track. It was an extremely tough run though because I have not run outside in a long time, so my SPM was much lower than I wanted. I was excited to learn the only open-to-public track in my county is the one somewhat near me. I'll be going here a lot more, as there is no substitute for outside running. Don't get me wrong, I have been making incredible strides with the treadmill, and it has been really good to get me going, but I need to wind, extreme temperature changes, and soon, hills.

Cycling

I was got in a cadence ride on my trainer. These rides are still destroying me. I am not too concerned though, as I have no been focusing on cycling or my cycling cadence much. However, I am not going to just hop on the bike to ride and burn calories, so I chose cadence. I am still hoping that once I get my running and strength consistent, I'll be able to bump up to at least 2 cadence sessions a week.

Swimming

I only did a short swim after one of my runs. It was 10 minutes and I was focused on form, especially arm rotation. I did this for two reasons. The first is that I usually recover exponentially quicker when i swim after my runs. Secondly, I wanted to push my shoulders, as they were already tired from my run. I think I did pretty well, and my goal is to always get in a swim after at least one of my runs, if not more.

Final Thoughts

Overall this is one of the best weeks I have had in a while. I plan on continuing this momentum. I'll definitely be adding another week of my Cadence Week 5/6 to my schedule. Although I don't have any running races or triathlons planned for 2017 yet, my dad wants to do the City to Shore ride again, but with the Century distance (100 miles or 160 km). So I'll be training for that.

Spin Bikes vs Bike Trainers

I want to start off by saying I am writing this due to my frustration in my training. This led me to do some research and therefore I wanted to share my thoughts.

What is a Bike Trainer?

A bike trainer is a cycling tool that is designed to allow you to ride your bike while remaining stationary. There are a few different types, but I am not going to go into full detail on each one. Rather, the two most common trainers are one where you put your whole bike on the trainer (first picture above) or one where you remove the rear wheel and hook up the bike via the cassette.

For a base model trainer, you will be able to adjust resistance of trainer, in addition to shifting your gears for additional resistance adjustments. The higher models you go up, the more features you get. A typical benefit to cassette trainers is that if they are "smart" you will get power as one of the tracked metrics. Now, if you already have a power meter on your bike, this might be a moot point. Some trainers will even allow you to adjust for hills.

What is a Spin Bike?

A spin bike is a stationary upright bike that is designed to mimic the ergonomics of a road or triathlon bike. Similar to trainers, the higher end you go, the more metrics and hill abilities you get. As opposed to having wheels like a traditional bike, it basically has a front "friction-less" disc that connect back to the crankset. This whole system is designed to be as low friction as possible, with either a digital or manual resistance adjuster.

What is the Difference

From a pure cardiovascular workout standpoint, both types are great. You can get a wonderful burn and enjoy the benefits of biking while indoors. You can also do various strengthening drills on both, such as one-legged drills. However, this is mostly where their similarities end.

A spin bike is going to be very deceptive to the rider when comparing to real road conditions while on a real bike. Due to the mechanical design of a spin bike, it avoids a lot of the friction and mechanisms you get in a standard bike. Granted, there are road and triathlon bikes designed to reduce friction, but nothing to the level of a spin bike. Also, there is just no beating training on your own bike. There is a completely different feel and balance, even when stationary, to your bike on the trainer versus a spin bike. Your bike is, or should be, set perfectly to your dimensions. A spin bike can be adjusted of course, but most aspects are different. A spin bike also avoids a crucial aspect of road biking; shifting. Since you can't coast on a spin a bike and you adjust frictional resistance versus shifting, you don't get the same experience you would when out on the road. Granted, a trainer is not going to let you coast either, but you will be able to shift.

My Personal Experience

When I first got into road biking, it was already late fall and I started with a spin a bike. I worked up to some of the max resistance of the spin bike while maintaining a very high RPM. When spring came around and I bought my road bike, I expected to hop on and fly through any obstacle with ease and at lightning fast speeds. My first go on the bike I fell over from lack of balance. My first hard bend, I crashed. My first monster uphill, I couldn't even make it up. My first downhill I already wiped out. My first massive side gust, I got blown over. My first race, my time was double what I expected.

My point here is that despite doing all of the recommended drills and training like crazy on a spin bike did virtually nothing to help me with actual road biking. This is a very common theme for most cyclists. This is why most cyclists you will talk to have a trainer at home, or go to a gym where they can hook up their bike to a trainer.

Final Thoughts

I know this was a bit lengthy of an article, but I wanted to stress there is no substitute to training on a bike versus a spin bike. If you race, I can only recommend using a trainer, except for when you just want to get a good cardio workout in to work on endurance. Otherwise, stay away from the spin bikes. However, if you don't have the space for a trainer and spinning is your only option, definitely do it. Just make sure the second you can get back on your bike, you do it.

Building Plan: Week 5 Complete

What a week. I was at the vet hospital a ton, I got sick, and I aggravated my knees and right foot. I still pushed through and got workouts in, but I was overly cautious and conservative. I'll go into detail, but I am pretty happy with my decisions. To make thing frustrating though, I have been dealing with some sort of joint or some other issue in my left thumb for months, and it's getting worse. Probably will have to head to get x-rays on it.

Running

I only got my first run in for the week. The following day both knees and my foot were so bad I was limping. I thought maybe I went too hard on the treadmill. However, it's a lot simpler than that. The past couple weeks I have been slacking on my strength training, core strength, and stretching. As I have noted before, these things are imperative to long term injury prevention for myself and keeping my knee and foot issues at bay. I had a nice reminder last Tuesday of this fact. Fortunately, I didn't try and doing any running until my knees and foot were feeling good again.

Cycling

I got in some spin sessions, as well as a trainer session. I am just going to emphasize how ridiculously useless spin bikes are in regards to real bike training. I am going to write a blog article on this later in the week, so you can read more about that then. Anyway, I had, what I thought, were two amazing spin sessions where I was easily hitting 90 rpm at a very decent resistance. But my trainer ride showed me how inaccurate those sessions were. To achieve only 85 rpm average, I was going at a fraction of the resistance and worked at least twice as hard. That is fine though, I will continue to use the spin bike for warm-ups when I need breaks from my running warm-ups. Also, when I don't have time to get trainer rides in I'll use spin bikes for 1-legged drills and sit-stand strength training.

Swimming

It didn't happen. I literally had no time to get over to LA Fitness to get into the pool. Until my cat's health issues are more under control and he has his surgery, I expect this to be an ongoing issue.

Strength Training

I am embarrassed to say I got in 1 strength session, which was just core strength. Not only that but I overdid the session and my left deltoid and trapezius muscles were completely messed up for 2 days afterwards, even with stretching and using a lacrosse ball. This will not be happening again, as I cannot afford to have knees, foot, and other injuries like I did this week.

Final Thoughts

I will be revamping my training schedule to be a lot more basic and not worry about doubles just to get all of my training in. My original intent was to build my strength, get a consistent stretching and core routine, and to build my running back up. I have strayed from this by trying to get cycling and swimming in, causing me to focus on cardio more, strength less, and ultimately scope creep from my plans. Week 6 will be much more structured, but simple. I will probably follow this until real life gets a little less crazy, then I'll start adding back my other cardio.

Building Plan: Week 4 Complete

What a week! Had to be at the hospital a bunch for my cat, so I missed some workouts. However, I got most of my other planned workouts in. I even got myself back in the pool! My eating suffered a lot though.

Strength
I only got in 1 full strength session. I got a partial session in as well, but it was more stretching than anything, as I was completely wrecked from my Thursday cadence run. It was my first real attempt at my Week 3/4 cadence plan. I definitely went too fast on the treadmill. But I'll get into this shortly. Anyway, my strength session was a monster! I had a faster-than-usual warm-up run, so I started my strength session at a fairly elevated heart rate. This session was also continuous sets-focused, so my heart rate stayed rather elevated, with points where I was hitting close to max HR. I had to lay down and foam roll for a good 10 minutes after. Sadly, this was my only real strength workout, which I am extremely disappointed about, as my main focus is improving my strength. This will not happen again!

Running
So, my first attempt at the Cadence Week 3/4 plan was the day after my above strength session. My legs were not fully recovered from that session, but I did the run anyway. I set a whole bunch of PR's, but almost passed out after my run from pushing myself to the absolute max. Happily though, I am pushing myself to my limits, but not going over. I need to keep being vigilant of my form, as I will easily get injured at this level of training. I did my second run over the weekend, on Sunday instead of Saturday. Although I was exhausted, it went much better than my prior run. I was able to maintain a higher belt speed for all 3 intervals while maintaining close to my goal cadence. However, my HR is still way too high and my average cadence is not at 180 yet. Therefore, I will be continuing my Week 3/4 cadence running into Week 5. I could technically move to Week 4/5, but I am not trying to build as quickly as possible...I am trying to make major gains that will stick.

Cycling
I had a nice leg-loosening session the day after my first run. It was pure awfulness, but I felt so much better later that day and especially the following day. I am making it my mission that I never miss some sort of shake-out workout after an intense workout day because this will promote faster healing and recovery. Sadly, I did not get in my long trainer ride.

Swimming
I finally got in the pool. I did this after my 2nd run session, which was Sunday. I swam 800 yards...which felt like 10 miles and I thought I was in the pool for a couple hours. I did 100 WU, 3 x 200, then 100 CD. I needed a full 60 seconds rest between each set. I honestly can't remember the last time I swam and it felt that tough for swimming so little. But guess what? I felt amazing when I got home and today I feel almost 100%. I cannot emphasize how much proper cross training is helping me.

Final Thoughts
I am going to keep trying to be more consistent with my workout volume. I altered my plan a little to be more realistic with my schedule. I am hoping I will be able to succeed more now. I don't think I need another 3 run sessions of the Week 3/4 Cadence plan, but I am going to get them done for good measure. As a note, I am down to a 6:08 mile now!!!!! With my walks between intervals, I am also at a 22:07 5k as well. However, I am not really counting this 5k pace until I can do a 5k with no stops.

My eating is still amazingly awful and I have not only regained all of my lost weight, but I am up a couple pounds again. I am not too worried about it though, as this is still not my major focus yet. Hope everyone is working hard with their goals!

Building Plan: Week 3 Complete

I hope everyone had a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving! I was cooking up a storm for my family. It always amazes me how much better 100% home-made is versus anything else. I made some good progress in my prior weeks and lost a good bit a weight. Just in time for the feasting, lol. I am not looking forward to my upcoming weigh-in. No matter, I had wonderful times with my family and can get back to my usual eating again. In regards to working out, my goal was to not miss anything because of the holiday week. Well, I went and hurt my neck which prevented me from doing some workouts. However, I did make some excellent progress despite that.

 

Strength

I got 2 of my 3 strength sessions completed. However, the one session was more just stretching and a little bit of body weight routines. I am still seeing significant improvements in my strength. In addition, I am seeing some improved mobility and flexibility. Still nothing to write home about, but I’ll take any gains.

Running

I had a PR this week! During one of my runs, I got a 6:34 mile!!!!! I was so excited. I am also feeling slightly less winded and tired during and right after my runs. I am excited my endurance is finally building back up. I am starting my week 3/4 of my running training. I hope I can do it!

Cross Training

I still have yet to get myself back into the pool. I hope to change that this week, even if I only make it once. I got in one trainer session. It was alright, but it was more just to get my legs loose. With my neck bothering me, I couldn’t get anymore done. My brother has me doing some stretches that are slowly helping.

Final Thoughts

For Week 4 I am hoping to keep increasing my consistency and getting more workouts in. I am not too worried about my eating as I have gotten rid of most of the leftovers, so this week will be mostly back to normal eating. I do need to make sure I keep up with my food tracking though. Hope everyone is doing well with their goals!

Week 1 Progress

So, MyFitnessPal isn't working for posting my fitness Blog there. I am pretty angry at them, but it can't be helped. Therefore, I will just post everything here. As a note, I am now on Week 2, but it's been almost 2 weeks with MFP support having no clue how to fix the issue.

Last week was week 1 of my training plan. My current focus is rebuilding my running, which involves cadence training and complementary strength and cross training. 

So, I was not as successful as I would have liked, but I still made the effort. I missed 2 of my runs, which I was no happy about, but I got in all of my strength sessions and the long bike trainer session. 

Compared to prior weeks where I was doing 10 minute cadence runs, my run this week saw an improvement in cadence, which was awesome. I was so dead afterwards though. I am in the avg HR zone of 78% max hr for my runs, and peak at 98%.  However, I recover within 30 minutes, post-run, so I am pushing myself but not past my limits. This is why I am currently seeing week-over-week progress. I am really shooting to not have more than 1 session of plateau. 

For my strength, I am seeing constant improvement in strength and flexibility. However, I still have a ton of core muscle groups that are insanely weak. I will keep focusing on them. I am starting a Nike Training Club (NTC+) 4-week workout routine that is going to help with this. 

For my bike trainer session, it was rough; really rough. I had a super active day doing yard work and carrying many heavy things up and down stairs for most of the day. And this was also my first cadence ride on my trainer. I was over 10 rpm below my goal average, and I thought I was going to die in the 30-minute session. But that's fine; the sky is practically the limit for how much improvement I can make on my cycling.

Looking forward to more consistency in Week 2 of my program. Hope everyone is working at their goals!