The week after the marathon, I was hoping to get back into training, though I underestimated the residual stress and gave myself too much to try and do. This was compounded by the first real week back at work and the week before I travel for work. I gained a bit of weight, but I don’t see this week as a failure as there were still positives to come from it.
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What Happened?
The week started off strong with a perfect Monday and into Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning on the stair stepper, it was still a challenge, but I made it to 15 minutes and cut it a bit short, 20 planned the last 2 weeks. On Tuesday night and Wednesday, I didn’t do the work I had planned due to a busier week at work. Thursday I made up for a bit of the missed work, but still missed the swim. Friday I had to work long to get some things done before a week of travel so I missed workouts again. Saturday I didn’t motivate myself to fix it. Sunday I worked in a couple of the missed workouts, but ended up short again.
What Worked?
Getting in all the strength training was important to me because I want to keep myself going there. Ever since the deload week and adjustments, I still feel like this is a temperamental process and I don’t want to miss a week. Early in the week, I worked in a swim and stairmaster as planned. I did manage some pivots that kept me a bit on track, making up these strength training exercises that I otherwise would have missed.
What Didn’t?
I let work get in the way. This was a busier week at work, getting back to normal after the holidays including a number of interviews along with getting on track and even ahead before a week of travel and an audit. I had to pivot my work from home day and put in some extra hours that I wasn’t prepared well enough for. On the short runs I did and even some standing, I again felt the upper back pain I felt early in the marathon, it doesn’t stop me, but it’s unpleasant and not something I’ve had in the recent past.
What am I going to do about it?
This week I am traveling so I cannot make any immediate adjustments to help this. I have set up what I believe is a strong plan to stay active during travel and I will make the most of it. Once I get back in the office next week, I’ll make more observations as I adjust my training plan to fit my goals. I would still like to hit the 48 mile mark on the bike before I pivot to more triathlon focused training, I may need to run a bit less on weekends so I can spend more time on the bike, maybe adding some brick runs after the fact. The back pain is something I will have to continue to monitor, I have a feeling I am too stiff when I run, something I hope the current book I’m reading, ChiRunning by Danny Dreyer and Katherine Dreyer, can help with. TrainingPeaks has shown me with many less fitness points than I’ve had in the past, even when I’m doing the workouts I had planned. I intend to go back and see the differences with my training plan to see if I’m missing something. I take these numbers with a grain of salt, but I want to check back and see if I’m missing something through my adjustments since the Mesa Sprint Triathlon in September 2025.
What do the numbers say?
I did gain weight this week, but I did lose an inch around my belly. I cannot say I am surprised about the weight gain, we did go out to eat a lot more than normal as we adjust back to post holidays. While I stayed within my weight watchers points, I was using just about every point I got. The lost inch is good, I am noticing some changes in my body, a shirt I had put away because I didn’t like how it fit before is actually very comfortable and I think looks really good on me, so I am happy that it’s back in the rotation.
Summary
While the week wasn’t the back on track week I had hoped for, it was still a good productive week. I’m feeling better about going into this travel week and getting back on track when I get home. Being in Arizona, winter is the best time for me to shine and I would like to see myself have another strong steady push before it starts to warm up in March and get too hot to do much outside in the summer.