The difference is cross-training

Taper time is almost done. The Sugarloaf Marathon is next week.

I’d been feeling down about my training, as you know, and I actually have been interpreting the past week more like, “oh shit, did I really work hard enough during this last cycle?” and less like “oh thank God this event is finally here.”

So I did the very geeky thing  of exporting my workout from Daily Mile, removing all non-cross-training workouts, and plotted milage from this training cycle vs. last training cycle:

Comparison of total distance run

Click for the bigger image … but you get the idea just from the preview. It’s really about the same.

The difference, I know, is in the cross training. Last year I walked to work almost every day (2 miles round trip) and I cycled extensively for my cross-training (completing a century in mid-August between peak weeks).

This year, I cycled once, went to yoga maybe two or three times, barely visited the weights area of the gym and took my car to work (sinful! I know!) more often than not.

Comparison of total time exercising (including cross training)

The above graph is a really rough sketch to show what intuition has told me — total time spent exercising. The blue line is last summer, and I actually had to take out the century day from the because it fucked up the scale of the whole graph. The blue line extends farther because every workout is an entry, and there are about 20% more workout entries last year than this year.

Gulp.

You know what, though? I am going to take out what I put into this, and I did put in enough long runs. I have faith that I can finish another marathon. No expectations, no PRs. I am going to go out, stretch my legs, listen to some music, see pretty things, and have a good adventure.

If I can do a 14-mile bike ride on hilly course on a cruiser, 30 pounds overweight and zero training miles put in … I can run this marathon.

A graph post is boring, so here is what I did today:

Relaxation station

I went to my parents’ house for quality time with my mom (and everyone else). It was the perfect day. PERFECT. Nothing relaxes me like being there.

 

 

 

Pattie Reaves

About Pattie Reaves

I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.