After a week of a kind of hurt back (swam once), and a week of vacation on the east coast (ran once), I’m back on top of things this week. While I don’t always enjoy all my exercise *cough*swimming*cough*, it is satisfying to have done them all, and feel pretty good. Here’s a breakdown of what I try to do every week (and succeeded at this week):
Every morning after I shower I do about 10 minutes of stretching and some token ab exercises. These were prescribed for my back, and I’m sticking with them. It’s certainly helped my hamstrings a whole lot.
Twice a week I swim for 30 minutes. When I started I managed maybe 850 yards in that time. I’m now up to 1200 yards (up from 1100 yards before I reinjured my back). I’m still kind of nervous about the tri swim because it’ll be in the ocean. I’m planning to do an ocean swim next weekend.
Twice a week I run about 3.4 miles. It takes a little over 30 minutes. I’m not doing any speed work here. Just getting the miles in. I figure with such a low weekly volume I’m just helping my body stay in running shape.
On the bike I’m currently doing 2 rides per week. Long term I’d like to do a century some time, my back permitting, so I am slowly building my weekly bike mileage. Having said that, this week was just 24 miles. I rode to work on Tuesday (1 flat). Then I tried to ride home on Thursday but I flatted again less than a mile from work. Looking at the tire more closely, it’s totally dead, so I gave up. Then on Friday I got new Bontrager Race Lite Hardcase tires, which Dave recommended because I’m mostly a commuter. They’re supposed to perform reasonably well, and have extra flat protection. Some digging online reveals quite a few people who report having ridden in excess of 1000 miles on these tires without a flat. I’m looking forward to that.
Finally, I do yoga twice a week. I either do a DVD, or a session with Jennifer Green which is a lot more of a workout. Not only does yoga work the muscles that otherwise don’t get any exercise, it’s also teaching me better habits in daily life. The most obvious one is that I place my shoulders and scapula in a more relaxed position now.
So there you have it. It sure is keeping me busy, but I’m not convinced it’s the best use of my time. I’ll think about that some more once the triathlon is over. Less than 3 weeks to go…