Happy to announce that I had a much better training week after last week’s break!
This week’s theme was: SLEEP. When preparing for an athletic event, sleep is often the most overlooked step of the training process. We tend to think about what we are eating and how we are spacing out our training, but recovery is just as important. Habitual deep nighttime sleep is beneficial for promoting growth hormone in the body to help with muscle recovery and building. In addition, sleep promotes the restoration of our core systems which support all aspects of our training: improvement of our neural pathways, cardio vascular health, and metabolic expenditure. You can read more about how sleep helps athletic performance from this article.
The strategies I used to sleep “better” were:
- Set up a “wind down” routine including some mindful meditation to end the day.
- Turned off the lights/electronics at 10:30pm to make sure I was not exposed to additional stimuli.
- Avoided eating within 2-3 hours before sleeping. I have personally found this helps with going to sleep quicker.
Monday
Upper Body (Push Day):
- bench press
- chest flys
- single arm pulls
- bicep curls with cable machine
- full arm pulls with cable machine
- shoulder presses
- driver wheels with weighted plate
Tuesday
After today’s run, I realized I probably need to switch to a treadmill until the weather becomes warmer. It was too cold and my legs just felt numb the entire time, but I did see some friendly neighborhood faces on my route!
Miles: 3.54, Pace: 14.11
Wednesday
2 mile walk + 20 mins on a stationary bike
Nothing special about today’s workout, just a walk on the treadmill and a bike ride using my gym’s new bike machines.
Thursday
Upper Body (Pull Day):
- lat pulldowns
- single hand pulls
- face pulls
- seated rows
- seated incline bicep curls
- EZ bar 1/2 curls
- rope pulls in 45 second intervals
Friday
After what felt like the longest week, I finally closed out the workday for a beautiful evening walk. I intended on only walking 3 miles, but the weather was too good to not be outside for longer. Caught a cloudy suburban sunset as well!
Miles: 4.09, Pace: 18.50 walking
Saturday
We had abnormally beautiful spring weather in the middle of February so with the sun out and my awesome throwback playlist, this run was one of the best I’ve had yet! Grabbed myself a matcha drink as a post-run treat on my way back home.
Miles: 3.14, Pace: 13.59
Sunday
Total Weekly Mileage: 12.77 miles
Highs/Lows of the week
High: Saturday’s beautiful weather reminded me of how nice it feels to actually run in the sun.
Low: The dramatic changes in weather – it impacts how I train outside. Need to learn to either run on a treadmill or invest in thicker running gear.
You’re killing it! Can’t wait to see your journey through the rest of February!