How many days are in a week?

 My body likes the five weekday / two day weekend training schedule I have. There are discussions about how long a "training week" should be. Some people say seven days; some say ten days. It's important to figure out what works for you, and you really should try a longer training "week" sometime because the results  can be quite insightful.

I know because I just did eight days straight (today is the ninth day straight), and there is NO INTENSITY in me to continue with the workouts right now. I got up this morning simply because I promised myself that when I got tired this week, I would just cut volume and intensity but not the entire workout. Sooo....instead of 30 miles on the bike, I did five! Instead of 1800yds in the pool, I did 300. Yeah, I'm done for today. Let's see what the lunch run time brings...I'm thinking three miles very easy..as in almost walking.  I feel great. I'm in a good mood. This may be just a mental thing because I did indeed feel good for the short bit of workout I did; I just couldn't find any intensity in me. Even if it is just mental, then I might be bordering on getting a bit burned out....and that's never good. Spring is just around the corner.....it's just getting around that corner in one piece physically AND MENTALLY that is the tough part.

Yesterday, I thought about Joe Friel's crash -training thoughts that he sent out in an e-mail. I think I was doing this to some extent in an effort to get in as much as possible before the baby gets here (yesterday was the ultra-sound due date!). Crash-training is an interesting theory, but I'm not totally sold on it. Although my run times do come down every time I run several days in a row, which is the ONLY reason I'll run at lunch today is to maintain that running consistency.

Interestingly, I don't find that consistency is such an important point with bike training. For me and the good bike improvements I've made this winter, it has been all about a couple of good, very hard, 90-minute efforts every week with a couple of basic steady-state rides thrown in to gain general endurance. Just a note that I've specifically loved me some Sufferfest! and my 10 minute TT video  to finish my workout.....by the way, I'm not a Lance-groupie, but that's a great video to finish your workout with a high intensity effort.

So, if you're caught in a rut, take a chance on finding that ultimate training week routine for you. Mix it up a bit  for a month or two. Try four days hard with two days easy, or go 8-9 days of high volume and then back off for a while. You never know what you'll find!