Jan 30th, 06
/
Not your typical workout and perhaps not the best aerobic workout – but definitely fun. I went swimming this evening with my son Alex. We had a blast! We went down the water slide 5 times (so I got a bit of a stair workout) and swam for about an hour. In reality, I know that I didn’t really get a workout, but hey, it was loads of fun none the less!
I need to keep things in perspective and realize that being able to do things like this is the main reason that I had weightloss surgery in the first place. I need to make sure I take time to enjoy the freedom I have been given and truly live life.
That’s all for tonight. Tomorrow I’m going to spin class with a co-worker so that should be fun and a great workout.
Good luck!
Jan 30th, 06
/
So, its been a little while since I’ve posted an update of my progress. Here are my accomplishments from last week:
Day 3 – Wednesday
I took Wednesday off. My son had a Holiday program at his pre-school and my parents were here, so I didn’t make it to the gym.
Day 4 – Thursday
Thursday was a spin class day. I worked hard and put in a great workout. The middle of the class consisted of a 10 minute standing hill climb. I made the whole thing! 10 months ago I wouldn’t have made the first minute out of the seat, I’ve come so far!
Day 5 – Friday
Swim day. Took it pretty easy on Friday. Low mileage, but a good workout. Here are the specifics:
- 200 Warm-up
- 3x(100 swim, 100 kick, 100 pull)
- 200 Cool down
As I said, low mileage. I’ll post again in a little bit with some information on a shift of regimen.
Good luck!
Jan 25th, 06
/
Finding time to workout is a challenge. My original intent when starting this training regimen was to complete a triathlon. But not just any triathlon. As is true to my style, I picked a long course triathlon to set my sights on. Never mind that I have about 1.2 million other things going on in my life right now. Never mind that I have two small boys and another child on the way. Never mind that I am working on finishing up my masters degree. Never mind that I have a part-time job as a fire fighter that keeps me very busy. Never mind that I have at least a dozen projects at home to finish.
So, I need to re-think my plans.
I still want to continue to run, bike, & swim in my training program. I like the diversity and doing something a little different everyday keeps me interested in working out and makes me work a little harder. However, I think I need to focus on one area for this spring/summer and find an event that I can do around that area. The time I have available or unavailable, is really one of the driving factors behind this, I just don’t have the time to train for a triathlon. I’m not sure right now if I want to do a running event, a swimming event, or a biking event. Swimming is definitely my strong suit, it’s what I’ve been doing the longest and what I’m best at. Running, on the other hand, is probably my weakest area. That in itself makes doing a running event a little more interesting. To me, it’s all about the challenge. A bike ride is probably the least interesting choice for me for a few reasons. One, I have a really nice bike but its not really designed for long rides. It is definitely not a racing/road bike.
I’ll write more on this later…
My Workout Today
Run: 20 minutes at 6.0 mph (10:00 minute mile) + 5:00 minute cool down
Total Distance: 2.25 miles
Jan 23rd, 06
/
I didn’t really feel “in the groove” today. I went Ice Skating yesterday (Sunday) with my family and I think I tweeked a muscle in my leg. When I woke up this morning it was a little sore and tight, after swimming for a little while it did loosen up and it actually feels better now than it did this morning. I’ll have to keep an eye on that.
I was running a little late this afternoon, so I wasn’t able to put in the yardage I wanted to, but I did work pretty hard on what I did. Here is my workout for today:
Warm Up
Drill Set
- 5 x 100 on 2:00 minutes (I made all these under 1:30)
Conditioning Set
- 100-200-300-300-200-100 Up and down the ladder
- 8 x 25 on :30 sec
Cool Down
Total Yardage: 2250 yards
In addition to everything else, I didn’t plan my workout ahead of time. Not planning is planning to fail, right. Yep. My workout reflects this lack of planning, I need to ensure that I write out my workouts ahead of time. This will do two things. 1. I will do all the necessary yardage. 2. I will put more thought into my workout and ensure that I am gettingthe most impact out of my limited time.
Finally, I requested a couple of videos and books on the “Total Immersion” swimming program from my library (I LOVE MY LIBRARY!). The philosophy seems interesting and from what I can tell the technique plays to some of my strengths and might allow me to improve both my endurance and speed. We’ll see and I’ll keep you posted.
Good luck!
Jan 20th, 06
/
The end of week one.
Today was, by all accounts, one of the tougher workouts of the week. Over the course of the week I’ve done some reading and found that I needed to possibly modify my swim set a little to get the maximum benefit out of the time I have available. In an effort to do that, I added a longer set in the middle of my workout to help with conditioning. For the type of swimming I want to do (longer, open water swims) the short, fast sets I had previously focused on were doing me little good. I need to build endurance, not speed.
So here is my workout from today:
Total Time: 50 min
Warm up
Technique
- 3 x (100 swim, 100 kick, 100 pull) on :30 sec rest
- 10 x 25 on :10 sec rest
Conditioning
- 1000 straight swim (I made this in 16:50 averaging 1:39 per 100, not bad for the first week)
Cool Down
Total Yardage: 2500 yards
Overall a good workout, with a little more yardage than previous sets. I actually found I liked the 1000 straight better than the ladder set (100-200-300-300-200-100) I had been doing earlier in the week. Also, I think adding some kicking and pulling will help improve conditioning also.
While I wanted to keep my workouts mainly to the work week (M – F), I think I’m going to need to add a workout over the weekend. I really want to add some strength training once a week and I don’t have time to do that during lunch. In addition, I need to find time to add one long run workout a week (1 hour or so) to add to my running conditioning.
Good luck!
