Words to live by for the new year

Well hello there anyone who's reading this and welcome to the new and, hopefully, improved format of my blog. I'm diverging from my previous mostly weekly updates further than ever before and decoupling these updates from my week count on my journey. The posts will still likely end with a week, a weight, and a change for the next little while but I'm going to see where things go.

So what will I be posting? Well hopefully it'll be training updates, life updates, and random inspirational things. I'm gonna try hard to get at least a post every two weeks but we'll have to see how things go as the new plan develops. So without further delay, here's the first post.


Citius, Altius, Fortius; it means Faster, Higher, Stronger. Not faster than anyone else, just faster. It's the Olympic motto, something strikingly similar to this introduction is what opens the film Without Limits (well worth watching for those that haven't), and it's a motto I hope to live by this year. It's about the constant quest to improve oneself. Faster than you were the last time, higher than you've managed go before, stronger than ever before. Applying this to my life is something I've been doing for a while, running faster, shooting higher in my goals, working to constantly be both physically and mentally stronger than I've ever been. It's a pattern I intend to continue through this year with gusto. I've got my first half marathon coming up at the end of this month and I'm confident that while I may not finish with an amazing time by objective standards but I'm determined to finish having run the whole way with head held high.

Two years ago when I started down this road I wouldn't have been able to finish a mile long run with anything close to a respectable time. Now, though I haven't done a full tilt mile for time, I'm confident I could finish it somewhere between 6-7 minute pace, possibly better. I can do 2 sets of 16 pushups with good form where I wouldn't have been able to complete even a single set of 5 before, a pull-up seems a reasonable activity instead of something laughable, the list really goes on and on.

This isn't something that just suddenly happened it is the evidence of a large body of research and experimentation to find what works for me. At first there was a lot of benefit to be had from simply restricting calories but eventually that won't really take you far due to hunger. You have to transition to not just eating a better amount but eating better. Quality food is not only better for you but I've found it fills you up better as well. I've also transitioned slowly away from processed foods as much as possible, another trend to continue in this new year, and am committing to cooking more at home. I'm down now to a weight around 210 from my peak at 283, and at a much more favorable body fat as well. I look better, I feel better, and I'm confident that there's room for even better results as time goes on.

Once I'm done with my race I'm gonna take a little time to recover from that and head right into the new training plan I've been working on. More emphasis on strength work than before, not only my convict conditioning program but adding in some gymnastics inspired work and some plyometric drills to help round out that portion of my training. My running may come with a slight decrease in mileage at first but an increase in my intensity. Sprints to help build cardio-pulmonary systems, strides to work on form, tempos for lactate threshold, and a long run to help keep up endurance capacity. Tying this all together should lead to a faster and stronger me with a higher amount of overall fitness than ever before (see what I did there?), and I look forward to seeing where that takes me. Until next time, be the you you want to be.


Week 102: 209.7, down .5 from my last post.