Hold the phone, we’ve got updates!!!

If you’ve been following along closely, or at all really, you know that no more then two weeks after I unveiled my grand training plan, life came along and did what life does to plans. Which is laugh maniacally, then proceed to shatter them like a tank driving through a plate glass window. Overkill if you ask me, but you didn’t so I’ll get to the point: My plan needed an update and it now looks like I have one.

Before Jordan slam dunked her way into my life all I had to contend with was the 55-60 hours a week I spent working and then taking care of Cal and adulting. Adding her to my life has been incredibly rewarding, but has also made finding time to train more complicated. Carving out time to ride hasn’t been all that difficult since I can just ride the trainer in the morning on days that we hang out. The struggle has been where to fit in time to strength train. The solution ended up coming from Jordan herself.

Jordan’s company has an onsite gym that she’s a member of. During the week they have several Crossfit/functional training classes available to their members…and guests. Since I shifted my work schedule around a few weeks back I’ve been spending Tuesday and Thursday evenings with her. Now on those nights we’ll go to the 5:30 PM class and get our swoll on. It appears that they’ll work different body parts on different days. After a few weeks I’ll need to take stock of what’s not getting worked and either supplement at home or at my own gym by myself. Some yoga will still be part of the plan, though I’m unsure how much. Finally, given the weather and daylight savings time issues I’m not sure how much outside riding I’ll get done between now and March. So the new schedule looks something like this:

Monday Morning - Strength Training

Monday Evening - Ride

Tuesday Morning - Trainer Ride

Tuesday Evening - Crossfit

Wednesday Morning - Rest Day

Wednesday Evening - Work, then late night Yoga

Thursday Morning - Trainer Ride

Thursday Evening - Crossfit

Friday Morning - Strength Training/Trainer Ride on alternating weeks.

Friday Evening - Date Night/Ride on alternating weeks.

Saturday - Big Ride Day

Sunday Morning - Yoga

Sunday Afternoon/Evening - Work, then Bro time with Brian

As far as structured cycling workouts? Yeah those fell by the wayside as well. Since the new trainer arrived I’ve been just working on getting some base rides in with either a few hard efforts or Zwift “climbs”, which I always go harder on since I like climbing. Tour de Zwift is going on as well, so there have been a few good mid-week rides thrown in. As of this writing I’m through Stage 4, with three more stages to go. On the subject of Zwift, I still enjoy it way more then normal trainer sessions, but I struggle with motivation to be on there for more then an hour. Some of it is discomfort, which will go away, and some is fighting off the remaining boredom. This is why Tour de Zwift has been good; group rides in Zwift are more enjoyable then riding alone and help to keep me engaged. I’ve also upgraded my Zwift setup from casting the iPad to plugging in an Apple TV 4k. The Apple TV has much better graphics and runs much smoother with less lag then my previous setup.

Finally there’s been some small adjustments to the race schedule. I mentioned in my Snake Creek Gap Race Report that I was skipping the second Snake in favor of doing another event with Jordan. We’re going to be doing the Chattanooga Brew Ruck Challenge together on February 8th. The other change is adding the Dirty Spokes 6 Hour on May 9th at Fort Yargo to the schedule. This race will count towards the Chain Buster Series points. The next race on the schedule is The Flow in at Tannehill Ironworks State Historical Park on February 29th. That will also be the first camping trip of 2020. Add in that Valentines Day and my 41st birthday are in February and I’ve got lots to look forward to over the next month.