January 25th

Well I had a pretty good week in some ways, yet in other ways, not so much.

My shin splints continued to dog me - I did a walk/run with Erik last Sunday (he was starting his couch to 5k program) but my shins were pretty sore so we only did 4km. My run on Tuesday felt even worse and I only did 3km and then finally I decided to skip my Thursday run altogether in order to rest my lower legs. That proved to be the answer because on Saturday I felt much better and I was able to do just under 5km with only minimal leg soreness. I made sure I stretched and then wore my Zensah compression sleeves for the rest of the day after I ran, and I'm optimisic that I won't have any problems this coming Tuesday.

I rode the trainer for 1:15 on Monday and then another 45 minutes today. Today I tried something that I heard (but I can't remember where) for testing fitness level. I warmed up for about 10-15 minutes then got my heart rate up to mid zone 2 (about 144 bpm). I hit the lap button on my Garmin, noted the gear I was in, and rode for 10km trying to keep my heart rate as steady as possible. Today it took me 20:58. My goal is to do the same test ride on the trainer, in the same gear, and the same heart rate, and in theory, if my fitness level increases, my time for the same 10k should decrease. We'll see how it goes.

Swimming - swam on Wed 1500 m and today 1600 in 45 minutes each time. I feel good and the workouts on this plan are working for me.

Strength - ok this is where I am severely lacking. I just haven't been able to get back into the stride of doing my strength workouts, even though I now have a plan to follow. I will try harder to do that this week. I know that once I start, I'm usually able to stick with it. Hope so.

Diet - it sux. I'm not gaining any weight, but I'm not losing any either. I need to eat less.