There’s no way to do this without it being boring, so try to stay awake if you choose to read how my workouts went this week. I do think, however, that I was inspired to work just a little harder knowing that I’d post it here. But, please know, I do not expect anyone to be impressed. Please. I read other blogs and I see the times and miles others post, so I know there is nothing awe inspiring here.

For the last several weeks I’ve settled into a routine that works for me really well. Monday is a rest day. Tuesday I swim in the morning and bench press in the evening. Wednesday I ride the trainer in the morning and squat in the evening. Thursday I run in the morning and do chin ups and push presses in the evening. Friday is another rest day. On Saturday I’ll try to get in a bike ride and a run or something else that is time consuming. On Sunday I try to get in a longer run (but as you can see below, I flip flopped my Saturday and Sunday). 

Those weekday morning workouts are short and sweet because I need to get back to the house and help get the kids out of the house for school and get myself ready for work. It won’t necessarily be reflected below, but based on what I’m reading and hearing these days these short workouts can still be beneficial if the intensity is high enough. So that is my aim from here on out is to make sure the intensity is high enough, either a faster pace than what I expect to do in a longer race or keeping my heart rate up in the fourth and fifth zones.

Without any further ado, here is how my week went:

Tuesday, 3/25/14.

• Swim, 1000 yards @ 2:16/100 yards pace (I know, I swim like a sponge. More on that another time.)
• Bench press, warm up, then 3 sets of 5 at 125 lbs, 2 more sets at the same weight but reps of 3 and then 2. (My goal with any weight is 5 sets of 5.)

Wednesday, 3/26/14

• Bike, trainer. 10.91 miles, 40 minutes. Average speed of 16.4, average heart rate at 141. (I have a hard time getting my heart rate up on the trainer/bike. I’ll pedal like a mad man and still can’t get it up to where I am when I run, yet my legs are smoked and can’t go any harder. What’s up with that?)
• Squat, 2 sets of 5 at 105 lbs, then 1 set of 5 at 145 lbs. (I was lazy this day with the squats because I actually waited to ride after I got home from work and then squatted immediately after.)

Thursday, 3/27/14

• Run, treadmill, 35 minutes. I’d like to say how high my heart rate got and how far I ran, but I forgot to hit start on my Garmin (to record my heart rate) and didn’t look at the distance before I turned off the treadmill. We just got the treadmill about a week ago so I’m still not used to using it. It was a pretty good run, though.
• Push Press. 5 sets at 80 lbs, with reps of 5, 4, 2, 1, and 1.
• Chin ups. 5 sets of 5.

Saturday, 3/29/14

• Run, outside, 9.79 miles. I basically ran 3 5Ks. My overall pace was 7:53. My goal was to keep the first 5K at 8 minutes, the second at 7:30, and then see what I could do on the third. The first was at 8:01, the second at 7:38, and the third at 7:41. Average heart rate, 160. Overall time was 1:17:06, which included a couple of jogs to my house where I left water. Not bad for me.

Sunday, 3/30/14

• Bike. Rode in and around our small town. 20.82 miles, average speed 16.1, finished in 1:17:29. Quite windy today. If you want to know what it’s like riding around town on your aero bars just ride with your hands behind your back. They should put brakes on aero bars (maybe someone does, I don’t know).
• Squat. Warm up then 5 sets of 10 at 70 lbs. (I like to do this lighter set after I ride or run on Sundays.)

So there you have it. I hope to post some better times next week. As my Saturdays get more free, after school is out and soccer is over, I’ll insert some long rides, so that should be fun.