Seven
weeks have passed since I first embarked upon this 100-day journey to the June 24th Spartan Super Race in Toronto & with the halfway mark quickly approaching, I’m working hard to tighten up my training & diet regimens to ensure
I’m ready come race day. Thus far through 7 weeks, I have been quite pleased with the way my strength has
progressed & my trail running abilities are starting to follow.
Today
I discuss the good, the bad, & the ugly from my seventh week of training
& look ahead to what week 8 has in store.
The Good
- Ran 10KM at a pace of 5 min/KM: I had my
most successful trail run to date on Saturday, running 10KM in a time of 49:47,
achieving my goal of completing the distance in a pace below 5 minutes per
kilometre. I was so proud of my achievement on the run that it led me to write
my day 45 post on trail running.
Moving forward, I will look to add 2KM to my run per week & attempt to
maintain my pace of 5 minutes per kilometre, a goal that I know will be
difficult to achieve but will stretch my abilities in a positive way.
- Completed each workout in my training program: week 7
was the first week of my new training program that I discussed on day 41,
& I was happy to be able to complete each workout, although it certainly
was not easy. My body has adopted to my previous training plan, so I found the
new exercises very challenging to complete, but I am happy to have completed
them & to have set a baseline for me to look to best in this weeks'
workouts. I am going to look to follow this new training program for the next 4
weeks before getting very obstacle-specific in the last few weeks of my training
program to prep for the race.
- Completed non-negotiables in days 1-3: in my day 46 post on non-negotiables, I discussed the 5 non-negotiables that I was looking to implement into my daily routine which I assigned the acronym BREMJ (blogging, reading, exercise, meditation, & journaling). I have identified each of these 5 activities as integral to my personal development & happiness, & as I discussed in the post, I believe that achievement of each of the 5 activities is fully attainable each daily. As with any other habit, positive momentum builds over time, making the new habit easier to execute with each passing day, so I am happy to have been successful in days 1 through 3 & will look to sustain this trend through the next 52 days & beyond.
The Bad
- Had a night out: I had a
friends birthday party on Saturday, & found myself consuming a few too many
beers along with potato chips for the first time in 7 weeks. Although I had
already determined that I would have an ‘off’ night from my usual diet, I could
have done a better job in not compounding the problem by consuming more beers &
unhealthy foods than necessary to have a good time. That said, it was a fun night out with friends & was a good celebration to cap off my first 50 days of training so I'm not beating myself up too much about it. This was my last scheduled 'night out' until I enjoy my post-race beers come June 23rd.
- Tough weekend in terms of dieting: to piggy back on the challenge above, I went out for dinner on Friday night & although I could do much worse than roast chicken & potatoes, it was still outside of my usual dinner. I also had an unhealthy bacon, egg, & hash brown breakfast on Sunday at a greasy spoon restaurant before getting back to regularly scheduled programming for dinner. Similar to the point above, I am not going to beat myself up too much as it was a fun weekend that was a good way to celebrate 50 days of hard work & to kick-off the next 50.
The Ugly
- Burpee burp-up: on Monday night I experienced a phenomenon that I have not experienced since 'bag-skating' during my hockey playing days in high school. I pushed myself so hard on my third set of burpees that I actually burped up & quickly had to scan the room, fearing that I may have to find a suitable place to toss my cookies. Fortunately, after a few seconds the nausea subsided & I was able to finish my set, completing a new personal record on burpees with sets of 42, 38, & 35 for a total of 115 burpees across 3 sets. Close call!
Week 8
Goals
- Run 12KM at a pace of 5 min/KM: as
mentioned above, this week I am going to look to increase my Saturday trail run
by 2KM to 12KM total, & look to maintain this weeks' pace of 5 minutes per
kilometre. For the final half of my Spartan Race journey, I have identified
trail running as my biggest opportunity for improvement, so my Saturday ‘long
run’ has become the cornerstone workout of my week. I will be treating the run
as if it were race day, ensuring my legs are well rested & that I am well
nourished & hydrated to optimize my performance. I believe that consistent improvement in my trail running abilities will be a major key to success come race day.
- Improve pull-up & chin-up output:
although I was able to increase my output on my first & second sets of
pull-ups & chin-ups last week, I fell short on my third set by 3
repetitions on my pull-ups, & was only able to match my third set
performance on chin-ups. This week I will look to increase my output across all
3 sets, focusing on slow, good form repetitions. As I have mentioned in previous posts, a major focus for my strength building exercises, & most specifically for pull-ups & chin-ups, is developing muscular endurance as the Spartan Race is a long, grueling race which requires continuous use of your muscles, making muscular recovery integral to success. I believe a good marker of muscular endurance is being able to quickly recover & produce strong results on your second & third sets of an exercise, so this will be a major focus of mine in the second half of my training program.
- Have a clean dieting weekend: although my diet has been pretty good throughout the 50 day journey, if you have been reading these weekly summaries you will notice a common trend that I tend to slip up on the weekends. To combat this, I am going to look to have a ‘clean’ weekend which will include no alcohol, no restaurant meals, & no ‘cheat foods.’ I am not going to completely deprive myself of these types of meals for the entire 50 days remaining, but after the weekend I just had I believe a nice, clean weekend will be good both for my body as well as my psyche.
Another
successful week of training is in the books & with race day looming, I am
really looking to increase the intensity of my workouts & dial in the consistency in my diet. With clear running goals for
each Saturday & a brand new training plan in place, I am confident that I have everything I need to be successful come race day, so the only thing left is to put in the work & execute on this training plan! Over the next 50 days I am goint to look to continue to smash my personal bests so I can be confident with my strength & level of
cardio come race day. Aroo!
100-Day Spartan
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