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.