Weekly Workout Totals 1/29/2007-2/4/2007

I'm in mourning over the Bears loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. The Bears stunk up the joint. No further comments.

This Sunday I have my first indoor race in the series of 4. It should be interesting. For 2 weekends straight now I have knocked out some serious intensity. A week ago Sunday I thought I was going to collapse after the 1-hour swim/1:40 run combo. This past Sunday when I did it, it was almost worse, because, you guessed it, the bike workout on Saturday was even harder than the prior week. And that Saturday bike workout gets harder this week, too (as do my Tuesday/Thursday bike workouts). And my strength training is moving along. I'm in week 2 of 5 weeks of strength/endurance. This week is a mix of 2x8 power (heavy weight) and 2x20 endurance (slightly lighter weight). And tomorrow I start doing track workouts!

Truth be told, I went to sleep at 8:30 Sunday night. I was so shelled and the Bears were doing so poorly, I figured I wasn't going to miss anything, so down I went. Yesterday morning, even though I had slept long and well, I still felt pretty worked. But my priority for yesterday was a run, and then perhaps a short recovery swim, and then if I had anything left at the end of the day, knock out some of the ghastly strength workout.

Without even drinking any additional caffeine besides my morning coffee (and I love that morning coffee), I headed to the Y a little after noon. I got on the treadmill, and as tired as I was, running felt absolutely great! I didn't feel the least bit muscularly fatigued. I guess that means my body is adapting to the Gonzo training. I suppose having 2 Goofy Challenges under my belt doesn't hurt, either.

I needed to decompress from a work project (yes, work--I actually worked 56 hours last week--something I haven't done for about 5 years--on something that I am thoroughly enjoying, because I am writing technical specifications for essentially all this database massaging), so I hit the pool and banged out 1100 yards at a pretty good pace. I went back home and worked until 5:00PM (I had started at 5:30AM, ah the pleasures of working from home), and was trying to decide did I want to get some of my strength workout in or did I want a beer and nachos? I had made 2 small trays of my best nachos (good tortilla chips, smear about 1 tsp. fat-free refried beans on each one, top with a generous slice of pickled jalapeno, add about 1 tsp. Newman's Own medium lime salsa, and finally top with a suitably sized slice of Gouda, microwave for about a minute until cheese is melted), and you'd think I could have finished them all on Sunday night, what with the amount of exercise I had done. But no, I had (still have) leftovers, and boy are they tasty, so last night I really was struggling between doing a third workout and having a beer and nachos.

I must be nuts, because I decided to hit the weights, knowing that those nachos would taste a whole lot better afterwards. I got in :48 including abs and core, legs, tris and back. So all I have to finish up today are chest, bis and delts. And I slept really well last night except for 1 hour where I was laying in bed "scrolling" (just thinking about stuff--I never obsess about this, as when it happens it seems to be necessary for my brain). And I feel wonderful this morning, despite all the strange dreams I had.

So all in all, life is good. I'm enjoying running a rather large, global project at work, I'm doing nutso training, I get to start racing, it's stinking cold (yesterday it was -12 when I woke up; today only -2) and I'm feeling pretty strong, which is amazing considering it's only been FOUR WEEKS since Goofy Challenge! And I thought last winter I was doing some pretty amazing training. As always, I can't expect to get stronger doing the same thing, so now it's more, more, more!

I leave you with the Crackhead motto and then my weekly totals for last week, which doesn't appear to be a lot of volume (not for me, anyway), but trust me it's intense:

"Harder, longer, faster, tougher, repeat."
--Crackhead

Weekly Totals 01/29/2007-02/04/2007
Swim: 9750 yards (5.53 miles) in 3.33 hours; 25% of weekly workout time; approx. 1167 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 81.09 miles in 4.63 hours; 35% of weekly workout time; approx. 2385 calories burned
Run: Approx. 24.61 miles in 3.83 hours; 29% of weekly workout time; approx. 1744 calories burned
Strength: 1.28 hours; 10% of weekly workout time; approx. 320 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 111.23 miles in 13.07 hours; approx. 5616 calories burned
Sleep: 8.29 hours avg./night
Stretching: 1.95 hours. Massage: 1.5 hours