I finished a pretty tough week although its still left me wanting more. I started doing the boot camp twice this past week and plan to continue to do it twice a week because I think I get a lot of value out of it. There really is a big difference between doing it at 5:15am before work and then 5:45pm after work .. I was never one for working out after work, but maybe this will help convert me so I don’t have to do all my workouts in the morning.

Swimming is getting better as well as I start to feel myself having better balance in the water. I continue to push the length of my laps, up to a 100m this week .. I found that I only have to swim ~450m in the triathlon that i’m looking to do, and I think I can do it if I keep pushing it. After doing 3x100m laps, I’m dying, but I have a good amount of time to make it better. I remember just a few weeks ago I could barely get through 25m, so i’ve definitely made progress. My current swim conditioning workout is as follows:

• 100 any stroke warm-up
• 3 x 100 ( 12 breaths between)
• 3 x 50 ( 10 breaths)
• 4 x 25 ( 6 breaths)

Yesterday I got in ~9 miles of running indoors while doing some interval training. I mix in about 45 seconds of different activities, including jump rope, crunches, squat thrusts, push-ups, 3 times up and down the steps, “rock climber” and jumping jacks. Its really a great workout. I figure the interval work makes up for the fact that i’m running on a flat round surface, so hopefully I won’t soften up in the off-season.

This week I also got into my second spin class, and as I tweeted earlier in the week, I found that different instructors are SO different in the way they approach the class. The first one I took back on Thanksgiving was so much more intense with the music and the spirit of the instructor, but the one Friday seemed a little less intense (although i still got a good workout). It could be because there were only 7 people in the class vs. a full class on Thanksgiving .. but it won’t deter me away from Friday mornings because I’m not sure what other day I could easily take the class..

So I feel myself getting into better shape although its only been a few weeks, I can see myself getting more toned already .. I can’t wait to see the end result. I think the important thing is that my core is getting stronger because I can feel it when I swim, when I cycle and when I run. I’ve always been so “bottom heavy” muscle-wise with being a runner, I never focused on anything else. Now that I’ve got some muscle and tone on the top, my back and hip feels better and I just feel better overall. My hope is to finally drop some of these extra pounds, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Should be another tough week, but i’m up for it.