Welcome to my training Journal. After some procrastinating and a little prompting from others I have made the first step and will attempt to post regularly….
Stats:
44 year old male, currently living in Central California.
69 inches, 188 lbs
Goals: I want to start racing up to 800 meters with a focus on 400 this winter and see how I progress in to running masters races next spring/summer. Drop in body weight to sub 180lbs.
I have not raced in a few years and the majority of my running races were from 800 meters to 5 miles.
PRs: 800:1:59, 2 mile:9:59 both at 27 years old, 5K:16:09 and 5 mile:27:18 (just putting them out there, but I am a realist and have not run these times in a few years….)
I have not run any 100 or 200 meter races in my life.
I have been somewhat of a confused athlete attempting to mix speed and endurance from the beginning of my competitive athletic career (around 14 years old). Although later in life, I am so glad I found the Charlie Francis system (thank you Fergus Connolly for the recommendation) and have been attempting to absorb all of his work in my free time….
Athletic Background: In HS I played football and ran middle distance in track and field and in doing so I attempted to get as big as possible before and during the football season and then drop upwards to 20 lbs during winter and spring track and field seasons. As you could have guessed it was not working well for me then, but I persisted and endured for many few years. I was fortunate to hook up with a gym owner after my freshman year who taught me the basics of weightlifting and it has always been part of my training program. Early on I thought I needed to run distance to prepare for football (if I only knew then what I know now….) with very little specific speed work training. In High School I listened to football coaches and peers and believed I had a better shot at playing football in college than track and I made the decision to leave T & F to focus on football my junior year in HS. I ended up injuring my knee and did not play senior year, probable cause: overtraining. I did not receive much attention from colleges after my injury and ended up playing at a small Division III American football college for a year where I worked into a starting cornerback position. I transferred schools after my freshman year and ended up at Rutgers University with the ambition to play Division I football. After a brief tryout with the team I was pretty much told thank you for your time. Interestingly enough one of the events during the Rutgers tryout was the timed mile that begs the question how does running the mile relate to playing football??? Unlike today, where the Rutgers football team is doing well, the team was not a very good team back then, wonder why….
After my football playing attempts were over I joined the Army Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) officer training program and this is when I first realized I should have stuck with track and field as I excelled in running distance races from 400 meters to 5+ miles. Physical fitness and adventure were my initial draw to the military as I love being active and physically fit. After college I joined the Army full time as an Infantry officer. There are two Army schools of thought on physical training: endurance and power/speed. I drank the endurance cool aid for over 17 plus years of my career where I attempted/struggled to transform into a distance/endurance athlete. I started training endurance early in my career when I trained for and competed in a number of events from the Army Best Ranger competition, then progressing to distance running races and triathlons up to Ironman distance. I am hard headed and in the end (17+ years) I realized that endurance training was not right for me. Switching my training philosophy to speed and power are more suited for my natural body design, and in the end I am more productive in work and life. In my spare time I study nutrition and exercise (I have a Masters in Human Nutrition) and look forward to working in the field some day.
Enough about me, here is my journal:
For the past three months I been kind of a GPP like training period where I train High intensity 2 X per week ( Medicine ball explosive throws plus weight training)/ low intensity 3 X per week(tempo runs and MB circuit training)
An example of my general weekly training schedule for the past three months is the following:
I practice Qigong in the AM/PM
Monday: Hi Intensity run (med ball explosive throws or 10-30 meter runs)/lift weights (Squat/Bench/Bent over rows/pull ups)
Tues: Low intensity (tempo runs and/or MB circuit training)
Weds: Off
Thurs: Hi Intensity run/lift(Deadlift/Standing presses/upright rows/weighted pull ups)
Fri: Low intensity (tempo runs and/or MB circuit training)
Sat: Qigong(1 hour class) followed by 1 hour massage
Sun: Low intensity (tempo runs and/or MB circuit training)
My nutrition is pretty sound with my background and I certified in and follow Bill Walcott’s Metabolic Typing Diet/supplement program. One big weakness in my nutrition living in Central California is I drink too much wine as the Zinfandel grown here are incredible…
9/13/09
Not sure what I was thinking but I decided to go to the track to run a few 400s for time at about 90+ % to assess my current conditioning….
Rode Bicycle to track then Warm up
1 X 400 meter (69.30)
5 min RI
1 X 400 meter (66.40)
Cool down
Good feeling being back on the track after a long absence, but I will pay for it Mon/Tues
9/14/09
Warm up
1 X 10 minutes Medicine Ball (MB) Circuit with 8lb MB
3 min Rest Interval (RI)
1 X 10 minutes MB Circuit with 15lb MB
3 min RI
1 X 5 min MB Circuit with 15lb MB
Stretch
Goal was to complete three circuits, but ran out of time (and energy). A little sore from yesterday
9/15/09
Warm Up
Tempo
250 +250+250+250
250 +250+250+250
250 +250+250+250
Cool down/ stretch
Very sore from Sunday
9/16/09
Off
hope it comes right quickly