Search the Community

As many of you know, I attempted my first 50k run at the end of last month and had to DNF 13 miles in due to injury. Recent trips to a physiotherapist uncovered an issue with the tendon in my left glute and a minor issue with my IT band. Due to the nature of the injury, I've got a lot of restrictions on what I can do right now. I'm not going to lie, I've been dealing with a lot of frustrations and emotions because of this and I've also struggled to find the motivation to do the things I can do. But what better way to get motivated than a new challenge! And to paraphrase Lisa Simpson, with crisis comes opportunity. A Crisitunity, as Homer calls it. This challenge will mostly focused on my rehab, with a side goal of working on my upper body strength. I'm not allowed to do any exercises that put excessive load on my glutes, so for the next 2 weeks (the time till my next physio visit), I can only strength train my upper body. As I don't know what my physio is going to prescribe at my next appointment, these goals are likely to change later on the challenge. But for now, this is my plan of action. Stupid Sexy Flanders It's a glute injury, so my rehab is all about the butt! I have a list of exercises and stretches, some I have to do daily, some every other day. So this goal is to simply do the exercises as prescribed. I made my rehab plan into a spreadsheet. Here it is. I'm sharing for accountability. Each square needs to be filled in by the end of the day. If not, give me some hell. The only exception to this is the running plan. This is all dependent on how my first run attempt goes. If I have any pain during or in the 24 hours after the run, I cannot increase the running intervals. "Overshoot the Extreme! Max the Envelope! And so on" Strength Train 2-3 times a week I neglected strength training during my race prep and the only training my upper body got during that time was boot-camp classes once a week. I used to have some nice defined muscles in my arms and shoulders I want to get them back dammit! This is my opportunity to do just that. ii. Pull ups Pulls ups are another exercise that I've neglected horribly in the last few months. They are really helpful for doing OCR's, so I need to get better at them. Currently I can only do one jumping pull up. I'll be training these 3 times a week so with any luck, by the end of this challenge, this will have changed to doing multiple pull ups, hopefully from a dead-hang.

There is so much cool stuff going on this challenge but I'm basing my theme around one thing that I'm really looking forward to. During the first week of this challenge, I'm going to Wales and will be walking up Snowdon with my husband, my brother, his fiancée and their dog. With that in mind, my theme is based on the Simpsons episode King Of The Hill, where Homer attempts to climb Mount Springfield or "The Murderhorn". I've wanted to do a Simpsons themed challenge for a while so this is just perfect. I've also got a NF meetup at Barrel of Laps with the awesome Rangers @Jarric and @jonfirestar at the end of July which I'm so excited about! Lots of miles will be done and lots of beer consumed. It's going to be fun. On with the Challenge! Goal 1: Climb The Highest Mountain in Springfield Wales The only real goal here is getting to the top of the mountain! There are a few things I need to do to prep for this. I need to decide with the others which route we take. There are some easy paths that I think are going to be too easy considering we're a pretty fit bunch, but we don't want to pick one of the harder routes and then have us either struggle or have to carry the dog if she panics! There is a path called The Ranger Path......... I also need to write a check list of all the things I need to take and I need to buy some stuff for the trip. I'll keep a to-do / check list here and tick things off as they are done. Goal 2: Running Running is going to be my main focus this challenge. A few days ago I was sorting through some stuff and found the first ever running medal I ever got. It was for a 5km and I was shocked when I read the date on the ribbon: 2008. That means I've been running for 9 years, and to be honest, I haven't made much progress in all that time. As much as i love to run, I'm not one of those dedicated people who gets up and runs 4-5 days a week. I need to commit to running regularly to make some solid improvements in both my time and distance. I've seen a few people have put a challenge goal of running 100 miles, so I'm pinching that idea! My bare minimum will be 3 runs a week, but all things being well, there is no reason why I can't do 4 runs a week. Barrel of Laps is in a little over 4 weeks, I think we have a team goal of at least 5 laps (10 miles), so I'd like to be able to do every lap if we hit that target. I've set up a distance based PvP for anyone that wants to join in the fun. Runners and walkers welcome How Far Can You Go? PvP Goal 3: "Step over to the abdominator and I will shout slogans at you" Part I: Juggernaut Training - 2-3 workouts a week I started this program recently and I've just hit the 8's phase. I'll have to take a break from this when we go away, but other than that, I need to be lifting 2-3 times a week Part II: Grip Climb once a week and do rope hangs, deadhangs, farmer carries etc at least once a week Part III: Core I've been neglecting my core so I'm aiming to do two core sessions per week. A session means doing circuits of planks (normal and side), flutter kicks and hanging knee raises on a strength day. Additional Side Goals (to be added as we go): Get up early - Keep working on getting up earlier in the morning. I sucked at this last challenge, so I'm continuing it here