Dabbling

You've got to start somewhere but if you're doing it unofficially, somewhere is everywhere. A training plan and coach would be the optimal thing but since I'm not committed, the expense for those is unwarranted.

I feel like I need to have a solid fitness base prior to pursuing these goals (officially) so I've gathered a few free plans that I've found on the interwebs and created my own. I know the gist of how many weekly hours I need to be logging and I also know that with a long term commitment, er...thought in mind, I have plenty of wiggle room. 

I started such a plan this week. I haven't really mentioned it at home other than to say "I need to get an hour and half on the bike today". No one has questioned the "need" part of the statement yet so I'm just rolling with it and assuming they think I'm just being neurotic about my workout plan. You know, me just being me. :)

As expected, there are a lot of events that occur in my day-to-day that make such a plan vulnerable to failure. Work commitments, hubby's business and schedule as well as the overall health in a family of 6. Odds are, someone is sick at some point that will trickle a domino effect. It can be a total nightmare but luckily we are healthy more often than and these things tend to be a rare occurrence (once a year, maybe two). Ofcourse, that would happen to have been the entire month of December, a week in January and another in February (yours truly). The rest of 2015 will hopefully be golden. 

In normal stubborn fashion, I had set out to start this plan last week because it was following back to to back weekends of travel week and birthday parties. The very week that also coincides with me coming off of a sinus infection & severe head and chest congestion.  Good a time as ever, right? After all, I nursed a stress fracture all through the holidays (8 weeks NO running!) and I missed participating in the Houston Half Marathon that I had been training for because of it. So, no sinus infection is going to stand in my way now (stubborn was the key word earlier...). 

So here's the round up of week 1 of ? of the made up, self imposed plan for the goal I've yet to commit to. Pretty solid dontcha think? Humor me.

Day 1 5 mile run (still coming back from injury so taking it way easy ie slowish, felt great despite being sick, until I stopped...hack attack)

Day 2 1000Mswim (50s 50k 50p x3) (100p 100k x2) 150s (easy drills, hard to breath w chest cong)

Day 3 1:15 16-17 miles trainer (struggled with getting sensors to work only to discover baby had pulled it off the bike! Half an hour into workout, paused for mommy duties and came back to the same struggle.  Little bugger snuck in there and pulled if off again!  Lost my distance data from the first session so started over.  Good climbs and sprints. Solid workout! (bonus:watched some TV too!)

Day 4 rest

Day 5 950M Swim - squeezed in a super quick workout between early Vday day date with hubby and getting babies from daycare...more drills, used fins this time too.  Breathing is tough still, so not trying to measure anything...though I did peek at my 50M times at about :45...I'll have something to compare when lungs are at 100%

Day 6 1:30 Bike 22 miles outdoors - testing my revived Garmin 305. (My frustration with said equipment peaked in late 2012 & I kicked it to the curb then. I've found a way to charge it & have it function for an entire workout successfully, mainly to save the expense of buying a new Bluetooth HRM or even a more expensive, up to date, gadgety GPS watch. Not quite prepared to commit to that, but want to train in HR Zones) It worked great but transferring data is still fidgety.  

Day 7 45 min track run (5 miles) - this was supposed to be a low HR Zone workout, 5 minutes at one zone, 1 min at at lower one for several repetitions.  It was a frustrating mess. Staying within "Zone 3" felt impossible...I kept thinking, why bother, this is like walking! I tried it for 4 reps and ditched the idea and just went full out Zone 5 all the way home.  Found out at home later, that the zones on the watch/app where preset rather than based on personal calculation.  Ahh! No wonder! Epic Fail, but I got the miles in.

Goals this up coming week:

- Figure out what MY heart rate zones are and set them.
- Follow & try to stick to the self imposed plan (6 workouts) with the added juggle of hubby going out of town for the week.
- Try to add a session of Hot Yoga & at least 2 foam roll sessions for achy muscles.  Everything is feeling a bit tight.
- Look at race schedule and choose a sprint to SIGN UP for.

I found this and thought how fitting it is that I am working my way up this sequence backwards. Plenty of action this past week!