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| love this trail sign |
Since my first half, my volume has really dropped off. I need another race to get motivated or I need to cut my calories. I'm up another couple pounds again this week, yikes! Two months ago I was at my lowest weight in 10+ years. I'm now almost 10 pounds heavier than that.
I thought it would be hard to stick to a plan in the winter since the weather is so crappy, but it turns out it is harder to get motivated to train in the summer when there are so many other things to do. Couple that with my tri club coached swim schedule and my Y pool summer schedule and I just don't like the way my workouts fall.
For my first half, I experimented and came up with a good schedule for me. I routinely missed a workout or two during the week due to life but overall, I like this structure.
Fri - rest day
Sat - long run
Sun - long ride
Mon PM - swim (perfect after two long workouts)
Tue AM - run, Tue PM ride
Wed PM swim (perfect after a 2 a day)
Thur AM run, Thur PM ride
now my swims need to be on Tue and Thur evenings so it's looking like
Fri - rest day
Sat - long run
Sun - long ride
Mon PM - ride (not perfect after two long workouts but better than a run)
Tue AM - run (not so good 12 hours after a ride), Tue PM swim
Wed PM ride
Thur AM run (not so good 12 hours after a ride), Thur PM swim
The good news is my tri club is paying for a coach on Thursday evenings. I went this past Thursday and one of the drills was swim golf. 6 lengths of the pool taking one less stroke each leg. I started off at a pathetic 21 strokes and ended up at 16. Coach says guys should be able to hit 12-15. I have some work to do.
I am signed up for an Oly in four weeks. It has not motivated me to increase my training at all. I'm MOP and that is where I will be for this race (maybe lower with my current attitude). It doesn't help that I had a good friend die three weeks ago, went on vacation two weeks ago, had a business trip this week, had a friend's wife die this week along with a couple other lame excuses. I'm about to sign up for a HIM on October 2nd. I need to do this to get serious about training but dread being a slave to the plan.
I did have a really nice 8.5 mile run Saturday. It was one of those runs that felt great and was perfect for letting the mind wander. Big storms moved through in the morning so the smell of fresh rain, sounds of rushing creeks, sight of vibrant lush vegetation was perfect. I also ran one of my favorite loops. It was a little humid but it really didn't bother me for some reason.
I also had a really nice ride Sunday. I experimented with Pandora playing on my Blackberry for the ride. I kind of liked it but it did detract from my mind wandering and figuring things out. I think it is unsafe to wear headphones so I won't do it.
Enough about my lost mojo :-), what's for dinner? Before we get to that, my daughter signed her and I up for a 5k run this fall for my present. This will be her first 5k and I'm really excited about it. Really a cool present.
So for dinner the main portion was a beef tenderloin I trimmed and cut in to fillet mignon. Our local meat store has beef tenderloin on sale a couple times a year and I usually buy a couple and freeze them. This 7.2 pound bad boy was $5.49 a pound!
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| yum |
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| first you remove the silver casing |
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| then remove all excess fat and loose pieces |
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| slice about an inch thick and wrap in bacon |
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| everything is better with bacon |
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| loose pieces were wrapped in bacon for appetizers |
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| asparagus coated in olive oil and Parmesan cheese, wrapped in aluminium foil and grilled |
If you found my mojo, please return it :-)
Wow, this looks like the perfect Father's Day dinner! Sorry about your loses recently...your friend and your friend's wife. :( This alone can take the mojo. And then I also find it harder to stay focused on a plan in the summer when there is so much going on social wise. I would rather be drinking a few glasses of wine with dinner instead of hitting the road for my training run and missing out on fun family time in the evening sun. I went on my first run after missing out for a few days because of my kidney infection and man! what a different it makes for me. I was feeling so uncomfortable and moody and had definitely gained weight. uggh. This after run glow is reason enough for me to keep running. Hard when you lose your "mojo" but sometimes we have to lose it so that we can really savor it when we find it again! :)
ReplyDeleteoops, I guess that would be losses. and that even looks funny. So sorry about the loved ones you have lost.
ReplyDeleteI am having the same problem. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a nice looking meal! I love asparagus.
ReplyDeleteMy running has been almost non-existent since the marathon. I need to just suck it up and get up early, but I'm having a much harder time doing that when I'm off than when I was working. Go figure. Good luck getting yourself back in gear...I know I do better with a plan to be a slave to also. :)
I find that my mojo fluctuates greatly, and usually I can't figure out why. It does always come back, so that's the good news.
ReplyDeleteVERY cool Father's Day gift from your daughter!!! That rocks.
As far as your new schedule, can you make Monday's ride a recovery ride? Just go for endurance and time, not for speed/hills/intervals/etc?
Mmmmmmmmmmm, asparagus.
I'm so with you on this. My mojo is MIA and my weight is increasing. Funny as just recently I had what I consider my best bike ride ever, but since then ..... no mojo at all. It doesn't help that it's consistently over 100 degrees with winds of 20-30mph every day here. I think I need what you need - that big target event to work towards. I have no doubt both our mojos will return - just hoping it happens soon.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I need to go home and make this damn it looks tasty - is it odd that raw meat makes me hungry? Most likely.
ReplyDeleteCan I come over for dinner? Cuz you make way better stuff than my frozen waffles and a side salad I had for dinner! :)
ReplyDeleteI find now that I am home for the summer, I tend to look at my pit of a house and get so side-tracked with stuff around the house and then whammm, it's late and too hot to run outdoors. But I'm for freaking excited to be running again that I don't mind my treadmill much at all!!
Hope you get that mojo back before the half in October....you will, be positive! :)
Thanks for the super kind comment on my blog today. I really appreciate it. I see your dilemma, my current plan pretty much mirrors your original plan in terms of what days are for what, which effectively makes Monday and Wednesday active recovery days (Monday - swim only, Wednesday - swim and core). And now you are rolling pretty much straight through with Friday being your only real down time. I dunno, maybe make Monday your off day, do the Monday ride Friday along with the Thursday run to create a fairly mellow ride/run brick? That turns Thursday into an active recovery day and spreads your load out to Fri-Sat-Sun and Tue-Wed?
ReplyDeletePS how did you create your mobile site? Looks good on my Iphone.
I get this completely. You have every reason to have lost it though... A lot going on!
ReplyDeleteI purposed to do 2 races a month this season for this reason!! My 3rd event is tomorrow(sprint tri with my son)....and it sure keeps me in line;)))
Let us know what time supper is over at your place!:)