Say It Ain't Snow

I finished last week, my first official week of training, looking forward to this one. On paper it looked much more manageable with less volume, fewer two-a-day workouts and fewer overall hours. What I wasn't counting on was the the challenge that this week's weather was going to present. I won't lie... it caught me off guard when it showed up in the middle of the week. Unfortunately, I didn't do myself any favors before the snow arrived.

The training isn't all about the three sports. A large part has to do with the discipline needed to make sure everything falls into place. Since the vast majority of us in this sport aren't professionals, balancing a training schedule against everything else can be a bit of a tricky act. You need to know what the plan is for the week ahead and then break that down day by day. Hopefully, if everything falls into place, you're able to work in all of your scheduled training. Priorities need to be balanced and sacrifices made. Last Sunday I was able to get in my scheduled swim, but I pushed off my run since I had a lighter week ahead and time to make it up.

Since I only had to bike on Tuesday, and I don't like biking in the morning, I planned to run early but when the alarm went off my body said otherwise. I got the bike in that night, so I was still just one run behind schedule. The first snow hit Wednesday, but I got the scheduled swim and strength session in as planned. Thursday was supposed to be a run in the morning bike at night day, but then mother nature kicked in. Instead of running that morning I spent two and a half hours shoveling the driveway just to get to work. Somehow, someway I had to get a run in, because I'd gone too many days without running. I was starting to regret my decision to sleep in on Tuesday. Luckily, I was able to find a relatively clear stretch of road for some hill repeats that evening, but it took some tricky footwork and hurdling of piled snow to get there and back. I caught plenty of strange looks as I was running just hours after our worst snow storm this year.

With only a scheduled swim on Friday, I was able to double up swim in the morning and then bike that night. I was close to getting back on track. Saturday featured a two and half hour bike on the trainer which happens to be the running length of "The Departed," so I got a good fix of Boston Irish mob violence mixed in with some high tempo intervals on the trainer. I changed things up on Sunday opting to do the scheduled run but swim in place of the planned bike. Actually, my good friend Marita suggested this change. The plan was now to run through horse country together, hit the pool for a light workout and finish by meeting up with John, Joan and Marita's boyfriend Brian for brunch afterwards. I think I made the right choice in changing things up.

So, January comes to a close with plenty of snow on the ground and more on the way in next week's forecast. I've learned a valuable lesson this week about getting workouts in when you can, because you don't know what the rest of the week holds. Luckily, everything worked out this week and I'm feeling good heading into week three.