It’s been a while (again) but I haven’t forgotten about you! In fact, there’s been a lot brewing behind the scenes. While not complete yet, LBF is expanding…

Long time no time. Unlike previous sabbaticals, I have actually exercised during this period. The details aren’t important, but the experiences are. The highlights include:

I guess it’s a good sign that I haven’t had/made time for blogging lately. Between training others, myself, carpentering and traveling, there’s been less laptop hours (which is fine by me). Anyway, I’ve trained in 4 week blocks since first starting triathlons thanks to plans I followed from beginnertriathlete.com. Though the content of the blocks has certainly changed, the structure has not. Here’s a recap of the final two workout weeks before the 4th (and my personal favorite) rest week.

In a perfect world, an athlete would increase their previous weights and improve their performance with each training session. Unfortunately, that never happens and plateus are (especially for the conditioned gym-goers) encountered often. Lately I’m skipping past these flat lines and progressing upwards. I have isolated a few possible reasons and am working on identifying them to maintain these recent results. On to last week’s sessions:

Over the last six months I’ve gotten away from the normal 9-5 (or 7-5 really) working schedule and the routine that surrounds it. Since then I’ve exercised more sporadically and haven’t had a regular nor set eating schedule. Although the type of work I’ve been doing has been more physically challenging, it’s provided less opportunity to train when “fresh.” In short, my “routine” has been “fractal” and (in my opinion) more aligned with the ways of our hunter gatherer ancestors. During this period, I’ve been seeing better results when I do get to the gym, and I’m wondering if we’re programmed (I feel designed gets overused) for randomness and to respond and excel to the demands of now. And when those demands wane, I’m thinking we’re supposed to rest and not feel bad about it. I looked around the blogosphere for some posts to support this but only found this. I’m sure there is something out there courtesy of Art Devany, Conditioning Research, MDA, TTP, etc.