Monthly Archives: July 2013

Across the Years Training Week 2 Recap

So I signed up for my first 24 Hour foot race and detailed my high level training plan and will be writing about my nutrition plan this week (couldn’t get to it last week.. but without a doubt will be writing it this week).

So now I will detail my training from Week 2

acroos the years training calendar 2

This week saw some improvements and some progress.. and that is all you can ask for.

My foot issue is without question fascia related (and not bone) and that is a great positive. My original plantar tear from My Track Series is actually completely healed but I developed (from having my gait affected from the original plantar tear healing from the few times that I ran after the track series) an area of inflammation further down the plantar (my original was at the insertion into my heel or calcaneus) on the bottom of my foot near the cuneiforms

My chiropractor hit it really hard with that dreaded graston tool and it is definitely better. He gave me the go ahead to start to incorporate the walking into my training but not to run yet. We are planning to completely knock this out soon.

To be honest I was really excited to (from my perspective) start my training! Because even though I am not running yet, I walk trained this week and (as I had stated in my training outline) walking is a serious portion of my training for this race. I also incorporated my first day with two separate forms of training and that felt good (to start to get that in) even though it was tough and a sign of how tough things may get as I get deep into this training.

Before I detail my training for last week, I want to write that I do plan to outline future specific levels of running and walking for this training.. before I do it. In other words, I will write what my exact plans are for upcoming weeks (and then will write about if I stuck to them or not in my recaps) but I am just not going to do that until I can start running. I am planning on being able to run soon (perhaps next week) so when able I will detail my training plans in 6 week segments before I attempt them.

I also have to admit something else… As much as I have been wanting to start running again and tackle full training weeks as I have described in my training plan.. I also have really enjoyed having leisurely Sundays where I can wake up when I want, have some coffee, write a post on this blog, basically relax and perhaps have a dram or two of Scotch later in the day. I am just saying that as much as I want to start my full training weeks.. I can’t lie that it is nice to only have one day of the weekend where I am exercising. I will enjoy it while I can, because soon I won’t have that luxury.

So onto last week:

Tuesday the 23rd: Ironmind Hip/Squat Belt Squats with barbell for 4 sets. Been a long time since I have used that belt and I forgot how tough it is. Really works the stabilizers as you work hard to stabilize the barbell beneath you. It’s kind of funny that no one at the gym had ever heard of such a piece of equipment.

3 sets for abs (legs shaking from the squats)

3 sets for obliques and 3 sets of light torso rotation

19 sets for chest

Wednesday the 24th: Ran out of time on Tuesday so did

13 sets for traps and rhombhoids on Weds

Thursday the 25th: 3 miles of walking! Yay 🙂 Slower and my legs felt like they weren’t sure exactly what to do (as it has been a while since I have walked or ran) but was happy to get them in: 16:38, 15:55 and 15:51. Slow but at least they got faster.

Friday the 26th: 3 sets of walking lunges (with 25’s instead of 20’s a couple weeks ago) and 2 sets of side lunges holding a 25lb plate

3 sets for abs and 2 sets for obliques

16 sets for delts

12 sets for biceps

Saturday the 27th: AM: 4 sets of trap bar deadlifts (high rep and ending with 250X8)

22 sets for lats

12 sets for triceps

PM: 3 miles of walking. 14:42, 14:26 and 14:31. It was definitely cool that my miles were faster (than on Thursday) the evening after doing deadlifts in the morning but it was tough. Hamstrings felt weak and legs wanted to straighten out and not bend naturally. It went fine but was hard and felt a bit weird. Legs felt sore when I started and that is what I wanted.. as they were already tired and I worked to move forward on them. First two a day training. It worked my mental training too because I didn’t really want to go out at 7:00 and walk but I did. Happy to get it out of the way but there is a lot more coming.

Legs feel ok this morning, but definitely sore. I think I am getting less sore directly from the leg gym work though and should be even better in a couple of weeks.

My gym workouts are really going great! My volume and strength is going up, but I think this will partially diminish when I start getting into higher volume on the road (not intentionally) but we will see.

One thing that I have already noticed (and I am hoping that maybe it is just my imagination but I will know for sure as the weeks go on) is that my legs are growing. If I wasn’t going to get into serious running and race walking, I would welcome it but I did seem to notice it having an effect on my walk last night. The inner thighs just sort of getting in the way a bit. Didn’t get any chafing but will watch this and always (runs or walks) use the chamois butt’r. It is just my genetics that after 3 weeks of leg workouts in the gym, my legs are already starting to grow.

On the other hand, because of not being able to run and not being able to do any calf work at the gym (the levering of the foot in calf work aggravates the area that is currently inflamed similarly to running) my calves are starting to look like a 14 year old boys forearms… but they will come back quickly once I am able to train them.

That is about it for Week 2 of 24… I would generalize last week as “Making Progress”.

On August 1st, I will start a raffle giveaway post on a full bottle supplement (not trial size).. stay tuned!

Best of luck in your training,

Chris