Another week, but this time no functional bike to hang around with. Certainly I had to add some movement to my week, and I am really glad that pool is open since that has helped me keep the hours going on. I barely made it this week. Though to be honest, swimming feels more like an exercise snack of 1hour rather than actual proper training. However, it's actually enjoyable, and I have been feeling reborn once swimming and lunch is done at midday. It feels like the start of a new day. I am certainly incorporating it into my routine for August, and aiming to better my tecnique in the process.
Recovery Timing
One difficulty I am facing now is whether when to incorporate rest. As I have added activities I feel the cross training is probably making some adaptations in my body. But since there has been some days which feel really tiring, I wonder whether I am pushing it too much. Some of those days I do not push, but rather try to force myself out and do the workout at the most comfortable pace. Recovery on demand may be a way to solve that problem, but I haven't researched much about it yet. On that sense, the most accurate way to measure stress apart from your own sensation is probably HRV, so I wonder whether I should put some effort into managing that number too.
Schedule Review
In my case, since I have incorporated swimming to the schedule these last two weeks, weekends have felt tiring. Before swimming entered the equation, my plan was to load from middle of the week throught the weekend, and then rest most of monday and tuesday.
However, I noticed that probably I was resting too much (waiting too long for the right stimulus or window to load), so I tried adding some active rest. As Gio quoted onced: "if your muscles soring, you'd better make them work", which I interpreted as a way to not assume full inactive passive rest (unless very serious injury), but instead approach rest in a more active way with some light activities to stimulate and stretch the recovering muscles. Thus I added a run on monday and sometime I used to go to Kamo and ride there from Demachi to Shijo just to keep legs moving.
But, now that swimming became part of the plan (at least for the summer) to increase my aerobic fitness, I may need to add some changes and plan recovery better. These last two weeks, legs were not feeling active enough and mood was not the best. This was probably on last monday and saturday. Just on rest day, and then at the end of the load period. If I am gonna add cycling next week once my bike is ridable again, I will need to think clearly on easy workouts for monday and tuesday, or just move the rest days so to adjust for extra 1h each day at the pool.
Week Schedule:
This week's remarks:
-> Need to find more about protein supplementation for endurance sports. Most suggests 1.7g/kg daily, but actually most pro athletes consume 3g/kg on the scientific literature. I am no pro, but doing 3g/kg (200g on my case) has helped me with weight loss and keeping my strenght this season and last year summer. Thus, I plan to keep going at it, though I would like to review more about it so club members may have more trust in taking more protein as long as it involves more gains in the endurance spectrum of the sport and, of course, for life outside of it.
-> Tuesday swimming was feeling tired after a dreading monday so just took it easy while teaching some basics to friends prakhar and leo. I did not feel like a good teacher. Thankfully Gio was there to help us with some questions.
-> On wednesday, Takaragaike run felt good! After watching Rocky, I have come to call the last part of the climb to the Welcia in front of University of Arts as Welcia Steps (reference to Rocky Steps in Philadelphia). I obviously do the Rocky celebration when finishing my run there.
-> On Friday, running the 2h was slower than usual. I have started eating beans for more satiety and energy stability thorugh the day. Plus the protein and carbs ratio is amazing!. The slow digestion though did not make it easy to run on the evening. That made me rethink about timing. When I need to endure something for long, slow carbs like oatmeal, beans, lentils, rice are the way. They make you feel full and last long. However, for short or explosive workouts, something lighter but dense in calories like an energy bar or drink is very useful. Timing and choosing the right fuel is very important, so a plan to optimize that is something I wanna work on.
-> Powermeter finally coming soon. Just on time for the powermeter seminars? Seo-san was really fast to repair my bike, damn! Cannot pick it up due to exams yet, but on next wednesday I may have a first ride test.
Well, those were my concerns and things I have struggled with for this week. Good luck on those exams!
