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Ryan's 2008 Fitness Resolution List

In this upcoming year, 2008, I want to focus on overcoming the injuries I have suffered through over the last couple of years.

To accomplish this my goal is daily practise of pelvic aligment, core stabilisation and stretching, especially of chronically tight hamstrings and hips. Also use of the Indo Board and balance drills to improve alignment and balance.

In addition one of my main goals is to fully incorporate cross training into my weekly workout schedule. The main activities being

  • swimming twice per week (once 1500m, once 2 X 1500m),
  • cycling one long bike ride (3 hours plus)
  • in addition to doing my commuting on my bike whenever possible,
  • barefoot running,
  • snowshoe running at least once per week through the winter, and
  • strength training four times per week (twice upper body, twice lower body).

I am going to start the year off on a four month marathon training plan, building from 60 to 100 km per week. My main goals are to complete all 5 runs every week, and to increase my tempo run pace from 4:25/km to 4:10/km by April. After that I will move to a modified 6 day per week plan to get ready for the Knee Knacker, assuming I get in.

I plan to attend all of the Knee Knacker Sunday training runs, and assuming I can get a shift that finishes early enough on Wednesday all of those as well. The races I have planned for the year so far are:

  • New Years Day Fat Ass 50km,
  • Squamish Scrambler Snow Shoe Run,
  • Capilano Canyon Night Run,
  • Spring Mountain Highway Madness,
  • Vancouver Sun Run,
  • Big Sur International Marathon,
  • Vancouver 100,
  • Knee Knacker (subject to lottery),
  • Montreal Marathon,

In addition I will complete as many as possible of the Timex Series, 5 Peaks Series, Gutbuster Series and as many Club Fat Ass events as I can make it to.

Comments

Sibylle's picture

Final tally!

Could you please post a final tally in % of goals achieved - sorry, no goal substitutions ;-)
Ryan Conroy's picture

2008 nearly to a close

Well things were definitely mixed for me. Swimming was a bit of a bust due to getting hit by a car cycling before my triathlon and having a sore shoulder, in addition to salmonella poisoning which was not diagnosed and gotten rid of until about a week before the race. I was going good for the first few months of the year though. At the end of the summer I had a good streak too but swimming was my biggest 'fitness failure'. I did complete a half ironman triathlon on a hard course with a reasonably good time (and a week before the Knee Knacker). I did good at the cycling and had many weeks where I was doing upwards of 25o km. I did fairly well at strength training pretty consistently, but found I had to lay off on the lower body quite a bit during hard training weeks and before races. I managed to not only drop my tempo run pace from 4:25-4:10 but down to under 4:00 per km. I had some big PR's including 2 of approximately 5 minutes in the half marathon bringing my 1/2 PR from 1:30:53 down to 1:21:15 and winning a half marathon in October with the second PR. I was not able to complete all of the races due to injuries/sickness but I did do a second marathon, and did more races than I had listed. Basically I achieved all of my fitness goals for the year with the exception of a very regular swimming routine although circumstance did not allow me to do all the races I planned I more than made up for the ones I missed with different races. Next year I definitely have to get the swimming in more regularly if I want to do well in a triathlon.
Sibylle's picture

Hi Ryan, Thanks for the

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for the summary. We all had our share of injuries this year it seems.

For ease of judging this contest, could you please rate yourself.  I counted 18 goals (including all your planned races, weekly training, injury prevention stuff).  How about giving yourself 5.55 points for each goal fully achieved (5.555x18=99.99 or partial points for partially reached goals, 0 for goal not achieved.  Sorry, substituting races does not work for the sake of this contest (exception being races were entry are by lottery and where it was clearly stated which race is the substitute.  Your total points reached will be the percentage I will use for the contest.


Ean Jackson's picture

What kind of times?

Don't keep me in suspense. What kind of times are you looking for in your focus runs?
Ryan Conroy's picture

Times

Well I'm going to take a 'take it as it goes' approach. But my main goals would be 2:55-3:00 (last years marathon 3:14, year before 3:40) for the Big Sur Marathon and under 6 hours for the Knee Knacker.

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