Date: 4/27/22

When I first started using Volt Athletics for strength training I chose OCR as my “sport” because I wanted my whole body to be strong as well as running-specific strength. Each workout was roughly an hour long, and they were scheduled three times a week.

The first 14-ish weeks of training were great. I had plenty of time to get my runs and strength workouts in. Then I started having trouble getting the workouts in for one reason or another. No time. Out of town. Too tired. Last week the wheels fell off.

I had to work late two days. Being the master procrastinator than I am, I needed to carve out time to catch up on homework and labs. This left little time for strength workouts. I put this week as an off week in my strength training plan so I could get caught up on my workouts, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

Now that the weather is getting nice (ish, still a chance of frozen mix in the 10-day forecast), I’ll be out of town on most weekends. Although I have pulled off doing workouts from the van in the past, I don’t think it will be practical with the adventures I have planned because of the time and equipment involved.

With limited time during the week, that means I need to prioritize running over strength workouts. So, I’ve changed my “sport” on Volt to “marathon”. There are still three workouts a week, but they’re only 30 minutes long! An extra 30 minutes in the evening might not sound like much, but these days it is significant! That’s 30 more minutes to wind down, sleep, get my stuff packed for the weekend, or whatever else I might need to do. And when I work from town I can easily squeeze that into a lunch break at one of the work gyms.

Changing my strength training plan has really lowered my stress level when it comes to training overall. It’s crazy what a little bit of extra time will do!

Rest Day Journal exercise fitness garmin journal running strength trail running training