Training April 28-May 04 - aka: Putting Some Muscle Into It

Week 10 of 36 (Week 4 of Iron Fit Training Plan). Twenty-seven weeks until the race.

What this week's scheduled training looked like (April 28-May 04):

Total hours scheduled: 7:00

Total hours logged: 7:05

Total running miles this week/total: 14.5 /137.5

Total biking miles this week/total: 35.5 / 376.5

Total swimming yards this week/total: 5000 / 55,000

Weight: forgot to check and am too lazy to run upstairs. Let's just call it no change from last week (148; down 2 lbs overall)

Level of IM enthusiasm: 8/10. We hit the SIX MONTH OUT mark this week. It was invigorating! I know how quickly six months goes, so I am ready to start putting some serious hours in.

Nutrition elements: Still waiting for my Hammer products to arrive. One mark against them is that they are very pretty slow in delivery, it seems. It took them over 48 hours to even acknowledge my order. I'm on day #10 right now waiting for the stuff. Luckily last week was very light in terms of nutritional needs. Hurry up, Hammer!

Someone suggested E-gels which look interesting (although I am a little wary of a company called CRANK sports -- that seems like a heart attack waiting to happen, doesn't it?). E-gels seem to be both carbs and electrolytes so you don't need anything else. Intriguing, but one of my big concerns is that they suggest you drink 16-32 oz water between gels in order for it to work properly. That seems like a lot of water in your system, especially on a run.  But I'll still look into it after Hammer if I feel I need to try something else.

Other: This week I worked on adding functional strength training into my routine. Between the four kids, deadlines for two novels coming up, teaching my college classes and all my IM training, I just have not been able to find time to take another 1-2 hours and go to the gym for strength training.

So, I decided to try a new system. I looked up some of the best strength exercises for triathletes (there are some in the Iron Fit book too) that can be done at home then separated them out to arms/shoulders, back/core and legs. Then I picked a group to work on each day.

I set my phone to go off once an hour, then got up from my computer and did one of the exercises for whatever muscle group I was on that day. Took 2-3 minutes once an hour, for a total of about 20-30 strength training for the day.

I know this is not the most effective way to do strength training. But right now it's my only way to do any strength training, so I'll take it.  And I felt sore from different muscle groups every day, so I must be doing something right!