A Week in Fitness

This post is much more for helping myself than it is for expressing any ideas which might be remotely useful to someone else. That said... if I accidentally say something helpful, that would be cool. I´m writing to recount my week in fitness, as I´d decided I´d get more regulated and routine about my fitness upon my return to Spain. That isn´t to say that I wasn´t exercising regularly already, just... not with the same discipline as, ¨I need to get x number of cardio workouts in per week at a certain intensity and for a certain length, and I need to do resistance training x number of times per week.¨ I am recording this week´s and using it for an example, because I feel that it went pretty well.

Monday- Heavy lift, 5-8´s, 75 minutes
Tuesday- 60 minute run, outside, abs at home
Wednesday- 40 minute recovery run, abs at home
Thursday- Moderate lift, 3-12´s, plus sprints, 60 minutes
Friday- rest
Saturday- 60 minute run on treadmill
Sunday- 30 minute run on treadmill, plus light abs, traps, and erector spinae

In review with analysis: I feel this was almost perfect. As far as lifting goes, I did a full body workout twice this week, one day more targeted at raw strength, one day more aimed towards maintaining strength over multiple repetitions. I feel that this is adequate to meet my goals. With the intensity to which I pushed myself, twice a week is sufficient. I want to be strong, but a body builder, so I think this is good. In regards to cardio, minus the walking I did around town (maybe Friday shouldn´t actually be listed as a rest day), it was exclusively running. I miss Zumba. I like to swim. But having one goal, improving speed over time gives me focus in my workouts. My goals is to run a few 10Ks this summer and ¨do my best.¨ That sounds like a wishy-washy goal, but I hate to have a goal time, because every course is different. That hell I endured on the steep, rocky footpaths in Coopers Rock last summer is sure to be different than a completely flat street race. So ¨my best¨ sounds like a good goal to me. I know I push myself hard no matter what and don´t need the added discipline of a ticking clock. So I had two long run days to build endurance, and I think I´ll stick with 2 1-hour runs per week as my hard days for 4-6 weeks, to give the body time to adjust. I never want to be a marathoner, so there is no reason to push myself beyond that time capacity sooner than that. You don´t want to go into a race not having run about 30% further than that distance at some point, so to do a 10K, I should have run 75-80 minutes straight a few times before I actually do it. And when I make my increases, it will be gradual. Two weeks at 65 minutes on one day, 60 the other, 70 and 60, and so on. No need for an injury. I took the recovery runs seriously this week, running easy on my two recovery days to get blood flow to the recovering muscles without placing excessive demands on them. These days weren´t aimed at calorie burn, strength increase, or improving my cardiovascular capacity beyond what it already was. Recovery. Plain and simple. And one day, my 3-12s with weights, I did sprints on the treadmill. For me, speed and strength on the race course is my biggest challenge. I´m a deer. I can run forever and sort of float along, but if I needed to kick it in, that´s tougher. That´s simple to tell by looking at me. Long limbed, meaning short muscle bellies (less power) in comparison to bone length. So by sprints what I mean is, I would walk, just... walk, 2 minutes on the treadmill and then sprint 1. I did this for 12 minutes, completing 4 sets. It seemed appropriate on a strength day, because even though it isn´t ¨resistance,¨ it has a similar training effect on the legs to do that kind of work because you use them powerfully instead of steadily. Anaerobic. Also good for a fat burning and cardio burst at the end of my workout.
I have also been good about stretching at the ends of my workouts more consistently and for longer periods of time. Not that 2 minutes all over wiggle and out the door. I *should* be doing some yoga, for the stretch and the calm more than the strength. I think I do enough strength training (although, yeah, I realize it´s a different type). But it´s harder than ever for me to have that quiet reflection time, so I flip and want off the mat. I try to make up for the lack of yoga in my life by doing more extended stretching and having more ¨active¨ reflective periods, like listening to music while drawing or writing. Asking myself to be on that mat for more than five minutes is just asking to much at this point. I need a teacher. Or I need to be teaching. I need to either be hearing someone else´s voice and having a new objective every few minutes to keep me focused and in the moment, or else be focused on getting everyone else through an hour. I get more out of it when I have a teacher, so that´s what I want right now. In lieu of that, I´m letting go of the self-judgment, and trying to make up for the benefits of yoga in other ways like I mentioned above.
I´m eating healthy, taking my vitamin, drinking plenty of water, not overdoing the caffeine, and sleeping well. So even minus the yoga, I´d say I´m doing OK for now. I´m happy with where I´m at in terms of my active, healthy lifestyle.