Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Scaling Back

Well. I didn't go on a hike last weekend, because despite the perfect weather, I was stricken with yet another cold. Or something. It was an unpleasant day that I spent mostly in bed. And now the rain is coming again.

But the illness also helped me remember to scale back my intensity a bit. I was having quite a bit of soreness and tightness in my chest and so I took some advice to ease back on the pull up training for a bit to let that sort itself out. I reduced the number of CrossFit classes that I went to and took some time off doing pull ups so that I could come back to training hard without that soreness and pain.

I think it worked. I'm not feeling the same kind of tightness in my chest that I had been. I'm still tired and sore this week now that I'm ramping back up on my exercise intensity, but I'm looking at changing the way I'm doing pull up training. Right now I've got a three day a week training plan, and that plan got me to doing strict pull ups, but I'm signed up for a Spartan Race in June. I need to work on running.

So I'm going to try and figure out a two day a week pull up focused training plan, because I believe that having good grip strength and body weight lifting capabilities will be important for Spartan. And reducing my dedicated pull up workouts from three to two frees up one of those time slots for a 30 minute run.

Now, yes, I could add the run elsewhere, but I know myself. I get myself to Crossfit at 5 in the morning before I realize I'm awake. I go and workout twice a week during the day because my job allows me to take exercise release time at the Rec Center. I try to get to yoga in the evenings. And I'll try to add running on the weekends. But trying is not the same as doing. I need to carve out one of those workday workouts for running.

And maybe I'll lose some of my pull up strength. Or maybe I'll lose some weight from the increased cardio and end up with net pull up gains. Either way, I think it's the right thing to do to reach my goal. And I've been enjoying getting back into running again.

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