Across the Years Training Week 4 Recap
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So I signed up for my first 24 Hour foot race and detailed my high level training plan and my nutrition plan.

So now I will detail my training from Week 4

across the years calendar week 4

Quite easily the most eventful thing last week was that I was running! Yay! I have reason to believe that having running as a significant part of my training will be quite important for this 24 Hour Foot Race thing I have planned at the end of December 🙂 It was a really good feeling being out there running even if it was only twice and they were short runs. It was running and I liked it and it bodes well for my future training.

Some other things that I learned (or just wanted to discuss) from last week:

  • Racewalking is harder than running. When I say this, I am not saying that it takes that much more out of me.. what I mean is it is simply harder to perform continually. I will have a whole post at some point in the near future about race walking, but what I want to write here is that it is a more fully engaging exercise than even running. It truly involves your whole body (you really have to use your upper body in a pulling fashion to go fast.. otherwise you simply slow down), is seriously aerobic and I don’t know if you ever get extremely efficient at it. With running you can get into a zone where you just sort of glide along and it feels relatively easy. You are simply “catching yourself from falling” over and over and it can feel almost effortless (until you get fast enough or you are in the last miles of your run). Don’t get me wrong at all.. running is not easy and requires serious effort but race walking basically never feels effortless and you never sort of get in a groove where you can “let go”.. you have to keep pushing!  I don’t kow if it will ever feel “easy” (like a mid week 6 mile run can) but we will see.. I definitely hope that it does at some point in my training but it’s hard to tell at this point.
  • On the opposite side of the coin, running definitely takes the most out of me. Later in the day (especially after a long run), I just feel destroyed sometimes. It really knocks you out more than the other 3 exercises that I am doing. I have to say that I don’t really like that aspect of running. Sometimes I feel so wiped out that I can’t really accomplish a whole lot (my favorite saying is “I won’t be building a shed out back today!”… funny thing is I don’t want a shed in back but you get my drift). To be honest it also can kind of effect me emotionally… after some long runs I just am not horribly happy. Sometimes I am actually a bit sad or down. I don’t know what exactly is happening that causes this but it is a not a completely infrequent occurence… some days after a long hard run I am not really liking life! I don’t get that from stair climbing, the gym or race walking.. running is the toughest in that respect.
  • I decided to put together a small list of goals in the gym for my legs (that I hope to accomplish by December 31st)… mostly just for fun and to have some other goals. I don’t know if I will reach them but if I even get close my legs will be seriously stronger. So they are: 1) 450X8 in the trap bar deadlift 2) 700X8 in the 90 degree leg press 3) 365X8 in the conventional deadlift 4) 315X8 in the Romanian Deadlift 5) 65lb dumbbells X 20 in the walking lunge 6) 100lb barbell X 20 in the side lunge 7) 170lbs X 12 on the glute press
  • I decided also to put together a couple of goals for stairclimbing and race walking. I would like to see if I could climb 100 floors in one session at some point in this training (my current record is 66). That is going to take a while and will be brutal I am sure, but if I can do it I will feel like my legs are at a different level. I would also like to see if I could racewalk 5 miles at 11:00 pace. I am pretty sure that I have done that before or come close, but I am a far way off from it at the moment. When I can do 11:00’s, then 12:30’s and 13:00’s won’t feel too tough.

My foot doesn’t feel 100% yet, but it isn’t stopping me from running and at this point I just sort of “notice” it. It should be even better this week.

I also need to get in 3 sets of my rotator cuff exercise 3 times a week but am finding that a struggle. It is mostly that I do it at the end of my gym workouts and sometimes run out of time. It is an exercise (which I will talk about in a future post) that you can do separately and I am trying to do it at night while watching TV… that is the plan tonight.

I am hoping to do close to (if not completely) the original weekly routine that I laid out in the beginning of this schedule this week. If I do then I will write out an upcoming six week plan and attempt to stick to it. I simply want to make sure that I can do another full week of running before I commmit to a specific multi week plan. So I hope to be writing out that schedule next Sunday. But I can at least say that I am planning on two 4 mile runs and a 6 mile on the weekend.

I most definitely cannot get in the amount of meals, calories and water intake on the weekends that I do during the week. I won’t probably bring this up again and it just is what it is. I will remain vigilant and do my best but it is a struggle. I tend to have one less meal on Saturdays and Sundays.

I got in my two core sessions this week (as opposed to one the week before).. I actually made that a priority since I wrote that I missed the 2nd one in my last post 🙂

So onto last week:

Tuesday the 6th: Cybex Squat Leg Press ending with 360X15. 3 weeks ago I did 290X20 so this was a big improvement.

5 sets for Abs/Obliques

11 sets for Chest

8 sets for Traps

Wednesday the 7th: 3 miles of racewalking 13:30, 13:12 and 12:50.

Thursday the 8th: Abs were crazy sore (I just did reverse crunches and hanging side leg raises on Tuesday so I am not sure why) so I decided to leave abs until Saturday

Glutes: Walking lunges 35lb Dbs for 3 sets of 20 (up from 25’s when I started these a few weeks ago), 2 sets of Side Lunges with 45lb plate for 15, and 2 sets on the Glute Machine with 110X15

14 sets for Delts

13 sets for Biceps

Friday the 9th: 5K of running (it has been a while.. glad to be running again) at a reasonable pace (was worried I would be crazy out of shape but I’m not) 9:23, 9:07, and 8:56. I wore my Minimus Zeros.

Saturday the 10th: Trap Bar Deadlifts ending with 265X12 (an increase of 20lbs since last time)

3 sets for Abs and 2 sets for Obliques

20 sets for Lats

15 sets for Triceps

This one was long and seriously tough. Was really happy with the weights I hit and with my ability to deadlift high rep and continue on with a high volume workout but it beat me up!

Sunday the 11th: 5 miles of running (this time barefoot)! I was very happy that my laps were solid too (and I got faster in the later miles). I will say that the first mile was tough because of the 80 deadlift reps I did on Saturday. No doubt they had an impact. Actually I was thinking there was a time not that long ago where I could barely walk up stairs the day after a heavy deadlift or squat session (heavy being relative here since I am by no means strong at the moment) and now I am running 5 miles… it should feel pretty tough! My laps were 9:40, 9:10, 8:47, 8:44 and 8:50.

Sitting here righting this my legs are definitely sore… in kind of a combination running and weightlifting way. It is interesting.

That is about it for week 4 of 24. Planning on stair climbing tomorrow night and attempting a full week (or close) of my training plan. It is going to be tough… and I will let you know!

Best of luck in your training,

Chris

4 thoughts on “Across the Years Training Week 4 Recap

  1. Shawn

    Serious props to you for recording your workouts in such detail and for doing a 24 hr run. I don’t think I’d be able to do either. Good luck on your race and training!

    Reply
    1. Chris M Post author

      Thanks Shawn!
      Yes it does take a bit of time and effort to detail each week, but I feel like it will allow me to better understand what is working, what maybe isn’t and how I am progressing as the weeks go on. Plus if things don’t go exactly as I hope on race day (and night… and day 🙂 ) then I will really be able to analyze how I might tweak it.
      I look forward to checking out your site!

      Chris

      Reply
    1. Chris M Post author

      Jen,

      Thanks so much! It will be such a crazy fun day being surrounded by some of the best runners in the world and just doing my best to keep going when it gets tough (and it will get crazy tough!).
      The training is also really interesting to me. This week was my most serious yet and it was tough.
      So excited that you will be following along!

      Thanks!
      Chris

      Reply

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