While we stayed out of the cold in Arizona, I picked up a cold while I was traveling last week and had a bit of my own storm. This cold was different, it feels like it hit me harder, but didn’t linger like others. This week had its ups and downs, this is my take on it.
What Happened?
Because of the cold, I didn’t sleep well and I let that impact my training. I didn’t do any training on Monday-Wednesday. On Thursday-Friday, I started to get into the groove a bit, but didn’t get fully back on track until the weekend. Saturday I ran a 5k training run that went well considering I don’t feel like I’ve really run since the marathon. Sunday I got out for strength training, but really just to work on curls so I can put that in my set that I outline below. Sunday I also got out on my bike with my clipless shoes, I wanted to do a dress rehearsal before the B.E.S.T. rides start with orientation on Thursday and the 1st ride on Saturday.
What Worked?
Most of my sick days are planned for vacation, but I took one on Tuesday and didn’t leave the house. I think that making sure I took the time to rest and stay indoors helped me get better faster. My gradual return to work also made sure I didn’t over do it as I was testing things out and getting back on track. When I was ready, I did fit in some smaller workouts i.e. half of my planned stair climber workout followed by my scheduled swim and a shortened treadmill workout. Getting out on the run and bike both went well, I feel like I’ve neglected both sports for a bit, but I consider my shakeout run and ride a success. I did stay within my points for my diet which is a big improvement from the past week.
What Didn’t?
I have a weird thing about missing strength training workouts, since I think of it as a set of 6 workouts, feeling any of them feels wrong. Objectively I know that just going to the gym Thursday or Friday would be better than not going at all, this made it harder for me to get out on Thursday or Friday evening. The clipless shoes hurt my feet, but I got through it. I’ve never loved those shoes, but I may have to give it a better effort to see if I can adjust.
What am I going to do about it?
Remind myself to take the time to rest when I need it. Finding this line is tricky, but pushing myself too hard sets me back more than just missing a workout or two. When I’m feeling sick, I should consider a deload week, try to do everything, but lighter. This is most clear for strength training where you lift like you were on a normal week, but with ~60% of the weight. At the same time you would do similarly light training on all activities.
Think about more stacked workouts in the future. Using the stair climber, sauna and pool worked out well. Trips to the gym take a lot of time and I want to make the most of that time. I expect my work schedule to change in the near future and it may be worth getting up 30 minutes earlier, like I used to, to slip in the extra workouts and save a trip.
Not directly related to this week, but I am planning to skip the Cactus Man Triathlon. This is the last year for it as it seems like Tempe is growing too much to handle these events (Ironman ended last year, Ironman 70.3 ended a few years before). While I’m not aware of any actual issues, there’s a common thought around Tempe Town Lake that it’s probably not a great place to swim so I will just take a pass on this opportunity, focus on a last push of winter training before transitioning to summer training, then the fall events.
What do the numbers say?
Despite missing a lot of my workouts I did lose 1.6 pounds. I was also close to losing an inch, but not quite there yet. This is great progress, especially considering I didn’t feel great about my training this week. Sticking with the diet certainly helped and getting back on track when I could will hopefully make next week go better.
Summary
Overall it wasn’t a great week, but I still made progress. I didn’t do the training I had hoped for, especially coming back from traveling, but I did do some training. I corrected my diet that has been off the rails for a week and I quickly worked through sickness. All in all, it was a decent week and I think I’m in a better place for the coming week.