I woke up fairly tired this morning, and Garmin verifies that despite a decent night’s sleep my body battery was fairly low, starting in the 30’s. The latter happens sometimes when I don’t get good sleep, but I did sleep a bit over 7 hours last night, which for me is a bit above average.
I will note yesterday was very busy and I did not get home until after 8pm, when usually I’m turning in for bed. Plus my body woke up early, around 2:30am, yesterday morning. I also trained a full hour on the elliptical after work, following a strength workout. And I did go on a 30/30 short test run during a work break.
So yes, I had a rather busy day, and it’s possible my body’s just taking a busy day following short rest somewhat hard. Sometimes my mornings after a long run feel like this too (albeit with way more soreness).
Depending on how I feel this afternoon, I could curtail today’s planned training and even skip it entirely, but we’ll see. My hamstring felt a bit stiff and sore but my groin doesn’t appear to feel too bad.
Yesterday’s session felt rather good, though I had basically taken three days off so of course I felt a bit fresh. I did get most of my elliptical time into zone 2, which is the sort of intensity I’m looking for in these aerobic sessions. I’m starting to move more weight in my lat pulldowns, though I also have to hold back a bit on my seated rows when I do move heavier weight. However, none of my other lifts have dropped back in weight or volume.
For swolework I’m still doing 4 sets of every exercise, while employing a 4-set-split derived from Jeff Horowitz’s Smart Marathon Training: The first and last sets are 12 reps at a lighter weight, while the middle sets are 8 reps at a heavier weight. What “heavier” and “lighter” means exactly is up to me and is decided by feel and where I think I’m at. I’ve seen good progress with strength training this way and will stick with it for now.
On a meso-level, I play the decision to strength train by ear, and while I’ll look to strength train however often I can during the week (while alternating between muscle groups, of course)… if on a given day I’m unduly sore or tired I will skip strength training. There are weeks I maybe strength train once or twice, and weeks where I manage to do so 3-5 times. My main focus (aside obviously from healing the hamstring/groin right now) is on continued aerobic development, and I build the other training around that priority.
So right now the plan is to train however much I can today and tomorrow, then take Saturday off and train long Sunday. The only planned day off from training next week is Wednesday.
If today my lower body is up to a work break run or two, I’ll also do those, or else walk. Sunlight and fresh air remains important with Coronvirus going around.
I brought more fruit with me to work today and I will probably be slamming apples and bananas along with my other food, plus some melon today if I get to the store before heading home.
This weekend should be more relaxed, thanks to lower temps and not traveling. More to come.