Time to raise the bar ....... Feb 7th - 13th

  Last week my total training hours were 4.5 so I wanted to pick that up a bit but going to 6.5 hrs may have been a little too much this early because my end of the week run was pretty tough. I labored from the start but it felt as though I may break out and finish strong but it didn't happen. At mile 2.2 I finally succumbed and had to walk it out for a 20 count and that really seemed to be the beginning of the end of that run. Even though it was a recovery run I still had nearly a max effort to just finish. I still haven't really pinpointed the cause as it may be over training,bad nutrition for the weekend, or maybe it was cause I haven't run outside in over 3 weeks.

Well for at least the next 2 weeks all my runs will be outside and if that is impossible the treadmill will be set to 4% incline as it's at 2% right now. I am defiantly going to monitor my diet the next two weeks and probably bring my hours down to 5.5 to see how it goes. Here is last weeks schedule

• Mon the 7th - 6.51 miles on the Dreadmill = 61 minutes
• Wed - Brick - 60 minutes on the Trainer @17.7mph avg and then 60min on the TreadMill for 6.62 miles (Running after riding seems so much easier then the other way around)
• Fri  - Hot run on the treadmill 3.55 mi in :30
• Sat - 60 minutes at spin class followed by 60 min high intensity Plyo and core workout aka Boot Camp by Mr. Greg Clausen at the Body Logic in Lake Geneva
• Sun - Outside recovery run for 5.30 mi in :49 minutes

Now, being I am pretty new to this running thing and I have been gauging my progress by the 5K. My early attempts at a fast 5K was just over :30 and this week on Friday I hit my best of 26:40 (but it was on the Treadmill) and on Sunday even with me laboring pretty bad I still hit a 28:20. So I feel good about the strides I am making but sometimes impatience gets the best of me and I tend to get discouraged if I don't improve every time out. But losing almost 90 lbs over a 18 month period I did learn one important thing. Improvements are made over the long haul, and not over night. I really look forward to this weeks work load and see what happens....

Weight is still at 195 and I hope it moves one way or the other soon so I can gauge my daily diet a little better. I did increase my proteins last week and will continue this week. Now, I didn't take away any fats or carbs, I just added a 135 calories to my daily intake and 30 grams of Protein

Training for everything, it seems

   I am trying to train for two sports that I now love to do (cycling and running). My first MTB race this year is coming up in May at Iola, the first in the WORS series. And my first big running race this year is the 1/2 Marathon in Kenosha (I will do a couple 5K's or 10K's for warm ups, Crazy legs in Madison maybe). Well I tried something different last week with my training schedule and I mixed my run days and cycle days together with fairly good results.

• Monday the 31st I ran 5.25 miles and only put in :40 on the trainer
• Thursday the 3rd I did a tempo 5K then :60 minutes on the trainer
• Saturday I did :60 on spin bike followed by :50 HIIT core/plyo workout
• Monday the 8th I ran 6.5 miles and for once it felt very easy

This allowed me to have an extra day off for last week and still put in my hours but what I really liked about it was the no rest between the run and ride. It pushed me to maintain a tempo for much longer then if I did each one separately . I am still working my base for cycling so for now it isn't too bad combining the two but I am sure once the intervals kick in it will much tougher. I can't wait for the weather to break and get outside to get my runs/rides in. I see lots of hill repeats and track workouts in my future. My rides will also ramp up to 3 times a week for 2.5 hrs in the saddle and a 4hr ride on weekend. I just can't stomach that right now on the trainer...

My running training is still early into my 13 week HM plan but my approach on my first half isn't to just "finish" the race but do it in a respectable time (2hrs or less). I joined the Dailymile website to help me track my progress and maybe get some pointers from fellow runners and cyclist. It has more then meet my expectations. Try it out....

My weight has plateaued again but this time it is @ 195 and it is getting frustrating, but I figured this would happen because I am getting pretty close to my goal weight and those pesky few pounds are the hardest. With all this training I have to ensure my diet is up to the task. I am still on a 400 calorie deficient cut and my energy levels are pretty good. My Macros were 50% carbs 30% Proteins and 20% fats but it seemed as my strength wasn't building fast as I had hoped so I changed to the 40-40-20 split and that has been noticeable so I am going to keep it there for a few weeks and see how that goes.