Lack of Will

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength but rather in a lack of will." -- Vince Lombardi

I really don't feel like working out today...

recovery week

Coach prescribes a recovery week for this week. just completed an olympic distance triathlon, and will be doing at least 2 laps at 24hrs of adrenaline next weekend. So this week is cycle commuting, but no cat 6 racing, light resistance, stretching, and perhaps 1 swim.

Nothing on friday, unless my mountain bike needs a tuneup ride. :-)

race like crazy on the weekend, then another recovery week or two.

Wicked brick

Stupid coach has me doing a brick workout after work today.  For anyone unfamiliar with a brick, it's a workout where you combine two aerobic workouts, one immediately following the other.  Typically, triathletes will combine swim then bike, or bike then run, to simulate race conditions. 

I did the latter, and I think this is the more typical workout.  Since I am combining it with the commute, the actual workout was 1 hr cycling, then 30 minutes run.  Also, still following stupid coaches advice, and making the bike an easy ride.  And seriously, my mantra was ' every ride does not have to be a hammer fest'. No cat 6 racers today, so it wasn't so hard.  I mainly use it to test fueling, rather than as an extended workout. 

To test fueling, you really only need to run about 20 minutes off the bike,as what you are testing is how you consumed and processed food on the bike.  If you under-fueled, you will bonk in the first 20 minutes.  I am guessing that you wil have some stomach distress soon in the run in the case of over-fueling.  Ok to be more specific, I was testing the lower edge of fueling,as I ate a banana before the ride, had only gatorade on the ride, and ate a gel at the start of the run.

And the verdict?  No bonking, good energy levels, tight and tired hamstrings, good speed, no stomach problems. Even a good mental state. 

Good work for a 4 workout day.

Recovery was a orange juice, apple juice combo, with a scoop of glutamine powder.  Followed by 20 minutes of sitting on ice packs to cool the hamstrings, then followed by a beer.  Or two.

What the stupid coach doesn't know won't hurt me, and will make me sleep like a log.

Resistance Work

First day of new session today, and found that I am the only one of the group who signed up. Thats OK, I don't mind the great rate I get for a personal trainer.

Todays workout:

- Step up + backwards lunge
- Back extension with a twist
- Squat + chest press
- straight arm plank on ball

- Eccentric hamstring with exploding pushup
- kneeling rear delt fly
- lying on back, legs up, arms out, swing legs (slow) side to side
- bench drop

- side dumbbell drop
- Superman, with opposite arm+leg

good intense workout! Thanks Kristaps

Bike Ride this morning.

Ok, I tried. I went slower. I took it easy. I stopped a couple of times to talk to people who were lost amongst the detours on the pathway. It took 59 minutes. On a day when I am pounding it, it takes 55.

felt good though....

resistance work

Weights today

First set
- Shoulder Press
- back extension with weight
- Roman chair PIKE
- Squat with Barbell

Second Set
- Rear Delt Fly
- Box Jump
- Chest Press on the ball
- AB roller

3rd set
- sortof a superman thing, where you lie on your stomach, arms spread wide, and then lift your foot over and across, touching the floor near your hand. Try to keep hands (and shoulders) near the floor
- same sort of thing, slying on your back
- side crunch.

Slow Cycling? What?

The stupid coach just makes shit up all the time.

Todays workout is 2 hours cycling, 1 hour running, 1 hour resistance.
That is some fine Makin' Shit Up right there.

And it gets better. I am supposed to allow extra time, so that I go at least 2 minutes per 5k slower than my usual pace. Commute is not a race he says. Oh course not I say, its a workout. Going slower, like thats gonna help anything.

The run will be easy anyway. Its only my second day back from running. No speed there.

I will give it a try. It really is making shit up though, just to be clear.

Two workout day

So todays workout was running and swimming. First run since the marathon.

Took the crowchild loop. The run was scheduled for 8k/45:00 but the pathways are under construction, and the section from memorial to the new peace bridge was just gone. My pace was generally OK, slower than my race pace, but then, that was the point of an easy run

My knees started to hurt at the beginning of the run, so I stopped twice during the run to stretch the quads and the IT band. The pain went away.

Tonight was swimming. No sprints! Yah! even though I wore the skinsuit, I still did not want to do sprints. To the best of my recollection, it was this:

W/u 4x50 easy
B/U
4x50 4up 4down
4x50 Tombstone
4x50 closed fist f/c
4x50 chicken arms
MS
3x200 target 3:20
4x100 target 1:45
1x200 target 3:20
4x50 target :50
C/d
4x50 any easy

Gack, my new drill to hate is chicken arms. We did that one night in sprints. Oh god it was awful.

First set to 200, we were pushing hard to make the pace. And did it in 3:00. Way Fast! way too fast. so much so, that we pooped out on the second 200 before 100m was up. Then the goal became to hit the target time OR SLOWER! This was harder to do that first appears. Must be too much testosterone in the air. At least, that was the thinking last time Josh and I were going too fast in the pool.

Walking the dog felt good.

Three-a-Days

so I did another three-a-days today. First, cycle commute, 21.3Km in 57 minutes. Then Weights at lunch. the workout was

2x
- AB Roller
- Bent Over Row
- Box Jumps (The tallest one as well)
- Rear Delt Fly

2x
- Chest Press with Dumbbells
- Body Rows
- Burpees, 12lb weight
- AB Ball Crunch

2x
- Dead Lift
- Slow Crunch
- Side Plank

and last but not least, the same commute in reverse, in 55 minutes,

Walking with the dog this evening, I realized:

My legs are tired

Might be on to something...

OK, I will have to give the stupid Coach some credit on this one. This swim session went much better than the past few.

Workout was
w/u 8x50 easy
b/u 4x100 (kick 4th)
mset 3x400 5:15
8x100 1:18

c/d 2x (1x50 push and glide,
1x50 front crawl easy)

on first 400, I got 250m in before I needed a breather. Then I did a 400, on 7:30. so yeah, I got one done.

then I did 2x100 on 1:30 pace.

Now, the last few workouts, I have been done after 100m, and the last 25m felt hard. on the 100s tonight, I cranked it up for the last 25m.

Stupid Coach might be onto something here.

Recovery is important.

The stupid coach acquires a clue....

So my coach has me trying out a plan for tonights swim workout.

Thursday swim workout have been endurance swims, usually much bigger sets, but somewhat slower pace and reasonable recovery times. For the past two thursdays, I have been unable to complete the swim workouts, as I have been feeling just exhausted. I took this up with the stupid coach, and he just shrugs his shoulders, like he should do something about my energy levels.

After a heart to heart, we came to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe it has to do with the fact that he added heavy bike workouts, and 2-a-days at that. Perhaps 2 hours of cycling before my swim is having an effect. Whodathunkit!

So, no bike workouts today (Yeah!!!). one workout for today, and that is swimming. I will let you know if the stupid coach is onto something, lucked into the right answer, or perhaps just continues to have no clue