I'm feeling pretty good so far. My body is all in good shape. As I post about what I'm doing, I'm going to try my best to also let you know why. Just FYI, this is not my first week training for Tough Mudder. (Times are H:MM unless they're mile times, then they're MM:SS)
15 weeks to go
Saturday: Camarillo Mayor's Cup Taekwondo Championship (Gold Medal + Reffing all day long)
Sunday: Biking 1:30, 4 loops of San Vicente plus getting there
Monday: Taekwondo Practice (1:20)
Tuesday: 6 miles at 7:30 min/mile pace + olympic lifting for 2 hours
Wednesday: Taekwondo Practice (1:20)
Thursday: Lazy day (rest)
Friday: 2 mile run (6:30 min/mile, stretch then 6:00 min/mile) then core craziness type 1 (5 sets)
14 weeks to go
Saturday: Lazy day (rest)
Sunday: Biking 2:09, 6 loops of San Vicente plus getting there
Chubby monkey scale: 173 lbs at 15 weeks to go, 176 now (I got hungry and had poker night).
Core Craziness Type 1
7 pushups
20 slow, hold at the top, crunches
7 pushups
20 oblique crunches
7 pushups
20 oblique crunches (other side)
Congratulations, you've finished one set. Your reward: do it again (in this case, 5 times)
Okay, so why?
Here's my basic theory behind training for a 24+ hour race: there's no way that I'm going to be doing 12 hours of working out per day regularly. That also just isn't good for your body. I've heard the caution that you only have so many good marathons in you. If I'm running more than a marathon in training, then I have to be doing something wrong. That means that I'm going to do less hours of training but have them be more intense. I'm going to get the distance up, but also recognize that I'm not going to get to 50 miles/day or 12hours/day. When I get to the actual event, I just need to keep my heart rate down, keep on trucking (cue Rollin' Rollin' Rollin') song and channel the Mudder Spirit (cue Firefly episode: Jaynestown).
The other part is that there's no way that my feet, ankles, knees and back could take that much distance on foot. That means that I have to cross train to get my heart up to speed while my body is catching up. For now, that means using biking as my long "runs" because it works similar muscles and has less impact so I don't build up damage to my body. Meanwhile, I use other days to work up my actual running distance until my body can keep up with my heart.
Also, Tough Mudder isn't like the 100 milers and the other 24 hour events. It's got obstacles. Last year it had 39 obstacles per 8-9 miles. That means that (1) I am NOT going to run 100 miles in 24 hours and (2) I need to train up other muscle groups for the obstacles. Conveniently, I'm the President of the UCLA Taekwondo (TKD) competition team. That's a lot of explosive motions over longer periods of time. Even though it's all done on your feet, you don't have the repetitive motions of putting you feet down. There are a lot of other activities that tie you out during practice. As part of team training, we also do olympic lifts and hardcore core workouts. In aggregate, TKD builds the explosive power needed for the obstacles while also keeping up the endurance that you need for the craziness of 24 hours.
The other part that I'm working on is my weight. I'm a little chunky now because I fight welter weight for TKD. I'm 5 foot 9 inches (1.75m), so technically I'm overweight. Unless you're a naive doctor looking at his charts (happened), when you look at me, you'd never guess. I've got a healthy amount of fat on me, but I've also got a hefty amount of muscle from lifting and TKD. My goal is to get my weight down to 150/155-ish by just increasing distance but not changing my eating habits. That way I go back down to something that's more reasonable for running shape but it's also reasonable given my current weight. Dropping 20 pounds in 14 weeks won't be easy, but when you're working up to "running" 90 miles a week, methinks it's more possible. Just for comparison's sake, I haven't been 150 lbs since 2005 (graduating high school). When I was in running shape, I was 140 lbs and I was a little bigger than I should have been for running.
15 weeks to go
Saturday: Camarillo Mayor's Cup Taekwondo Championship (Gold Medal + Reffing all day long)
Sunday: Biking 1:30, 4 loops of San Vicente plus getting there
Monday: Taekwondo Practice (1:20)
Tuesday: 6 miles at 7:30 min/mile pace + olympic lifting for 2 hours
Wednesday: Taekwondo Practice (1:20)
Thursday: Lazy day (rest)
Friday: 2 mile run (6:30 min/mile, stretch then 6:00 min/mile) then core craziness type 1 (5 sets)
14 weeks to go
Saturday: Lazy day (rest)
Sunday: Biking 2:09, 6 loops of San Vicente plus getting there
Chubby monkey scale: 173 lbs at 15 weeks to go, 176 now (I got hungry and had poker night).
Core Craziness Type 1
7 pushups
20 slow, hold at the top, crunches
7 pushups
20 oblique crunches
7 pushups
20 oblique crunches (other side)
Congratulations, you've finished one set. Your reward: do it again (in this case, 5 times)
Okay, so why?
Here's my basic theory behind training for a 24+ hour race: there's no way that I'm going to be doing 12 hours of working out per day regularly. That also just isn't good for your body. I've heard the caution that you only have so many good marathons in you. If I'm running more than a marathon in training, then I have to be doing something wrong. That means that I'm going to do less hours of training but have them be more intense. I'm going to get the distance up, but also recognize that I'm not going to get to 50 miles/day or 12hours/day. When I get to the actual event, I just need to keep my heart rate down, keep on trucking (cue Rollin' Rollin' Rollin') song and channel the Mudder Spirit (cue Firefly episode: Jaynestown).
The other part is that there's no way that my feet, ankles, knees and back could take that much distance on foot. That means that I have to cross train to get my heart up to speed while my body is catching up. For now, that means using biking as my long "runs" because it works similar muscles and has less impact so I don't build up damage to my body. Meanwhile, I use other days to work up my actual running distance until my body can keep up with my heart.
Also, Tough Mudder isn't like the 100 milers and the other 24 hour events. It's got obstacles. Last year it had 39 obstacles per 8-9 miles. That means that (1) I am NOT going to run 100 miles in 24 hours and (2) I need to train up other muscle groups for the obstacles. Conveniently, I'm the President of the UCLA Taekwondo (TKD) competition team. That's a lot of explosive motions over longer periods of time. Even though it's all done on your feet, you don't have the repetitive motions of putting you feet down. There are a lot of other activities that tie you out during practice. As part of team training, we also do olympic lifts and hardcore core workouts. In aggregate, TKD builds the explosive power needed for the obstacles while also keeping up the endurance that you need for the craziness of 24 hours.
The other part that I'm working on is my weight. I'm a little chunky now because I fight welter weight for TKD. I'm 5 foot 9 inches (1.75m), so technically I'm overweight. Unless you're a naive doctor looking at his charts (happened), when you look at me, you'd never guess. I've got a healthy amount of fat on me, but I've also got a hefty amount of muscle from lifting and TKD. My goal is to get my weight down to 150/155-ish by just increasing distance but not changing my eating habits. That way I go back down to something that's more reasonable for running shape but it's also reasonable given my current weight. Dropping 20 pounds in 14 weeks won't be easy, but when you're working up to "running" 90 miles a week, methinks it's more possible. Just for comparison's sake, I haven't been 150 lbs since 2005 (graduating high school). When I was in running shape, I was 140 lbs and I was a little bigger than I should have been for running.
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