The Wanderer

Hey fellas, I’m back.

God any time I make some sort of schedule for myself I never follow it. So much for blogs every Sunday. Anyways, I have a lot to catch you all up on!

So It’s week 3 of triathlon training. I had 1 full week off for a family vacation where I had a few workouts and was generally active, but did not stick to my schedule. Vacation was very fun, my family and I went on this weekend cruise to the Bahamas. I hadn’t been on a cruise since I was 11 so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. For one thing, the size of the cruise was absolutely mind boggling. It had 16 floors, each one sprawling with activities and restaurants. It took us almost 2 full hours of exploration to see the whole boat, and even then I don’t think we did everything there was to see.

There was a gym onboard, a surprisingly good one as well. And obviously being on a cruise and spending time in the Bahamas I spent a lot of time on my feet. So while I wasn’t necessarily active, I was still able to close my rings most days.

These trips, these events, they’re a part of life. And they won’t stop any time soon. Nor would I want them to. These moments where I can drop everything and spend time with the people I love are the best parts of life, they give our lives meaning. What is all this for if not spending time with family and friends?

I have a few major events coming up this summer, namely the F1 Montreal GP in June or the 4th of July for example, where I don’t plan on training. Those days aren’t lost causes, and I’m not a failure for doing things that excite me. But those month long pockets in between where I have nothing but work to do, I will keep on with my goals, steadily growing and developing in the aspects of life that matter to me.

Training has been really fun lately. I’ve found a good rhythm for workouts that has been challenging and exciting at the same time.

On Mondays I start the week off with a full body day. I try to limit the cardio on this day because there will be much much more as the week goes on. Full body days for me are generally all over the place, but I’ve been focusing on hitting all the main muscles, starting with chest and shoulders, then moving to the back, and then finally the quads and hamstrings. I have a bad habit with full body days where I tend to make them more upper body days than anything, but with this training regiment I need my lower body strength more than anything. As the weeks go by, these days are my anchor.

The middle of the week are my most strenuous days. I’ll generally either double up on workouts or do longer sessions. Tuesdays are my legs and swimming days. I’ve been swimming in the morning, generally getting to the pool by 8am so I can be back for the workday, and lifting in the evening. To be honest, work has been slow lately so I have time to put in these extra hours. If anything I look forward to them. The swimming aspect of the triathlon is the most difficult so far, mainly because I can’t stop in between laps on race day. So I’ve been slowly building up my stamina to swim longer and longer. The first few weeks have been focused on getting that baseline speed, and now as we enter week 3 of training I’m going to begin to build up distance. For example, last week I swam about 1km and this week I bumped it up to 1.8km, finishing off with a 400m continuous swim, half of the distance of race day. At the end of the day, I’ll hit legs. This leg day is mainly focused on glutes and calves, as I hit quads and hams the day before. These stability exercises give me the strength my legs need to handle the extra volume from all the cardio. Overall this way is super fun.

Wednesdays are the Back and Bike days. Long time readers will recognize this combination of workouts as it’s been a staple of mine over the past year. I love biking and I find it pairs very well with back day. Plus the name has a nice ring to it. I’ll generally hit a long bike ride at the start of the workout (or as a separate workout depending on length) and then I’ll hit a back day, focusing generally on hitting 15 reps with maybe 70% of my 1 rep maximum. I’ve been enjoying these types of workouts, taking a little off the weight and trying to maximize reps. I don’t know the science behind it but I feel like it burns more calories, not that I need that right now.

Thursdays have grown to be my favorite days. Run and Chest. Again not sure about the science here but there’s something about this combination that just hits me like a truck. I get a great pump and a great runners high every single time. Again, I’m not trying to build muscle, so the lifts are much lighter than normal, but after a good run it feels amazing to lift. The only issue I’ve found is that sometimes I feel too good and then try to ego lift more than I should, but maybe that will come with time.

Fridays have been rest days or yoga days, and saturday and sunday lately have been reserved for golf and friends, but with this combination of workouts I am getting easily 7-10 workouts a week, which is all I really need. As I move to the next phase of my training, I want to build my stamina and keep adding miles. I think once I am able to consistently hit the required sprint distances, I’ll start to pair the workouts together. I think 2-3 weeks from now I could do a practice run and see how that feels. I feel very confident for the sprint, and I can’t wait to see what I can accomplish come race day.

Until then, we keep our head down and focus on what we can control, we push hard on our workouts and recover as much as possible for the day to come. And with every passing day, we get 1 step closer to our goals.