I couldn’t help but wonder, after a couple of months of on and off colds that have prevented me from being consistent with exercise, whether I was trying to go too hard before I was ready. And if that going too hard was then stressing my body and making me prone to get ill again. Therefore, I’m choose a different tactic in the new year.
I started last week with doing a couple of tabatas, and I decided to do 2 tabatas each day through the start of the CrossFit Open. I figure even if I continue to be plagued by colds, doing those exercises will help me prepare myself for participating in the Open. I’m rotating through 3 exercises with my 2 tabatas. One focused on hip flexors, one on arches and hollows, and one on planks. They all get tough and make me sweat, even though I’m only going for 8 minutes.
I’m also easing back into running. I ran one mile on Thursday last week, another on Saturday, and one yesterday. I’m planning on another one mile run Thursday before bumping it up to two miles on Saturday, providing weather and health cooperate. If that feels good, I’ll go back to my regular two mile loop on Tuesdays and Thursdays and start building up to 3, then 4 and 5 on the weekend run.
As far as CrossFit goes, I went last Friday for the second time this month. I could have, logistically, gone in on Saturday and Sunday as well. I chose not to do that, and instead went in on Monday morning. I also went in this morning, and I plan to go on Friday. After Friday, I’ll assess how I feel and decide if I want to do another 3 day week before bumping up.
I really hope that between taking things fairly easy and the winter season turning into spring (eventually), I’ll be set for some early season training hikes. And then ready to go hard during the backpacking season. Backpacking is, after all, the reason that I CrossFit and run in the first place.