Got a great workout in today. Went for a fast 9 mile bike ride and followed it up by swimming 100 laps in my pool which equals out to ¾ mile…total workout lasted 55 minutes

I am going to make this bike / swim workout part of my weekly routine (going to increase the distance of the bike another 2-3 miles though). I like the contrast of these two fitness activities. I get a great burn in the legs during the bike ride and I am pretty much crushing my upper body during the swim…as well as making my cardiovascular system work.

I have been in a rut with my nutrition since completing my first TRI ten days ago. I was allowing myself to cheat last week as a way of rewarding myself for all of the hard work I put in training. I guess I was a bit naïve to think I could cheat one week and think it would be easy to be strict the following week. My nutrition is going to get worse before it gets better too, I am heading north to NH for a 4 day vacation with the family starting tomorrow. I am not going to worry about my nutrition until I get back but I am going to try to get in at least one long distance run while I am there.

I leave for NH tomorrow morning but if I have time, my plan is to squeeze in another tempo/interval running workout prior…

Seeing that my focus is now on running, my goal is to get in 4 runs a week…two being interval/tempo runs and the other two being low intensity long distance runs. Today I ran 6 miles, two miles greater than my normal 4 mile loop. I did not push myself so it was pretty much a comfortable run.

I may need to rethink my workout regime as today’s run seemed like a day off. I did not push myself hard and I am not sure I want to waste two days a week on a low intensity long distance run. As it stands right now, I was going to run 4 days a week, bike once, and do my best to fit in a P90X workout on the sixth day. I am also swimming but I treat that like “ab ripper x”, I will just tack it on at the end of my primary workout.

This new schedule is a work in progress so we will see what happens next week…

Had a 6am flight this morning so chances of a workout today are slim…up at 3:40am, so I can’t wait for bed.  I did the lawn and other yard work yesterday in the heat, which back in the day I would have counted as a workout.  Given how hot I was, it probably would have been the smart approach.  Anyway, I called it a 1.5 hour warm up and then ran 2 miles at a picked up pace from my longer jogs ( came in at 8:25/mi).  Was happy with that and just glad I was able to get a workout in both Saturday and Sunday.  Going to get something in tomorrow morning, as well.  Depending on the area around my hotel , probably either a jog outside or on the treadmill.

So I didn’t get any workouts in this past weekend.  I am not a morning person…most of my workouts come during lunch or later in the day.  But I decided that I was going to get up this morning and run to a friends house who has had my bike since the triathlon last week.  He lives 5.7 miles away…which is about 1.5 miles longer then I have ever run.  To my surprise I made it there without stopping and did it in 8:51 miles which is great for me.  Took me about 20 minutes to ride my bike back so I got in a great workout this morning.  I may have to start getting up and running every day.

I think I might try to run everyday to build up my stamina for the final leg of the race.  Not going to worry about biking at all.  If I can get my times for 10K to about 50 minutes I think I will be able to really push the run leg of the triathlon.

Even though I got in a couple of decent workouts, I somewhat treated last week as a “week off” from both my nutrition plan and intense workouts. Back to business today though…

I am shifting my focus to running in preparation for the upcoming TRI. I decided to do this for a couple of reasons. For starters, I literally felt like I was going to die during the run portion of the last TRI. I pretty much went all out on both the swim and bike so I did not have much left in the tank for the run. I plan on having the exact same approach (go all out) for the upcoming TRI but I am going to train harder on the run to help alleviate that “death” feeling I had. The second reason is simple, I want to increase my run pace which will lead to improving my overall time.

This morning I changed things up a bit and rode my bike 3.5 miles to a local school and exercised on their track. I ran eight laps which equals out to two miles. To start, I ran two laps (1/2 mile) in 3 minutes so my pace was a 6 minute mile. I took a minute to recover (walked) and ran another lap in 1 minute 30 seconds…again, maintaining that 6 minute mile pace. I repeated running one lap in 1 minute 30 seconds with a minute to recover until I reached 8 laps. I jumped back on my bike and rode it home another 3.5 miles at a pretty good pace. Once I got home, I realized I had some time to kill so I swam laps for 10 minutes (1/3 mile). DRISC used the term “tempo running” the other day and I am thinking my track workout falls under that technique. I am new to “tempo running” so it’s going to be a work in progress as I learn more about it. Tempo running is basically a technique that helps your body increase the pace of your run…which is my goal these next 7 weeks.

I will assume most people that are reading this do not care about increasing their run pace. Tempo running is another form of interval training…which is the best cardio for fat loss, click here to read more