We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.
– Archilochus
In any enterprise such as the one we are currently embarking on there are bound to be bumps in the road. Some unexpected… some… not so much. The ones that are always there waiting to pounce are illness and injury. We were of course, not immune to any of this. The key is not to panic. Easier said than done. When you put as much time on feet as you need to for a chance of success the chances of injury are high. Caleb and I both started this whole adventure whilst dealing with plantar fasciitis. Caleb also came down with some patellar femoral tendon issues. My knees are seemingly always on the edge of something. Matt has a weird quadricep problem, and an Achilles issue that is lurking in the background. Caleb got Covid. I came down with a bad cold that derailed me for almost three weeks. I’ve got a messed up shoulder that is hampering any auxiliary strength training.
We have some control over getting sick or injured. Intelligent training, and smart lifestyle choices can go a long way towards avoidance. The old adage about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure is so very true. But one thing that we have total control over is our reaction to whatever calamity befalls us. Related to that is insidious self doubt. This is the one that can lead to overtraining and injury. It can also lead to under training and not being prepared. Always the fine line.
Another thing that impacted the process a bit was a climbing trip that I had committed to. A week’s worth of bouldering in Red Rocks. I’ll no doubt write that trip up separately, but suffice to say it might not have been the smartest thing to slot into my schedule. Nothing seriously bad transpired, but with the exception of a stellar trail run I fit in one day, the trip didn’t contribute positively to the R3 venture.
Eventually though, the training for me at least was getting back on course. Not the level it should be, but then it never is. We were getting a lot of good days out on the trails; logging some kilometers, and reasonably decent elevation gain. I was also dedicating a large component of effort to AGST. Anti Glycolytic Step Training. Basically a fancy, souped up method of doing box steps. I was informally working a bit with a coach in Germany who specializes in this type of training. The goal for me, as I have mentioned previously is to optimize the cardiovascular effort along with muscular endurance, whilst minimizing the toll more traditional trail running imposes on the body. I talked a little bit about these in Part 2 of this series. I can’t go into a lot of detail because much of the training method is of a proprietary nature, but suffice to say it has been working as advertised this far, and I see no reason not carry on with it for the remainder of my preparation.
What I needed though was a real good test of the effectiveness of my training. What better than a little bit of the real thing? Stay tuned for that in the next installment…