Things have been going well workout-wise this week, but actual work has kept me too busy to update more often.
I did 8mi with intervals Monday, spinning Tuesday, 6mi yesterday, 6mi today, tomorrow will be spinning, and hopefully 10mi(in relatively warm weather!) on Saturday. Add in two swim sessions and, as of this afternoon, 2 strength training sessions, and you'll have my week.
By the way, my swimming is going very well. I always think I hate swimming until about the 3rd interval, and then I enjoy it a lot. Especially because it relaxes my shoulders after a day in front of the computer. I've progressed to being able to swim in the medium lane (rather than the slow lane) without embarrassing myself, and I think I really will be able to swim 500 yards in a row without dying at the end of 12 weeks. Considering that I was dying at the end of 50 yards just a few weeks ago, that's a lot of progress.
However, I think next week is going to be a cut back week. I've been running so little, it seems like, "Cut back from what?". But the plan is to run 6, 6, 6, 8, take it easy on the spinning, and drop the weight training sessions. When things are going well, I want to ignore that overall tired feeling that starts to accumulate (just one more workout!), but I know it's important. Mentally it's tough because I'm trying to lose some of my "emotional eating due to moving and starting a new job and Babcock ice cream" weight, but I know that as long as I eat reasonably, I'll be okay.
So this leads me to a self-realization I had at D's rowing meet: I just don't like working really hard. I don't like easy. I enjoy moderately hard, but when something gets really hard, I just don't do it. I do intervals and tempo runs if they are kind of hard, but I won't push myself to the limit. I don't mind fatiguing at rep 12 when I'm doing weight training, but I'm not going to do 5 sets of 5 on the squat.
D on the other hand likes working really hard. He has to be conscious about not trying to kill himself during a workout.
It bothers me a little bit because you see lots of inspirational quotes about never settling for less than your best or working your absolute hardest in everything that you do. But if you know you're not a "pusher" isn't it better to workout (or do anything) at a lower level than to not workout at all?
So here's my question: Are you a pusher? Do you always want to push yourself to see your limits? Or do you enjoy exercising (or whatever) only if it doesn't exceed the "moderately tough" threshold? Have you ever really thought about it? Do you see any benefits/drawbacks to the way you do things?
