Michael: The General Plan

The green mountain side
Rises out of the earth like
A stegosaurus.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

For the past two months and until I begin to taper for a 100k trail race at the end of February, the general plan is this:

Monday: Speed work/ body weight resistance training.
Tuesday: Jump rope/ gym.
Wednesday: 1 ½ hr. trail run.
Thursday: 1 ½ - 2 ½ hr. bike ride/ Jump rope/ body weight resistance work.
Friday: Interval - tempo run/ gym.
Saturday: 2 ½ - 4 hr. bike ride.
Sunday: long road or trail run.

All of these workouts are done in the morning, though I also stretch for about 45 minutes every night.

I was trying to wedge in another bike ride and a upper body workout, but that was leaving me a little too exhausted and edgy.

To prepare for the race in February, every two weeks I plan on getting out for an all day running/hiking adventure. Otherwise nothing too drastic or complicated. I’ve always been a low mileage cross training dude, no matter what type of racing I was doing or what was trending on the exercise front. I enjoy it and it’s kept me pretty active and healthy. I may tinker a bit as the years go by, but as long as I’m capable, I don’t foresee any reason to stop running, riding and lifting.

This plan gets me outside everyday. Even on Tuesday when we’re only doing gym work, we walk to and from the gym. That, I believe, is one of the  secrets to our improving health here in Panama. Without a car, we get outside a lot more and do a lot more walking. 

This plan is by no means perfect or written in stone. For the fun of it, we’d like to take up swimming at some point. We’d also like to give tennis and/or basketball a go to work on our hand-eye coordination and lateral agility. Every few months we’ll also tinker with new gym and body weight exercises to keep our bodies adaptive and to stop rigor-mortis from setting in.

I’m grateful for my health and the opportunity to get outside everyday and experience the joys that movement and moving through this world provides.