Not everything has necessarily went according to plan over the last couple years. From being burnt to a f***ing crisp, to never wanting to run again, to a 5 month injury, to seasons of mediocre results and sub par performances. Now here I am starting to build for the summer and ultimately my final university season. I am putting the past behind me and looking only towards the future. And the future looks pretty good as long as this snow melts; I'm already feeling imprisoned in February. So to get right down to it the plan is fairly simple: be consistent, be patient, learn from past mistakes, listen to the body, recover, and finally pursue excellence.
I understand that this plan is fairly abstract, but for past 2 years I have spent days formulating a 4 month plan for the summer and although it has been successful, I don't want to feel tied down to something right now. I want to run unattached to words on paper. When looking at a predetermined schedule I always notice that I can already tell how the week is going to feel and how I will react to the stress. Although this is a nice way to train, I want to leave my comfort zone.
With that in mind, I have to admit I have given my brain to much power in the decision making dealing with my running career. Therefore from this point foreword I will attempt to let both my body and my heart do the decision making. Not god, sorry Ryan Hall that plan hasn't really worked out for you. In which I have one lofty goal for the next 365 days. And it is to break all of my current personal bests from the half marathon down to the 400m and also break my personal best from a 28km trail race that I like to do and the beer mile too and chase the course record at the Deep River 6x1mile relay.
Cheers,
rj.
p.s. if you want in on the deep river 6x1mile course record attempt contact me, free beer if we get the record.
Monday, February 09, 2015
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
Time to be Real with Myself
Ok, lets be straight up about realistic goals here. What am I in this for?
As I was practicing my water can chug, stalling at 8 mid or 7 high night after night, I came to realize - it's time to stop fooling around. Let's be honest. I am never going to be able to actually chug frothy carbonated, sting-the-back-of-your-throat beer in world class time.
However, from that low I find a reassuring high point. I need to focus on STRENGTHS. Sure, my chug isn't the fastest in the world. So I make up with volume and capacity handling, as well as running ability. In the future you can BET I'll be doing more training using what I call Sequentials (where the aim is to average high chug speed for a number of cans, as well as overall time for the sequence).
This usefulness of this volume-focused exercise gets reinforced when you look at the fact that a can can't really be completely poured any faster than 6.5 seconds without being altered. Therefore, the gap between the very best chugger and yourself is limited to no more than your chug time subtract 6.5 seconds (give or take). After all, how can a beermiler chug faster than the speed at which the liquid can flow from the can? This is reassuring indeed.
But back to sequences. Sequences can be anywhere from 2 to 6 or more cans. Will I ever attempt a session of sequences to failure? Who knows. The session involves chugging each can repetitively, one after another, using water, or in rare race simulation environments, actual brew. The exercise can be considered a success if each can chug time is within a second of the others. The key here is consistency. Volume handling.
When it comes down to it, if I can some day manage sub-10 second chugs and sub 13 second total transition times within race environments consistently, I will be a happy camper.
So in answer to my original question, I am in this to push the limits of my abilities that contribute to a fast beermile, whether they are naturally high-level or not. Whether the combination of these will some day qualify me for the fast heat of BMWC is yet to be seen., but make no mistake: that is the goal.
D.C.
As I was practicing my water can chug, stalling at 8 mid or 7 high night after night, I came to realize - it's time to stop fooling around. Let's be honest. I am never going to be able to actually chug frothy carbonated, sting-the-back-of-your-throat beer in world class time.
However, from that low I find a reassuring high point. I need to focus on STRENGTHS. Sure, my chug isn't the fastest in the world. So I make up with volume and capacity handling, as well as running ability. In the future you can BET I'll be doing more training using what I call Sequentials (where the aim is to average high chug speed for a number of cans, as well as overall time for the sequence).
This usefulness of this volume-focused exercise gets reinforced when you look at the fact that a can can't really be completely poured any faster than 6.5 seconds without being altered. Therefore, the gap between the very best chugger and yourself is limited to no more than your chug time subtract 6.5 seconds (give or take). After all, how can a beermiler chug faster than the speed at which the liquid can flow from the can? This is reassuring indeed.
But back to sequences. Sequences can be anywhere from 2 to 6 or more cans. Will I ever attempt a session of sequences to failure? Who knows. The session involves chugging each can repetitively, one after another, using water, or in rare race simulation environments, actual brew. The exercise can be considered a success if each can chug time is within a second of the others. The key here is consistency. Volume handling.
When it comes down to it, if I can some day manage sub-10 second chugs and sub 13 second total transition times within race environments consistently, I will be a happy camper.
So in answer to my original question, I am in this to push the limits of my abilities that contribute to a fast beermile, whether they are naturally high-level or not. Whether the combination of these will some day qualify me for the fast heat of BMWC is yet to be seen., but make no mistake: that is the goal.
D.C.
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