Or the bike. Or whatever. I have GOT to get myself into training mode!!

As the weeks tick by one after the other and the Half IronMan draws closer and closer, my level of panic has been steadily rising. I’ve been in a bit of a training “rut” ever since Around the Bay (exactly one month ago today by the way!). I really did need a week or two to not do any extra training, just get through my classes and try to recover as best I could after the race. I guess that’s the price you have to pay for not really training properly leading up to the race. I’m sure if I had been running long distances for weeks leading up to the race, then recovery would have been much quicker, but I guess you don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time right?

Anyways, two weeks flew by, we were off to Boston and well, we all know how that ended, and I’ve spent the last week in a bit of a daze reevaluating the meaning of life. All of this was well and good, but unfortunately none of it will get me any closer to the finish line of that Half IronMan! It’s time for a reality check.

REALITY CHECK: If I don’t seriously get my act together, this race really, truly isn’t going to happen in September. I’ve managed to kind of “fake” my way through half marathons, and even a 30km race on the merit of an okay level of general fitness and an absolute, complete and total refusal to give up, but that is not going to save me in this one. If I don’t get serious (in particular about the bike) then come September I’m going to be writing an awfully sad blog post about how I didn’t do the race, and all was for not.

And that would be very, very sad indeed.

 

This week is Release Week at the gym (for a rundown of what Release Week entails – check out my earlier post here), so I’ve got an extra 4 classes to teach this week on top of my regular 5. My body is holding up really well, no aches or pains to report just yet (someone knock on wood for me – please), but I also know from past experience that adding in extra training during release week is a recipe for trouble. So I’m working with it. No extra running, swimming or biking this week (although I did attend a 6am spin class last Thursday which was fantastic!). Next week however is a totally different story.

I am very much a creature of routine, and I think a big part of my problem to date has been creating training plans that I kind of knew deep down looked great on an Excel spreadsheet, but weren’t going to work in reality. For example: arriving to my BodyPump class on Monday nights a half hour early to do 20 minutes of biking before class starts.

Seems to make sense right?

Well not really. Because when you factor in that I work until 5pm (or later) every day, and my BodyPump class is at 6pm and about a 20 minute drive from my office when traffic is good, that means that a) I need to leave work right at 5pm (or earlier) to get there in time and b) I’m going straight from work to the gym without stopping in for anything to eat or even to just sit down and relax for 10 minutes at my parents’ house (which conveniently falls right at the epicentre of my house, my office and the gyms I teach at).

Call me a baby, but I really, really look forward to that 15 or 20 minutes to get something quick to eat and just rest my mind for a little bit before I head back out the door again.

Also, let’s call a spade a spade, we all know that 20 minutes biking on a recumbent stationary bike isn’t going to help me bike 90 kilometres up Muskoka hills. Get real Sara.

I knew all of this when I was filling out my training spreadsheet, but the appeal of scheduling in not one but two (TWO!!) bike workouts a week was so great that I couldn’t resist. It’s been much the same with a lot of my other training workouts that I’ve scheduled in around my classes as well. Let’s be honest, I really, really, REALLY don’t want to get up at 5:30am to go and swim in a cold swimming pool, and I probably never will.

So I’m starting fresh, and I’m getting real. It’s time to start customizing this training thing so that IT works for ME, and so that I’m not bending myself a million ways to try and make it fit.

Mondays – I teach BodyPump at 6pm. There’s no time before class to do anything, I don’t really want to get up at 6am on Monday morning, and it’s the only night of the week that I’m done teaching by a reasonable hour. No training for me on Mondays.

Tuesdays – I teach BodyAttack at 7:30pm. One of my best friends is teaching a 6am RPM class at the gym that’s literally 5 minutes away from my house. No excuses. I drag my butt out of bed and over to the club to take a spin class on Tuesday mornings.

Wednesdays – I teach BodyPump at 6:30pm. I’m probably going to be pretty beat from Tuesdays double shot. No training for me on Wednesdays. Bonus marks if I can get in a short run before or after Pump class.

Thursdays – I teach BodyStep at 6:30pm. I’ve had a day to recover from the double shot of cardio, and there’s a 6am spin class at the club on my way to work. No excuses. I drag my butt out of bed and over to the club to take a spin class on Thursday mornings too.

Fridays – REST! Hallelujah! Now here’s the thing…I’m leaving Friday as an “open day”. When I say “rest”, what I really mean is that I don’t want to be doing anything with any sort of impact, or huge stress on my muscles and joints. I’m leaving Friday open for Hot Yoga and swimming. Don’t judge me.

Saturdays – I teach BodyAttack at 11:30am. If I can get in a swim in the afternoon, then that’s awesome. If not, oh well.

Sundays – Either a long run or a long bike (both outdoors) – or as the summer gets started, maybe both.

I figure what I can do is follow this structure for a little while, and then rejig and rebalance as the months go on and the triathlon gets closer. I’m hoping to follow this plan from Monday April 29^th right through until the end of May, and we’ll just have to see how I’m feeling at that point.

I thought I would leave you today with some of the “professional” pictures taken of Matt in the Boston Marathon! Some of them really turned out great!

Enjoy!