ap Workouts and Falling Behind
It’s odd – after my Epic Ride on Saturday, October 17th, my workouts have plateaued. Lately, however, I have had crap workouts and I am falling behind. I rode fairly well on Monday, the 19th, but since then, I have had maybe one good workout, on Thursday, the 22nd. THAT workout was done on Zoom, to explain Xert and PerfPro to two clients and a prospect. While I did ride that well, it did not translate into anything. Since then, I have not ridden well, and have not felt great. I am falling behind on the Xert Adaptive Training Advisor.
CRAP WORKOUTS AND FALLING BEHIND IN SLEEP
One of the main issues I am now running into is a broken sleep pattern. When I look at it, everything should be good. We fall asleep around 9 or 9:30 in the evening, but almost every night, I wake up around 2-3am. I’m usually hot, and the dogs are usually snoring or restless. I wake up, read for an hour or more, and then fall back asleep until the alarm goes off at 5:45am. Half the time, after trying to read myself to sleep, I will get up and move to the guest bedroom/office, which is cooler. There are also no dogs in there. I DO take melatonin some times, and yes, some times I’ll take a sleeping pill. They DO help, but there is always the threat of dependence.
No, I’m not going to take Pot or CBD’s. I don’t like that loss of control.
CRAP WORKOUTS AND FALLING BEHIND – STRESS
On the surface, things are great. We’re happy, we eat well, my schedule allows me to take the dogs for a walk, ride for 60-120 minutes, and then still show up for an 8-hour work day. But honestly, the election and the status of the Covid crisis does weigh on me. Several box holders have been sick with Covid, and the argument over masks continues. We get at least a dozen “I forgot – I’ll only be a minute.” comments every day. I’ve tried to get a flu shot, only to be turned away because “you’re not on the schedule.” Trying to GET on the schedule is then impossible. Huh.
Additionally, this blog has been more successful, more quickly, than I could have ever realized. I left coaching for about a year while I focused on myself, and it was great. My fitness returned, my happiness came back, and about a month or more back, I began to share that with you. But it’s led to prospects and clients, and of course, while the money is appreciated, the time required to work on client issues takes me away from other things, and it keeps me up at night with some scheming, mental prep and such. I remember telling myself that when I became a coach, it would be hard for me to remain an athlete. I still believe that is true to this day.
RESOLVE
I’m going to resolve to get more sleep. I also resolve to not let things that are beyond my control overtake my mental health and sanity. I’m going to redouble my efforts to RIDE SLOW AND JUST RIDE. Now that the weather has turned cold, and time is about to shift, I will not be outdoors as much, and I need to continue to hold on to my fitness.
I do not know if I will be able to reach my goal of 300 watts of FTP by November 14th. IF I fail, I’ll have failed successfully, as I rode, followed a general plan, and learned how to execute a program the Xert way, on myself. I think it makes me a better coach. I also believe that the Xert Adaptive Training Advisor is an ADVISOR, and the Xert Training Pacer is offering SUGGESTIONS. The AI does not know my sleep pattern, my outside stressors, my availability, or other life distractions. It’s FOCUSED on making me the strongest 10-minute Climber as possible. I’ll perform that climb again soon, but I’m going to make sure I have 3 or 4 nights of 7-hour sleep, that I’m well-fed, salted, hydrated, and warmed up. The rides will continue, but I may need to slow down to 500-600 KiloJoules, and just stay fit.
We’ll see. Thanks for reading – I’ll report back later this week.
