I had noticed that We both have the sub 20 goal but I'll be happy enough to get to sub 21 this year. Do you keep a steady pace on the threadmill or mix it up? I usually start around 12.5km and work my way up but going to trial a consistent pace for the next few.
I do a consistent pace, I know roughly before hand what I time I want to hit and what speed I need to get there. Because I'm a little OCD with numbers I work out what I'm tracking towards after losing time getting up to speed. And say it was gonna be 23:03, I'd up the speed slightly for the last few hundred metres to try and hit 23:00.
I usually going increase as high as the speed I'll go to next week, say 0.3-0.5km/h faster
Massive improvement. Ran on a treadmill with miles so wasn't sure what pace I was on for a while. Turned out I started slow and finished strong which seems to work better for me.
50 reps of each set before progressing (timed):
50 x 60cm box jumps
50 x jumping pull ups
50 x 20kg kettlebell swings
50 x walking lunges (20kg)
50 x 20kg push press
50 x back extensions
50 x 9kg wallballs
50 x burpees
50 x sit ups Time: 18:51 (3:29 faster than last attempt - PB)
5km run @ 21:05. So close to 20:xx but delighted with time. Went back through the log and that's actually my second fastest time on a treadmill. Did 20:53 this time last year but I'll beat that soon.
I'm emigrating to Canada on Friday so I'm not sure what exercise I'll fit in over the coming month, probably mostly running outdoors. I'll look to join a gym once settled with job & accom.
5km run: 21:07. Two seconds slower than last attempt which is fine. Started too fast too early and had to drop off the pace near the end so happy with finishing time.
Going to try and keep this log somewhat active. Training most days still with whatever is available, i.e. limited work gym or outdoors. Have gotten into trail running recently & have a 15km race on Sunday. I'm also looking to start boxing or similar but haven't found the right fit club-wise yet (ideally want classes before work). Other points of note over last couple of months:
Ran the Vancouver marathon today with very little training since last one in September. It was pretty rough throughout. 21km time was 1:41 but started to fade losing the 3:30 marker around 35km. Legs went then, just became extremely heavy and various pains so walked most of the remainder of finish in 4:01. Disappointed but it's done.
Got home in 19:58 today for the 5 km. Massive improvement I set the treadmill to 15 km/hr two days ago & ran for 17:38 (4.26 km). Felt like I had more in me so did the same today. Got 4.8 km without too much stress & jacked it up for the run in. Definitely think I can improve on that. I quit smoking 2 months ago & haven't been drinking much over that time which must have contributed significantly because I haven't run 5 km since the start of March!
Started a 45 day challenge with kickboxing club today so will keep this log open for the duration. Only a recent member but the classes are great - a nice balance between cardio & technical elements of kickboxing. The challenge is around weight loss for most but personally it will be a discipline challenge. I was on holidays for nearly 3 weeks and really want to attain a good level of focus again on exercise/diet primarily and see that propagate into other parts of my life. Looking to lose the holiday excess also.
Starting weight: 76kg (will post pics later)
Objective 1: No smoking
Objective 2: Adhere to schedule for workouts + other
Objective 3: Lose few %'s body fat
2 x 1hr kickboxing classes. These classes include a 15 minute high intensity cardio warm up, stretching, approx 35 mins bag work & finish with stretching. Will probably be my only exercise outlet over the 45 days as I haven't been able to motivate myself to lift weights at all over the past couple months and punching/kicking a bag provides great pleasure!
Cheers. Diet hasn't changed much over the past few years to be honest; eat very clean 4/5 days of the week & usually balance that out with 2/3 days of very bad diet. Will be keeping a tighter reign on it for the next few weeks though.
That didn't go too well. Had a tough 4 weeks with work and was out a lot so exercise and diet fell off my radar since last update. I started back again yesterday with the aim of getting back to a good level of fitness which I am going to solely judge by 5km time to keep things simple (will do 2 or 3 a week). Sub 20 mins by end of year is pretty realistic objective.
DB bench: 50lb*3*10
Pull ups: 3*12
DB incline bench: 40lb*3*10
Seated machine row: 100lb*3*10
Tri pulldown: 3*10
Tri bench push ups: 3*20
Bent over row: 40lb*3*10
1/2 WOD Murph:
1 mile run
50 pull ups, 100 push ups, 150 squats
1 mile run Time: 23:58. Planned to do full Murph which is double the BW variables but wasn't able for it. This is one I will be doing a lot more of.
04/11:
10km run @ 50 mins. Signed up for a half marathon in 3 weeks. Won't be targeting anything but a finish. Assume it will be in the 1:45-1:55 range.
05/11:
5km run @ 21:01.
06/11:
DB chest press: 50lb*3*10
Pull ups: 3*10
DB incline chest press: 50lb*3*10
Lat pulldown: 130lb*3*10
Tricep bench push downs: 3*20
Machine row: 90lb*3*10
It's been a long time since I've kept this log active but I am going to post any relevant updates in here regarding 3 goals I've decided to attack. I have no idea how long these will take & one may be beyond my capabilities physiologically but I need to have some benchmarks in place to gauge fitness progression:
Run 1 mile in under 4mins: PB is somewhere in the low 5s from a few years ago when I put a focus on this. Will give it a trial next week to see where I am but will be focusing on sprinting training at least once a week. This one is probably too ambitious but will be interesting to track progress.
Run 5km in under 19mins: PB is 19:45 so I am confident in this one can be achieved as a by-product of the 1 mile training.
Complete a muscle up: joined a new gym that's pretty CrossFit oriented so hoping some guidance is all I need for this; I can do approx 15 full hang pull ups so it can't be too far away.
Majority of my training is HIT workouts or kickboxing which complement the focused training I will aid for the above.
It's been a long time since I've kept this log active but I am going to post any relevant updates in here regarding 3 goals I've decided to attack. I have no idea how long these will take & one may be beyond my capabilities physiologically but I need to have some benchmarks in place to gauge fitness progression:
Run 1 mile in under 4mins: PB is somewhere in the low 5s from a few years ago when I put a focus on this. Will give it a trial next week to see where I am but will be focusing on sprinting training at least once a week. This one is probably too ambitious but will be interesting to track progress.
Run 5km in under 19mins: PB is 19:45 so I am confident in this one can be achieved as a by-product of the 1 mile training.
Complete a muscle up: joined a new gym that's pretty CrossFit oriented so hoping some guidance is all I need for this; I can do approx 15 full hang pull ups so it can't be too far away.
Majority of my training is HIT workouts or kickboxing which complement the focused training I will aid for the above.
Good luck aim high and all.
The first 4 minute mile recorded was in 1954 by Roger Bannister.
Since then 1400 men have done it good luck.
Good luck aim high and all.
The first 4 minute mile recorded was in 1954 by Roger Bannister.
Since then 1400 men have done it good luck.
Ya I saw that during my very quick research but another article states it's become a benchmark for high school track athletes now so I'd imagine it's much higher numbers.
Having said that, I am confident this will be a multi-year goal given today's initial testing. Highest the treadmill goes is 12 miles (5 min pace) so I ran a few splits on that between 1:30-2:00. Did about 10 x 3 min rounds on the bag as well.
Good luck aim high and all.
The first 4 minute mile recorded was in 1954 by Roger Bannister.
Since then 1400 men have done it good luck.
That 1400 number sounds shocking until you remember that give or take a few special events no competitive miles are run these days so the stat is based on a tiny fraction of the athletes competing at that level.
I'd still be a layer of FM doing it any time soon but GL with it
Run marathon in PB time: Right now I'm confident I can beat 3:30 so I'll put a realistic target on this come Feb/March but sub 3:15 should be possible if I continue the volume I've been doing the past month. PB is 03:35.
Plan to keep this log active for 2019. I posted some goals a few months back but they're no longer priority. For 2019, I'm taking my sixth marathon more seriously than any previous, will continue to include a lot of conditioning work but also want to prioritize strength training again which I haven't focused on in 3-4 years. I won't bother with any specific goals yet but will add short term ones throughout the year.
Filthy 50: 50 reps of each set before progressing (timed):
50 x 60cm box jumps
50 x jumping pullups
50 x 36lb kettlebell swings
50 x walking lunge steps
50 x knees to elbows
50 x 44lb push press
50 x back extensions
50 x 12lb wallballs
50 x burpees
Time: 22:30
Feb 11th:
Bench press: 185lb x 3 x 5
Pull ups: 3 x 15
Bench press: 165lb x 3 x 7
Wide grip pull ups: 3 x 7
Incline bench press: 115lb x 3 x 10
Close grip pull ups: 3 x 10
Kickboxing: 6 x 3 min rounds w/ 1 min break
Karen (WOD):
20lb wall balls * 150 for time = 06:01
WOD Chelsea - EMOM 30 minutes:
• 5 Pull-Ups
• 10 Push-Ups
• 15 Air Squats
Feb 13th:
Kickboxing: 12 x 3 min rounds w/ 1 min break
Feb 15th:
Squat: 204lb x 3 x 5
Press: 114lb x 3 x 5
WOD Roy - 5 Sets for Time:
• 15 Deadlift (225 lb)
• 20 Box Jumps (30 in)
• 25 Pull-Ups Time: 08:09 (2 sets only, this is way beyond me right now with that DL weight)
Hit a PB & finished 10th out of 145 participants. Very pleased with all aspects of the race. Perfect running conditions at about 2 degrees but with the sun out. Very minor patches of ice so the organizers did a great job with set up. It's the first distance event or training run I've done in a couple of years without audio & I think it makes it more enjoyable as you can really tap into a meditative state. For the first 5-7km I was regretting heavy lifting 2 days ago as my back & legs were pretty tight but after km 7 it was pretty tranquil to the finish. I presumed I was pacing for 01:37/38 because I never felt too punished & kept my breathing relaxed so it was a wonderful surprise to see the clock at the end. Bodes well for the marathon in 10 weeks!
No comparison between this & last week's race. I'm well used to 25km distance but this was a different challenge with:
Ascent: 1000m / 3200ft
Descent: 1000m / 3200ft
Snowing throughout so a lot of challenging climbs & descents were made even more interesting with constant snow, sludge or ice. Overall, it was really tough particularly the vertical hiking as my lower back always gets incredibly tight doing this. But the run also had many beautiful moments and was a completely new racing experience with great camaraderie from all involved . If I can improve how my back reacts to this sort of course, I think I'd have a lot of fun with them over the summer months.
9 weeks out from a marathon & looking at some training schedules online, it seems my training could benefit from more frequency & less distance so I'm going to be incorporating running into most sessions from here out:
Mar 3rd:
• 4km run #1: 18:20
• 50 BW chin ups
• 4km run #2: 17:41
• 50 BW pull ups
• 4km run #3: 16:40
• 50 BW tricep dips
• Press: 114lb x 5 x 5
• Squat: 224lb x 5, 5, 5, 5, 4
• Chin ups: +50lb x 7, 7, 6, 6, 6
• 3 x 10 x 105cm box jumps
• Chin ups: +25lb x 3 x 7
• 3 x 10 x burpee push up pull ups
• 3 x 10 x 105cm burpee push up box jumps
• 3 x 10 x burpee push up pull ups
• 3 x 10 x 105cm burpee push up box jumps
Took part in the Vancouver marathon on Sunday. Picture says a thousand words and all that:
I had trained better for this marathon than 5 previous and was confident of sub 3:20 especially when passing halfway at 1:37:xx with plenty in the tank. Similar issues have transpired within a few km range in my previous 3 and this one followed suit. Around km 25 I started to feel my calves cramp up whenever I made any change to stride like slowing down for water. It was calf cramps that got me last year in the same race, pretty much at the same time. Could be some subconscious work at play but it was pretty hot and I was flying it so most likely dehydration (the only 2/6 marathons that didn't involve prolonged walking at the end were the ones that were in milder conditions).
I did my upmost to clear any thinking and focus on maintaining a consistent stride and for most of km 25 - km 35 I was jogging at least. There were a few stops where I just keeled over from the cramps and had to try and massage them out with force. Once I hitt km 35 I faced the reality that I could only walk the remainder; every time I took to a slow pace with short strides my left calf would spasm like crazy and force me to the ground. I sat with disappointment for a couple of minutes and then perked up as the final 10km were in beautiful weather around Vancouver's sea wall. It would have been great to see the training rewarded with a low 3 hour time but I took satisfaction from giving it all I had and the level of fitness I'm working with now.
It's close to the end of the road for this duration of running for me. Can't ignore body signals anymore and it's something I can come back to down the line. Just have a couple of dirty ones to get out of the way before then... I signed up for these last week in an attempt to downplay the marathon in my mind
Iron Knee Trail Race (25km; 600m elevation)
Be Fearless Trail Marathon (42km; 1300m elevation)
I've recently been consuming anything & everything YouTube has to offer in the ultra trail running department with a high probability I train toward a 50 mile or longer race next year. Haven't gone beyond marathon distance in one run previously but I find the elevations & drops along with the distractions a trail run provides versus the banality of a road race makes it an achievable & enticing challenge. I covered off a couple of the longer trails on offer in Whistler last weekend (29km round trip with 1750m total elevation; and 30km with 1520m elevation). This weekend I was hopeful of covering 50 miles over 3 days but didn't give it a proper go logging 36.25 miles in 5:56.
On a side note, I took about 30 seconds off my 5km PB recently (19:14). A few days later I was on track for sub 19 but the treadmill decided to have a breakdown so I'm hopeful for 18:XX over the next few weeks.
Ran my first ultra trail race over the weekend; 50km & approx 2000m total elevation gain, plenty of drop too. Turned out to be the most enjoyable race I've taken part in out of 30+. Never ran that distance or close to it when factoring in elevation but it turned out to be a lot of gradual ups & downs spread out well & no overly technical parts. I ran it in 05:55 and managed to grab 5th out of 26 runners.
The volunteers were amazing, definitely kept me motoring with spuds & salt the main recommendation. Each 6km station was a motivation but to be honest I decided early on to go a bit slower and ramp it up later if able and that worked with my 2nd lap 20 mins faster. Bought trail running shoes a week ago and I'm an idiot for not doing sooner. No cramps (my detriment in last 4 marathons), only tired legs last 3-4km & I put that down to the shoes & aid stations as heat got to 28 when I finished; started off around 17 at 7am and grew throughout. Normally a killer for me but again the salted spuds & water kept me right.
Was planning something big for next year even before this race - pondering 100 miles but definitely 50 miles at least - and that's even more enticing now. Definitely a sickness but I feel trail running is infinitely better than road running for me. I've a road marathon next month but signed up for a trail marathon in October. Definitely reignited my passion.
Oct 13th:
Ran marathon #7 over the weekend in Victoria BC. Approached it with a view to enjoy the race rather than aim for a time (although I've been trying to beat 3:30 past 4 attempts). Went the same way as prior 4 with good pace and enjoyment up until km 29/30 when the legs start to go. Halfway was 1:40:54; finish was 03:47:22 with a fair bit of walking over final 12 km. Plan to continue endurance into next year with a 50 mile trail run but don't think I'll bother with distance road races for a while.
Took part in a marathon trail run - 1700m ascent total. Unfortunately I was pretty injured going into it; really tight glute. Should have been smarter and not tried to take this on. Ended up being ok at the start but close to halfway my glute and lower back were seizing up so I dropped out around 30km in. Probably not wise to tackle another marathon 2 weeks after last but moreso for me because I'm a dope when it comes to taking care of my body. Have a half marathon road race in a few weeks where I'm hoping to hit a PB sub 1:30 but will be cutting back on the running and focusing on strength (and proper recovery!) a bit for the rest of year.
Still not completely recovered from the setback but that owes mainly to poor maintenance yet again. Hoping to use the Christmas break to adopt a more regimented stretching routine. For 2020, there's really only one goal which takes place in August:
Between the relatively flat first six miles and final mile, you’ll find over 3350 m /11,000 ft of climbing jammed into the remaining 43 miles of terrain. Your largest individual climb is 760 m / 2500 ft. This is an exceptionally difficult course made tougher still by the technical nature of a majority of the terrain. Throw in the fact that the back half runs much more difficult than the front half and you have yourself a nice little day of suffering. Thankfully we’ve made every effort to distract you with incredible scenery at every possible turn.
Will keep the log updated and probably look to build a proper training plan to give me every chance of success.
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