Realizing what doesn't work and making changes

I have set up three basic blocks of training geared towards Clearwater. I was a little too ambitious with what I wanted to get accomplished in Block 1 in terms of training volume. With the unrealistic volume, lack of quality sleep, and some poor nutritional choices I was starting to feel run down. Throughout my recovery week I did not feel like I was recovering well at all - in fact I felt like I was digging the hole deeper. Clearly I was beyond overreaching and starting to step into overtraining territory. In someways it was good I got sick when I did because it forced me to take several days off completely from training. Not one to sit idly all day, I reviewed the past four weeks of training.

Going over my schedule and my training notes I discovered a couple of areas where I was stretching myself a little too thin. So I modified my schedule for Block 2 and things feel much better this go around compared to the last block of training at this exact time.

The one big thing I changed was cycling 6 days a week. On top of my 95 minute (round-trip) commute to work, I was also trying to cycle on Tues/Thurs/Fri evenings and on Saturdays as well. My core bike workouts were starting to suffer because I was already tired by the time I hit them. Not too mention this fatigue was carrying over into swim/run workouts.

I know back in May I was gun-ho about cycling to/from work everyday but in reality it wasn't working for me. So I dialed it back to just 2-3 days of commuting which seems to be just the right balance.

Some other changes this go around of training:

• Finished up the strength training component of my tues/thurs gym workouts. I spent the last 1.5 months doing weights to build some muscular endurance.
• Strength training workouts have been replaced by dedicated stretching sessions.
• Going to bed slightly earlier every night.
• Eating helluva lot better and have dropped 10lbs in the past 5 weeks. Granted, the process was slightly expedited by food poisoning.
• Setting smaller and more immediate goals with each training session

Outside of training, Mel and I have been going to training classes with Super Sammy on Saturdays for the past 4 or 5 weeks. Things are going great so far.

We also have our wedding anniversary coming up on Oct 6...5 years ago from that date we were standing on the cliffs of Santorini during sunset getting married. Dream come true on many levels. Our other anniversary...the one in which we first met is Feb 5...that one will be our 15th anniversary! Yes, it took me 10 years to propose...

Happy Thursday