I’ve officially made it 3 weeks into my fitness journey. They say it
takes 21 days to form a habit, & I’m starting to feel as though the changes
I’ve made will become enduring parts of my life. I’m feeling healthy,
energetic, & motivated. As I continue to improve in the gym, my confidence
is growing. I’m becoming a Spartan.
Below I’ve
summarized the good, the bad, & the ugly from week 3 of my training.
The Good
- Completed my first two trail runs: with the weather warming up
to above 0 this week, I was all out of excuses for avoiding the dreaded trail run.
I won’t belabour the first run too much since I covered it at length in my day16 blog post,
however it turned out to be a good experience, even if my time was slower than
expected. On my second run, I lowered my kilometre pace from 5:44 to 5:27 while
running an extra kilometre. Although I was (perhaps unrealistically) hoping to
go sub-5 on my second run, I will take a 5% gain each time I’m out on the
trails! As a bonus, I even did my second run after a 1-hour yoga session, so I’m
excited to see what I will be able to do this week on fresh legs!
- Improved my major lifts: I was happy to improve on each of the
three major strength-building exercises that I have set as markers of my
strength progress; burpees, pull ups, & dips. My goal each week will be to
make improvements in each of these lifts, no matter how small. I am confident
that small, incremental gains over the next 11 weeks will will add up to make
all the difference come race day! I’ve listed my results on each of these 3
lifts below:
- Max set on burpees from 20 to 25 (3 sets: 47 to 62)
- Max set on pull ups from 20 to 22 (3 sets: 40 to 46)
- Max set on dips from 25 to 26 (3 sets: 53 to 62)
- Noticing fat loss: for the first time in my journey, I’ve started to notice a small change in my body composition. My resting abs are starting to become visible for the first time since high school, & although I am more focused on function as opposed to aesthetics on this journey to the Spartan Race, it is a welcome confirmation that the hard work I’ve been putting in both in the gym & in the kitchen is paying off! I’m excited to watch my body transform as I continue down this road to the Spartan Race.
The Bad
- Missed Wednesday hot yoga: I had work & social commitments
on both Thursday & Friday night this week which meant one of my workouts
was going to have to be missed. I have committed to myself that I will not
neglect any of my strength workouts early in my program, so unfortunately hot
yoga was the casualty this week. Fortunately, I still made it to hot yoga on
Saturday prior to my trail run, so despite missing yoga on Wednesday, I still went
1 for 2 this week.
- Subpar core training: to add insult to injury, after I skipped hot yoga to complete my core workout, I did not bring my best effort to the gym. I had a tough day at work & was feeling lethargic which I allowed to transfer into my workout. I made little to-no gains in my core lifts, however I was able to catch myself & readjust my attitude prior to my HIIT elliptical session, where I was able to set a new PR. Moving forward I need to make sure I am always bringing a positive attitude into the gym, regardless of how the rest of my day went.
The Ugly
- ‘Speed’ of my trail run: as mentioned in Wednesday’s post (https://100dayspartan.blogspot.ca/2017/03/day-16-trail-run.html), my first trail run turned out to be a very slow pace. This highlighted an important point for me that I must make trail running a priority, as even in my second run I did not make the kind of gains that I had anticipated. That said, I still improved 5% from run-to-run, so if I can continue to make similar gains over the next 70 days, I will be in great shape come race day.
Week 4 Goals
- Improve my trail run time: a major focus in my training moving
forward will be to improve my trail run time. I will continue to take the same
trail & look to get my kilometre time under 5 minutes prior to implementing
burpees & high-intensity hill training into my trail run days. For this
week, I am aiming to get my kilometre time under 5:30 & increase the
distance from 7 to 8 kilometres.
- Do a set of 25 pull-ups: as mentioned, I have identified
pull-ups as one of my major focuses for my strength training in preparation of
the Spartan Race, so I would like to see continued improvement on this
exercise, bringing my first set from 22 to 25 repetitions. Once I can complete
3 sets of 25 pull-ups (still a long way to go), I’m going to implement a weight
belt.
- Do a set of 30 burpees: I have already come a long way on the exercise that I discussed despising so much in my day 15 post. From a breathless 15 on my first set two weeks ago to 25 this past week, I’m within striking distance of the 30 penalty burpees that I will likely have to complete a few times on race day. Although it is just the beginning of my burpee journey, getting to the elusive 30 would be a nice morale boost.
With that, week 3
is officially in the books & off to week 4 I go!
100 Day Spartan
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