Week in review March 28-April 3: A strong start, family time, and a regroup on weight training

Bike, bike, bike.

This past week wasn’t bad. I was able to start the week off strong and get one session in each weekday evening. I had family in town Saturday, and as I was debating whether or not to try for a workout after they left at about 4 p.m., I woke up and it was almost 7. Whoops. So, that day was a wash.

I thought about being lazy on Sunday, especially since it was chilly and I didn't feel like running in the cold, but after grocery shopping and other errands I womanned up put in a hard two hours on the bike. I usually time myself on my phone, but since I updated I have to use the stupid screen unlock every time. It drives me nuts, and is a pain when I’m sweating all over the place. So this time, I used the stopwatch feature on my Garmin Swim. Knowing at all times how far into my interval suffering I was really helped me stay on task. Plus I couldn’t figure out how to pause it, so that was more incentive to keep it going without stopping for a break. My rear end only started to get uncomfortable at the very end, so I consider that a win.

I rounded out the week with weight lifting after my ride, and yoga while watching the ridiculousness that was the season finale of The Walking Dead. (Seriously, I should have gone to bed early.) I have lifted weights in many iterations in the past: machines, body weight, videos, etc. I don’t seem to be getting a grip (heh) on making it work this time around with once per week doing a heavy/body routine, and another time per week doing a video. I didn’t lift at all in the month of February, which not only pathetic, isn’t doing anything to help my IT bands and core get stronger to prevent an IT band malfunction relapse.

So, I’m going to try to shake it up again. Back in the day when “skinny” was my only goal, I would do 75 minutes of the elliptical every morning, and then follow that with either legs, arms or abs. I’m not going to go quite that far, but I’m going to try to break up my weights routine into reasonable chunks, with the idea that more, shorter sessions will be easier to squeeze in. Yesterday I did pullups, pushups, bicep curls, etc. The next session, probably tomorrow, I’ll do some squats, lunges, etc. We’ll see if it makes a difference.

Anyway, last week by the numbers:

Swim: Twice, both times in the pool, for 5200 meters total in about 2 hours, 11 minutes. This included a bomb-ass 1000-meter time trial.

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for a total of 4 hours, 30 minutes. This included my usual shorter big-ring intervals and a "long ride" of small-ring intervals.

Run: Just once this week, 4 miles on the road, half with my husband and half by myself, in about 40 minutes.

Weights: About half of my usual body/heavy routine (pull-ups and chin-ups, pushups, bicep curls, shoulder presses, etc.) in about 40 minutes.

Yoga: Some self-guided stretching for about 20 minutes.

Total: 8 sessions in about 8 hours, 21 minutes. This included 1-3 days in all three sports, some complementary training, and a rest day, so I can't be too mad about that. Plus, it's a nice progression in volume from the last few weeks.

I'm hoping to carry this momentum into another strong week. Here we go!