Happy New Year!

Oh yeah, it's the new training season, and I'm excited.

So here's how the training plan works. I'm doing my own thing, and I like it.

It's a periodized schedule broken into six four-week periods. Each period, the workouts build in intensity and volume for the first three weeks, then the fourth week backs off a ton and focuses more on rest.

In each week, there are six key workouts that cannot be missed: one "intense" session in each sport, and one "distance" session. If I do an "intense" session in one sport, I can't do an "intense" in another on the same day - but I could do a "distance."

All other workouts are about volume. Pace, distance, intensity, etc will be somewhere between my distance and intense workouts.

Plus, I'm going to run daily, for minimum 15 minutes. This is per Gordo's advice.

I'm also starting my "Eat to Compete" diet. It's incredibly boring. But I think it will be very effective. Here it is:

5 a.m.: 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese and 1/2 cup fruit (usually frozen blueberries); 2 oz whole milk in my coffee

8:30 a.m.: English muffin, 3 ounces very lean meat, 1 Laughing Cow Light cheese wedge; 2 oz 2% milk in coffee; 1/2 cup fruit

noon: 6 ounces very lean meat; 2 cups vegetables; 1/2 cup fruit

3 p.m.: Cascade Fresh non-fat yogurt

6 p.m.: 1 cup veggies (right when I get home, to munch on while I cook dinner); 6 ounces very lean or lean protein; 1 cup veggies with dinner; 1 serving of whole grains (rice, ww pasta, and if I'm feeling splurgy, maybe a potato)

Once a week, I'm going to have a treat. My treat will be decadent and probably around 500 calories. I will eat it very slowly and savor it.

See, the thing is, I feel gross when I eat poorly. But I just love the sweets and unhealthy food so much in the moment. This diet is to get me off the sweets and bad stuff, but give me a little treat each week. And I will have earned it with the workouts I've got planned!

Today's workout: Swim workout class (1 hour or however long it takes me to do the 2600 yards of drills - today 1:10, including rest) and 30 minute "intense" run session. For my run session, I did 1 minute on, 1 minute off intervals. The low interval was at 6.0 mph on the treadmill; the high interval was a ladder - beginning at 6.2 and going up by .2 each high interval (so ending at 9.0). I was tingling when I finished it. The last ten minutes certainly met the definition of "intense!"