Im still pretty new to this blogging, so I am not sure if anyone reads this or not. Either way is okay by me. I suppose it’s a bit like talking to myself. Anyway, i just wanted to share a little bit of where I am at physically and mentally.
The past few weeks have been filled with reflection. Over the past year, I have felt like i was in the best shape I have ever been in. However, my body didn’t seem to hold up as long as I wanted it to. For a variety of reasons. I gave the Twin Cities Marathon my best shot a couple of weeks ago. Now.. I say that as I didn’t finish because I cramped in groin, quads, calves and arches. It was a pain I haven’t felt..physically, mentally and definitely emotionally. My goal was to run a sub 4 hour. I was well ahead of that pace through mile 14 before I hit my wall at mile 18. Here is where I went wrong…
Three weeks out, I went on a ten day road trip with my old man and brother. We rolled out to Yellowstone and The Tetons. Every day of the trip, our bodies were getting pushed pretty damn hard and at altitude. We were either mountain biking or hiking & fishing every day. I had a one week break by the time time I got home before the marathon, but still hit the gym four of the seven days, either lifting or running. No break. I had been training in a new pair of shoes that had arch supports. Shorter distances and walking it felt pretty good. Longer distances put too much pressure on my arch causing it to cramp. Spent two months in these shoes, but the longest run was a thirteen mile on the treadmill and an eighteen mile day hike. My pace out of the gate had my heart beating at an anaerobic pace. I didn’t spend the first several miles warming up, which I knew my body needed as was proven in plenty of long runs and rides. My mouth was so dry it was tough to eat any blocks i had in my pockets. Lastly, I didn’t trust the program I was on. I didn’t respect my rest days enough. I pushed two hard and too much early on. As a result I really felt like peaked out and plateaued in mid-june.
I did a lot of things wrong. Ha! I can laugh at it, it is what it is. I know better for next year and I feel I am going to be training smarter and harder this year so we shall see where I end up! This blog is dedicated to the amateur adventure athlete. It’s such a blessing to be in a healthy and strong. It allows us to travel to do exciting shit outside. I mean come on. And the reality of it is for us amateurs, we get to do this for fun. We’re competing against ourselves and we’re not relying on competition and sponsor money to live..We just get to enjoy and have a blast.
So..I am going to start blogging daily. Hopefully…I will hold myself to that since I am writing it down now. My program starts Sunday. So Sunday’s I will post my general schedule for the week and then I will post my workout routines daily except on rest days. I am changing up the circuit program I did this last year and mixing up the cardio days with running and spinning. I will be attending/mixing both spinning and running classes/workouts on some of my cardio days. The weekend prior to active rest weeks will typically be a long two to three hour run or ride. Feel free to comment or reach out if you care to shoot the shit.
Cheers-