I’m officially 6
weeks into my training program & am quickly approaching the halfway mark of
my journey to the Spartan Race! I have a new training plan in place, & am
more motivated than ever to push myself to achieve my fitness goals. Week 6 got
off to a slow start coming off of a long weekend, however I finished strong
& will look to carry this momentum into the remaining 8 weeks of my
journey!
Today I discuss the
good, the bad, & the ugly from week 6, & look ahead to what I want to
achieve in week 7!
The Good
- Set a new training program: I spent week 6 reviewing my progress thus far & analyzing my
training program, in an effort to retool & optimize my training for the
second half of my journey. While reviewing my progress, I was quite pleased to
see how far I have come in most of my strength training, & frankly a little
disappointed with my progress in terms of cardiovascular output & running
abilities. Rather than sulk, I decided to fix the problem! In my updated plan,
I included more anaerobic exercises on my strength training days to help
improve my cardio, & I also incorporated 3 trail runs per week focused on
sprints, hill training, & distance running, to ensure that I make far
greater gains in terms of my cardiovascular abilities in the second half of
this journey! I discussed my new training plan in detail in my day 41 post.
- Bought new shoes: on the advice of my triathlon-running sister, I finally purchased new
running shoes this week. On her advice, I went into Running Room this weekend
& met with one of their sales associates who analyzed my walking &
running stride, as well as the tread wear on my existing running shoes, &
was very helpful in providing a few different options that would help my ‘high
arch.’ His advice was to choose the shoe that I felt the least; thus the one
that didn’t rub in any areas or where I was aware of the arch support. I
ultimately settled on the Brooks brand ‘Ravenna 8 Running Shoes,’ a review of the shoes can be found here.
So far I have only gone on one trail run in the shoes, however that run
happened to be a PR & the shoes felt great! Once I get a few more runs
under my belt, I will write my own review here.
- Started to improve sleep pattern: on the advice of Mike Patota on Twitter (@LmtPatota) after I mentioned on here that I was struggling with recovery & sleep quality, I purchased a ZMA (zinc-magnesium aspartate) supplement to help. Although it is likely too early to draw any sweeping conclusions about the results, I have noticed that I have an easier time falling asleep at night, & feel slightly better rested in the mornings. I take the supplement on an empty stomach an hour before bed. As an added bonus, since I invested money into my goal of improving my sleep (just $19.99 for a bottle of 90 pills), it had the added bonus of motivating me to want to experience the full effects of the supplement, causing me to increase the amount of sleep I’m getting from 4 to 5 hours to 6 to 7 hours per night. Although I’m not yet where I want to be with my sleeping, progress is progress! Once I get more experience with the ZMA supplement, I will post a review.
The Bad
- Only completed 2 trail runs: due to a slow start to the week that I discuss below, I was only able
to get in 2 trail runs this week despite setting a goal last week of completing
3. Although I fell short on my goal, the real test will be this week now that
my plan calls for 3 runs & my training is back on track. Fortunately my run
on Tuesday was my fastest 10km time yet & my new shoes felt great! I am on
track to complete all 3 trail runs this week, & am excited to see how
quickly I can progress in my running program now that I am refocused with a new
training plan!
- Slow start to the week: after discussing how successful my holiday weekend was in my week 5 summary, I got off to a slow start to week 6! Unfortunately I ended up getting home from my relatives house too late on Sunday to get in my scheduled cardio training, I found last-minute tickets to the Leafs playoff game on Monday which negated my Monday workout, & due to a late bedtime on Monday & perhaps a few too many celebratory beers, I wasn’t feeling well on Tuesday & opted to pass on my workout. Although I still managed to fit in all of my strength training as well as two trail runs, the missed days mixed up my regular schedule, & this week I am having a challenge fitting in all of my workouts, making sure that my body gets adequate rest between the previous weeks’ exercise. Unfortunately, the Leafs have since been eliminated from the playoffs, however the one silver lining is that their playoff schedule has thrown off my training more than anything else these past few weeks, so now it’s time to get back to the regularly-scheduled programming!
The Ugly
- My Maple Leafs: despite their best efforts, unfortunately my Maple Leafs were eliminated from the 2017 NHL playoffs this past week by the Washington Capitals. The young squad did great but it was still a tough blow after they gave us so much hope in jumping out to a 2-1 series lead. As I mentioned above, the silver lining to this tragedy is that the Leafs being out will provide me with an extra 9 to 12 hours per week to focus on my training, & eliminates my number one reason for cheating on my diet!
Week 7 Goals
- Complete new training program: as we become more familiar with a training program, it becomes more
comfortable & a lot easier to complete. That said, this is exactly the
reason that I want to make sure I am switching up my routine on occasion. The
body is very adaptable which is one of the major reasons I’ve made the changes
that I have. Therefore my goal this week is going to be simply to complete all
of the exercises in my routine, establishing a new baseline for me to look to
beat next week. The goal is here is to get familiar with my routine before
looking to smash PR’s come week 8!
- Run 10km in under 50 minutes: this goal is certainly a ‘stretch’ goal, however if I continue to
improve at the rate that I have been over my past 2-3 runs, then I will be able
to achieve this goal. As I discussed in my day 40 post on cardio training,
I am going to be starting this Saturday with my last 10km run, & then each
Saturday until my race I will add an extra 2km per week, ultimately culminating
in a 24km run on June 16th, one week before my race. My goal will be
to maintain a pace of 5:00 km per minute, so to achieve this pace on my next
10km run would be a nice win that I can look to build off of in future long
runs.
- Stick to strict diet: one area that I’ve fallen off slightly over the past 2 weeks has been in terms of diet. Due to being at friends houses a lot more for NHL playoff games, I have found myself cheating on my diet a lot more, most specifically in terms of consuming beer. While I do not want this training program to get in the way of my life, I do have to make some sacrifices if I am going to achieve some of the lofty goals that I have set for myself. Therefore, for this week I want to make sure I am sticking to a strict diet with no cheat meals, & not consuming any alcohol. With how hard I work in the gym & on the trails, the last thing I want to do is throw away all of my progress for a few beers or slices of pizza.
Although the
official ‘halfway point’ of this journey won’t happen until week 8, it feel
like week 7 is a pivotal moment in my training journey. With all of the time
spent reflecting on the previous 6 weeks of workouts, I became proud of the
work that I have put in, but also motivated to get back into the gym & out
on the trails to continue to succeed. Now that I am approaching the halfway
mark, the race is starting to feel real, & my job over the next 8 weeks is
to ensure that I am ready to tackle the Spartan Race come June 23rd.
Aroo!
100-Day Spartan
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