The Wanderer

Hello friends, we’re back for another week of training, pushing forward, finding balance, and giving grace. Last episode I mentioned that I signed up for the olympic triathlon, so I thought it fitting to give this series a new name. Hopefully this doesn’t get confused with the actual olympics, which I am probably the least qualified person on the planet for. But who knows, maybe they’ll let me participate one day as an average joe. I’ve always wanted to see that, like some regular dude swimming next to Michael Phelps or running next to Usain Bolt, just to put into perspective how insane the olympic atheletes are. In a way this challenge is doing just that: how does a normal person who works a 9-5 and lives a social life in his 20s compare to the best in the world? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

This week of training was a recovery from last week’s madness. I kept it light, focusing more on weight lifting and active recovery, doing light cardio in between to maintain the muscle memory. I started monday with a full body day as always. I hit a great full body, again focusing on lifting heavy for less reps, focusing on the main muscle groups, and recovering as much as possible. I started with legs and then moved into back and chest to finish, spending a little over an hour at the gym. Fun fact, I wear my apple watch religiously while working out, and the health app told me that over the past 26 weeks I’ve averaged 58 of working out a day, which I think is insane.

Tuesday was a focused leg day. I did not end up swimming, mainly because that day I was tired and was not feeling like squeezing into my swim suit. I’ve been using the same swim suit I wore in high school, and the waist is a size 26. For reference I am a size 32 waist, so I don’t know what I was thinking wearing something so skinny. The fact that I can even fit is impressive. Leg day was good, I spent most of my time focusing on hips and mobility, while still lifting good weight.

Wednesday was a quick back and bike day as I had golf right after the gym. I did this crazy split where I would hit a back workout, say rows or lat pulldown, for 15 reps at a lower weight than usual, and then go straight onto the bike for 1 minute. I would try to maintain around 175 Watts, which is a crazy pace for me. Then I would go back and do it again. It was a killer workout and I felt absolutely fantastic after.

Thursday was a late night chest day. I played golf in the afternoon with some friends and then wanted to get a good workout in, so I went around 7pm to the gym and worked out until 8:30. I might be weird for this but I really like later workouts. Usually I’ll listen to more RnB compared to my usual house EDM and focus on the mind muscle connection, but sadly that day I left my headphones uncharged. Regardless, it was a good, focused workout.

Friday I wanted to challenge myself.

So up to this point, I have only done segmented cardio workouts, one type of cardio at a time. One day will be swimming, one day will be biking etc. Friday I decided that I should try doing a combination workout. I wanted to do a bike and run that was 1/4th of the total distance, which would mean 8 miles on the bike and 1.5 miles run. The weather was beautiful on Friday (until the dust storm in Chicago in the evening what the hell even was that?) so I biked on the rooftop patio of my gym. I hit 8 miles pretty quickly, going at a fairly steady pace of 3:40/mi, finishing the 8 miles in just under 29 minutes, an exact time of 28:48. The I quickly put the bike back inside (Y’all please put your equipment back) and rushed over to the treadmill. I brought the speed up to 5.5, coasting at an 11 minute pace for the first mile before kicking it to a 10:30 pace for the remaining half mile. I finished the run in 16:20, giving a total time of like 45:08. I think this pace is pretty much what I’m looking for for the race. If I can get the 25 miles bike done in 90 minutes, the swim done in about 30 minutes, and the 10k run done in around an hour, I can finish the whole race in 3 hours. Under 3 hours would be fantastic, and that will be the goal moving forward. This was a great step in the right direction, and gave me some lessons learned for the future. The transitions will by far be the hardest part of this experience, so adding these workouts in is going to be crucial to my success.

Saturday my girlfriend and I hit a morning heated yoga class which was a perfect end to the recovery week. The weekly tradition of ending with yoga has been fantastic, and having my beautiful girlfriend by my side hitting every single pose like it was her job was the motivation I needed to end the week off strong. Though I did lose balance a few times, I blame her for distracting me. I mean who looks that good for yoga???

Recovery is an important aspect of training. Just like in a race, just like in life, you cant push 100% of the time. Taking time to go slower and more controlled is just as important as the times you’re going as fast as you can. These weeks give us the energy to push forward and achieve more, and that is precisely the goal for next week. My new project will start next week, and my masters program will start after the race, so the next week will be focused on enjoying the time I have before life gets busy again, and the weeks to follow will be focused on finding a new balance, a new normal as life begins to change once more.

But until then, we push forward. Until next week friends.