Getting Back To Normal

Wherever that is...

At any rate I started this week the way I like to start all my training weeks and that is with functional strength work.  

Lately I've been reading Chuckie V's blog and actively trying to incorporate some of his ideas where I can.  Sadly strength work is not one of the things I used (took, borrowed, stole).  But to be fair, and I'm perfectly happy to admit this,  the posts I've seen where he talks about strength training for triathletes say I'm not old enough to worry about it yet.  I can live with that.  

But that did start me thinking more and more about the different ideas people can have about strength; how to develop it and how to apply it properly.  As a committed experiment of one, the best thing I have to add is that I feel endurance athletes need to rethink the entire concept of strength training altogether.  I will acknowledge, lately I've been seeing more and more people expand their definition and experience of strength work by using programs like CrossFit, P90x, pilates, or Boot Camp style workouts to get more from their bodies.  I honestly believe this is a good thing as we move from the traditional "bodybuilding centric" paradigm and begin to incorporate more functional bodyweight and balance movements into the mix.

And that's why I left the yoga and functional strength work in my schedule after reading ideas from Chuckie V, Gordo and a few others.  I think I've settled on a pattern of work and recovery that takes advantage of the available free time in my schedule and allows from some quality work on the days that I am working my normal job.  The reason I've taken the time to sit down and do this (again) is I felt I still wasn't making the most of my time.  Even though I've seen some real gains in my training, my body composition continues to improve and move more into the lean muscle side of things, I was still struggling to fit in key workouts in each sport.  Some of this can be rectified by using a single word much more often, "No," if you were wondering.

So this weeks work so far was something like this.  Monday 1 hour of functional strength work: about 150 pushups, 50 pullups, 30 single leg squats per leg, 20 min of jump rope, 10 min running stairs and 15 min of core burning work(I'm still on fire, moving from sitting to standing is difficult).  There was also a 30 min easy run. Tuesday was 2 hours cycling and 1 hour swim with Tabata intervals in each workout thrown in for good measure.  Wednesday was 1:30 cycling and trips to get rolfed and some acupuncture.  I decided to do some housekeeping and post this blog otherwise there would have been a swim as well.  Like I said the schedule is a work in progress.  As am I.