End of week 5

It hasn’t been good, oh no, it hasn’t been good.  I’ve been feeling under the weather for a few days now and not sleeping well. On Thursday even though I felt like crap, i did my 7x1km intervals, they were ok but the last 2 felt hard. Followed by another bad nights sleep Friday wasn’t great.
I wanted to go swimming but my muscles still ached from Tuesday (!!) So I thought an easy run would do, but after getting ready I chose against it after a big head-rush when getting up to go, and feeling a twinge in my leg, so I stayed at home and ate lots, hoping it would give me energy for Saturday.
On Saturday I woke up and went for my long run, but felt crappy so did the 10,7km loop instead and bailed out.
Today heavy snow stopped our group ride, so I did a not hard hour on the bikes at the gym, some core and leg strength work, and an easy 5km run.
I have the feeling that I am over the hump of this illness, today hasn’t been so bad and I slept a good 10h last night.
That brings me to my weight. On Friday I was 77.0kg amazing! Yesterday 78.5kg and today 79.0kg. Its obviously water weight but I have almost no idea what my real weight is now! I think between 77-78kg is right, I feel skinny but 77.0 might be a bit much.

Running 35km (255 YTD)
Cycling 70km (342YTD)
Swimming 1.5km (10.65km YTD)

All bad! I did manage my running workouts at least and did my Jantastic so it could have been worse!

Midweek update – Week 5

So it’s been eventful if not very successful so far this week!
On Monday, I did my hilly intervals, they were ok, nothing special. I did a bit of upper body and core stuff too. I think I am going to change up this intervals set next week, maybe 2x5km at half marathon pace, or about 4:05/km.
On Tuesday I got home and thought I would go swimming, but couldn’t find my goggles. I searched the entire flat but couldn’t find them, after 45 minutes I was pissed off, so decided to cycle to the swimming pool 11km away in Mombach, hoping to buy a new pair there. Well for some unknown reason they don’t sell or lend out goggles, so I ended up leaving un-worked out and not in a good mood. I figured that I probably left my goggles in Nieder-Olm swimming pool on Friday last week, so I emailed them. They had some matching the description, so I decided on Wednesday to cycle to Nieder-Olm in the snow and wind, to get my goggles back. It seemed stupid to cycle to a pool and now swim so I would swim too. Well the cycle there wasn’t very pleasant! It was freezing and against a headwind all the way. I got my goggles and swam badly for 1500m before starting to feel a cramp coming, so I cycled home, nice and easy with the wind, the only problem was navigation.

Now I don’t usually count cycling to and from places as training, because it is more like commuting. I mean, I cycle 15-20 minutes twice a day to and from work, but it isn’t a workout. So I decided that Tuesday’s 22km ride didn’t count. Then yesterday I did another 21km to and from the pool, and screw it, I am counting it. I can’t let a total of 43km on my mountain bike not count for anything! That’s like 60km on my road bike! So the 43km are being counted in my total and as 1 workout for Jantastic. I think when the weather is better (it can’t get much worse) the cycle to Nieder-Olm pool will be quite nice. I could extend the ride back too so that it is a 30-40km total, making it a nice little brick session.

So I plan to run my intervals this evening, 7x1km as always! I would like to tag on a few extra K if there isn’t a queue at the treadmills. Jochen has hurt his foot, so didn’t fancy doing outdoor intervals yesterday. Tomorrow I will definitely run, and maybe swim too. 1.5km isn’t exactly a full weeks swim training, so I will either fit in another swim on Friday or Sunday.
Saturday will be an early long run, followed by the weekly coffee and bagel in town, then I’ll be watching Mainz beat Paderborn. 30km+ should be fine, no need to go mental with 35km+ routes yet.
Sunday could be the group ride, but might not be. The current forecast is for -4 degrees. If it is that cold it will be difficult, but I will probably go for the previously mentioned Nieder-Olm swimming pool loop, though thinking about it, that would mean I would swim 2 days in a row, as I have a training session on Monday, maybe Friday would be better after all…

Just as general notes, the diet is going well but I am not sleeping well. I keep waking up at 4am and dosing until the alarm goes off (or not as was the case on Monday!). I’m going to try to reduce my caffeine intake late at night, I can hope for a sleep in on Sunday too 🙂

Start of week 5

The week ahead.
I said I would do intervals with Jochen on Wednesday, that kind of screws up my plans a bit, but should be ok. We will do 7x1km probably at around 3:45 pace.
I will do my hilly intervals tomorrow so that I fit in the key run workouts. On Tuesday I think I will go swimming and maybe run home after (I always say I will and never do!) That will leave a cycle on Thursday and either a swim or run on Friday.
I want to do another good long run on Saturday, before another 10k race the weekend after. 32km+ would be good. Hills seem to be my friends nowadays, so I will probably head south again through the Weinberge.
On Sunday it looks like there might be a little chaingang going on. Our Cologne Bike and Run team is planning a ride, even though it might be 0 degrees out. It’ll be good to get a decent length ride in and hopefully they don’t want too many explosives on the climbs, I don’t think I am quite ready for that yet!