Week in review Jan. 21-27: Busy and cold

Not bad considering the cold weather and my busy schedule.

Last week was another difficult week as far as training. I had stuff in the evenings, I wasn’t feeling great, and the weather has taken a turn for the Arctic. None of it is very conducive to a good training week.

I did manage to kick it off with a barre class Monday, which was, ahem, the first time I’ve lifted any weight at all since my New Year’s Day barre class. I had an appointment to take my car in for some minor repairs on Tuesday, and although it was very much necessary, it took up extra time in the morning and LOTS of extra time in the evening waiting for my ride, getting out to the dealership, and dealing with a snow and ice storm on the way home. We ended up grabbing dinner out because even though the roads got worse and worse, at least there were fewer idiots out and about by the time we were done.

I was able to rally Wednesday for a trainer ride but we had dinner plans with friends on Thursday and I just wasn’t feeling great by the time the week wrapped up on Friday. Luckily, we had no plans for the weekend so I managed a nice long day on Saturday (trainer + weights + PT) and a long run and more PT on Sunday.

That long workout on Saturday ended up being better than expected for a couple of reasons. I retested my FTP on Wednesday, and this was my first ride since then. I didn't do anything too challenging, and I was pleased that I could hang on and hit my power targets.

After that, I did my first heavy/bodyweight workout in a while. I had done one at the end of last year but the weighted squats and walking lunges really aggravated my knee. Before this week, I did some research to find more knee-friendly moves and settled on wall squats with a ball and one-legged lunges with the back leg up on a step. Verdict: My knee felt fine on Sunday. Hooray!

My long run Sunday had similar success. It was butt-cold again and I wasn't about to risk life and limb in the icy streets. I settled for 9 miles on the treadmill, with a half mile warmup and cool down, and the last 2 at goal half-marathon pace. It felt pretty good, except for some weirdness in my high left hamstring I'm keeping an eye on. My cardio fitness and everything else felt fine.

Anyway, my totals were:

Bike: Twice, both on the trainer, for 33.75 fake trainer miles in about 2.5 hours.

Weights: Twice, one barre class and one heavy/bodyweight session for about 2.25 hours.

Run: Just that one long run on the treadmill, 10 total miles running and walking in about 1.75 hours.

PT: Twice for about 1.25 hours total.

Total: 7 sessions in about 7 hours, 48 minutes. Not bad considering I had three days with no workouts.

We are expecting record low wind chills this week, plus I have to work an event tomorrow night and the Super Bowl is Sunday, so I don't expect to get a big amount of training in. If I can be consistent with the days I can during the week and maybe do another big-ish day on Saturday, I'll be happy. Cold, but happy.

FTP retest!

I haven't done an FTP test in Trainer Road for a while. My biking is pretty bad and I want to focus on increasing my power output and my biking ability in general, so I am trying to keep a regular indoor riding routine with regular FTP testing.

I haven't done one since Halloween-ish and I was overdue so I psyched myself up all day. I got on the bike later than I would have liked after working late and running errands but I settled in. It got harder a LOT earlier than I remember it did last time, but I wanted to hang on for at least 22 minutes (not sure why that stuck in my head). I figured if I increased it by even 1% it would be a tiny success.

When I couldn't hold on any longer and tapped out I had increased it by about 15.5 percent. Yay! My goal is 26.5% by the end of the year, since that's what my first big increase last year was. It seems like I am well on my way.

Not pictured: All the pain, sweat, and swearing.

Week in review Jan. 14-20: Run, bike, try to stay warm

This week was all about doing what I could.

Last week was rough and I don’t really have concrete reasons for why. Work has been stressful, temperatures dropped to below zero F, and we had my parents’ dog for a few days. Nothing was a big problem on its own but it was a kind of “death by a thousand cuts” situation.

As a result, training wasn’t spectacular. I was happy to get one thing done most days. To counteract some of the gloom and stress, I really made an effort to get to bed earlier than usual, and I can’t do that if I’m doing my PT until 9 p.m. Plus, lousy weather for evening commutes and errands on a couple days meant I didn’t start my home workouts until 6:30 p.m. at the earliest. It wasn’t a good situation for getting a lot done in the evenings. Wednesday I just gave up and did laundry and some computer work instead of any workouts at all.

But, considering all that, it still wasn’t terrible. I managed three trainer rides and three treadmill runs, and one round of PT. I SHOULD have done a million other things but last week was one of those weeks where I am happy that I got anything done at all.

It worked out to be:

Run: Three times, all on the treadmill, for 21 miles in about 3:50. This was my first 20+ mile week since my injury in November 2017! On Friday, I went to the gym to use their nicer treadmills for a speed run. I started tentatively since I slipped on the ice earlier that day and tweaked my IT band, but the run ended up being half a mile at 6.0, half a mile at 6.2, etc. all the way until 7.4 (8:06 minute per mile pace) when I couldn’t hold on any longer due to a worsening side stitch, and ending with a mile easy. Not bad at all! I also ended my Sunday “long” run of 8 miles with a fast finish of goal half marathon pace, 9:05, for the last two miles.

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 46.75 fake trainer “miles” in about 3:38. Nothing spectacular here, just two short and one longer Trainer Road rides. I need to re-test my FTP soon and I’m not looking forward to the suffering, but Saturday’s longer ride felt way too easy and I can’t have that.

PT: Just one session of about 45 minutes between my run and food prepping Sunday. I just had to make a judgement call about priorities this week and sleep and sanity won out.

Total: 7 sessions in about 8:13, which isn’t terrible! It’s one rest day yet still an average of one session per day and more than an hour per day, my baseline for a good week.

We’ve got at least a couple more weeks of arctic cold to look forward to, but we should be getting a little more daylight in the evenings to help mitigate that. I don’t do “feels like -10” but hopefully I can sneak out to run outside on the next 25-degree day. It’ll feel like a tropical vacation! I’m going to try to enjoy anything that makes this winter a bit more bearable. We still have a long way to go.

Week in review Jan. 7-13: First cold of the year

A pretty good week considering I was sick for half of it.

I made bone broth over Christmas break thinking it would be nice to have on hand if and when I end up catching a cold this season. Sadly, I didn’t have to wait long: I had a killer sore throat Wednesday, was down for the count Thursday, and still sniffly all day Friday.

Luckily I had gotten in a run and a trainer ride before I started to feel bad, and was able to rally with easy workouts by Saturday to sweat some of the cold out. I took it SUPER easy, don’t worry. I stuck to a steady state trainer ride, my PT, and some yoga just to make sure I could handle the activity. I also did an easy run on Sunday, on the treadmill away from the cold, and took care not to push too hard.

Considering I was out of commission for three days, I had a pretty darn good week:

Bike: Twice, both on the trainer, for 33.5 fake trainer miles in about 2:36.

Run: Twice, both on the treadmill, for 13 miles in about 2:30. I’ve discovered that my almost-dead home treadmill can handle easy, steady-state runs, but for anything requiring intervals or actual speed I need to make the trip to the gym. But for at least a couple more days, that’s perfectly fine.

PT: Twice for about 1:15.

Yoga: Twice for about 30.

Total: 8 sessions in about 6:50. I’m surprised this is so high, considering, but a lot of that is gentle recovery PT and yoga. But hey, I’ll take it.

I’m hoping this cold leaves as fast as it came on and I can get back to regular training soon. In the meantime I’m careful to wash my hands, get my vitamin C, and get plenty of sleep. Which… is all stuff I should be doing anyway. Happy cold and flu season to all of you.

A look back at training over the last four years

It was interesting looking back at the past four years

I was looking back at my totals for 2018 and thought, how does this compare to previous years? So I dug out my old training logs to see.

I only tracked running for a long time so the earliest multisport training log I could find was 2015. That year, I logged:

Swim: 128.5 miles, 88.5 hours
Bike: 721 road miles plus 80-something trainer rides, 171.5 hours
Run: 1,141 miles, 182 hours

That was a good year. According to my 2015 wrap-up, I logged my highest-volume month ever for both the swim and the run. 1,141 miles was my second-highest annual running volume ever. I also bought a magnetic trainer that year and started doing actual trainer workouts. My SI joint went out of whack at the end of the year, but I was able to gut out my seventh (and currently, most recent) marathon. What affected my training most was a new job schedule, which required earlier wakeups and longer commutes, and eliminated my work-from-home capabilities.

2016 was rough. I was slow to return to running after my SI joint and then IT band fiasco. I started out swimming great, but skipped my usual early-season triathlon and then DNF'd an aquathon I'd done many times before because of swim panic. Looking back, my thyroid was severely mis-medicated and it manifested in anxiety. Later that year I scaled back on, well, everything, as I trained and paced my husband to his first half marathon in the fall. One good thing I did that year was pick up the weight training when I wasn't doing much else.

Swim: 71.75 miles, 49.5 hours
Bike: 214.75 road miles plus 50-something trainer rides, 83 hours
Run: 666.35 miles (yes, that was intentional), 114 hours
Weights 54 times, Pre-hab 21 times, Yoga 29 times

Overall, it wasn't terrible, and I did have a lot of fun running that year.

On to 2017. My running was off to a great start and I got into the Gasparalla ultra distance classic at the end of February, a 15K and 5K on Saturday followed by a half marathon and an 8K on Sunday, so my focus for the first two months was running and more running. After the race, I eased up on the running and worked in biking and weights again. I bought speed and cadence sensors and signed up for Trainer Road to really improve my biking. I barely swam and when I did I had trouble breathing. My running got sidelined early in November with searing knee pain that turned out to be a chondral fissure, and I couldn't do much else through the end of the year. BUT, I broke 1,000 running miles in a year for only the fourth time in my life.

Swim: About 8 miles, 6.5 hours
Bike: 457.65 road miles plus 39 trainer rides, 71 hours
Run: 1,026 miles, 167.5 hours
Weights 53 times, Pre-hab 6 times, Yoga 28 times

The "pre-hab 6 times" is a harbinger for 2018...

2018 was The Year of Physical Therapy. I started going immediately after the new year and was diligent with my appointments and all my homework. I slowly added in easy trainer rides and a swim here or there. I did a couple of oddball workouts, upper body boxing and hiking while I vacationed in California. I finally got cleared to start running again in May and I built up super slowly. I did a lot of barre and bumped up my trainer rides. I did my first duathlon. I took out the "walk" portion of my run-walks and my knee felt fine. I ended the year strong.

Swim: About 9 miles, 8 hours
Bike: 141 road miles plus 106 trainer rides, 115.5 hours
Run: 390 miles, 78.8 hours
Weights 58 times, PT/Rehab 154 times, Yoga 23 times, Other 7 times

Four years is a pretty small sample size so I don't know that there's anything to deduce. Swimming was good for me in 2015, OK in 2016, and fell off a cliff for 2017 and 2018. Biking was really good in 2015, crappy in 2016 and 2017, and a bit better in 2018. Running was good in 2015, crappy at the end of 2016, bounced back but was crappy again by the end of 2017, and recovered a bit in 2018. 2017 was just crappy all around, it seems.

I don't know yet where 2019 will take me, but it's interesting to me to look back at my logs. Yeah, it is a bit depressing to see the years where one sport dropped off. BUT, it is also a reminder that through knee and SI joint and thyroid and any other issue, I bounce back. Maybe not as high as I did 10 years ago, but I still bounce back.

I'm looking forward to 2019 and whatever training and adventures it brings me.

Some goals and a phrase for 2019

I'm sick at home, so I've had a lot of time to think about 2019. Boo, germs.

Anyway. I'm torn on the trend of choosing a word for the year. On one hand, I like it a lot better than a list of unrealistic resolutions. On the other, a lot can happen in a year. Who's to say the word you pick in January will still be relevant come August?

That didn't stop me from thinking about resolutions and words I could use as a guide for 2019. I kind of used "rebuild" as a guiding word for 2018, after a knee injury in November, 2017. It was appropriate, since all my goals were about rebuilding: Keep adding on to my runs, re-start Trainer Road for the bike, get back to the pool, establish and maintain a healthy work-life balance, etc.

So, I'm going to continue that trend and choose a loose phrase of the year and some loose goals, to which I am not beholden, and which I can update at any time. These aren't going to be terribly exciting, but more of a continuation of what I was using as a guide last year.

- Continue to rebuild running, SMARTLY. Slowly work up to 20-mile weeks, and then, if my body is up for it, 25. Keep adding a half mile or a mile, no more, to long runs until I'm at a decent place to train for a spring half-marathon. And if all goes well, actually train for a spring half-marathon. And if, and only if, all goes well, train for a sub-2-hour half-marathon.

- I'm only going to be able to continue to build my running if I continue with my PT. So I need to make my PT as much of a priority as running.

- Keep cycling on the trainer until it's nice enough to cycle outside. Test my FTP regularly and get better. I know "better" isn't measurable, but I haven't been training regularly enough to know what is achievable yet. I increased it by 30 points with my last test, so I'll say another 30 points throughout the year is my goal for now.

UPDATE: I figured out how to look up my FTP history in TrainerRoad and drudged up some elementary math to determine that the previous increase was by 26.5%. It will be challenging, but I think it's a reasonable goal to increase by another 26.5% by the end of the year. My FTP is currently low enough that I don't think it will be THAT hard, haha.

- Swimming has eluded me for two years. What I'm doing now isn't working. Figure out a pool schedule that works and get over my swimming anxiety or else give it all up, cancel the gym membership, and commit myself to duathlons.

- My lifting routine is actually going pretty well, so I'd like to stick with my casual rotation of videos, barre class, and a heavy/body routine I do at home. One thing on my list is to figure out squat and lunge alternatives that won't aggravate my knee like heavy lifting does.

- I've always had difficulty dedicating myself to yoga but I got into a good groove at the end of 2018 after a year of only a few minutes on Sunday or not at all. I need to remember that 15 minutes twice a week feels so much better than once a week or nothing. My problem has always been finding time in the day.

- I would also like to do a sprint triathlon again this year, assuming I can get back into a swimming groove. I'd love to do a fall marathon but I'm not going to put my knee recovery in jeopardy to do so, so that one is very tentative.

As far as a word of the year, I kept coming back to a series of words. After many revisions, I decided on: ARRIVE, DRIVE, STRIVE, THRIVE, ALIVE.

Arrive: As the great Des Linden says, "Keep showing up." You're not going to make any progress if you don't bother trying.

Drive: Put your head down and put in the work. Consistency is key.

Strive: Work to improve. Set goals and smash them. Set more goals.

Thrive: Running and other sports are hobbies for me. If I don't enjoy them, it's time to reassess.

Alive: This might be too much like "thrive" but I'm keeping it anyway. Do things that make you feel alive, training or not.
 

So, those are my thoughts one week into 2019. What can I accomplish this year? Will I feel like a runner again? Will I get back to racing? I don't know. But I have a plan and I'm going to try, so stay tuned.

Week in review Dec. 31-Jan. 6: Back to work, real life, and limited free time

Not a bad mix of activity last week.

The holidays were fun while they lasted, but all good things must come to an end. I headed back to work on Wednesday and tried to settle into the real-life routine of getting up early, commuting, squeezing in a workout while I cook dinner, and all the other boring things non-independently wealthy folks like us have to deal with daily.

I did make good use of my Monday and Tuesday off. My knee was feeling better by Monday so I did an easy treadmill run to end the month on a round number, and also did pre-hab and yoga later. Tuesday I started the year with a barre class and more PT and yoga, but sadly I did have to get back on the food prep train and go to bed early that day, so nothing too exciting happened.

I managed a trainer ride Wednesday after my first day back at work but had a commitment Thursday and a last-minute outing with friends on Friday. See, I am already being more social this year! The downside, of course, is that I had two days of no training right at the first part of the month and year.

We had gorgeous weather on Saturday so I arranged my whole schedule to do a “long” run during the nicest part of the day. It wasn’t actually warm, but it was so nice to run in the January sunshine in leggings and a long-sleeved running tee. I did wear a fuzzy headband over my ears but had to take off my gloves a few miles in. There were about a million other people out enjoying the sunshine and relative warmth along with me.

A note about my “long” run. I have been building distance slowly and surely, recently eliminating regular walk breaks except as a warmup and cooldown. I did 7 miles running (with a half mile before and after to equal 8 total) two weeks ago, and last week my knee was bothering me so I skipped my “long” run. I set out Sunday to do what felt good, hopefully at least 7.5, but no more than 8 miles running, 9 total with walking pre and post.

My knee actually felt fine. My left upper hamstring/glute/hip area has been a little wonky, especially when I found myself pushing the pace, so I kept it nice and easy. It felt fine the next day and I’m not sure what’s going on – perhaps some muscle is activating in a weird way, or in a way that it hasn’t in a while. I would still like to do a spring half marathon but am not going to push it, and am not going to try to increase speed for a while yet. For now I am concentrating on slowly building that base.

Anyway, by the numbers, last week was:

Bike: Twice, both on the trainer, for 33.5 fake trainer miles in about 2:35.

Run: Twice, once on the treadmill and once on the road, for 13.55 miles in about 2:28.

Prehab: Twice for about 1:15.

Yoga: Three times for about 1:05. I clicked through my calendar and I’m pretty sure this is the most yoga I’ve done in a week in at least two years. There are plenty of MONTHS that I don’t do three sessions.

Weights: One barre class of about an hour.

Total: 10 sessions for about 8:23. Not bad, considering the change in schedule!

I didn’t do nearly as much PT and everything else as I wanted to this week, but running outside for my longest run in months was definitely a highlight. (I went back and checked – my last 8-miler was October of 2017!) The cold weather and darkness will be keeping my inside for a while so I really want to get into a pattern of consistency. The bells and whistles can come later.

Happy New Year and happy training to all of you!

Update on fourth-quarter workout and casual goals for 2018

I set a goal back in October that I wanted to do 100 workouts – anything ranging from 15-minute yoga sessions to long runs – between Oct. 1 and the end of the year. I figured if I averaged 7-8 workouts per week, I could accomplish it.

Well, I smashed that goal by hitting 100 workouts a week and a half into December. With about three weeks to go and some time off from work, I managed another 30 workouts for a total of 131 workouts between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31. This ranged from one really good week of 13 and three weeks of 12 to my lowest of 6 workouts during a busy week. Which is still pretty darn good!

Not bad!

I wanted to stay accountable and NOT become a lazy slug during the holidays, and it worked. Hooray! It was nice to still fit into my work pants yesterday, when I put them on for the first time in two weeks, haha.

I also did pretty well with the casual goals I had set for myself at the beginning of 2018. I wanted to work through my health issues; I am better medicated than I ever have been for my thyroid, and I continue to strengthen my knee through at-home PT exercises. I wanted to start a training schedule that gets me back to racing; I did my first duathlon this year and rocked a virtual 5K.

I wanted to run some cool places; I did some run/walks in California on vacation. I wanted to work on incorporating whole-body health, such as yoga and pre-hab; I wasn’t great at this but I made some good improvements later this year, so I’ll take it.

I wanted to keep a healthy work-life-training-family-friends-other balance; I think I did pretty well with this, spending lots of time with friends and family this year, getting home at a decent hour most nights, and even traveling to Costa Rica. And I wanted to have fun this year; it wasn’t all work. I still enjoyed myself with good food, good times, and good people.

I haven’t decided if or what goals I am going to tackle for 2019. I have some training and racing goals in mind as well as a word/phrase of the year that keeps turning around in my head. Stay tuned. And I hope you are already off to a great 2019.

December and 2018 wrap-up

What a year.

January: I started physical therapy for my knee injury. I did easy bike trainer rides and swam a couple of times. But the theme of the month was PT, PT, and more PT.

February: More PT, more easy trainer rides, a couple of swims, and some upper-body weights. I had a goal to bike and swim Ironman distance, which I accomplished!

March: I went to Costa Rica, but then rode on the trainer and did lots of PT.

April: More PT and more biking, with some random weight lifting, boxing, and yoga thrown in.

May: I went to California and did lots of hiking! And I was given the all-clear to run again! And also did some trainer rides, PT, and other stuff.

June: I had a great June: lots of time on the trainer and two bike rides outside, building up a run/walk routine, getting unofficially discharged from in-person PT, and even weights and yoga. It ended up being my best month for number of workouts.

July: I increased my running, made it to the pool twice, and went to barre a lot to make good use of a 10-class package.

August: I improved my biking and running and kept going to barre.

September: I had a blast at my first duathlon and building up my run, but didn't do a lot of PT or anything else.

October: October was "boringly consistent," but cold weather moved in in a hurry and I had to do a lot of my workouts indoors or give up. My runs did get consistently faster.

November: I had a great running month, did a birthday "triathlon," and had steady training for everything else.

December: I tied for second place for number of workouts — 44, which is what I also did in July, but less than the 48 I did in June — but rocked the most volume by time I've done all YEAR. Hooray!

I did 10 trainer rides, for 165 fake trainer miles in about 12 hours, 43 minutes. This wasn't my best cycling month of the year, but pretty close to my best volume-wise in November, and still pretty darn good.

Cycling volume by month.

I also ran 12 times, 7 on the road and 5 on the treadmill, for 72 miles also in about 12 hours, 43 minutes (random that I biked and ran almost the same amount of time!). Due to my slow and steady building up of my runs, this was my highest volume month all year as well. Hooray!

December was my best month of 2018 for run volume!

I did 11 at-home PT sessions, which was a good month since I got discharged from in-person rehab, so I'll take it.

I lifted weights six times, twice each of barre classes, at-home videos, and my routine of heavy/body moves. I re-aggravated my knee on my last round of heavy/body, so I think I need to find another alternative in the new year.

And I did yoga 7 times! Which is fully 1/3 of all the yoga I've done this year. Amazing what I can get done when I don't have to work every day, haha.

Overall December was 46 workouts in about 41 hours, 26 minutes. An excellent month for me.

I don't have any hard and fast goals for 2019 yet, but I definitely want to just keep working. I want to get back in the pool, keep improving my running, ride outside, keep working at the PT, and keep yoga-ing. Keep working. Keep improving. Keep striving.

Unfortunately, real life starts back up tomorrow so my training will be limited to evenings and weekends once again. But, I feel good about the progress I made in 2018 and hope I can use that as momentum to get 2019 off to a good start.