Snapshot of this week’s ideas: Workout highlight: DIY anti-chaffing lotion. Nutrition highlight: Key to a good poop. Words of Wisdom: Your path is your path.

Click here for the video recap for the blog.

MAF Update:

I always start to get antsy when I come to the end of a training block. This MAF journey has been great. I ran more miles during the first three months than I ever had, and have biked much more these past three months than I normally would, which is great since my lack of bike improvement over the past years is what led me on this journey. While this training has been great, three months of it gets long, and I am ready to move on to something new. Next week, I will do a review of this past six months versus the previous years’ worth of training and how I feel about it.

This week’s work:

Tuesday- 30-minute ride for 14.02 virtual miles

Wednesday- 30-minute ride for 16.27 virtual miles. (6 x 4 minutes in the biggest gear, 1 minute easy spin)

Friday- 30-minute ride for 13.92 virtual miles.

Saturday- 60-minute ride for 27.43 virtual miles.

Sunday- 30-minute ride of speed work. 3 x (5 min. of 20 sec. on and 10 sec. easy followed by 5 minutes at MAF)

Nutrition Highlight:

This week’s highlight is actually something you can’t eat. Over the past few years, I have really come to appreciate our Squatty Potty, and wrote a complete blog post about this device. It is a wonderful tool to help you clear things out quickly and go about the rest of your day. I highly recommend it.

Workout Highlight:

Chaffing on the bike and run is never good. I have tried a few different options ranging from baby oil to an actual chafe lotion from a store. The store-bought lotion worked well, but I have proven time and time again how cheap I am. After looking at the ingredients, I decided to create my own version.

My wife makes a great lotion out of natural ingredients, so that seemed like a great place to start my creation. I ended up settling on a recipe that includes equal parts shea butter, coconut oil, and cocoa butter. Melt that in a double boiler and add a few drops of witch hazel for skin health, tea tree oil for its anti-microbial benefits, and peppermint oil for some fresh scent. I use that old store-bought tube to put it in, and it works just like the more expensive kind. Now I have no chaffing, and I saved a few bucks.

Wisdom of the Week:

There is a quote that I like from the thirteenth century poet Rumi. It goes “It’s your road and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.”

This hits home for me in two different areas of my life. The first is in my classroom. Today, students come in less willing to try and more apt to want me to solve the problem for them. It is crazy, and a bit sad, that there is no wait time between me asking a question or assigning a task before I get bombarded with “I don’t get it.” I don’t see the willingness to struggle a bit and come up with a solution on their own.

For years, I have been trying to figure out why this is. My two conclusions have to do with the immediate response kids are used to from the devices they are always on and that kids aren’t given the chance to struggle at home before help is given. Before you get upset or defensive, these are just my conclusions/theories. I feel like my wife and I encourage our own children to struggle first, and we don’t have our children on devices all that much, but our children do the same thing as my students. Maybe my conclusions have some flaws.

The other are that I relate this quote to is my training journey. I do a great job of owning my training. I put in the work on my own in the early morning hours so I can get the results. One thing that I am going to attempt to do better is allow others to walk the journey with me.

I would really like to find a swim group in my area. My wife is great about taking the stand-up paddle board out when I want to get a swim in, but I think a swim group would add some accountability and comradery. I love my rides on the bike trainer because I can get in the specific work I want, but I think that the group rides have been nice for a “fun factor.” Time will tell if I actually follow through on having people join me on my journey.

That’s just a bit of my experience. Have a great week.