Last Few Days

Tuesday, Feb 8: Spinning class. Not bad. Basically submitted myself to their system—their warmup, their cooldown, their workout. Overall pretty good, but I HAVE to get ahold of a BIKE. I can do it this weekend—I’m going over to Johnny Ray’s and can get it then. Biking for real feels VERY different, though I’m learning to get my cadence up. I remember Will (Cybele’s friend) saying he had a really hard time with Spinning, as if it were harder than real cycling. Eric Harr says that real cycling is easier on account of the downhill parts where you can coast, so I do think Spinning is beneficial in that way. In a pinch—and for these first couple weeks—it’s been good. But now I need to get out there for real. There is a 6 AM class T-W-Th, so when I need it, it’s good. I like the Wed instructor. Wanted—but forgot—to wear a HRM.

Wednesday, Feb 9: Resistance training. Did a Functional Workout from the Boyle book, (Functional Training for Sports) : snatch, bench, lunge, rows, 1-l stiffleg dl, d2 press. 2 sets of each, manageable weights (155 on bench, 65 on snatch, 25-lb db on lunge, 135 on rows, 25 lb db on sldl, 25 on d2’s.) Felt a little sluggish and like I was approaching overtraining, which I can sense now a little. SWEAR TO GOD that I calmed down CONSCIOUSLY at the end and slowed down my panicking system by doing 2-3 minutes of prayer pose-breathing after my yoga stretches at the end of my workout. VERY helpful, but thinking of rejiggering my resistance training. Is it helping or hurting? I look great, I have to say: abs are really there, everything else tight, if a little smaller (the scale said 182 or 3 the other day, in bathing suit only). Do I NEED weights after all those years of training with them? Is my time better spend on the bike or in the pool? The BIKE I’ve been neglecting sorely.

Thursday, Feb 10: day of rest. Considered another spinning class, but trying to think long-term and keep myself this side of overtraining. Got a long swim tomorrow; want to attempt 800 yards straight, grampa pace. If I can manage that, just one more workout (next week?) will get me up to 1000 yards, which is the 25% over-distance length I need to ensure a strong swim at Redondo. At that point, I can start open-water work (!!!). May need a wetsuit for that. Psyched for the Friday long swim...it’s becoming a weekly ritual! R. Shoulder surprisingly good—perhaps it’s worked itself out?

Workouts must get a little more focused. If I do the Tri Of The Champions (4-30), it’s about 10 weeks out now. That’s actually pretty close. Perhaps I should experiment with a week of NO WEIGHTS and see how that goes. Shouldn’t just do wts. Because I want to be big. Must think functionally.