First things first! The winner of the free entry to the 5 Peaks Terra Cotta Trail Run is Casey Barreto! I’ll be contacting Casey via twitter/email to send her the code.
I’m participating in the #MotivateMe Monday link-up being run by Fitness Cheerleader and Running Rachel; the link-up is “a place for us to share goals, plans, successes and have each other to pick us up to keep moving forward.”
While I don’t like writing posts simply for the purpose of journaling my training for any given week, I've been on the Half-Iron Training Plan for 5 weeks now, and this gives me a chance to put some of it under the microscope, share some of the details and logistics with you, and crunch some numbers (math makes everything more fun, right?). It also gives me a chance to turn my Instagram into a kind of highlight reel.
Monday
I used my Dumbbell Doubles Workout for the most part, though I’m extending to 3 sets of most exercises. After that I try to address my quads since the Skulpt Aim says they’re weaker than the rest of my legs; while I don’t like using machines, I end up using the leg extension and leg press because otherwise my hamstrings get recruited too, and stay ahead of the quads in terms of strength.
Tuesday
Though Plan A was to get up at 5AM to fit in a run, we had a rough night with the Lightning Kid’s wake-ups, so I didn't get up for that. I thought I could fit a swim in at lunch and run at night after my wife got home (I was watching the kids for the evening). I am simply not a night time exerciser, I like to wind down before I go to sleep. So no “TwoferTuesday” for me, but I did get 1800m done in the pool (or 42 minutes, since the training plan counts time).
Wednesday
Strength training days are Mondays and Wednesdays, but with an eye to regaining my lost run, I did a Burbathlon workout; that’s trail running, jumping on/over logs and obstacles, plus bodyweight strength exercises on whatever structures I come across. See the instagram video for some of what I got up to.
While TwoferTuesday didn’t happen, TwoferThursday certainly did! But, oof... this day. I had an alarm set for 5:00 AM, but the Lightning Kid beat it by 5 minutes. I got him back down, only to hear the cat throwing up at various locations through the house. By the time I was done cleaning that up, it was 5:45, and I got out of there before something else could go wrong. The result is fasted cardio; I hadn’t had any fuel prior to the run, so I resolved to take it easy. Still, I felt good, and the right tunes came on and I ended up with a pace I’m pretty happy with. I think taking some weight off has helped my speed, which was the plan all along.
What I wanted for a bike ride on friday was to do a 40 minute spin class, then tack on another 20 minutes on a stationary bike solo, while watching some Netflix. I finally finished Season 3 of House of Cards (a little disappointing, to be honest), and I was stoked to be starting Marvel’s Daredevil (who has always been my favourite superhero - and early reviews of the show are very, very favourable). I got interrupted by a very important phone call (which I really did have to take) before the spin class was over, and by the time I was done with that, I could only afford another 15 minutes of solo spin/TV watching. Still, I loved what I saw so far and can’t wait for more.
Saturday
This is the day I’m most proud of; I had to get the Lightning Kid to his soccer lessons but I wanted over an hour of running too, so I took him in the Chariot. By the time I had everything organized to go, I was running a little behind, luckily, I caught nothing by green lights, and really pushed myself. Of course, that meant by the time I’d helped him score goals and go through drills, and with a significant headwind, there was no way to do a negative split for the run home.
This was a proud moment for me, because I think the days of Stroller running are coming to a close. Shark Boy no longer has the patience for it, and at age 5, he's doing most of his own running and biking anyway. The Lightning Kid isn't far behind him, but the nostalgia and whatnot are making it hard to let go... in fact, I'll be participating in #StrollerRun15... National Stroller Running Day 2015 is on May 31st! See Mom's Little Running Buddy for more details soon.
Ideally I’d have gone to the gym and put him in the daycare to get my swim in that day; in fact, that’s exactly what I tried to do in the afternoon, only to remember too late that the gym daycare isn’t open in the afternoon. What I should have done was head there right after my run, but of course, I was a little tired. Instead, I took the Lightning Kid to the park, where I got a little bit of my own exercise in ;-)
On Sunday, my wife ran the Yonge Street 10k, and we planned to take the boys with us to the starting line, see her off, ride the subway and then the streetcar to the finish line. It was a great way to spend the morning except for the fact that we were a little unprepared for how cold it was. Still, I’m proud of how well behaved the boys were, because wrangling the two of them through the public transit system and with a lot of walking to boot was an intimidating task that I wasn’t sure I could pull off. We got to see some friends who run as the “Justice League Runners” raising money for The Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, and the kids always get a big kick out of the costumes. We had a nice brunch post-race, but unfortunately, I spent the rest of the afternoon and night feeling nauseated, so I never got my final bike ride for the week in.
Totals For The Week
Strength
Planned: 2:45
Done: 2:00
The plan is a 1:15 workout for Monday and a 1:30 Workout for Wednesday. I’m past the initial ‘Anatomical Adaptation’ phase of the training plan and into ‘Muscle Stamina’. Obviously I came up short, but I do wonder what you can accomplish in 1:30 that you can’t accomplish in 0:45 if you use a more efficient, circuit based system.
Swim
Planned: 3:15
Done: 1:32
If you miss a whole day’s workout, you’re going to come up short, but again, with individual workouts of over an hour, it seems excessive. I get over 2000m done in less than an hour, but a half-iron distance swim is 1900m. I know I’m not swimming the 2000m continuously in the pool, but still, I guess I don’t get why the workouts have to be quite that long. I’m hoping that being fairly consistent and trying to keep the quality up with structured sets will be enough for me.
Bike
Planned: 2:15
Done: 0:43
Oof. The book says that in the Specific Preparation phases of the plan, 40 minute spin classes are an acceptable substitute for an hour’s ride, but missing a day due to illness really killed this goal. Bike remains my weakest discipline.
Run
Planned: 2:15
Done: 2:59
I actually exceeded the goal here, which might set off alarm bells for overtraining if I hadn’t shorted everything else. Running is still my favourite, the easiest to get done, and the most fun to keep doing once you start.
Total
Planned: 10:30
Done: 6:26
Just for kicks, I’ve also run my distances (with a best estimate of my bike) through my friend Dan’s points system. For every 10,000 yards of swimming you get a point, for every mile on the bike you get a point and for every quarter mile you run you get a point. He was nice enough to make a metric version with a spreadsheet and everything for me, but I found it easiest to just total up my meters and kilometers, then convert to imperial and calculate my points.
According to Dan, a Half-Iron training plan should get you to around 200 points a week, and I totalled 120 (42 for swimming, 16 for bike, 62 for running), so by this measure, (again) I need to step it up.
How was your week? What do you think... am I in trouble training-wise already?
