2020 fitness goals

[mtwarden]

you’re back on the horse, that’s a win!

 

[twall13]

Terrible, to be frank. Finally getting back into it after time off for a couple injuries/issues (inner right groin strain, right kne Osgood-Schlattters flair up, and right side ITB issues). I was working a run streak and made it 104 days of a minimum 1 mile/day, but completely ignored my stretching/strength conditioning. Then, after dealing with these pains for about two weeks and running through them, my A-race in October became the latest Covid casualtiy and got cancelled. Honestly, it was a mental blow I wasn't ready for, and I said the hell with it, I'm taqking time off to get feeling better.

Started back last week with easy running (still painful), yoga 4 times/week, ITB stretches, heavy bag workouts twice/week, and doing "all day for reps" Murph training twice/week. Last week went well, this week is starting off good, so just want to continue this momentum.

Having a small procedure on the 21st of this month that will keep me from doing a lot for that week, but hoping to get back to heavy running in Sept. and give a full Murph an attempt again late Sept/early Oct.

These past weeks have felt like a huge failure in metal toughness and fortitude to me, but gotta get back on the horse and stop feeling sorry for myself. On the plus side, I've maintained my weight and not gained, so I'm doing something right.

Awesome job to everyone who's stuck with everything this year. This has been my most challenging year mentally in a while.

Never fun dealing with injuries and setbacks but glad to hear you are back at it.

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[twall13]

Here's my report through August-

Trail Running Miles: 753
Hiking Miles: 158
Mtn. Biking Miles: 109
Total Trail Miles: 1,020 of 1,400 goal for the year
Total Elevation Gain: 135,000 of 175,000 goal for the year

It was a pretty good month with the highlights being a Mountain Goat survey and a couple backpacking trips with my kids. Overall I'm actually ahead of schedule and thinking about going for 1,500 trail miles and 200,000 elevation gain but we'll see how things play out over the next few months.

I also got my Monthly Murph in with a time of 33 minutes 34 seconds. I hope everyone is doing well as big game seasons are starting up everywhere.

 

[P Carter]

I love the monthly reports, thanks to all.

I had a good August, mile-wise, but an interesting injury.
Year-to-date totals:
Running/hiking: 1,088
Biking: 430
Total: 1,518
On track for: Over 2,200.

On the injury, this is a sort of PSA.

In late July, I started weighted-pack hikes for muscular endurance workouts, following the Training for the New Alpinism model. They went very well -- so well, in fact, that I was having to hike quite fast to keep at the lactate threshold with 50 lbs. To accomplish fast hiking, I really cinched my pack down tight on the shoulders. (I've been using a Sierra Designs Flux Capacitor, which is not ideal from a weight-carrying perspective.) After a few sessions, I went to draw back my bow and just could not do it. I also couldn't do pushups or pullups, and my left arm was basically flopping around while running. Painless weakness in the left arm. Of course, that was pretty alarming in the medical community. I had a few appointments -- first time I've been to a doctor in over 10 years -- x-rays, and EMGs. Long story short, the docs think I gave myself a case of "rucksack palsy" (look it up, interesting stuff!) where the shoulder straps basically damaged nerves in the brachial plexus.

The strength is coming back now, but I had to dial my bow back to 60 lbs (luckily that works well now!), stop weighted pack hikes, stop and start over with pushups and pullups, etc. Thank goodness the strength is coming back, or I would be a spectator during archery season.

In the big scheme of things, not a big deal. But it was the weirdest thing for awhile -- the left arm just would not work for certain movements.

And I purchased a brand spankin' new Exo pack, so we'll see how the season goes.

 

[twall13]

I love the monthly reports, thanks to all.

I had a good August, mile-wise, but an interesting injury.
Year-to-date totals:
Running/hiking: 1,088
Biking: 430
Total: 1,518
On track for: Over 2,200.

On the injury, this is a sort of PSA.

In late July, I started weighted-pack hikes for muscular endurance workouts, following the Training for the New Alpinism model. They went very well -- so well, in fact, that I was having to hike quite fast to keep at the lactate threshold with 50 lbs. To accomplish fast hiking, I really cinched my pack down tight on the shoulders. (I've been using a Sierra Designs Flux Capacitor, which is not ideal from a weight-carrying perspective.) After a few sessions, I went to draw back my bow and just could not do it. I also couldn't do pushups or pullups, and my left arm was basically flopping around while running. Painless weakness in the left arm. Of course, that was pretty alarming in the medical community. I had a few appointments -- first time I've been to a doctor in over 10 years -- x-rays, and EMGs. Long story short, the docs think I gave myself a case of "rucksack palsy" (look it up, interesting stuff!) where the shoulder straps basically damaged nerves in the brachial plexus.

The strength is coming back now, but I had to dial my bow back to 60 lbs (luckily that works well now!), stop weighted pack hikes, stop and start over with pushups and pullups, etc. Thank goodness the strength is coming back, or I would be a spectator during archery season.

In the big scheme of things, not a big deal. But it was the weirdest thing for awhile -- the left arm just would not work for certain movements.

And I purchased a brand spankin' new Exo pack, so we'll see how the season goes.

I've never heard of an injury like that, crazy stuff. Glad you are making improvements again.

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[P Carter]

I've never heard of an injury like that, crazy stuff. Glad you are making improvements again.

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Neither had I. I had always thought that carrying loads on the hips vs. shoulders was about comfort.

Here's a link; there are several case studies as well that are cited in the link. Weird stuff.

Rucksack paralysis - WikEM

wikem.org

 

[mtwarden]

Nice work gents!

@P Carter scary stuff! I can relate; about 7-8 years ago I had pain in my neck, thought it was too much time in front of my computer. A week or two later, terrible pain that moved around from left tricep and left chest. Eventually I couldn’t do a single push-up due to my left side not working. Self diagnosed it as a bulged disc, which a MRI confirmed. Fortunately it went away and didn’t do any permanent damage. Very scary though!

I had a good month with 212 trail miles, half of them with a trip across the Bob Marshall. Also had a fun trip with my daughter, son-in-law and grandkids- renting a yurt out that sat at 9000’.

I have another 100 mile trip planned mid September, so I just might make 2020

 

[georgiaboy]

I turned 44 this spring and am working on following my macro plan to cut from 14% to 10% body fat. Lift 4-5 days a week and BJJ 2-3 nights for cardio. My goals at this point are really to maintain muscle mass, improve cardio and improve mobility.

 

[Ross]

Looking for a strong 4 months to make the 1500 miles and 300k elevation gain

 

[cuttiebrownbow]

Goals

Currently - 5'9" 200lbs and pretty darn strong for soon to be 32 year old who goes to the gym at 5am in the morning. (lost 10 lbs since Christmas but that was turkey, christmas cookie and booze weight so doesn't really count)

Weight - drop to 185 by August
Cardio - Run 2/3 times a week while increasing speed. Would like 2.5 miles in 20 minutes as average from June through September. (for me I find I have joint pain in hips/knees if running long distance but working on speed has worked out quite well for cardio and being painfree and less injury prone)
Strength - Continue current weight plan by building strength into June using workouts of 1-1.5 hours 3 times a week before work. Tapering off heavy weights from june through hunting season.
More Cardio - Incorporate use of Stairmaster by June to break up runs once running goal is met and replace some strength training time as that becomes less focused.
Core - recommit to targeting core with at least one exercise every day of week in gym. (5-6 days a week)
Flexibility - continue to stretch after workouts and work on becoming more flexible in hips, back and shoulders

I dropped the weight and at 180lbs as of this morning so I met my goal there. Really biggest thing for me here was just limiting amount of food I eat. I eat pretty healthy diet to begin with but just ate too much.

Cardio - Shin splints killed my long runs on pavement but I don't have that problem with treadmills so I have been able to get back into it since beginning of July when the gyms opened again. I am taking it easy so I don't deal with shin splints again but I have been able to run 4 days a week.

Strength - No weight training for a few months due to covid so not as strong but it has been nice to get back into lifting weights but cardio and mobility have been my main focus.

Stairmaster - twice a week and I can walk it into the ground now. Hiking mountains during covid closures has me killing this.

Flexibility - Definitely improved. Still working on shoulders but I haven't had to deal with being 'tight' like I typically do.

I already know this winter I don't want to get above 195 lb again. If I could keep myself at max 195 then I may be able to get down to 170-175 for next year.

 

[twall13]

September Report 3/4 of the year is done- It's been a really busy month and due to time constraints I did less hiking with a pack than I would have preferred but made up the miles with trail runs. Other than running into a few rattlesnakes and skunks, nothing really exciting for this month's activities.

Total Running Miles: 858
Total Hiking Miles: 170
Total Mtn. Biking Miles: 126
Total Trail Miles: 1,154 of 1,400 goal for the year
Total Elevation Gain: 151,486 of 175,000 goal for the year

Still ahead of pace and if I can continue I should finish with around 1,500 trail miles and 200,000 ft. of elevation gain. I have rifle tags for both elk and mule deer in October so I should get some hiking miles with bonus elevation this coming month.

Monthly Murph Time of 35 Minutes 4 seconds. A bit slower than the past few months but I knew I was running an additional 6 miles afterwards so I took it a bit easy during the Murph runs.

 

[mtwarden]

^ nicely done

I had a good mileage month- 208 miles, bringing the yearly total to 1547. This is the first month that I'm actually a little ahed on miles to make 2020 for the year, not a lot ahead, but a little. 99 of those miles was from a four day trip around the Wonderland Trail (Rainier National Park)- around 27,000' of climbing so it was a bit of challenge to do in four days, but we got it done.

My strength training fell off more than I wanted, but it is what it is.

Looking forward to October and even more so for November- getting close to chasing wapiti around

 

[*zap*]

Awesome^.

 

[Ross]

A good September hiking now time for fun....1500 mile goal on pace at 1200 and 300k elevation ahead of pace at 250k for the year so far. My little hiking buddy keeping me going

 

[mtwarden]

Nice!

 

[P Carter]

My totals for the year:

Running/hiking/hunting: 1,172
Biking: 457
Total: 1,629

Luckily, I largely recovered from the strange "Rucksack Palsy" nerve issue. Chased around some elk, but only made it out three days. Mileage has dropped off, as predictable, but still on track for over 2,150 miles, which well exceeds the goal of 2020. We'll see how the rest of the year shapes up.

 

[mtwarden]

glad to hear the nerve stuff went away, spooky stuff to be sure

 

[mtwarden]

October went by quickly! Pretty good month considering no real long trips- 170 miles, with about 20-ish miles on snowshoes already! 1713 for the year

Strength training was fair, I always see good gains when I hit it religiously twice a week- much less so when it's sporadic- imagine that

If my calculations are correct, I'm about 30 miles to the good on hitting 2020 miles. I have all of next week off to elk hunt, so should see a pretty good week there OR maybe I'll kill an elk early

few pics from the month

 

[twall13]

Well done @mtwarden!

I got a bit more hiking in this month and remain ahead of schedule for the year.

Trail Running Miles- 942
Hiking Miles- 215
Mountain Biking Miles- 134
Total Trail Miles- 1,291 of 1,400 goal for the year.
Total Elevation Gain- 175,585 of 175,000 goal

I've kind of modified my goal to 1,500 trail miles and 200,000 ft. of elevation gain as I'll easily hit the previous goals at the current rate.

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[mtwarden]

^ Nicely done!

I think next year I'll keep track of elevation gain, I'm guessing it'll add up pretty fast