Off Season Training

No races in the near future. Reduced time and opportunity for training sessions. Less chance of big, long training days. Sounds like the off season.

The key reason behind this is kid number two is due in a few short weeks. Separate to the reduced sleep and extra commitments the new addition brings there is also the expectation Mum will have some six weeks of recovery without being able lift almost anything. That means I need to be on hand, especially a nearly two year old thrown into the mix.

With family taking a clear first place in priorities, training falls long way behind. Naturally I still like to keep up some level of training. I am a big believer in physical activity playing a major role in all aspects of my health. Secondary to that, it helps ensure my ability to meet the needs of family. On the hand, training cannot in any way take away from family.

There are quite a number of solutions. What I plan won't represent an ideal program for endurance sports or follow what typically has worked for me in the past. What it should do is allow some level of training, release and not impose on any part of being a Dad for the second time round.



I may even find improvement in some aspects of my fitness.

Comments

  1. Tea1 August 2010 at 01:26

    You're so smart. You don't know what your commitment will be, and it could change daily. The important thing is for you to do what you can when you can. Everything else will fall into place.
    I don't remember how far apart your kids will be. Mine were 20 months. It's challenging, but it can be done. You'll be happier because you did. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ewen1 August 2010 at 12:49

    Good priorities. You're following Lucho's first two rules of training:
    1) Family comes first.
    2) Did you read #1? If not, please read again.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sandy Point Half Marathon

Image
Any race that uses a picture of myself as promotion makes me think I should compete in it. Wouldn't want to disappoint the masses. Last year my race slow and cold over the same course. A time of 1:30:20, was disappointing and a kick up the backside to get to what really works in training. Since then I have put in a lot of consistent kilometres and have seen some improvement. I was definitely going to race faster this year. Based on my race results over the last few months the hope was to see if I could get down to near 1:24:xx. The weather was very different this year. Far from cold, in fact I think it was our warmest night in a few months. However, there was a Damaging Winds warning issued, with predictions of 65km/hr gales to slow things downs a bit. The winds hit, according to the weather sites: NNE averaging around 50km/hr with gusts of 76km/hr. That made for some interesting race tactics. Luckily the rain held off until after the race. For some reason I felt ready with only 1...
Read more

Fitting Together

It's interesting how easy it suddenly becomes to prioritise aspects of life. I have missed plenty of training in the last week, but for the first time in my life, it really, and I mean really doesn't matter. That's not to say I am throwing training on the back burner. Far from it. Of course I am finding it hard working out how life now all fits together, but I am thoroughly enjoying the process. Training is now just part of the puzzle. What was a very easy load a couple of weeks ago, is now just manageable. This is what I anticipated. As things settle down and I work out of few things the training load should again become much easier. At the moment it looks like I will be able to get in all the key sessions, so in reality it is going fine.
Read more

The Gorge

For work I am currently stationed away from my normal branch. This is a recent roster change that I am not too happy about due to a number of reasons that I won't go into here. The good thing is that it gives me different roads to ride on when commuting. Nothing like a bit of variety to break things up. One particular bit of terrain that I now get to cover is known as the Gorge. It is exactly as the name suggests. The road that takes you into the Gorge is simple. One side is a very wide bend, that could almost be thought of as a straight road. The other side involves a couple of reasonable bends, which wouldn't normally be an issue, but can be when hitting speeds of 60km/hr on the descent. I want to make it clear that the Gorge is far from the toughest of climbs, while quite steep on both sides it is relatively short. So what is it about the Gorge. For me it has provided a good bench mark for my cycling fitness. Back when I first started on the bike it took all my ef...
Read more