During my rest week before the Hitchcock, I took a “body age assessment” that my gym offers for free. Pushups, crunches, body fat, resting heart rate, etc.
I came out with my body age matching my actual age, meaning I am basically normal. And I am so tired of just being normal.
This reinforced what I already knew I need to do. I have pushed as far into more extreme events as I can on my current level. My less-than-stellar performance at a few events this year backs that up. So I can stay here, call it good enough to be better than I was a few years ago…or I can push into the next level.
I am backing off of the big, audacious events for 2016. I am still racing, still rucking, trying out a couple of new events, but for the most part avoiding the 30-plus-hour, heavy-duty events that I have not exactly excelled at lately. My focus this year will be on intense training, trying to improve my abilities so that I can do a better job at the events that I go after in 2017. 8 months of training plans intended for military, 4 months of ultra running training, and tackling one or two uber-long events at the very end of the year.
Including the following goals at the start of the effort:
As of this morning, I weigh 207 pounds. I would like to get that down to below 190.
Be able to pass Army PFT tests.
Ruck 12 miles in under 3 hours.
Meet the following strength standards:
LIFT
Front Squat 1.5x BW
Dead Lift 2.0x BW
Bench Press 1.5x BW
Push Press 1.1x BW
Squat Clean 1.25x BW
Squat Clean+ Push Press 1.1x BW
And be able to run fast enough to actually use the tables that come with my training plans, rather than having to extrapolate out for slower paces.
Before anyone asks, no, this is not a new years resolution. This is revamping my training after the last race of the year, and revamping it with a longer focus than I have before. Daily workouts will be posted on the Monk of the Mud Facebook page for any who wish to follow my progress.
The Monk of the Mud 