September Goals & Objectives
- Race and recover from Virgil Crest 100 Miler – CHECK
- Continue weekly hillz/speed workouts outside of week before/10 days after Virgil Crest – CHECK
- Increase strength training to 260 minutes – DOUBLE CHECK
September was another solid month for The Revolution. I did better than normal with my nutrition at Virgil Crest so my recovery was a little quicker than Eastern States. I was pretty much back to 100% within a week. My biggest focus for the month was to continue locking in the habits of twice weekly running workouts (1 hill, 1 speed) and daily strength training. I’m probably about 80-90% there right now. I’m not really missing any workouts, however that’s only because I’m hyper focused on getting them done. I want to get to the point where I’ll go to any length to make sure they get done like my daily mile. This is probably an unrealistic goal, but if you’re following along here you’ve probably noticed that I’m not one for setting realistic goals.
Well, except my September strength training target of 260 minutes. I’m not sure what I was thinking there. No, that’s not true. I know what I was thinking. I was thinking I’d increase August’s volume about 20%. Twenty percent is a decent increase, however this didn’t even get me up to 10 minutes per day. Like what am I even trying to accomplish here? Am I just playing around with strength training or am I going to get serious? I want to get serious so I upped my goal to 300 minutes within the first week. I was able to reach this fairly easily even considering I logged a bunch of zeros the week around Virgil Crest.
“Strength training” is my catchall phrase for any training that’s not running or walking related. Up until this month that had included mobility, core, body weight, and limited dumbbell exercises. I have slowly added a couple routines as I go along to add some variety. This month I decided to add a balance exercise and yoga as I have some serious balance and flexibility issues. I’ve barely scratched the surface here and probably need to spend some time and effort focusing on these weaknesses over the next several months.
I know I said The Revolution was going to be hyper focused on strength training through the end of the year, but Virgil Crest highlighted the impact my low running volume has had on my fitness. I hadn’t had a forty mile training week in . . . [checks spreadsheet] . . . over 3 months?!?! While I haven’t explicitly defined my peak volume heading into next year’s Vol State, it’s most likely going to be multiple 100+ mile weeks. It’s not the smartest thing to go straight from 30 to that level so I decided I should start slowly ramping up my mileage. I logged 47 last week and should be in the low 50s this week. This also lets me start getting a feel for how increased mileage plus twice per week workouts impacts my body. Better to start experimenting with this now at modest mileage totals rather than waiting until I’m hitting weekly mileage PRs. I’ve historically been comfortably able to handle 60-70 mile weeks with no workouts so 50 miles +/- with workouts should be fine.
Flexibility remains a key consideration for me as I move forward. It’s one reason why I haven’t mapped out exactly what The Revolution will entail over the next year. I don’t want to set hard and fast volume benchmarks (i.e. 10 hours per month strength training, 90mpw running) only to get there and realize I can do much more. Or conversely (and more likely) push to reach an arbitrary number when my body clearly can’t handle it. The goal is and will remain to improve my fitness and endurance to a whole new level while minimizing the risk of injury.
October Goals & Objectives
- Race and recover from Uwharrie 100 Miler
- Continue weekly hillz/speed workouts outside of week before/after Uwharrie
- Increase strength training to 500-600 minutes