I slipped a little. I took a break from workouts both Wednesday and Thursday of this week. It is so hard to stop the sliding! I will get back on the horse tomorrow. Shall I promise myself a double workout day? Yeah, I think I can do that. I promise to do two endurance workouts (swim, bike, or run). I will. To be honest I was tempted to do a weight workout as one of the two, but that's not "getting back on the horse."
I'm pretty happy with TrainingPeaks. I bought a maintenance training plan that will take me through early December. Last year I was using TriDot, and though I soured on that company, one of the things that really worked for me was the weekly Tridot score. If my score went below 80, it made me feel guilty! TrainingPeaks doesn't have that scoring system, but it does have green, yellow, and red boxes that form around the workouts I do to indicate how well I achieved the workout goal. TrainingPeaks also has the big, messy graph that shows the peaks and valleys of my training over time, and I DO feel pressure to keep my progress heading in the up direction. My two-day slide shows up as a tiny drop. I can use tomorrow to fill that in and get my training headed in the right direction.
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| The blue line shows my overall fitness level calculated by TrainingPeaks. The large mountain at left is what I built for IMMD in September 2018. A smaller mountain in the middle represents the training I did for the Air Force Marathon in September 2019. The slightly taller peak at right is the training I did for IMLP that never happened in 2020. I stopped training in late May when I learned the race was cancelled. Finally, the small but steep hill at far right is the progress I've made since the last week of August 2020 as I start working toward what will hopefully be IMLP 2021. |
Oh, I forgot to say why I skipped a couple workout days this week. The answer is I expected to do an indoor bike ride in the evening. However, I spent time in the early evening reviewing a student paper that really needed attention due to an impending deadline. Then, late in the evening was the Vice Presidential debate and while I could have biked during that time, it was more fun watching it with my wife in the living room rather than downstairs by myself. When I spend part of the evening doing school work, I feel like I should spend the other part of the night with my wife. I have no idea whether she knows that these decisions are conscious calculations on my part. In sum, I spent the time doing other things besides a bike ride. Workouts at this time in my fitness cycle don't get first priority.
As for today's skipped workout, I feel pretty burned out from a rough week (and it's only Thursday!). I just didn't feel like it. Besides, my choices were either get up early to do it (but that's not going to happen after staying up late to watch the debate!) or do it tonight after choir rehearsal. Nope. Too tired. Kind of depressed.
Tomorrow is another day. Middle finger to COVID. I can do this.
