Week 1 of the Comeback...Progress Made

This past week was a fantastic week of training for me. It was my best week in nearly 4 months since the injury to my achilles tendon began. I was able to run nearly pain free every day. My plan was to take a day off running if I ever woke up more sore than the day before but that never happened. It almost feels like getting back into running now is helping to loosen things up and I have had very little discomfort. It actually feels best after running about a mile. For the week my total training time was 22.5 hours. I ran 20 miles, biked 231 miles, and swam 5 times for a total of 14,100 yards. In addition to those I also lifted weights, did lunges, and speed drills and strides all three times. Even doing strides at 90% of my top speed does not hurt at all. I also did core work 11 times. My long bike ride for the week was a 61 mile ride on Saturday morning and my long run for the week was 4.5 miles on Saturday evening. I hope to build on those distances in the coming weeks. On Thursday I went to the track for a short interval session. I did 6x 400 meters with 60 seconds of rest between each one. My times were 80, 79, 79, 77, 77, 73. It felt great to be on the track. I plan to carefully add 1/2 mile each week to my total interval distance. This week's workout will be 4x 800 meters at a target time of 2:45 with 90 seconds rest between each. 2:45 is 5:30 mile pace. Although this is much slower than I was running pre-injury I'm very pleased with the progress it is making. Beginning a fitness journey is never easy. If anyone may be reading this that is just getting started it may be helpful for you to know that nearly every workout I did this week was tough. I feel heavy running, my legs are sluggish biking, and I feel like a whale in the pool. I know that it takes my body about 10 days of consistent training before I begin to feel the benefits. Be consistent and stick with it knowing that it won't be long before you are feeling much better during the workouts. The first couple weeks are always the toughest. If you aren't working out everyday then it will take more than 10 days but not much more if you are keeping it pretty regular. There were many times I wanted to climb out of the pool because I was so tired and I felt like getting some rest would help me feel better the next day. That may have worked but I kept telling myself to take my lumps now so I would feel better on a regular basis within 2 weeks. The other thing that will help me speed up how quick I get in shape is to begin adding interval training into my bike workouts. It will no doubt hurt bad the first few times but I get in shape pretty quickly when I begin doing intervals on the bike. I'm beginning to climb slowly back up the mountain. I need to start seeing the long-term picture of competing at a high level again next summer and use this summer to enjoy building my fitness back up. Along the way if I continue to feel good I may enter into some small races just to help gain race fitness back. I'm praying that the toughest days are behind me. On a very positive note I weighed in at the end of the week at 167 lbs. which is still not my ideal fighting weight but it was 6 lbs. less than last week. I hope to cut a few more this week. It was great spending time with the family and friends on the 4th of July weekend at a wedding near Chicago. Payton did a great job as the flower girl. On the way home I gave Payton some markers to color with and then made the mistake of falling asleep next to her. This picture is what I found when I woke up...ooops! It was also really fun watching mommy win the Firecracker 10k in East Moline on Sunday morning. She's running really tough and I don't think I could hang with her right now. Thanks for reading. DREAM BIG!