Day 5 (Tues - 1/5)

Sometimes the best days are those where you feel balanced. Today was one of those days. I was able to protect my lunch hour and get out for a run with my at work training partner (whose nick-name is yet to be determined), and felt like I was significantly more productive at work for having done so. I am going to watch this in many aspects where I slog through a task to the neglect of eating, sleeping, etc. Perhaps structuring my free time so training provides breaks will create more time by improving my effectiveness.

I recently read in my training book that “free time” is limited to 22 hours per week at most to fit in all non-work, non-sleeping, non-biological-maintenance-activities (preparing meals, showering, eating, etc.). This time needs to be used to interact with my family and friends, complete personal projects including housekeeping/maintenance, relax, and train. Knowing that the available time to train is at such a premium has encouraged me to start protecting it from “work encroachment”. Especially since I feel I will be more productive in doing so. I would like to start applying this same principle to protecting time for family from “work encroachment”.

In life and professionally I believe in having strong support networks. Training is no different. I am fortunate to have a club of individuals to train with outside of work as well as an individual at work that is willing to train with me. I appreciate this as it will be instrumental to reaching my goals.

We were able to log 4.42 miles in 39:16 on the run today. This averages to 8:52 miles. About 3 second’s slower tempo than my first run of the year, but I felt much stronger. My hamstrings held up through the entire run, and I didn’t feel like I was pushing my physical limits like I had on Day 1. The run felt so good I now have another scheduled for Friday.

Another note worthy item is that my bike pump arrived today. My son had a good time un-boxing it with me. After he went to bed I took my tires upstairs and inflated both my tires with little trouble while watching Biggest Looser with my wife. The pump fantastic: it is sturdy, extremely easy to get a good seal on the presta valves, inflates the tires to 120 psi (8-10 bar) with little effort, releases easily, and is orange. I will wait to say it was worth the money until it lasts at least a year, but with the lifetime warranty I am feeling very good about the purchase.

What does this mean for the week? Well: 4.42 of 12 miles down with another run scheduled for Friday; my bike is back and just waiting to be ridden; I am feeling great about where I am starting from physically; I am feeling more productive at work; I had time today to take the buggo-boy (my son) to the library to get some new stories and that alone is a week one reward and motivator to continuing.