No Excuses, Just Do It

Image via Wikipedia

This morning's run was slow, but I'm on day nine of sticking to my training plan, at least in spirit. The plan assumed that I hadn't taken three weeks off due to illness, injury and laziness, so I'm not hitting the speed or distances the plan calls for. What I am doing is getting my feet onto the treadmill every time my calendar says "run."

I even spent an hour on my bike, which is set up on the trainer next to the treadmill, in a basement that's finally clean thanks to a surge of domesticity. I am determined to get back to triathlons next year and figured I would take advantage of my run plan's cross-training days for some bike workouts. It's better than starting from scratch in the spring.

This morning I was tired, but I got on the treadmill and walked. After five minutes I got bored with walking and pushed the treadmill's speed up. I did something, rather than staying in bed and taking a risk I might slip back into inertia. I'm noting this so I can come back and read it next time I think about skipping a workout.

No excuses, just do it. This is my winter mantra.

(Please note: the above picture of a running chicken has nothing to do with this post, although the chicken may, in fact, be running faster than I did this morning. It just came up as a Zemanta suggestion and I couldn't pass up a running chicken.)

A New Plan

Image via Wikipedia

If you've been reading this for awhile you'll remember my New Year's post. I wrote about planning out my triathlon training for the year. I had carefully marked every workout in my day planner so I'd know exactly what I needed to do. It was a great plan, except for one small problem - it didn't fit into my life.

Some parts are working well, like my long, Sunday morning run. Usually my mid-week short run gets done. Every now and then I squeeze in some strength training. The rest ends up falling by the wayside.

I can give myself a break on the swimming, since the lake only melted a few weeks ago. I will only be able to get a month or so of swim workouts in before my first triathlon at the end of June, but I knew that would be a problem when I moved far away from a pool. I will just have to do the best I can at the swim, and hope that it's at least better than last year's. (During the same race last year my swim was really, really bad, despite the training, so I don't imagine it could get worse.)

The biking is the part that's been bugging me. I'm bored to tears with riding on the trainer, and the long bike workouts are asking for 2-3 hours out of my day. I never seem to have enough time before I have to do something or be somewhere, so I just don't get on the bike. I can't get outside if I leave it until the kids are in bed. It's just too darn dark out there. Instead, I keep skipping the workouts.

After beating myself up about not being ready for the big hill in Hague in June, I finally had a breakthrough. As of last Saturday, my bike plan is that there is no plan. I've decided I'm just going to ride my bike whenever I can. Fifteen minutes is better than nothing.

I started riding my bike to yoga when I don't have to pick up kids after school or shop for anything too big for my backpack. Saturday afternoon I put my bike in the car and, while my daughter was taking a riding lesson, I rode around Friends Lake.

I'm pretty sure 45 minutes on those hills were a better workout than two hours on the trainer.

We'll see how it goes, but I think it's better than having a nicely arranged plan that I never follow. I suspect that swims will get done in the same way. Once the lake warms up, that is.