Notes
Watched a very AlphaDestiny video last night titled "The Magic of Bodybuilding", which I really liked. In the video he talked about why bodybuilding is great, You define your own success. As long as you are please with your physique, that's all that matters. In body building, there's no performance metric that can define you, only the goals you set for yourself.
I really liked this video and it got me thinking of how I want to approach my goal, which is break 3 hours in the marathon while simultaneously being able to bench 200+. I think the way I am going to do this is run Boston, hopefully in under 3 hours, then on the same day go to Gold's and max and see if I can do it. This is going to be a balancing act since cardio kills your gains. When I make progress in one aspect, I will set myself back in another. Because of this, I think the goal I set is reasonable, but also challenging.
It got me to rethink how I am going to approach this goal from a training aspect. In my typical week, I hit legs, biceps, triceps, shoulders, back, and chest in 4-5 lifting sessions. My training goal had been to proportionally increase my size and strength by hitting on these muscle groups. Of these, the only ones relevant to increasing my bench press are shoulders, triceps, and chest. So, now that my goal has changed, so will the way I approach training.
From now until April 15, I am going to reduce my lifts to 3-4 sessions a week. A session dedicated to arms (less emphasis on biceps since they're useless for performance), one for delts and back, and 1-2 for chest. Don't need to do legs any more since I am running. If I do multiple chest sessions a week I will do a high volume day low weight day and a low volume high weight day. If I do one a week I will stick to high volume low weight, to prioritize leanness over size. Running wise I want to get up to 6 runs a week ideally and 50 miles a week since JML says that what my mileage needs to be to break 3.
Supplement wise I am taking creatine and protein. I don't think I am going to come off of creatine. It does not seem to affect me too much weight wise, but I have noticed a difference in my performance since taking it. May get off it for a few weeks leading up to my qualifying race to help with that.
Accomplishing this is going to require a bit of strategy. The most difficult part of this is qualifying for Boston, since I only have until ~October (not sure exact date) to get my fat ass in shape again. I may let my lifting slip a little to make up ground running wise, then once I qualify let my running slip a bit to focus on lifting. I see my bench suffering in the next few months as my mileage goes up, but I think I will be able to maintain my running fitness when I let it slip to focus on getting my bench back up.
Not sure exactly how this will play out, at the least it would be nice to keep Nolan company.