When I look back at my blog, its been since just after the new year since I last wrote, and boy what a ride it has been.. I’m just one week away from starting my 16 week training plan for the Got the Nerve triathlon on May 21st. Its taken me some time, but i’ve finally got a reasonable training plan setup to get through it. I used a combination of the sprint and the Olympic distance base plans provided by Beginner Triathlete, but added my own twists. I felt that the sprint plan was not enough for me, and the olympic was a bit much, so i combined them into a pretty balanced plan that gives me 3 days of swim, 2 days of bike and 2 days of run and then one day of conditioning. I’ll also mix some weights in there as I can, but its not the primary focus during the training.

So how did my conditioning go? Well, pretty good, I think i’ve done a good job building lean muscle and although I didn’t lose any weight, I look better (which is really what its all about, right?) Like most things that I do though, I get obsessive about training and found out that 2 weeks ago, I was spending almost 2 hours a day doing conditioning, which was really starting to effect my life .. I mean, family life and work life because i was always tired… which then caused, the flu.

Yep, I spent a week on the couch with the flu .. I told myself I should have gotten that flu shot, but I didn’t. Next year, I won’t forget. It was terrible and although being tired didn’t necessarily cause the flu, it certainly helped it to infect me because I was so worn out. After 6 days of rest from the flu, i finally got back to the gym on Thursday to see the damage, and there was none. I think my body actually liked the rest .. i feel rested now but its always caused me to change my training routine.

My old routine since mid-December has been to get up around 4:30-4:45, be at the gym for 5 or 5:15am and be there until 7am or so .. then go to work from 7:30 until around 5. Then come home and eat, and do it all over again .. it was brutal. I decided I needed a change when my training log noted for 3 straight weeks that I was tired each Thursday… its not supposed to be like that, plus I need to be productive at work and be a good family man as well.

So I’ve committed to cutting back the gym time and focusing on QUALITY instead of QUANTITY.. I don’t need to work out 2 hours everyday, I can get the same quality by doing more in a shorter amount of time. I also cut out doing the boot camp since i’ve done it for over 9 weeks now .. its getting boring for me. I like the circuit training that I do once a week and will continue to do 2 spin classes until I can get outside and ride the bike …. (maybe by March or so). The big difference is that most of my workouts are scheduled at an hour or slightly longer (on the weekends when I have the time) .. and the strangest part is that I won’t be training for distance anymore, but for time, so instead of running 4 miles, or cycling 10 miles, I would run for 32 minutes, or cycle for 54 minutes .. and the distance doesn’t matter. Its a change, but i’m up for it.

I continue to get myself geared up as well, I got my new bike pedals installed, my swim cap and my second swimsuit already .. the first one started to fall apart from the chlorine (i don’t think I was caring for it properly).. I still have to get a bike rack, new running shoes and a few other odds and ends for my bike.

So hopefully i’ll get more updates in then I have, but no guarantees .. blogging just isn’t number one in my eyes right now, life is just too busy..