Grinding Again

Sometime around February of 2017 in the middle of a 15 mile run training for my first marathon, I decided that at 56 years old and after 5 straight years of six to seven days a week of adventure racing training, I was worn out.  I had competed in around 10 adventure races, including the 72 hour 2016 Sea to Sea across the Florida peninsula, finishing a respectable 10th place out of 30+ teams with my teammates Jeff Bates and Eddie Lenz.  I had nothing left to prove.  I walked the remainder of the run home, somewhat disappointed, but largely liberated.  From this point forward, I would workout to stay healthy and prolong my life.  Outdoor activities would be to enjoy being outside, not to pound myself into the ground competing.  

Over the next several months, I continued to strength train at the gym and ran three times a week, but the miles were in the 10-15 per week range, not 30+.   I was happy, but as work became busier and busier, it became easier and easier to go to work early and skip the scheduled run. "I am not training for anything in particular, so there is no harm in skipping my run today."  This pattern continued for the better part of a year, and while I visited the gym regularly and still ran, by May of 2018, I was running about 4-6 times a month, and the gym visits were often just once a week.  About that time, and facing another summer of running in Florida (it's like running wrapped in a wool blanket that has been soaked in warm water), I decided to stop running.  Why continue to beat up on myself for skipping runs because I didn't get started early enough to avoid the heat.  I did however need to find a way to get that type of workout inside.  So I settled on High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to replace the runs, and after a summer of doing weight training and HIIT bodyweight workouts at the local YMCA with my daughter (so much fun!!!) I was back down to my "fighting weight" of 160 lbs.  This might work after all!!!

The best laid plans of mice and men, as they say... As I should have expected, another busy year of work for me resulted in fewer and fewer workouts.  By January of 2019 my gym training was down to two days a week and I weighed 170 lbs.  By September of 2019, after another summer of no running and minimal gym training, I weighed close to 180 lbs (all in my midsection), and I had bottomed out physically.  I was officially way out of shape.  I could no longer look in the mirror and see a badass.  The Sea to Sea was 3 years in the past, and I was no longer the person who traveled 230 miles on foot, bike, and canoe on 2 hours of sleep across three days.  I was just another out of shape 58 year old.   

I simply couldn't live with that.  How could I go back to being a person who never worked out or engaged in anything physically taxing?  I couldn't!! I had invested far too much time into training and getting into real shape to let it all go away.  So instead of giving in and putting a life of fitness behind me, I found an online strength training program that provided me what I wanted: a full body work out with big muscle group movements emphasizing, strength, speed, and endurance.   I also committed to running again, so I pulled out the old running shoes and started running 3 days a week.  "OMFG! How is that I can't run three miles?!" So I kept pushing. "Ok, I ran three miles, but 11:00 minutes per mile? Really? WTF?" In 2017, my pace for 3 miles was about 8:30 per mile.  This is not fast by any means, but at least I could run for an old guy.  And now I was a long, long way from that.  But I kept running.  However, work overwhelmed me as usual, and the running workouts became inconsistent.  I was getting in perhaps 8-9 runs a month, which is much better than no times per month but still not the systematic work I wanted to be doing.  In the meantime, I discovered that the ejection rate of my heart (IDK something about how much blood it pumps) was about 20% lower than it should be.  The doctor didn't know the cause of this, but after multiple tests, the prescription of long term medication, and his assurance that working out hard was not a problem, I accepted it, and committed to continuing my efforts to get back in real shape. 

In February of 2020, I weighed 175 lbs, but I was making progress and getting into better shape.  I still wasn't running as much as I needed to be, but I was in the gym three days a week and working hard.  About this time, a good friend of mine and I agreed that we wanted to climb Mt. Whitney in California, the highest point in the lower 48 states (14,505').  It wasn't really mountain climbing, but rather a very strenuous, highish altitude hike.  Excited, I started looking for "mountain climbing workout plans" and found Mountain Tactical Institute (MTI) in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Rob Shaul's gym took some of the crossfit philosophy--strength training combined with HIIT intervals--and developed programs for wilderness athletes, members of the military, and law enforcement officers.  Through all of my years of training, my goal was always to have effective fitness, which I defined as the ability to move my body through space and time. That is a fancy way of saying I want the ability to run through the woods as fast as I can.  This makes sense for an adventure racer.  Based on my assessment, MTI's training plans did just that, and their training programs were sport specific, online, and at very reasonable cost!

And then it happened. The Covid-19 shutdown. I voluntarily stopped going to the Y before it closed.  It was just too risky.  At the same time, Rob at MTI posted a gym closure workout plan that was based on bodyweight training, running, and rucking and step-ups with a heavy backpack. I jumped all in and loved it.  I was truly working out hard again and in the way I preferred.  I was constantly moving and using my entire body!!!  I was, in fact, building an effective body.  After a few weeks, I was down below 170 lbs and feeling great.  The pandemic was, and is, truly horrible and terrifying, but in terms of my training, it was just what the doctor ordered.  As a professor all my classes had been moved online, and I worked exclusively from home.  I now had the freedom to work AND workout.  The two things were no longer in conflict!

Bear with me, I will get to the point eventually.

During this time, my friend John and I were notified that we were not selected in the lottery for a permit to go up Mt. Whitney.  Realistically, Covid-19 put an end to that, but this made it official.  Because of our planned trip to Mt. Whitney, for most of the month of April, I had been watching mountain climbing documentaries on Amazon Prime. These shows were usually about Mt. Everest.  I would watch them and think, "I want to do that, but I can't do that. It is terrifying!" Around the same time,  I found a series on Outside Features called Boundless about two ultra runners who traveled the world competing in the toughest ultra marathons.  I fell in love with the show and watched all three seasons in a few weeks.  At some point, I remember thinking, "why don't you just commit to ultra running? It has the very difficult challenge you need; it will get you back out into the wilderness, and you probably won't fall to your death."  Bingo!!! That was it.  Ultra marathons, which my former adventure racing teammate Jeff Bates had done several of, were something that always intrigued me, and it just made sense for me to try them out.  I was a Florida flatlander.  I loved mountains, but heights terrified me, so why not do what I am already good at and that is grinding along a trail. 

So, I developed a plan that would result in me running an ultra marathon. I would start training to run a half-marathon over the summer, a full marathon in late November, and a 50K in May of 2021. We will see how it goes from there.  MTI has a variety of running programs, and I am currently in the middle of the "Run Improvement" program, which is 15 weeks of progressively longer runs (interval and long runs) and strength training through body weight and dumbbell workouts   If anybody ever suggests to you that you should do weighted jumping lunges, run away from them!!! My god they suck! But what hurts brings strength, so they must be providing me with enormous strength!  I complain alot, but I love the workouts. The progress is obvious!!

At any rate, here I am on July 24, 2020, 3/4 of the way through the program. I weigh 161 lbs, and my mileage this week will be 32 miles.  I feel better than I have in three years, and while the workouts are hard, and I curse them while doing them, they are making me stronger and better.  While I despise running in the Florida heat and humidity, after I recover from a long run or an intense interval workout, I can't wait get back out there.  

So yes, I am grinding once again.  I will be 59 years old in two weeks, and I am getting in better shape every week.  The local Adventure Racing group has been putting together Race on Your Own (ROYO) orienteering courses, and I did one of those two weekends ago.  Man it was fun to be out in the woods with a compass and map again!!! This is Florida in July, so it was 96 degrees.  It was terribly hot and humid, but there is nothing I would rather have done that day. 

So this is where I am.

In the end, this is a training journal that perhaps people will read or perhaps they won't. Either way is ok for me.  It is mainly for me to write down my thoughts about where I have been, where I am, and where I want to go.