Seasonal training!

One of the things I've been talking about in class lately is how we view time. For the last couple of hundred years western society has viewed time as linear, finite; that is when time goes it is gone forever. Now of course it is gone in the most rational of ways, but other civilizations and more agrarian societies have viewed time as being more cyclical, that it is comes and goes like the patterns we see daily and seasonally in our life. Essentially our actions are governed more by the seasons and their variation than by a clock and calender. It seems to me that we are trying to make a return to a more agrarian way of life, at least in part. The eat local, eat seasonal movement is moving more and more to the mainstream. So I thought this would also be a great way to view my training focus and training challenges. Winter is our time to restore, the purpose of hibernation for some creatures, but for humans it seems that winter is a time to recover, to build strength, to experiment and set one's self up for performing. Spring is rebirth, time for a big challenge and to put your winter efforts to the test. Summer is to challenge and grow even more. Finally fall is the harvest, time to aim for a personal best, to leave it all on the table before another winter of recovery and restoration. A simple view of a annual plan but for me it just seems to make sense. We will soon see. Winter comes early in my world (Nov-March) so I'll keep you posted on my new training seasonally approach! Let me know what you think!

And so it begins

April 1st, the day  training camp begins. Always loved the idea of spring training just never really acted much on it, as you might guess coming from a former 324lber!  Training camp runs from April 1 to June 20. 81 days to get ready to get fit, sounds a bit excessive but I am smart enough and old enough to realize that at 44 you need to build slowly and with a plan if you want to move forward. I'm following an older Outside Magazine article, http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200205/200205shape_of_your_life.html for the next three months. Essentially it is a pretty basic program with interval workouts 3 times a week and strength training twice a week. I'm playing with it a bit to adapt to my issues like a touchy back and adding in getting back on the tennis court and getting in a longer bike ride on the weekends.

The starting numbers are:
weight 243 lbs
chest 45 inches
waist 44 inches
hips 46 inches

By June 20 I plan to have the following numbers.
weight  219
chest 44
waist 39
hips 43