Double routine of weight lifting

I did a twice-through of the weight lifting routine Thursday, and it affected me alot more than expected. The first time through, I did sets of twelve reps. This is the second week I've been using a bigger weight on every muscle group, too. The first time through felt great!

The second time through, I knocked the weights down to a weight equivalent to two cycles ago. Each cycle is a three week period that I do one specific amount of weight per muscle. After three weeks (or when I feel appropriate), I add weight. So, all in all, I went to where I started a couple months ago, which felt really light. I did three sets of ten on everything, and it still felt easy.

It seems that the extra muscle is starting to eat into the extra fat I have right now. It's hard to tell because I can't stay away from all the cookies at the meetings I go to. If there ever was a real cookie monster......

By Friday morning, my body was already telling me that I overdid it. I wasn't incredibly sore, but there was definitely some soreness. The heavy soreness moved in later in Friday. As I write this on Saturday morning, I am quite sore.  Just one more recovery period that might keep me off the bike today.

But I'm still hoping to get out on the xc skis with the boys in the cruiser today!

Weight Training for Triathlons - Back At It!

So...last year the university started charging for the weight room (go figure!) in the brand-spanking-new mulit-million dollar facility a couple blocks from my house. Great setup, right? Well, I went cheap last year and didn't want to pay, so I didn't lift weight last winter. Before the new gym opened up, the facility was a little dungeon area in the basement that was an absolute no-frills, do the work on decent-enough equipment facility.

I missed lifting weights. I lost a lot of bulk. I probably got faster on the bike and on the run. But I missed lifting weights. I mean, seriously, I like the routine I do some much I wrote it into a book!.

Soooo...today was my first day back in the weight room. I bit the bullet and started paying. It is actually a pretty good deal, although I wish they would open at 5:00am or 5:30am like most gyms. Instead, they take the standard Pocatello-easy-life-approach and open at 6:00am. I would go at 5:30 so I could lift for thirty minutes then hit the pool for 25 minutes and then be back home five minutes later at 6:30am. Oh well, I can't have everything.

Anyway, back to the weights. I did my normal routine, but VERY light weights and only two sets of ten reps instead of three sets of 12-15 reps. I can tell already tonight at 10:30pm and nine hours after the workout that I will probably be sore tomorrow just from doing the activities with light weights.

But I'm excited to be back at it. My plan is to lift thirty minutes then swim for 15 minutes with a VERY FAST TRANSITION to be back home at 6:50am every day to get the kids going and such. That's three days per week.

Then I'll do the bike trainer 3-4 mornings per week from 1.5 hours to 2.25 hours beginning at whatever time gets me done at 6:45am. I want to do a mix of the Sufferfest! videos at high intensity for 90 minutes and watching a moving at moderate intensity for two hours or so (48-50 miles?). That will do it for October, November, and December I think, and maybe January. I still have to decide if I am doing the Boise 70.3, which will determine how much bike volume I do after January. If' I don't do the Boise 70.3, my volume remains the same for the most part but I crank up the intensity alot.

I'll post tomorrow how sore I am!

Another view of weight training

Short and sweet note today.......borrowing from someone else!

I like this lady's view on weight training:  http://triathlongoddess.blogspot.com/2010/11/interesting-reasons-for-triathletes-to.html

Specifically, weight training is not about getting big and buff. It's simply about training muscles while getting a bit of variety and change of scenery.