Taking the Pressure Off
I have plans to start weekly Road To Kona updates, mostly to keep myself accountable, but because I haven't officially start I can't call my update a Road To Kona update so today you just get a life lately update. :) As I've mentioned previously the first half to two thirds of January were really tough for me. I had no motivation and felt like I was drowning in some sort of pressure to get myself going on my training. I would have a great workout then barely be able to get off the couch for the next two days. I missed workouts, slept in, was cranky, and very negative. Finally last weekend I decided to stop putting the pressure on myself to get started and for the rest of January to just do what I wanted, kept the structure low key. It is amazing what that did for me. All of the sudden I was hitting workouts, not all of them, but I'd say 90% of them. Instead of planning for the week I kept it day by day, gave myself a lot of flexibility.
Sometimes with the New Year its easy to put a lot of pressure on yourself to start hitting those new goals and its easy to get wrapped up in trying to get ready for them right away. I had stuck myself in that trap. I was so focused on wanting to do well at something that was 10 months away I was putting to much pressure to be all the things right now and now work towards them instead. As the New Year came about I all of the sudden felt I had to hit all my goals and having some high reaching goals and a lot things I want to accomplish in 2017 it kind of hit me like a ton of bricks trying to start them all at once.
I had to remind myself that I don't need to be the best of me right now I don't have have the best bike splits, take on all the coaching clients, build Isagenix business to be huge, run all the miles, and work all of the hours just yet. There are 365 days in a year and many years left in my life for me to hit my goals and if you try to do everything at once it can overwhelm you. Coming to that realization, that I need to get a grip on myself, made a huge difference and took a lot of the pressure off. I have now given myself until the first of February before more structured training comes into play. It was reminder that October (for that Kona goal) is still 9 months away there is a lot of time to become the strongest me I can be.
Taking that pressure off to get started right away helped to bring me back towards enjoying my workouts. I made a skeleton of a plan but allowed myself to add or subtract workouts as I felt and in doing so actually ended up with a pretty solid training week.
Monday
Bike: 16.6 miles Run: 3.0 miles Lift: 45 minutes of shoulders
I got myself out of bed in the morning, which was a huge accomplishment in itself especially on a Monday, for a ride since I had skipped the day before. As I don't usually ride on Monday's I just wanted to spin my legs and thought I was choosing the flat road on Zwift but quickly realized this was not the case and I spent a large amount of the time climbing.
I followed the day up with an heavy shoulder day and an easy treadmill run. Not going to lie I'm getting a little bit tired of running on the treadmill.
Tuesday
Swim: 35 mins 1800 meters
Since I woke up early on Monday I slept in and only worked out in the evening. The plan had been to do legs and then follow it up with a swim however the gym was ridiculously packed, like to the point where nothing was available and it would throw your whole routine off. So I just went to the pool instead and got a quick swim in.
Wednesday
Run: 8 miles - Pyramid workout: W/u 20 mins followed by 5,4,3,2,1, decreasing tempo runs
Epic sweat fest. Workouts like this the treadmill can be nice sometimes because you can set your speed and force yourself to pick up the pace.
Thursday
Bike: 20.1 miles Lift: Legs
Day 2 of biking for the week. With the new trainer that I got in early December and being able to use Zwift biking on the trainer has become a lot more pleasant. I don't dread it as much as I used to, though it doesn't help make the early mornings any less early. :)
Friday
Run: 3.5 miles Lift: 35 mins Back
The husband returned from being out on sales calls and neither one of us had a ton of energy to workout today. Lately Fridays have been tough for me as I'm pretty toasted after a full week of work and training. I did a quick heavy back day and then followed that up with an easy 3.5 mile run before the husband and I went out for dinner and drinks.
Saturday
Swim: 2800 meters 50 minutes Bike: 2 hours 45 miles - Sweet Spot Intervals
Brandon had a poker night with the guys planned for this evening so I went to the gym with him to swim and planned my ride for when he left in the evening. Swim went really well, I'm hating swimming a lot less than I ever used to though it still takes some talking myself into sometimes.
Since I've made the rest of January an off or free month I didn't schedule any specific bike workouts into it and only did them when I wanted. I decided to do some sweet spot intervals, this is actually one of my favorite workouts because I long endurance zone 4 intervals are one of my strong suits, its when I get into the zone 5 or 6 that it becomes tough.
This workout left me soaked in sweat, legs wonderfully exhausted, and beyond hungry. I think I spent the rest of the evening trying to eat everything in the house including all of the peanut M&M's.
Sunday
Bike: 1 hr 18 mins 30 miles Run: 5 miles
I actually waffled back and forth a lot today about deciding what to do for a workout today. One of the great things about doing things day by day is that you can do what you want however the downside is sometimes it becomes easier to talk yourself out of something or change your workout. It won't be like this come February, I'll have more structured workouts.
Finally made up my mind after complaining/asking for advice from both my husband and Betty Bestie Anna, to get my butt on the bike. As I did a workout yesterday today I just road and enjoyed the new Volcanoes theme, that seemed to take a long time to update onto my Zwift.
As it was a beautiful day outside I decided to risk the roads, which have been really bad in Spokane, just to get myself outside after my ride. The roads turned out to not be bad and I'm hoping that if it doesn't snow any more and maybe warms up a little bit they will be totally clear for running.
Week totals
Bike: 112 miles Run: 19.6 miles Swim: 4900 yds Lift: 2 hrs 20 mins
All in all I am very happy with this week. I feel that I was able to reset my motivation, fuel, brain, and body to get back into training and being excited about training. I'm looking forward to being able to bring you the Road To Kona weekly updates but for one more week we will keep it loosey goosey in order to keep my head on straight.