July 1-3, 2017

Saturday July 1

Run 3.5 miles on Stringer's Ridge.  I ran the Blue trail and I finished in 36:43.  It is so great to have these trails so close to the house.

After the run, I spent some time on Mobility and then Ice bath 10 minutes

 

Sunday

Wim Hof start to the day

I felt like I could maybe do a bit better on the trail so I went back for another try.  I ran the Blue Trail again and did finish a little better.  34:15

Back home, I tried the following workout that I got from @preparetoperform and @iamunscared from @powerspeedendurance

Workout:

A. 5/5/10/5 (inhale/hold/exhale/hold x 10

B. Right into 1 minute of full nasal inhale, half nasal exhale (think "let the breath go, dont force exhale"

Full exhale and hold for 30 seconds

C. 6/6/12/6 x 10

D. Right into 1 minute of full nasal inhale, half nasal exhale then full exhale and :30 hold

E. 3 minutes up to collar bones in ice bath

F. 5 minutes alternating pushups and squats.  Full breath at top, full exhale on bottom.  1 minute each and then switch

After this, I did some more mobility work.

I liked this format and workout.  It is a workout...just a different kind of workout.  At the end, I was relaxed, focused and fresh.

 

Friday 13th November 2015

This Friday the 13th is certainly not bad luck for me.  I just ran the fastest Minnekahda 5 miler since I moved back to Chattanooga. 

I once ran the Disney Marathon in 3:13:00 which is a 7 minute 21 second pace for all 26.2 miles.  I worked very hard, for years to get to that speed and basically gave up all strength training and also weighed in at 135 pounds.  I never thought that I would see that kind of speed again as I have gotten much stronger and bigger over the years and just kind of accepted that loss of speed may be a sacrifice for being much stronger and heavier. 

Last year, I was running and rucking a ton in preparation for the Goruck Selection event and felt like I was in pretty good shape but I was struggling to run a 7:30 pace for 5 miles.

Today, I ran a 35:22 for 5 miles which includes a very big hill.  This is a 7:04 pace which really surprised me.  I had to check the clock twice and then make sure that I was reading it correctly.

When I recorded my score, I had set an all time PR on this run by 3:47.  I was also surprised to see that I was within 30-40 seconds of the all time gym record on this run.  I had killed this run today.

What happened?  Not sure...

I weighed 187 earlier this year and prompted by the weight loss competition that we had, I got down to 164 momentarily but went back up to 175.  I contacted Mike Dolce of The Dolce Diet and had him write a plan for me and I love the way I am feeling on it.  My weight has dropped to 169 and holding pretty steady. 

Losing 18 pounds will certainly make you run faster, but there is something else happening as well. 

I am on the 3rd week of the Wim Hof Method for breathing and I really think that it is affecting my performance.  I have had 2 instances of setting lifetime PR's on cardio events that have just come out of nowhere.  First, I did 100 burpees unbroken in the mid 4's.  I was so surprised that I just glanced at the clock and thought that I had miscounted...I did 10 more and finished 110 in 5:02.  I have never come close to this time.  It really surprised me and left me wondering if the breathing had anything to do with the PR.

After today, I am pretty sure that the breathing and cold showers have helped to unlock some potential that I didnt know that I had.  If this is true, then the WHM could be a huge advantage to competitive athletes.

I know that Wim is working personally with Allistar Overeem, MMA fighter, right now.  I will be interested to see what his results are.

The breathing exercises are very enjoyable to me and I do look forward to them every day.  I will continue to do them and hopefully make a connection with performance increases,