Weekly Update: 2- 8 January 2017

This was a standard week of sport(ie. no swimming meets or running events to compete in) and these are my favourite weeks. It's a routine I've followed for close to a year now and has very much become a lifestyle. It isn't always easy (especially the days of waking up at 4.45am to go to the pool) but it's familiar and I enjoy it. 

My weekly routine
Monday: swimming am, bootcamp pm
Tuesday: running am, swimming pm
Wednesday: swim club pm
Thursday: running pm
Friday: swimming am
Saturday: Parkrun am, swimming pm
Sunday: swimming am, tennis am 

Outfit
Here is a flat lay of the outfit I wore for tennis today. It's probably my favourite at the moment. I have a large wardrobe of workout wear these days. For shoes and leggings I go with Nike and for tops I usually prefer Puma. I'll write a separate review on my favourite products later. 

Tennis
This morning I played tennis for a couple of hours at tennis club. I love tennis and I wish I had the opportunity to play more frequently. It is always a highlight of my week. Unfortunately I didn't feel I played my best today which was disappointing and I'm not entirely sure why. But it's a social competition and there's always next week. 

Running
This week I completed three runs. It's often hard to find the motivation for the Thursday night run because by that time of the week I've done lots of sport, I'm really tired and I know I have a 4.45am wakeup on Friday. Ideally I'd move this run to another day but there isn't much other time. I also don't like to go a day without sport and I don't like to move it to the morning because Wednesday is a late night. 

On Saturday I attended the Parkrun but at a different location to usual. I prefer my home Parkrun overall because it's familiar and I know exactly what I need to do there to run a good time. But at the same time I enjoyed the change and am definitely up for trying others in the coming weeks. The best news was my friend from swimming came to Parkrun this week for the first time! Training with friends is always better. However, on a more negative note, I struggled with the run more than ever before. After the run I felt like I was going to faint for at least half an hour. I couldn't stand up, my head was spinning and I couldn't see straight. It made no sense because I was over two minutes outside my best 5km time and over a minute slower than what I'd consider good for the distance. I have not ever had a response like that to a race before (not in swimming or running). I've run countless 5kms faster and multiple long races including a half marathon. I'm at a loss as to what went wrong and that's frustrating. I'm disappointed and angry at myself and doubting aspects I shouldn't be such as my fitness level. I know objectively I shouldn't be but I'm extremely harsh on myself and I always overthink setbacks.

Swimming
This week I completed five training sessions and went to the usual Wednesday night swim club racing. I'm happy with a total of 14.35km for the week. I also completed two of the long distance swims for the Masters Swimming Australia Endurance Program. It's a year long program which involves 62 long distance swims. This week I finished the 30 minute freestyle and 30 minute backstroke. I was pleased with all my race times for Wednesday night swim club especially the 100m freestyle (1:12.88) and the 100m individual medley (1:23.72) which was a personal best. 

Improvements
- Improve my diet. I've said that for so many weeks (or even months now) but it just doesn't happen. I'm putting lots of effort into training so I feel I'm letting myself down diet wise.
_  Leg strength. Whenever I run at a pace of under 5 minutes per kilometre, my legs hurt so much in the hamstrings but mainly the calves. It appears my carido level is such better than body strength. The frustrating part is I've been trying to address this for many months through weights and strengthening exercises. It may have improved a little but not substantially. I'm not entirely sure what can be done. Maybe different exercises or more of them. I'll try and research it. 
- I'd like to fit more bootcamp style activities in my standard week. I don't have time for another session but maybe an extra set of pushups here and there or a set of crunches on additional days. 

Weekly Photo
This week's random photo is of an empty pool. It's not often you see a pool which is completely free but it's ideal when it does happen. 

What did you achieve this week?