Staying Swaggy
2 weeks away from writing; hope you didn't miss me!
Go 100% or Don't Go At All
I saw a guy in the gym sporting a shirt, and I'll paraphrase here, "Go 100% All In or Don't Go In At All".
And I thought about this quote and what it meant to me. And what it means to other people who read it.
To others, I'm sure, it's a "rah rah" go full tilt and run through a brick wall, like the Kool-Aid guy.
But to me, it's a cop-out. There's no way we can go 100% in everything we do. I know I don't go 100% when I'm doing laundry. Does that mean I should never do laundry again?
I'd like that, but that ain't happening.
I know the shirt this meathead guy was wearing was good-intentioned and designed to say he goes all in at the gym (which I don't doubt). But it gives a false sense of manliness because I know that he probably doesn't go 100% all in on cardio.
At the end of the day, everything we do, say, and wear is representative of who we are as a person but you I can't judge someone by one shirt they happen to wear to the gym.
7️⃣5️⃣Medium
In other news, Carly and I found something called 75 Hard. It is online and you can definitely Google it to find out more. We were looking for something to do together to challenge us in the new year... The problem is, that 75 Hard isn't sustainable. The requirements suggest doing two 45-minute workouts a day (plus other self-improvement stuff).
Even for a couple of cardio junkies who love getting workouts in, 90 minutes a day every day for 75 days (with no days off for recovery, etc) was just asking a bit too much.
Instead, we created a "75 Medium" which will hopefully be more attainable and manageable, while also holding us accountable and keeping us challenged.
In 75 Medium, we're asking ourselves to do the following each day:
- Read nonfiction for 10 minutes a day
- Self-care of 10 minutes a day
- Clean eating, every meal (no cheats)
- zero alcohol
- 50 minutes of exercise (6 out of 7 days a week), some of it being outdoors
Racing 📅
Last up for this week, I decided to make an actual racing calendar - something I've gotten away from over the last few years.
Mainly, my goal has always been to break 5 minutes in the mile. But once I did that, like last year in March, I ran a lot (until I got injured), but I didn't really follow a set path. I wandered a lot.
This year, I want to be intentional with my training, my racing, and the breaks I take in between cycles.
First up for me is getting in mile race shape before indoor track ends. Short track, as it's now called, is a great time of year for mile races, because once outdoor racing starts, the mile morphs to its shorter cousin, the 1500. And those don't count for my record purposes.
In order for me to get in shape, I need to safely log as much mileage as I can while also getting more and more workouts in. I kicked off the workout portion of my season with a treadmill workout - something I don't think I've ever done before.
I programmed a workout in - 4 x 3 mins at 7:13 pace and off I went.
Besides being tired the next day, all seems to be trending in the right direction.
I'm going to be adding some hills and some track work so that I can get my body used to running 75-second quarters again and then by mid-March, the goal will be to string 4 quarters together, each averaging under 75 seconds so that I'll have my 22nd different calendar year under 5 minutes.
And if it doesn't happen before March, then it'll be time to scrape the race boards and find an outdoor race that offers a mile.
Here's to hoping I can get in gear for March though - it's honestly so much easier to race a true mile, indoors, with competition.
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What I’m Exploring
What’s next for TrainwithMarc? Hopefully global domination. But if not, then I’ll “settle” for coaching more runners.
With the help of Bridget, she told me about Garmin Clipboard. This arm of Garmin allows me to create (running) workouts and sync them to your watch for you to do the workout. Workouts can be simple (tempo run) or elaborate (mixing paces and recoveries). I’ve pushed this out to a few of my runners already and as we move into 2024, I’m hopeful that I’ll add it as a service that I offer.
Want to try it out? Send me a message or email and I will get you started.
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Friday’s Action Plan
Track the most important data you want to track. It’s good to look back on what you value and build upon that momentum.
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Quote of the Week:
Running is something you can do and be alone in your thoughts, and I like that.
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