T-30 days up to week 0
So, it wasn't exactly like this thing was sneaking up on me. There were a full 5 weeks between the end of the summer session and the start of the fall session that I'd be attending. It wasn't like I didn't want to keep up my post race fitness and enter with guns ablazing, but honestly, I was tired. It was a ton of work to get to that point, maintain it, and focus all my training onto 6 days of effort for the entire year. Despite FXB looming on the horizon, I needed some down time, not to mention time to catch up on all the husbandly/fatherly duties that I'd eschewed in the name of training. It was beer and pizza season!
OK, so maybe I didn't dive face first into a pie and drink a daily gallon of beer over the last 30 days, but I certainly indulged in my fair share and with a 40th birthday tossed in for good measure, it seemed like a good enough reason to kick back for a bit. I did manage to get back to doing some training rides though and begrudgingly got back to doing my somewhat meager cycling specific core and strength routine a couple or so times a week. I also decided as long as I wasn't so worried about increasing my fitness just related to the bike, I might as well pick up some running again. I knew the fitness test would involve a timed mile run plus the ever so enjoyable minute each of situps and push-ups.
Oh look, running shoes. What the hell do I do with these?!
I managed to at least get some running legs over the 30 days prior to starting. Considering my shoes were now 5+ years old, I also had to upgrade them after realizing the pains in my legs probably weren't solely from running, but also old shoes. I got some decent runs in and while I'm not excited about running, I've figured out that my cardio fitness from biking at least carries partially over to it, but that also means I can write checks that my legs aren't ready to cash quite yet. Ouch! As we like to say as cyclists, "Running is for felons!"
Beyond the aforementioned sporadic core routine and the running, I kept up a few hard rides each week on the bike as well. I guess if I was going to go off the rails with my diet and beer intake, I might as well do what I could to keep some fitness going. Counting down to week 0 (weigh-in, stats, fitness tests, etc) I was excitedly nervous about kicking things off.
OK, so maybe I didn't dive face first into a pie and drink a daily gallon of beer over the last 30 days, but I certainly indulged in my fair share and with a 40th birthday tossed in for good measure, it seemed like a good enough reason to kick back for a bit. I did manage to get back to doing some training rides though and begrudgingly got back to doing my somewhat meager cycling specific core and strength routine a couple or so times a week. I also decided as long as I wasn't so worried about increasing my fitness just related to the bike, I might as well pick up some running again. I knew the fitness test would involve a timed mile run plus the ever so enjoyable minute each of situps and push-ups.
Oh look, running shoes. What the hell do I do with these?!
I managed to at least get some running legs over the 30 days prior to starting. Considering my shoes were now 5+ years old, I also had to upgrade them after realizing the pains in my legs probably weren't solely from running, but also old shoes. I got some decent runs in and while I'm not excited about running, I've figured out that my cardio fitness from biking at least carries partially over to it, but that also means I can write checks that my legs aren't ready to cash quite yet. Ouch! As we like to say as cyclists, "Running is for felons!"
Beyond the aforementioned sporadic core routine and the running, I kept up a few hard rides each week on the bike as well. I guess if I was going to go off the rails with my diet and beer intake, I might as well do what I could to keep some fitness going. Counting down to week 0 (weigh-in, stats, fitness tests, etc) I was excitedly nervous about kicking things off.
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