Welcome to the off season

Hey folks!

I've been taking it easy this week, letting my body get rested and back to "normal." Finally, I decided enough was enough, and I went for a long walk today. The pool wasn't open yet when I was on campus and it was windy, so I went with walk instead of swim or bike. Running is still not an option. It's funny that now whenever I walk, I often get the urge to jog. Crazy, huh? Anyway, I decided to try it out, basically just to test where my legs are. Still not close. I'm going to give it a few more weeks before I decided I really need to get back to running. Because of how little I ran before my 15k, and the fact that I ran the whole thing, I'm not too worried about losing my running endurance. My knees were hurting by the end of my 1-hour walk, so I think it still needs more time before we throw high impact exercise on them.

During the walk, I made up a tentative schedule for my workouts here in the off season. I really want to do some resistance training and work on my speed. With those goals in mind, I came up with:

Sun: Running (walking or ellipical for now), abs
Mon: Swimming
Tues: 20-30 minutes cardio, 30-40 minutes weights/resistance, abs
Wed: Rest
Thurs: 40-45 minutes cardio, 20 minutes weights/resistance, abs
Fri: Speed training of some sort (most likely in running, but it may vary)
Sat: Rest (maybe do something like light walk or bike or tennis, etc.)

I didn't put any biking in there because it's so hard to get out in the winter to bike. Basically, any beautiful day I can get, I'll get out there on my bike. Also, I haven't done a lot of exploring of the school gym, but it might have a bike machine that will work, so I might add it in. Basketball season starts Monday, so I'll have to see how that will affect things. Most of the games are evening games, which could prove difficult. May have to change some things around or just not have set days to exercise and rest and instead change it each week. We'll see...and I'll keep you posted!

I also want to concentrate on eating better. I eat proper portions, but I don't eat well. I don't get enough balance. I'm eating too much fast food. I've not been getting hungry at dinner so I skip meals. And I never want to spend time cooking, even though I actually enjoy it. I "can't make it" grocery shopping, so I don't have anything, which leads to the fast food problem. I really want to change my habits NOW, instead of later. Things get harder the longer you do them, right? Today, I cooked. Chicken and mashed potatoes. I need to go grocery shopping...planning on that Tuesday. I need to eat more fruit and vegetables, for sure. Less snacking -- If I'm not hungry for dinner, maybe I should skip the snack instead?

I'm also trying to be more productive and clean around the apartment! Wish me luck!