That inevitable battle with motivation….

I have had to have that talk with myself this week. The kind of one that goes along the lines of “You are 14 weeks away from Challenge Roth. Why are you not getting yourself up in the morning for training. Why are you finding excuses to not go to the pool. Do you really not want to finish Challenge Roth – let alone start it”.

For the past month I have been using Training Peaks to plan my weekly training schedule. And I am sure I am not the only one here, but the calendar I have planned and the actual calendar at the end of the week never resemble one another!

The reason being…… excuses. Excuses. Excuses. Excuses. Nothing more. They are not reasons. They are only an excuse. I am too tired. I had a busy day at work. I have been feeling a little run down. I have a runny nose. My dog ate my training plan…..

So it was time to give myself that kick I needed. No more excuses. Except maybe the foot injury. After all that is a reason and not an excuse, right??

So the plan was set. However, the excuses had already started again!

MONDAY: I had a turbo session planned. However, I had forgot that the day before was the Peaks Epic (https://accidentalcyclist.com/2018/03/27/this-is-what-cycling-is-all-about-for-me-riding-my-bike-having-fun-and-making-memories/), and the legs needed that rest. Remember rest is as important as training. You get stronger from resting.
So Monday became the rest day. Thursday, which was the rest day would become a workout day.
FAILED

TUESDAY: This was a double session day. 1 hour turbo at 6.00am with an evening swim, 30mins to the hour. My alarm went off at 5.45am. I jumped out of bed and straight onto the turbo. The only problem with that was that I was now dreaming at that point as I had stayed wrapped up in the duvet. Morning session abandoned due to “I’m tired”.
I headed to the pool after work and did get a 1400m swim done. But again, the body was rejecting any effort I put in. I wanted to do more, but fatigue said no. Not what I wanted – but a 1400m swim is better than no swim. Pat on the back G.
FAILED

WEDNESDAY: Another double session day was planned. Once again swim and cycle. The alarm was once again set, and once again ignored. This is becoming a bad habit! I was due to hit the turbo and then do the swim in the evening.
As I had failed once again to rise early and do the turbo I decided to sack off the evening swim – in no small part to the fact I was so tired during last nights swim – and do the turbo session instead.
1hr 30mins planned – 45 mins completed! I set out to do a Zwift workout and after the warm up I went to start a hiit high power set, and within 5 secs the legs said “not today thank you”. So that was quickly skipped and instead I did an easy zwift ride keeping in zone 2.
FAILED

THURSDAY: Rest Day – so initially no workout planned. As I had moved the rest day to Monday I now had to hit the training. No lie in this morning. I woke to the alarm and this time I dragged my sorry good for nothing derrière out of bed and onto the turbo. No hard session this morning. An easy 20 min warm up followed by 10 mins of 10 sec sprints and 50 secs recovery, followed by 15 mins cool down. As you can see pretty pathetic for this stage in the training!
Then in the evening I hit the pool. Still using the toys I managed to do my longest swim to date – 2500m. 1000m in one interval – albeit with fins. So 1000m with fins, 700m with buoy, 600m with nothing, 200m legs only with fins.
FAILED – technically should have been a rest day.

FRIDAY: Brick training. Turbo followed by run off the bike. As it is Easter weekend we have Friday and Monday off for Bank Holiday. So a nice 4 day weekend.
So no alarm was set and I got out of bed when I woke up. A nice lie in till 8.30am 🙂 Hit the turbo and immediately stopped again as I had a message pop up to say the new Alpe Du Zwift was ready. So the ride was quit, the update done, and then commenced. Fire and ice route selected and I hit the new route. What a challenge. 7.5 mile with 3398ft of climbing. And I felt every gradient change and every 21 hairpin. My legs were shot at the end of the 1hr 45min session. Thanks Zwift – you have just made indoor training even more enjoyable.
Now off the bike, throw the trainers on and hit the tarmac. But this didn’t happen. I had already decided yesterday that I was going to wait to run until Monday now. The foot injury is feeling OK, but it has only been pain free for 48 hours, so I know I need to give it    a little longer before I start running again. The plan is to try a run on Monday.
FAILED – although the run was cancelled yesterday, this is still a fail as I have not stuck to the start of the week plan.

SATURDAY: Another multi training day. Triple header was planned. Run, bike, swim. So we all know this will be a fail thanks to the run.
Despite being the weekend an early start was needed. So I threw my leg over the top tube at 6.50am and headed out to meet a few of the Brixworth Velo guys so we could get some miles in the legs. Ideally I need to be throwing in some runs – it is so frustrating that I can’t! After 20 miles we met up with, and headed out with, the Steady Pedal Brixworth Velo Group (an introductory ride for those wanting to get into cycling, improve their group and road riding skills, or just to build confidence and fitness), where I stayed for 3+ miles before peeling off and heading home. A decent 43 miles in the legs this morning.
Then in the afternoon I hit the swimming pool. Planned 1 hour, achieved 30 mins. Didn’t want to push too much, as I am planning a longer swim on Monday (does that sound like an excuse there??).
FAILED

SUNDAY: 3 Hour Bike Ride Day. Easter Sunday. April Fools Day. And my Birthday. But no breakfast in bed this morning. No coffee with scrambled eggs on toast to wake me up. Instead T got the lie in while I emerged from my slumber at 6.50am ready to make my way to Brixworth to join the Sunday Social.
Made my way to Brixworth, meeting Jez en route, and ready to hit the road at 8.30am.  We head south on a fairly flat route and stopped at The Boathouse 45 miles into my ride. I share my Birthday with a fellow BXV member, Maxine Johnson, and the great group of Brixworth Velo riders had arranged a Birthday cupcake for the both of us. We even got the happy birthday rendition. Thanks guys.

I peeled off from the group at Earls Barton and made my way home.
53miles, and nearly 3hrs 30mins in the saddle.
SUCCESS

1 day out of 7 – that’s all I managed to successfully complete of my training week.
Life take holds and realisation that best laid plans don’t always succeed.

Was it a bad week of training. No. Could I have done more. Yes.
But in reality last Sunday was a hard training session, and maybe doing a little bit less is in fact a little bit more.

Next week I will hit every session as planned, just like I will every week from now till July 🙂 And who knows, I may even be able to run again….

Big G