Welcome to February or as I like to call it the “do-over” month. You know how it works. In December, you tell yourself that come the New Year things will be different. You’re going to be more serious about workouts, eat a more nutritious diet, keep an up-to-date workout log, etc.
Then you look at the calendar. It’s February 1st and you still haven’t really gotten started on most of that stuff. Time to take a deep breath and get your priorities in order. If the do-over month had a poster child, it would be me.
It hasn’t all been bad. I got in a good number of solid workouts in all three sports in January. I did sign up for TrainerRoad and start a training program. I did start the old-school barbell weight workouts I’d been talking about. I took the Finis Swim Snorkel to the pool and started working with it. I went for a few runs, OK jogs. I thought I was off to a semi-solid start. Then I stepped on the scale. Yikes! Between the missed workouts due to the interstate move and the extra calories over the holidays, I may have to ask for a waver to move from the Clydesdale to the sumo division.
So I’m digging out of a much deeper hole than I thought. My dreams of trimming a minute or two off the St. Paddy’s day 5K, improving my sprint race times and moving up to an Olympic or half iron distance race in this fall, seem to be in sincere jeopardy.
With a limited amount of time before race season starts, it’s time to do a reset and come up with a plan particularly on the nutrition side. I decided to try setting some weekly goals for February in the hopes of getting on the right side of some momentum.
Week One: Log Them All
Log all my workouts: swim, bike (trainer), run (treadmill) and weights. Then I’ll be able to look back to see what has and has not been effective.
Week Two: Nutrition Log
Log what I eat at least four out of seven days on MyFitnessPal. This will give me a baseline on how much I’m eating.
Week Three: Try New Recipes
Try some new foods/recipes from this website. Want to pick some of the recipes I try? Comment on the SBS website.
Week Four: Play with the Other Children.
Find a workout buddy, go on a group ride or maybe take a class. Do something to meet some local endurance sports maniacs.
Hopefully it will be a fruitful, fascinating and fun February. I’ll keep you posted on how this all works out. Stumble on!