There are 204 days remaining in 2019, including today.  It’s been over 3 weeks since learning that my injuries are permanent.  I’ve been thinking through my future fitness and rehab/recovery goals since that time and landed with my plan for the rest of 2019.  Being the Excel geek that I am, I plan to track this data each day to measure my follow through.

I am not in any condition to train for a marathon or even a half marathon at this point.  I am hoping to pull off a half marathon in 2020.  I can’t add lots of heavy weights or cross fit, nor can I even manage the 14+ monthly Orangetheory Fitness classes that I used to attend. My focus will really be three things:  push myself harder with workouts that I am capable of doing, have a strong focus on rehab/recovery and increase my core strength.  The core strength objective will be the most critical as this muscle group supports my low back.  My back will need all the extra support it can get, for the rest of my life.

I needed specific measurements for each goal.  Running is a great workout for a goal-driven, numbers geek.  You can slice and dice mileage and speed over short and long periods of time. My challenge right now is my body is not ready for me to run 35+ miles a week like I used to do.  A 12-20 mile running used to be called a “perfect Saturday morning” for me.  My 5k speed was under a 7 minute pace.  I’ll get back there.  I have to rebuild my body first and become stronger.  All of my goals can be measured in minutes or reps.  I’ll have additional workouts in between, but I’ll track workouts listed here.

Swimming will be a significant addition to my routine because I absolutely hate swimming.  Swimming sucks!  I’m not good at it—in fact at the time of this blog entry, I’ve only swam laps 5 times…EVER.  My decision to include swimming was easy as I wanted something I’m  horrible at for the challenge.  Swimming can be measured with my Apple Watch which gives me the same data points I get from running.  Swimming laps will not have any joint impact which will allow me to increase my cardio. I swam 575 yards yesterday, so this will be my starting point.  My goal is to swim a mile before the end of the year.  I’ll add yards each week until I get there.  I’ve never had a desire to do this in the past, partially because I knew how difficult it would be but I was not motivated by the challenge..

DDP Yoga will need to occur almost 2 out of every 3 days.  I don’t think I’ve ever done 125 DDP Yoga sessions in a year, let alone 204 days.  I’ve used it intermittently over the past 4 years.  It’s been helpful when marathon training or for marathon recovery.  I’ve also used it when I have some nagging pain somewhere and need to slow down for a few days or longer.  I haven’t tracked how many sessions I’ve had this year, but I’d estimate around 50.   I took 2.5 months off due to the epidural shots I received in March and April, but recently added it back to the routine and I’m on a 20 day streak.   

Running will still be a focus, albeit much slower and with fewer miles than in the past.  I may adjust my target if my body tells me to do so.  I am not going to chase the goal if I feel like I am compromising my recovery.  I find “sanctuary” in racing which is my main objective in shooting for 12 races by the end of the year.  I anticipate most of these races to be a 5k with a few 10ks mixed in.

I’ll post an after picture at the end of the year along with improvements in other categories.  My weight has increased to 158–I want to get back to 145 while improving my BMI and lowering my body fat percentage.  My BMI and body fat percentage are currently 24 and 14.3%, respectively.  My current muscle mass os 40.8%.  I don’t have any expectations in mind, but I will be interested in seeing where this number goes. 

I’ve set goals like this in the past, but never with this focus on rehab and recovery.  My goals in the past were typically mileage, speed and frequency of Orangetheory fitness sessions. These goals look a little different and start today, with 204 days remaining in 2019. I’ll crush every one of them. 

Owning my Fitness/Rebab/Recovery plan for remaining 205 days of 2019:

• 10,000 squats
• 5,000 crunches/sit-ups
• 125 DDP Yoga sessions
• 65 Orangetheory Fitness workouts
• Run 400 miles
• Swim 2-3x/week. Start 550 yards, add 50/w
• Capable of swimming 1 mile by end of 2019
• Run 12 races
• 3,000 reps on Hyper bench
• 3,000 reps with ab dolly
• 3,000 minutes of rehab work
• 1,000 minutes on inversion table
• 1,000 minutes of hot tub/cold water intervals
• 75 cryotherapy sessions
• 10 massages
• 10 sessions in sensory deprivation tank

Have a great week!

Beast with a plan