My Week In Training
May 25-31, 2026
The Aim
Alright team, let’s dive back into the world of training. I want to keep bringing you inside my process and I loved writing these weekly training recaps last summer and want to bring it back again.
The reason I like talking about my entire week is because the week is the most important structure in my ‘train by flow and feel’ philosophy.
It all starts with the important ‘sacred effort’ that punctuates and dictates how the rest of the week must go.
If you want go deeper on the meaning and value of the ‘sacred effort’ here’s a great primer article I wrote on it:
TL:DR Edition: The sacred effort is the one training session a week that is foundational, the one you do for the love of it the MOST, where you get to do it where you want, for how long you want, and at the intensity you want. It’s how you centre fun and enjoyment into the building blocks of your entire fitness foundation.
My big aim this week was to finally re-establish the ‘trail half marathon’ as the standard long run sacred effort on weekend mornings. All of this came less than 2 weeks after finishing my very first 70.3 Triathlon. And my next race is now less than 15 weeks away, a backyard ultramarathon where I will attempt to run 100 miles in 24 hours.
Last week the aim was simple, balance rest and recovery with setting up the summer training block. Crucially, I need to keep 3 sport training as my race year ends with IronMan Florida in November.
So how did I do?
Let’s dive into the details.
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The Execution
There’s one big thing missing here, the swim on Tuesday. I forgot to hit start on the watch and only realized it 40 minutes into my 45 minute swim. Oh well, not every workout needs to be tracked.
Execution of the weekly plan went off great. Not only did I finally get my 13.1 miles barefoot on the beach (1hr 55 min not bad either!) I also brought back some fast road running into my process.
As I trained for my first triathlon, I simply wanted durability and confidence to come through in my training. But I did neglect those faster sessions and now I’m bringing those back too.
Most importantly, this execution occurred on the 3rd week of solo dad duty as my wife was deep in the throes of her busy work travel season.
So on a week where things are stretched on my schedule, I did a great job of flexing around work and family obligations to hit the sessions I needed.
Take the Friday bike ride. My kids had a half day field trip that I needed to drop off and pick up directly at the Chicago Botanical Gardens. I woke up early, knocked out some creative work, took the kids to the field trip, did our weekly Shabbat Friday errands, came home and ripped my race recap podcast, then saddled up and hit 45 minutes on the bike, and then it was time to get back to the Gardens for pickup.
This flexing gives me the opportunity to capitalize HARD on that sacred effort.
I don’t mind fitting all the other ones in during the week because I know there’s one day that’s all mine in fitness.
In fact, the 20-25 minute HIIT workouts make all the difference. These little hits keep my momentum going but also allow me to work on the strength needs my endurance training demands. On Thursday, my daughter was sick so I lifted in the grass next to her as she read books in the grass. Sunday morning when I’m on kid duty I do a stretching and posing routine. I love these little sessions because they balance out the longer efforts I love.
See how it all harmonizes together?
That’s the power of the ‘sacred effort’
Oh, one more thing, that 2 mile run on Sunday morning after my calisthenics routine? I’ll be writing another article about that one so keep your eyes open!
The Projection
When I zoom out, this week is really about setting the foundation for the next 3 months of training.
I already know that my body feels good with bike, run, and swim training but now it’s about figuring out how to transition from triathlon training to ultramarathon training while figuring out how it all fits inside my busy schedule.
So this week has given me a blueprint for how I want things to go.
This week is just doubling down on the structure and seeing if I can start pushing a bit harder on the runs. If I can start increasing pace that will be a good measure of the effectiveness of the entire training schedule.
The Takeaway
What can you take from my week in training and bring into your fitness process?
I can think of two easy takeaways
Find the ‘time scale’ that works best for you
It’s clear that the weekly plan works great for me. It might for you as well. But maybe not. Perhaps you work better with a 1 month structure, a 3 month structure, or maybe even just a day-to-day feel. What matters most is finding comfort with a way you can organize all of your training so that it connects and flows together. No matter what you train for, if you don’t feel progression, you will eventually stop doing it. So make sure you are figuring out a way to conceptualize time that helps you keep showing up.
Define your ‘sacred effort’
This is anchored by that sacred effort. For you it might be a ‘once a month’ type thing. It could be a weekly staple (I’d advise this). Whatever it is and whatever the frequency you must make it NON-NEGOTIABLE. All the other workouts can be negotiated with, but not this one. Find out what you truly love and then make it permanent on your calendar.
This is the structure that I help people create in their own lives as a coach who blends fitness and life coaching. It all has to fit and flow or else it won’t last.
It’s also the way to bring more creativity and artistic expression into your entire fitness routine. You get freedom to choose that one thing and then the creative license to make everything else fit.
I’m currently leading my coaching group through a 6 week ‘Becoming an Athletic Artist’ cohort and we will be talking about this exact format to structure out fitness.
If you want to try this type of expressive training, believe it could be the thing to finally help you gain consistency, or reignite that spark in your fitness that is fading too fast reply to this article directly or use the button below to send me a DM about joining my coaching group for this cohort or becoming a 1-1 client.
Let’s win together team!