ROLLING INTO THE NEW YEAR

The last week of 2016 marks the first week of Boston Marathon training!  Exciting.  After a year of not doing much running, I'm fresh mentally and probably physically, and ready to get back into structured training.

Sat, Dec 26:

DEEZ NUTZ WOD

• Ruck: 1.8 mi

• Sit-ups: 325 + 105 = 430 (these seem to be easier when I'm wearing heavier shoes)

• Plank: 3.5 + 2 = 5.5

• J-Jacks: 100

• Flutter Kicks: 45 + 45 + 50 = 140

• Push-ups: 25 (hard, as usual)

• Squats: 100 + 100 = 200

• + various 10lb dumbell exercises

I don't plan to do any Spartan Races until after Boston, to minimize injury risk and to not burn out my body, since those races tend to wreck my muscles and make me really sore.  I will miss it, though, and am envious of all my Spartan facebook friends getting ready for spring races.  Their posts are always inspiring and make me want to go out and get Spartan strong.

Thur, Dec 29:

Wanted to try to get in a quality speed session with sufficient time to recover and make gains before the Disney Marathon.  It didn't end up going that well, though.  I only made it through 2 reps of 0.5 mi @ 9mph.  4 reps of 0.5 mi would've been "the usual", and 4 reps of 0.75 mi would've been tied with my record.  Oh well, it's to be expected, when I have done almost no interval sessions this year, and haven't trained with much speed intensity.

• 1 mi warmup in 8:04 building up to 7.5mph

• 2x [0.5mi @ 9mph (3:20), 0.25mi @ 7.5mph (2:00)]

• Had to take a break after that, even.

• Got back on the treadmill after the break to do 3 mi in 24:33 (8:11 ave), to not make the day a complete bonk.  Looking forward to eventually getting my VO2max back.

Fri, Dec 30:

I don't run on back-to-back days often, but I wanted to get in what mileage and training sessions I could, before tapering for the Disney Dopey Challenge race series the following week.  The Boston plan had me doing a "long run" of 8 mi this week, so that would've been nice, but I just did 7.0 in 57:54, 8:16 ave, 2 degrees of incline = 7:56 effort.  This was after a 6abv beer, so that twas pretty good. 

I had rucked 2.7 mi in the morning with dad, around the neighborhood.

Sat, Dec 31:

Could've maybe run again, but I wanted to try to hit one last Amerithon milestone before the end of the year.  I pushed to 90 minutes of biking, covering 26.3 miles.  The last 20 minutes were really hard.  I set the bike on level 7 for the first time.  My usual is level 6.  It got me like 8% more mileage, but I had to work for it.  I got back from the gym with 15 minutes to spare before watching the ball drop on TV.

Tapering time for the WDW Dopey Challenge.  4 days of no workouts.  Doing it not so much to increase speed, but to reduce injury risk.  4 days in a row of running, capped off with a slow marathon, will be a lot.

Jan 3rd:

On a walk with my dad around the neighborhood.