Fitness Goals for 2023

 

Burpees

The burpees are back.

My current plan (70 burpees a day) is working to bring the routine back into action. I'm making up missed days with 140. What a beautiful, simple, difficult, and satisfying way to work out. 

All these burpees are getting me thinking about long term burpee goals and training. The biggest burpee workout I've ever done was 400 burpees on April 22nd of this year. I don't know how long it took. But based on that, I know I can hit 500... I don't know how much training it would take to go beyond that. 

One appealing goal to me would be hitting a meaningful Scriptural or Rhythm of the Sword number, or just a nice round number. And I could keep the reps lower, but focus more on the speed at which I complete them. Also in consideration is that these burpees are also intended to be a supplement for 10K training, whatever that means. In any case, I'd rather focus on a number that's still high and intimidating, but more realistic to train for time-wise: 300

It's a beautifully round number, divisible by an unusually high number of factors, is double the number of Psalms in the Bible, echoes back to legends of Spartan warriors, and best of all, sits in the sweet spot of a big challenge in a manageable time frame. 

Iron Wolf could do 300 at a steady pace in 36 minutes, based on his pace for 500. Of course, he could go much faster going all out. I know that I have done 158 in 20 minutes (going all out). So with this data, I'm setting my goal at:

Perform 300 burpees in under 40 minutes

It would require an increase in fitness from 158 in 20, keeping almost the same pace for twice as long, time-wise. This would be a great benchmark in fitness, a baseline that I would love to maintain in overall health.

Distance Running

The current plan for running is a 10K training run every Saturday... and that's it. For the rest of the year, I'm prioritizing burpees for overall fitness and because they are much easier to pull off in the dark on a limited time budget. But I would love to progress in my training, which focused on racing the 10K distance. 

I got a baseline with my first race off of basically no training in a time of 44:05. A couple months of consistent burpees and once-a-week running should be more than enough to get that under 44 under similar conditions. So I think the next milestone is sub-43. It would dip me under 7-minute-mile pace, and require a significant improvement in fitness. And if I've learned anything from years of running, it's that progress comes more incrementally than you'd like, and requires more consistency than any kind of special training method. A sub-42 time isn't fast by any means, but it would require a more dramatic training adjustment than I think is realistic for me right now. So I'm setting my goal at:

Run 10 Kilometers in under 43 minutes

Speed

I just threw a Walter Payton picture up there because obviously the guy was fast (4.4 in the 40 - you try that!) while that is maybe 4.4% of what made him great. Anyway, like Walter Payton, it's good and important to hold onto your top-end speed. This one comes in handy playing tag with kids, playing pickup basketball, and not getting winded when you literally need to "run and grab something". Distance running is great for the heart and lungs, but it's good to know you have a whole different gear when you want it.

The most appealing sprint event to me is the 400 meters. I raced it maybe once early in high school, and I'm embarrassed to say that I think the time was around 71 seconds. I know there were times when I could have run under 70, not that that's anything to be impressed by (the fastest guy on our team was running 49's). But speed has always been a major weakness for me, and this is one that I'm eager to become more proficient at. Sub-70 is a little too attainable, and sub-60 a little too far out of my wheelhouse at the moment. So I'm setting me goal at:

Run 400 meters in 64.00 seconds

I like this one because 64 is divisible by 4, giving me 16-second goals for each 100. This would be by far the fastest 400 I have ever run... but I was so bad at the distance, it still feels realistic.

Pullups

Pullup training at the moment is nonexistent. But now, for the first time basically ever, I have an indoor pullup bar (in my new garage). With this unprecedented ease of access, I'm excited to round out the training with a pullup goal. I believe that my lifetime best for consecutive pullups is 9. My dad's is 13. So I'd like to shoot for 15 - one tenth of the Psalms in the Bible and a multiple of 5, which always feels cleaner than a non-multiple of five. My goal:

Perform 15 consecutive pullups

Physical Training Benchmarks

Together, these four goals make up a whole-body preparedness benchmark. Performing all four of the physical feats within the same calendar month would prove a standard level of physical fitness and readiness for any physical tasks that need to be done... and also would certainly provide fine outward training ;)

1. 300 Burpees under 40 minutes
2. 10 Kilometers under 43 minutes
3. 400 Meters in 64.00 seconds
4. 15 Pullups consecutively

Now it's time to start drawing up a training plan! That could be an hour down the drain...

Let's start working toward those benchmark workouts!