Not a good week last week, but this week will be better!

Last week was a bad week, for training, and re-imagining my routine. It started out okay, with me getting up at 5:30am for the first time in... well... a LONG time (race days don't count). I got my workout done; Mondays are a rest day, so I did some AB exercises and 20 minutes of yoga. Then it was on to making lunches for everyone and getting ready to head out to work. All was clicking, and I wasn't even that tired! The work day was uneventful, and in the evening I even got some emergency woodworking done at the trampoline gym (someone broke a window over the weekend and I had to replace the pane with wood until we could get it fixed). 

My bad habits, however, worked to sabotage me. Ever since my university days, I've been a night-hawk. Going to bed at midnight is considered early to me. Well, you can't get up at 5:30am and stay up until 1am. Maybe if I was 20 years younger, but not now. The other bad habit I have is watching TV. I love to watch TV; especially the news at 11pm, and the NHL playoffs. But these things conspire to keep me up late; I no longer have the time I need to prepare for the next day. 

Needless to say, Tuesday was BAD. Slept in, rushed through the lunches, got to work late, yadda yadda. And the rest of the week pretty much played out the same way. Notice I don't mention any workouts in there? Yup, didn't run at ALL until Saturday morning, and I missed my Sunday long run.

But NO MORE! This week, I resolve to kick these bad habits, and aspire to get up 5 days in a row, and get some sort of workout done. Here's what I think my ideal schedule would look like:

• 5:15am - wake up
• 5:30am - workout (run, yoga, abs/core, whatever)
• 6:15am - breakfast, get ready for work
• 7:00am - start making the lunches
• 8:00am - leave for work

 There's a lot of time in there, because I'm usually pretty brain-dead in the morning, and it takes me much longer to do anything. Plus, I'm also dealing with last minute requests from the kids ("Dad, can you sign my agenda? Dad, can you look over my test package? Dad, can you read through my homework?"). If I could stick with this schedule EVERY DAY, I'd be all set. I could get my workouts in, and get everything done, and be at work at a decent time.

Of course, the KEY here is that in the evening, I start getting ready for bed around 9:30pm, and am in bed at 10:30pm at the LATEST. This, I think, will be the hard part. I've failed at trying to institute this schedule many times. But this week, I'm gonna DO IT!

(For the record, today didn't work out so well. I got up, but late, did my workout, but putzed around too long and wasn't able to make my lunch. I also had to take the car in for service, so I didn't get to work on time.)

Back At It!

So. I ran yesterday for the first time since the Mississauga Marathon. Usually I take a week off of running, then ease my way back into it. But 3 days after the race, I came down with a bad cold that refuses to entirely go away. The worst of it lasted for a week, and now it's tapering off, but way too slowly. I'm tired of coughing, blowing my nose, and sounding totally stuffed up.

The run was good; did just over 6km with a buddy from work. The day was sunny, and hot by the time we went out. I told him up front that I had no idea what fitness level I would be in, so if he wanted to drop me, that would be fine. He's training for a sprint triathlon in a few weeks, so he was okay to do an easy run. 

It was nice to get out and run; so nice that I've decided to start bringing my running gear to work as often as I can. Even if I can do 2 runs, I'd be happy. Trying to find time to get the runs in is where I have the most problems. Many of the runners I know train in the early morning. As I've said before, I am NOT a morning person, by any stretch. But, I think, if I am serious about training, I'm going to have to start.

Next week, on Tuesday, I'll try to get up at 5am and get a run or some sort of workout in before I have to make lunches for everyone, and go to work.  It may be a run, or some yoga, or even some core work. Anything, at this point, would be good. Of course, it also means that I can't lie on the couch until 1am watching mindless TV anymore. Sucks. Ah well, such is the life of the training athlete!

Speaking of which, I need to finalize my training schedule for my next race, which is the ENDURrun Sport. I think I'll base the training on the schedule I tried to do this spring, but failed. It was pretty aggressive, but not overly so; definitely doable.

Later!