My Road to Challenge: Training Week 5 of 40

	This week	Cumulative
Total training hours	10:05	61:24
Swim	01:40 / 3.2 km	06:22 / 12.35 km
Bike	02:06 (spin class + trainer time)	07:52 (spin class + trainer time)
Run	03:56 / 35.7 km	20:02 / 186 km
Strength training	02:22	13:07
Yoga	None!	14:00

Week 5 ended up being a bit of a fall back week for me. I missed one run - because I just didn’t make it a priority to fit it in. If I’m being perfectly honest, it was also because it was some speedwork and I’ve not had much success with that lately. I kept putting it off, putting it off, putting it off through the week and then the next thing you know, we had a big dump of snow and so I was faced with doing it in the snow on Friday or the slush on Saturday or Sunday or – God Forbid – the treadmill. I opted to just let it go. The other reason my training time dipped is because I didn’t make it in to yoga at all. Not so much due to my scheduling challenges but because the holiday scheduling at my yoga studio resulted in a lot of cancellations – and it seemed that all the classes I attend regularly were off the roster. L

I’m not feeling so bad about it. One missed run in the big picture isn’t going to change my Challenge experience. And the lower overall volume this week has taught me a couple of things:

1. I need to add a bit more structure to my scheduling. What I mean by that is making certain days always “the days” for those activities. I haven’t. Instead I have let my schedule be pretty fluid, and considered days that I’m not working as good opportunities to catch up / load up on workouts. The problem with that is I end up doing triples & quads at the end of the week, which leaves me exhausted and dreading my workouts. So some smart scheduling is on my list of things to tackle heading into 2014.
2. Yoga. My body needs it. My back has been finicky for the last few days and then after this morning’s class, I felt so much better. My back was happier. My cranky left shoulder was a little happier, my hips were happier, my hamstrings looser. I’ve thought of my yoga workouts as bonuses vs integral to my training.  Might be time to rethink that.

And something weird happened this week: I started to enjoy the swim. I know. It’s crazy. I can’t explain it.

Here’s week 5:

Monday Rest Day!	Not. A. Damn. Thing.
Tuesday	5.2 km run 45 minute weight workout at home
Wednesday	Tri-Club Spin Class
Thursday	5.2 km run
Friday	8.3 km run in the fresh snow 1 hour weight workout with my trainer
Saturday	1600m swim
Sunday	15 minute warm-up spin on the trainer 37 minute weight workout at home 1600m swim 17 km run in the slush & rain with a post-run latte with hubby as my reward! 51 minute spin on the trainer