These are a series of weekly updates and reflections on my plans, how they are going, what’s working, what I’ve changed, and things I’m loving right now.
Week 4 started out strong. I was figuring out my workout strategy, ran my first 10k of the build on a hilly snow covered trail, was trying to tweak my meal prep to be more sustainable, was working in more stretch and mobility work. And then I got sick…
Friday night I started getting a little dizzy so so took it easy and by Saturday so had full on vertigo that came and went, disrupting my sleep and ability to focus, all weekend. The world was spinning, I was nauseous, and I didn’t even feel like I could cook or meal prep for the next week.
My watch actually clocked nearly 10 hours of sleep but it’s because I felt so sick if I moved so I just played in bed all morning. When it would subside, I’d get up and eat and try to stay hydrated but I really struggled to remember to drink so so was quite low compared to earlier in the week. I tried doing some stretching and pilates but 16 minutes was all could do. It’s ok, because it was a lower volume week anyway and once I feel better the muscles will be well rested for next week but it still sucks.
Tracking-wise, I kept most things the same but played around with where I put each box. I also tried color coding my habits to make it easier to see what I’m doing well on and where so need more consistency. I also added a “How did I do?” journaling spot in the white space but I don’t think I’ll do that again.
I’m not loving my training plan apps so I’ve decided to go all in with Training Peaks premium membership and one of their structured half marathon plans. My injury prevention half marathon plan has programmed triathlon and strength cross training, which means I only need to minimally add on an additional bike and swim workout to build the multi-sport base that I want while still focusing on a strong build to 13.1 miles running fitness.
I am loving the FitBod app and next week will plan to start back in with heavier weight lifting using their programming. I’m still deciding if I want an upper/lower split or a push/pull split. The scale is continuing to hover at the same weight so I’m hoping to ramp up my metabolism with lifting heavier so any split will be moving me in the right direction.
A series of weekly updates on my plans, how they are going, what’s working, what’s changed, and what I’m loving right now.
While my Week 1 was about getting ready to eat right and get the workouts in, this week has been about doing it and figuring out how to track it.
I’ve found I’m not using my 2025 Hobonichi Weeks planner in the same ways I was in the past as a time and to do list tracker or as a space for keeping track of the week in journaling or brain dumping. I tried that format in week 1 but felt I was cramming everything else a little tight and not making use of the list space. So this week I changed it up.
Photo of my week 2 planner which tracks the workouts I’ve done, meals I’ve eaten, key stats and habits.
I got rid of the to do list and replaced that with my workout plans, in pencil which get replaced with the actual workout in pen once I do it. In that section I also added a dedicated line daily for what I’m listening to, reading, and cleaning (if anything, as this was the first thing sacrificed to the 2-a-day workout grind), and what I was grateful for. It WAS helpful to have a dedicated spot to record the things I wanted to do more of. AND it was a good reminder, I looked at it at the right time to do something about it. But for the most part is was something I was filling in after the fact.
I moved my meal tracking to the left page and made it just a smidge wider. It worked really well as long as I kept my writing small and named things concisely. On the right I added a column for tracking macros, the daily high/low temp, my sleep, and my hydration. I was struggling to find a way to drink enough water and how to remember how much I’ve had. I was trying to color a leaf for each water bottle I drank but I kept having trouble with the math and would forget where I was mid-day.
I added the scale weight for accountability and to keep week over week progress in mind without fixating on it too much. I also went back after the week ended (for this week and last week) and tallied up the weekly average calories, protein, carbs, and fat and the relative % of the macros. I’ve got some goals to increase protein, and manage my calorie intake so I think this will help by knowing I’ve got a number to calculate at the end of the week.
It will also help, along with the other metrics like temperature and training load, to better assess the week. While putting in the effort is a daily challenge, no one day or workout is going to make or break my goals. Looking at weekly and monthly averages can pull back the time horizon to help reveal trends and show progress without letting me beat myself up over a bad day. This week, for example, showed I brought my protein up by an average of over 30 grams daily.
I kept my habit tracker largely the same, with a few small tweaks to better match my goals. I also improved my workout tracker, the pyramid of boxes, that helps me keep track of which types of workouts I’m doing and how much time and volume I’m achieving weekly. Like the macros, this will help me compare week to week and, as things inevitably don’t go to plan, it’ll help me make smart choices about how to switch my workouts around so that I’m still doing enough of each sport to progress in my goals.
This week I hit my goal of doing 14 workouts, through subbing a walk for a swim when the pool closed earlier than I’d anticipated. It showed me how I have to be on top of my bedtime, and strict in getting up with my alarms if I want to fit it all in but that I can fit it all in with meal prepping, packing my bags the night before, and staying flexible.
This week I’ve gotten hooked on the Tread Lightly podcast. I’ve read their blog posts before but really appreciate the science backed advice and the breakdowns of so many topics, especially as a female athlete. I’m working through their back catalog on my commute. If you want help navigating all the conflicting running advice out on the socials, give them a listen.
A series of weekly updates on my plans, how they are going, what’s working, what’s changed, and what I’m loving right now.
My year is starting on New Year’s week. It’s always a bit of a twilight week, where you can’t keep your days straight, your sleep schedule gets thrown off, you go into reflective mode, and you tend to make big plans with overly lofty aspirational goals. It’s a time where I renew my hopes and dreams, allow myself to imagine what if, and start making decisions about how I want to turn potential in to action. In week 1 my plans solidified into two focus areas: Meals and Training.
I knew that I had not eaten the most healthy over the holidays and I’d let my families preferences and needs fill my pantry with things I’d be better off avoiding. I also knew that if I wanted to make the fitness gains I wanted, I was going to have to overhaul my diet to increase my protein, get my carbs from better sources, and ensure I was covering all my micronutrients.
The easiest way for me to ensure I meet my meal goals while working and coming home to tired to cook much and getting up early to work out was to go back to meal prepping. There are lots of great plans on the web for all different types of meal preps but needing a dairy-free high protein plan leaves me with quite a few less choices.
Most high protein plans get you there by taking a clean diet and boosting the protein with the addition of cheese, whey, cottage cheese, high protein yogurts and milks. All things I can’t eat and while the equivalent dairy-free versions taste just fine, they are almost completely without the protein that was the reason for adding them in in the first place. While I can certainly do the math and seek my own alternatives, that defeated the point of making things easy by using a pre-calculated plan. So an easier option is to limit my search to Vegan meal preps plans.
I’ve eaten Vegan on and off for the last several years. For one thing, it makes it easier to be sure aid won’t get any dairy, especially when eating out. Vegan or lactose-free menu labels make it simple to order without interrogating the server about the ingredient list. I also find a plant-based diet increases my consumption of vegetables and minimizes hear burn and reflux symptoms when compared to eating a meat-centric diet. I understand and respect those who eat vegan or vegetarian out of concern for the animals and the environment but that’s not why I do it. I still eat eggs, seafood, white and red meat, just not in large quantities and not usually as my first choice
Going back to meal prep as my go-to method of getting food on the table, it takes a fair amount of planning and preparation up front but pays off as the week progresses. This week I tried out a meal plan from the Vegan Gym that had several similar bases and 3 different sauce profiles that you mixed and matched to keep things fresh every day. It worked out fairly good for me in that I stayed compliant with my meal goals every day, I didn’t eat out or order in at all myself (though I still had to do it for some family who were not eating vegan), I didn’t feel hungry or tempted and I felt filed for my workouts.
For training, I’m prioritizing running as I’ve signed up for a half marathon in 17 weeks but I also know I need to start rebuilding strength and mobility and get in the habit of fueling before, during and after workouts. I might not be doing much now but as I build my running endurance, I’m also going to be introducing cycling and swimming as cross-training and will be ending up tired and sore if I’m not fueling right.
I’d set a goal to at least do a 5K race on New Year’s and ended up doing two, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. since it’s been a while since I’ve raced, I wasn’t sure how slow I was or how the distance would feel when I wasn’t just running by myself. It was cold but I surprised myself by not only doing my best (still slow) pace in the first race but then beating it by several minutes in the second race.
This gave me confidence that I’d be able to start my half marathon training plan and also that I’d be able to try a 10k race in the near future.
Week 1 Training Summary
I fit in 2 other runs this week for a weekly mileage of 14.1 miles and 4 other strength, yoga, and mobility workouts. I set a goal to try out a bunch of different programs to see what I liked, what I needed, and what I would stick with. Still haven’t found the ONE but FitOn videos are a great resource that allow me to easily search for just what I need and I’ll probably make use of them more as my training program goes on.
Right now, I’m loving experimenting with different flavors and ingredients. I’m also leaning into learning and reading more. There is an endless resource of personal journey blogs and professional advice videos online. YouTube is full of “here is how I did it” accounts of Ironman preparation, half-marathon training, and workout advice. Take all of it with a grain of salt but the tips can help you visualize what it will be like for you and the inspiration can help motivate you through the tough times. To balance out the urge to buy all the things that can often go with triathlon I also started reading No Baggage by Clara Bentsen that explores the fear and joys of minimalist travel.
Well, maybe not all the very beginning because technically I tried triathlon as a kid, but since I’m back to seriously training for a half Ironman triathlon, I thought I could share a bit more about my adult history with the sport before I talk about what’s in store for the beginning of this year.
Living in Northern Virginia, I’ve been lucky enough to live in a community that priorities fitness and has lots of groups that put on local events. In 2012 I had been running for a few years with training programs through my local run store and had joined a local run group. I wasn’t fast by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasn’t running consistently.
Some of the run group regulars were also triathletes and they started talking about the upcoming local sprint triathlon. This was a 750m outdoor pool swim, 14 mile bike, and 5K run. We lived right by the venue and I realized I’d actually seen the event happening the prior year. I had missed the signups but the runners connected me with the race directors who were more than happy to get me in to a drop slot and before you knew it I was in.
I started training but my fitness wasn’t bike fitness was really lacking and didn’t know much about how to train and recover. I was also a single mom of a young child so figuring out childcare, making time to train, and having the funds to purchase a bike and gear was tough. But I did it and on the day, with friends I had made long the way cheering me on. I finished my first sprint Tri in 1:54:49, an hour slower than the front of the pack but 30 min faster than the very back. I was hooked.
The same group put on an Olympic distance Triathlon several months later and soon I was signed up for that and training for the 1500m open lake swim, 25 mile bike, and 10k run. It was even harder than just the mileage increase as this course had more hills. I struggled through it and finished this in 3:57:53, again an hour slower and 30 min faster that the rest.
From there I was hooked and over the course of several years I competed in several more sprint and Olympic distance triathlons. Each time, I’d get a little bit faster in the swim, a little bit smoother at the transition, a little bit better at going from biking to running But O was still slow. From there I decided to focus on running, particularly half marathons, and just did the two other sports as cross training. Eventually I would try to tackle a marathon but end up injured and stoped racing all together.
Last year, I again started to run again. Slowly and painfully. from the beginning all over again. I also increased my hiking, averaging one a week, including a month of walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage across Spain. I slowly worked through cramping feet and calves, painful heel blisters and shin splints, lots of weak muscles on my legs and my core, and chronic knee pain. B
y the end of 2024, my aerobic fitness wasn’t great but it was returning, my legs no longer felt like lead and I could run/walk several miles with only minimal cramping that would go away once I warmed up. I was ready to start some structured training so I set myself a go to finish a half marathons in 16 week.
From there, it was perhaps inevitable that I soon had a full year of triathlon training mapped out with the 10 month goal of finishing a half Ironman, a distance I’ve never attempted before. I’ve got plenty of time ahead of me but this is going to take commitment, perseverance, and a lot of grit day after day to get there from here. I can’t wait!
My biggest ones involve my fitness. Like going from not doing much activity to competing in endurance events that are longer and harder than any I’ve ever done before. Like re-building my capacity to run double digit mileage, bike a metric century, and swim miles in a wetsuit. Like finding my strength again to be adventure-ready and mentally ready to push harder and go longer even when it’s uncomfortable.
When setting big goals—the hairy, audacious kind that exceed your current capabilities and require you to train, grown, expand, and overcome some limitations to reach them—I like to look at them in the context of the big picture—in this case the calendar year. There are two reasons why.
The first is practical, I need to be sure I have the time. I need to ensure I have plenty of training time for events before I sign up to race them and I need to make sure it won’t conflict with anything else I’m committed to this year. Training while avoiding injury requires a long time and my goal race is in October so I will need to plan when to start training hard and when I can fit in vacations.
The second reason why I like to plan in the context of a full year is that it gives me perspective. Looking at it month-by-month or week-by-week helps me to begin visualizing the journey. It’s particularly helpful for endurance fitness training where I can plot out training phases and key race benchmarks and then schedule smaller milestones to hit along the way. I can then lay in mileage progressions and the bigger blocks of a training plan to be sure I’m not forcing myself to increase mileage too fast and allow for plenty of rest and recovery on the way. I also get to imagine a future where aim capable of doing these harder efforts and visualize my success in a way that helps motivate me when it’s in the teens and I don’t want to do my run.
My October goal race is a 70.3 Ironman Triathlon. That’s a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and. 13.1 mile run. I used to race sprint and Olympic distance triathlons but it’s been several years since I’ve competed and this is over double the longest distance I ever did. I’ve run half marathons before but that was before an injury and again has been years since I’ve regularly run longer than 3-6 miles. I’ve already started to rebuild my run capacity to peak in time for a favorite local half marathon in April but I know I’ll need a solid 6 months of triathlon specific training after that to be in good shape for a 70.3. Plotting that out on a numbered weekly calendar helps me verify it’s possible.
Weeks of 2025 are numbered down the left column of my Hobonichi Weeks Planner with my races and some training plans penciled in accordingly.
Now that I know when my 6-month triathlon training needs to begin, I realized I had 16 weeks before that in which to train for a half marathon. That coincided nicely with my local run groups training program so I liked them in my planner and started to schedule some pre-triathlon cross training builds in the bike and swim and some solid strength sessions to help me stay injury free.
Putting down my mileage for and times for this initial plan helped me to plan in a build that would get me a good base of fitness for later without increasing my overall mileage too fast. It also helped me prioritize which workouts are essential and which are less so which will help me for getting stressed when I get busy or the training load feels too much and I need to increase recovery.
Obviously this plan will continue to be tweaked and adapted as the year goes on but looking at it all at a glance gives me the confidence to lean into the hard work while knowing where those efforts are taking me. Do you plan anything a year at a time?
