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 16

Longest long run yesterday at 12 miles (and the day after 6 sets of my heaviest leg presses with the last two being close to 800lbs) so that made me feel really good. I have to admit it feels like I really did “something” by being able to do that. I am most definitely not saying that it was anything serious or impressive at all, but definitely felt like some sort of accomplishment and something that not everybody could do… so that made me think perhaps I am getting in a somewhat unique state of fitness. I told my buddy Rich at the gym today that I did that and he said “Who does that?” Yeah… I don’t know 🙂

Missed out on a run this week (on Tuesday) because I had some serious Graston work done on my left calf (the work that I had done last time on my right calf) and it looks like it did work in preventing my feet from going partially numb during my runs because I had no problem with that during my 12 miler yesterday. The idea being that the nerves and the muscles were partially adhered together (from being so tight) and when my calves swelled due to the exertion of the run it would press against the nerve and cause it issues which translated to causing partial numbness in my feet. I also had a really tough and weak run on Thursday because of the trauma from the Graston on Monday night, but I was much much better on Saturday (and I should be fully healed from it tomorrow) so it was worth it obviously.

Had 3 solid gym sessions getting stronger in many of the lifts along with my longest long run, so it was a good week overall. If I can hit all of my running and gym work next week it will definitely be my biggest week so far.

So a few different things that I wanted to share (in no particular order):

• I bought my ticket to Phoenix (reserved my hotel room months ago)!! I am doing this thing! Boom! It wasn’t the cheapest ticket because I think they sort of gouge you because it is around New Years.. but c’est la gare.

• I contacted Fitletic and was fotunate for them to send me a Quench waist belt to review and we are going to be doing a very cool giveaway in December! We have also talked about social media cross promotions of my time at the race… which I am very excited about it. They seem to be a very cool company and I have a feeling we may have a very mutually benefical relationship for some time. I ran with the Quench yesterday for my long run and my initial impression is interesting. My full review will be coming up in the weeks ahead. Here I am wearing it after my run

• I found the USB battery charger that a fellow tweep had referenced in July.

• It is about the size of a bar of soap and the idea is you hook your Garmin up to its charging “claw” on your wrist and you snake the USB cable through your sleeve in your shirt and plug it into this charger in your waist pack and it charges it as you go. Was told that it shows up as “charging” on the Garmin while you are charging it but it continues to take mile splits in the background. Then when you are done charging you unplug and go on your way. It is relatively cheap and I am definitey ordering one this week and will try it out and let you know! If it does work.. it sure is cheaper than getting another Garmin!

• I am in the throes of serious training… this coming week (if all goes according to plan) I won’t be taking a day off… and for all of us that get to this stage of their training for a serious event (whether it is all running or running and the gym or whatever).. it isn’t the most exciting way to spend your weeks. Committing yourself to what it takes to try and accomplish a serious thing takes a lot of your time… a lot. And I have to be honest to say that there are more fun ways to spend your weeks! I am not complaining (and not really even venting).. just expressing how I have been kind of feeling lately. I tweeted out on Friday afternoon (when I took a day off after my birthday)

•  and at the time I really meant it. Will it be incredibly cool if I hit one of my goals at this race? Yes it most definitely will… but the training for a few good months beforehand takes a bit of the fun out of things. It is just a huge time and emotional commitment. And isn’t something that I would want to do year round.. I am very pro-“hanging out”! I just can’t do that now.. and it is ok.. just is what it is.. and makes accomplishing the goal that much sweeter knowing how hard it was to get there.
• I went with my buddy Rich to JD’s gym here in St. Louis this morning (we don’t belong.. we are members of Gold’s Gym) because we heard they had a good amount of Strongman equipment and thought it would be a blast to get some event training in along with our traditional gym workouts. I had delts/biceps and Rich had legs. So I threw up the log for 10 sets and he did sets of the Yoke in the middle of hitting legs. It was a blast and I felt strong. Rich was walking with 475lbs on his back in the video. Was nice to go somewhere different and to have some fun! Been a long time since I messed around with the events.

So onto last week:

Wednesday the 30th: 5 sets of Trap Bar Deadlifts (light but really high rep ending with 270X15.. definitely got my heart moving)

5 sets of Abs/Obliques

12 sets for Lats (all pullups then heavy pulldowns) I basically ran out of time this morning and thought about coming back for the rest of my lats session and triceps but it didn’t happen.

Thursday the 31st: Really awful 4 miles at 12:00 pace. I simply had no strength in my calves because of the Graston work on Monday night and your calves are your primary movers when running! That is for certain. Running is most effective at working your calves and it needs them when it is trying to run strong. I understood why it was happening though, so it was alright. I also knew that even as rough as it was by getting blood in there it would help the healing and it did.

Friday the 1st: 6 sets of the Cybex Squat Leg Press (going my heaviest yet with the final two sets being 720X8 and 770X5). I was an absolute mess after those leg presses. Light headed and had to take 15 minutes to recover to go on with the workout. The first 4 sets were all 15 – 20 reps and I was just destroyed. Was happy getting stronger though.

3 sets for Abs/Obliques

15 sets for Chest (hitting Dips with 90lbs hanging around my waist which was my heaviest yet during this training cycle and was really happy with that.. I love/hate dips)

I thought about doing some tricep work to make up for missing it on Wednesday but it didn’t happen. I was just too wiped out.. but my triceps obviously got some work from the heavy dips.

6 sets for Traps

Saturday the 2nd: 12 miles of running/walking! Awesome. I used the run .85 miles and then walk .15 miles routine for the whole run. I was still able to hit sub 9:00 pace running in the last miles and that felt good (especially after the thrashing I gave my legs on Friday.. did I happen to mention that I struggled to walk when I got off of the leg press!) 11:03 overall pace. Very happy with this run and look forward to build on it.

Sunday the 3rd: 6 sets of various delt work to warm up my shoulders for the Log

18 sets of delts (with 12 of them on the log.. so fun! I am sure they will be sore in a different way tomorrow)

10 sets for biceps (light again.. my right brachialis is still giving a bit of trouble)

7 sets of standing barbell wrist curls (hitting 115 for 2 sets which was my strongest yet) and plate levering

Best of luck in your training,

Chris