Training Week 3 : January 21 – 27

Mostly like the last 2weeks except we did our swim test Saturday morning.

YouTube Link

This weeks video is less than 1 minute, in case you thought the older ones were too long.  We’re working on brevity!

Joel Week 3 Recap:

Monday:

  • Normal weights, upped everything that I could, did more sit ups. Felt awesome even after wanting to die on the squats. Weights Stats
  • A good solid swim. Did some drills, once I can get the kicks down I know I will be way better. Swim Stats

Tuesday:

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  • Morning ride and Batman Begins! Woohoo, what a great movie! Bike Stats
  • Lunch Run, Allergies were better today so that was nice. I can’t believe its in the high 60’s low 70s for this run in January. Run Stats

Wednesday:

  • More weights, Getting Better! Weights Stats
  • Swim Swim time, Legs are starting to get better. More drills are needed. Swim Stats

Thursday:

  • More Batman and more riding. I can pedal quite fast to this movie. I was sad when it was time to stop. I could have kept on riding until the end of the movie but that pesky work thing. Bike Stats
  • Lunch run was good, The main group was booking it but Leah and I kept our slow pace and stayed where we were supposed to with our heart rates. Its getting easier to run at zone 1 and 2. Run Stats

Friday:

  • Day Off!

Saturday:

  • 35 Lap swim test. 1050m, Great times on this. 26minutes fantastic for me. Swim Stats
  • Finished up watching Batman and got in 20 miles! Poor nutrition though, we should have eaten more on the bike. Doesn’t it always come back to that? Bike Stats
  • Super slow run, Leah’s HR kept getting over her Z2 top, so we walked a few bits. It was 58 out so perfect running weather. Run Stats
  • Oh yeah… we did our batch cooking, before the swim, after the swim and after the run this day, and hosted a party at the house for a few other couples. Long day.

Sunday:

  • Day off, but we ended up walking all around 1 store for like 2 hours.

According to Joels Fitbit.

  • 73613 steps taken
  • 43 floors climbed
  • 35.5 miles traveled

The stairs are great I love how it tells me. It makes me want o go up and down the stairs a whole bunch of times at work, just to get a better “score”.

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Leah Week 3 Recap:
Monday: Weights: 3×22… 190 lb* leg press, 40 lb pulldowns, 105 lb squats, 20 lb* dumbell chest press, 60 lb row, 80 lb* calf raises, 10 lb plate situps with twist. Swim: 1290m in 30 mins.
Tuesday: Bike: 11.37 miles in 30 mins.  Run: 3 miles in 36:30.
Wednesday: Weights: 3×22… 190 lb leg press, 50 lb* pulldowns, 125 lb* squats, 20 lb dumbells chest press, 60 lb rows, 55 lb* hammie curls, situps w/twist w/10 lb plate.  Swim: 1350m in 32 mins.
Thursday: Bike: 10 miles in 32 mins (hurty hip so I went slower).  Run: 3.1 miles in 38 mins.
Friday: off
Saturday: Swim: 1050m test (in 23 mins).  Bike: 20 miles in 52:28.  Run: 3.1 in 40:30 because my body hated me.
Sunday: off
(Weight PR is noted by a *)
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Notes and Observations:

My heel has gotten less creaky, I got to run outside 3 times and I’m not limping and feels better than it has for a while.  That’s a happy for sure!

I did a 1050m test (70 laps) on Saturday and hit 23 mins.  That’s a ~35 minute mile.  Faster times than I’ve posted for a while/ever (for a while I had the pool measurements wrong so I thought I was faster than I was)?  It felt great to push myself in the pool and I am HUNGRY for some hard pool workouts that are going to come starting March.

Cycling has just been more of the same goodness.  I’m craving some outdoor riding, but I want to push myself to see what I have outside at a closed road course (Veloway).  I may have to break my zone 1/2 rule just once soon.  For now, loving the trainer movie rides.

Running – meh.  My HR finally came down a bit this week for the lunch runs, but Saturday’s run was just shit.  Allergies, lack of motivation, no music because I’m a dummy and didn’t charge my mp3 player, and just plain tireds made my heart rate go sky high after about mile 1.5 and I was either trotting or walking so I bagged it a little early (with the warmup and cooldown I got my intended 45 mins in, because I ran so frigging slow, but it’s not what I set out to do).  I’ll keep at it, but right now, runs are, pun intended, my Achilles heel.

Weights are good.  Raised everything to 22 reps, and I even upped some weights.  I’m getting stronger.  Let me tell you a story… I went about my normal weights workout on Wednesday…and Zliten and I were staggered so he was on the exercise before me. I get to the squat bar, put my weight on, and go at it. The first set went OK, but the second set was just WAY hard. I started thinking about how the day really drained me. Finishing his last set of the previous exercise, Zliten comes over and points to my bar and gives me a thumbs up. I’m like, what? I then realized I had put two 35s and two 10s on each side instead of 25s and two 10s. Holy crap, I squatted 125 lbs which is 20 more lbs than I was struggling with last week! I almost took the weight off, but figured if I could do two sets I could do three. It did make my hips (of all places) REALLY tender for about 12 hours after but I survived.  I’ll scale back a bit next week (115 maybe?) but that was awesome!

I did not eat so well last week, so one of my big goals this week is to try and eat all the right things and not go completely overboard on calories.  Sometime soon I’ll post the eating strategy I’m following, but it’s basically about eating good things while trying to stay away from the bad things and trying to eat them at the right times.  Sounds like rocket science, eh?

If you’re interested in following me on dailymile to see stats and stuff, you can here.

Question of the day: Did you run, bike, swim, or lift heavy things this week?  Was it awesome?

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Motivational Monday: THE PLAN

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Joel here.

Let’s just start with the fact that I’m a creative type.  I do love dealing with spreadsheets and numbers, but not that much of a scheduler. I can schedule myself as long as I know what tasks are at hand and when they need to be done, but not that great with generic “oh do something about blah when ever you feel like doing it”.

Because of this, I find that if I have a plan or schedule laid out,  I will do much better. Back when I was going to the gym to do “weights” I never really had a plan. I would hit up a machine and do reps until sore then move on to the next machine. I never settled into a groove and I didn’t ever see results.

But now we have “THE PLAN”. The plan is just a list of exercises that we do at the gym in a specific order with a specific number of reps and amount of weight. Its been great I am seeing (or not really seeing yet, but feeling) the progress. What it took for me was to type out the plan, email it to myself, then print it out and put it in my gym bag. With my Training Peaks account I also have them email me every morning my workout plan that I have entered. It’s a great reminder every day of what I am doing, and it also Emails me “THE PLAN” so I can see what I am supposed to do.

The first day to the gym I looked over the plan on the way there and carried it around to each machine. By the second week I had memorized the order of the exercises.  By the third week I was able to do all my exercises confidently and up the weight and or reps of each.

Although looking at me, you might not see the abs of steel and the buns of a Greek statue yet, but I feel the progress being made. I can do 15 sit ups with a 10lb weight on my chest now, where in the first week I couldn’t even do 10. I am supposed to be doing 20, and by golly, that is what I will be doing this week. I can’t stand doing squats, never have liked them one bit, but I have been able to up the weight and have better form than ever before because of “THE PLAN”. I just think to myself that each squat is going to make me faster on the bike and faster on the run. Each lat pull down is going to make me a more efficient swimmer.

Every one of the exercises hits key groups that will make me a better triathlete, and that is my motivation.

Each month “THE PLAN” will change and be updated.

I am challenging you this week to make your own “THE PLAN” if you don’t have one. Have it emailed to yourself. Put it in your gym bag. Become friends with your plan. It will help you achieve complete your goals.

Question of the day: Do you have a “THE PLAN” or do you just wing it?

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