Posted on by Iron Rogue

Where’s Your Head At?

I have been struggling, struggling, struggling with being able to focus lately –  in most areas of my life, but fitness and training especially.  I have had too much trouble deciding where and what I want to spend time on, so not only is my training all over the place, but I’m not in headspace to set goals, and as for blogging about it… well…

I’ll try to give you an illustration of the fitness/training part of my brain lately:

This probably plays fast and loose with the laws of the Venn diagram, but it’s the best I can do to sort through the jumble.  Let’s break this down some more:

  • Triathlon, comprised of Swim, Bike and Run.  This is still my biggest love, still a priority.  The temptation to let things slide due to the “off-season” is there, but there are also arguments that there shouldn’t be an off-season (Tridot calls it “Out-Season”) especially if you haven’t had a heavy “On-Season”.  On the other hand, maybe it’s the time of year to work on strength, like say through…

  • Crossfit.  Confessions first: with only a few months left in the year, I realized I’m in danger of the sessions I bought back in January expiring.  I’ve been even worse than sporadic up until that point, but I did manage to step it up in the last month or so, still falling short of the twice a week I wanted. What I like most is that I’m often addressing muscles in the posterior chain; easy to neglect, but very important muscles. 

    Big workouts have given me Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), which for me always sets in 2 days after the workout, which really throws off the idea of getting back in there for a WOD (workout of the day) 2 days later.
Besides that, the other problem I have is that it’s time consuming, which is a weird thing to say given that I’ve seen WODs that are 10 minutes long.  Still, I have to drive there (it’s short, but that’s still more than using the in-house corporate gym or my basement or running.  There’s the warm-up and skills portion (which I’m grateful for), yet they start when everybody is ready and there, not just when I want to get things moving along.  There’s no shower at the box, so after I drive back, I still have to shower and change.  The truth is, where there’s a will there’s a way, so these kinds of excuses shouldn’t be an obstacle if I really love doing it, but I guess I don’t.  I’d love to improve in some of the skills (pull-ups, dead-lifts, pistol squats and handstand push-ups come to mind), but I don’t get to pick what comes up in the WOD.  I recently tried (again) snatches, but I didn’t do so great with them; it just feels like flirting with injury.  Forty-somethings need to play it safe sometimes, which brings us to…









  • Parkour*.  The asterisk is for the fact that I’m forty (did I mention that already) and I don’t have the tolerance for risk that doing head-over-heels flips would entail, but I do like working on jumps, balancing and climbing during Burbathlon. What I’d really like to achieve is the Kong Vault (or at least the Monkey Vault). I just think it might come in handy, especially if I ever try an Obstacle Course race again. What I’ve been working on is getting my legs through with my hands on the ground (or any surface really). It’s an exercise in flexibility and discipline, really.



  • Nordic Skiing. This one is marked as being outside the benefit zone of triathlon, but according to what I’ve written before, maybe it shouldn’t be. At any rate, Nordic skiing is one of my favourite forms of exercise, and as they say on Game of Thrones, Winter is Coming. I got lucky finding a pair of roller-skis at a ski swap, and knowing that the snow hasn’t been reliable in recent years, I snagged them. When I get a chance to practice with them for more than 10 minutes, I’ll write up a little review, but based on my current experience, I won’t feel safe using them to commute to work any time soon.





  • Martial Arts. For reasons I can’t quite understand that myself looking through local places that offer Kung Fu like Wing Chun, and/or San Shou. I also have nostalgia for Jiu-Jitsu. The problem is I’m still in position where I can’t leave the house in the evenings. Most things that I have seen after work are right during the time when I’m helping the kids to bed, and they’re still not really putting themselves to sleep so that stuff it’s probably going to have to wait.
If I take a look at my accomplishments in October (for example) the calendar looks like this:
The Little Standing man is for Circuit Training = Crossfit WOD or Tabata Bootcamp

That could be worse. Some swims, some bikes… too few runs. At the very least, I joined a Govember Bike Challenge hosted by Jamie at From Couch to Ironwoman, and it’s gotten me on the trainer.

Are you madly off in all directions like this? Do you have “Fitness ADD” too?

13 Replies to “Where’s Your Head At?”

  2. Those skis = AMAZING!!!
    I am slowly coming back to training after my marathon. Last week was all rest and glorious. But now I am trying to figure out how best to tackle things for 2014 and am in the same boat. Not 100% where to focus my energy…I am working on it!

  3. Those skis = AMAZING!!!
    I am slowly coming back to training after my marathon. Last week was all rest and glorious. But now I am trying to figure out how best to tackle things for 2014 and am in the same boat. Not 100% where to focus my energy…I am working on it!

  4. Like Miz said, I'm kind of your opposite too. While I want to cross train (especially yoga!) I tend to spend my training time running. Which isn't a bad thing, but I think I'd benefit from a little more variety.

  5. Like Miz said, I'm kind of your opposite too. While I want to cross train (especially yoga!) I tend to spend my training time running. Which isn't a bad thing, but I think I'd benefit from a little more variety.

  6. OMG. I've exactly the same mind map (minus the parkour and nordic skiing!!). I can't make up my mind what I want to do. I love it all. The fact that I'm not good at any of it makes it harder to pick a focus.

    I'm trying to focus on running and yoga (with swimming as Xtrain and Bike once/week – there I go again!!) but it is sooo hard to train focussed when there are so many things to try!

  7. OMG. I've exactly the same mind map (minus the parkour and nordic skiing!!). I can't make up my mind what I want to do. I love it all. The fact that I'm not good at any of it makes it harder to pick a focus.

    I'm trying to focus on running and yoga (with swimming as Xtrain and Bike once/week – there I go again!!) but it is sooo hard to train focussed when there are so many things to try!

  10. OMG I love this. That Venn diagram? Totally my life in general and definitely related to fitness. I like to say that I have exercise ADD. It's become much more noticeable over the past 3 months as I've been head deep in yoga teacher training and my body is itching and craving other types of movement.

  11. OMG I love this. That Venn diagram? Totally my life in general and definitely related to fitness. I like to say that I have exercise ADD. It's become much more noticeable over the past 3 months as I've been head deep in yoga teacher training and my body is itching and craving other types of movement.

  12. HA! In a similar space …. but am focusing on strength training/body image issues and the Miami marathon which is in February. I can't live without focus, I'd just sit there indecisive about everything else in life! Great post.

  13. HA! In a similar space …. but am focusing on strength training/body image issues and the Miami marathon which is in February. I can't live without focus, I'd just sit there indecisive about everything else in life! Great post.

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