Weeks 12-13: Building Momentum, Then Hitting a Setback

Weeks 12 and 13 flew by in my training for the triathlon. I’m feeling like I’m making solid progress toward my goal of being able to complete the race in under 5 hours and 30 minutes. With just under three months until race day I plan to ramp up more of my distances in the coming weeks, with the goal of peaking at the end of June before tapering off and maintaining before my race the second week of July. Let’s get in to how the past 2 weeks have gone.

Monday: Off day

Nutrition: I had scrambled eggs with toast for lunch followed by a protein shake in the afternoon and a chicken pesto dish that Maddie made for dinner.

Tuesday: Indoor Cycle

My bike that I’ll use on race day needs a tune up and new brakes so I’m still riding inside. Today I went for ⅓ of the race distance, which took me 50:43 to get done. 

Nutrition: I had a protein shake in the late morning followed by salmon with peppers for dinner and an after dinner snack of popcorn.

Wednesday: Basketball

In sticking with my weekly routine of playing basketball on Wednesdays, I got up and down the court again for an hour and a half.

Nutrition: I had a jam packed day at work, so I ran out and grabbed Subway for lunch followed by some pan seared chicken with broccoli for dinner.

Thursday: Indoor Cycle

Another crazy day in my schedule made for just a quick sprint workout on the stationary bike for 25 minutes at night when I got home.

Nutrition: I pieced together a meal of protein shake and protein bar for lunch with some greek yogurt in the afternoon. Maddie made some chicken fajitas for dinner before some popcorn later at night.

Friday: Outdoor Run

I was getting sick of my normal running route so I had a friend who works close to our house, but lives a little outside of town pick me up when he was leaving work and I ran home from his house. The run ended up being 9.3 miles done in 1:11:59 for an average pace of 7:45. I was going along really great with the first two miles being under 7 minutes and then slowing down a little bit as I went along. I also had to run up the worst hill around about 5 miles in, which was an absolute killer. 

Nutrition: I had a protein shake with some flank steak for lunch and then we went out to dinner at a local place where I had broasted chicken and fries.

Saturday: Strength Training

My legs were sore the day after my longer run so I opted for some strength training with a main focus on upper body and core.

Nutrition: We made a brunch of scrambled eggs and bacon before having a shredded beef dinner in a crock pot.

Sunday: Rest Day

I chose to use Sunday as my rest day instead of Monday because I was still physically tired from the last few workouts, combined with wanting to just lay around and watch Sunday at the Masters.

Nutrition: I grilled a bunch of stuff for the coming week and made some brats on the grill that I had for a late lunch, which didn’t leave me super hungry for dinner so I just had a protein shake a little later on. 

Monday: Indoor Cycle

I didn’t have a ton of time with a busy day at work, but I got a 40 minute indoor ride at a faster than normal pace in before the end of the night.

Nutrition: I heated up some flank steak that I had grilled the day before for lunch, had a protein bar in the afternoon and then a pesto chicken meal for dinner.

Tuesday: Swim Workout

It was the first time I had gotten back in the pool for a couple weeks, which I know I need to do more of. I wanted to do a couple things with my workout; first was working on my form, which I did for the first 20 minutes or so while still going for distance and endurance. The next was to stretch how long I could swim continuously without taking a break on the side. I went for the last 10 minutes of my workout without taking a break. My plan is to use that as a benchmark and add a few minutes to that length every time I swim.

Nutrition: I had some leftover chicken from the grill for lunch before we went out for tacos and drinks with friends after work.

Wednesday: Basketball

Here’s where my week took a turn for the worse… I played basketball like normal on Wednesday, but came away with an injury in my low back. I can’t tell if it’s just a tweaked muscle or if I got hit and it’s a contusion of some kind. Either way, it laid me up for a few days.

Nutrition: I had the last of my left over grilled chicken for lunch before a protein bar in the afternoon, but also some sweets that were in the office. I wasn’t super hungry after basketball but had a protein shake and some greek yougurt.

Thursday: Recovery

My back injury from basketball was really feeling it on Thursday. Just bending over to put my socks on in the morning was painful, so I tried to take it as easy as I could.

Nutrition: Lunch consisted of some scrambled eggs with a protein bar in the afternoon. Maddie made spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs for dinner.

Friday: Recovery

My back felt a little bit better than it did the day before, but still was really hurting so I took another day.

Nutrition: I had a protein bar in the late morning before pan seared chicken breasts for lunch and then we went out to dinner where I had pizza.

Saturday: Recovery

At this point, I’m really hoping that there’s not anything more wrong with my back and while it’s feeling a little better, I’m normally faster at recovering from little muscle tweaks. I spent some time in a sauna and did some light stretching.

Nutrition: It was Easter weekend, so I had my fair share of chocolate and carrot cake, but I had pizza for lunch followed by chicken alfredo for dinner.

Sunday: Recovery

More sauna time and stretching with the hope of feeling good enough to resume training this coming week. It’s frustrating to have to take this much time off, but I’d rather get through it fully instead of having it linger for months because I didn’t let it heal. 

Nutrition: For Easter brunch we had a homemade waffle bar at my wife’s grandmother’s house before having scrambled eggs and a protein shake for an early dinner.