My review of 2011 is going to be long and may be somewhat boring. This is more for me to look back on years from now to see my opinions of where I went this year as athlete, whether it be a good or bad thing.
The year 2011 brought two new things into my life- ultrarunning and powerlifting or specific strength training. In previous years (08-10) I was a "CrossFitter" by trade, although I didn't follow a strict program for a long time which resulted in diminished results, poor body image and most notably the elbow injury that I was so afraid would affect the beginning of this year.
January-March
I moved home after I transferred from Springfield College, deciding at the time it was not where I wanted to be. I began commuting to a school close to home and joined a powerlifting gym in the area. I had first learned about powerlifting at SC where they have an amateur club team but was never able to participate the semester I was a freshman there because of my elbow. I started the year 2011 off finishing up a CrossFit strength bias cycle, fresh off completing the CrossFit Endurance Challenge with right before Christmas. Most notably in January I finished my first ever ultra distance, completing the GAC Fat Ass 50k. I spent the next couple months adjusting to life as a strength athlete and getting a few long runs in. I hit a 16 mile run on the roads with Contois as my longest run in preparation for my first 50 mile race. I remember the trails being messy and me not liking the roads being the main excuse for why I didn't train harder. March rolled around and I hit a 50 mile run at NJ Ultra Festival in my goal time of just under ten hours. Reflecting back on that portion of the year, I wish I knew my body could handle more strength stimulus but I'm just glad I didn't injure myself early on. I got lazy some days for sure and probably got lucky by not training as hard as I should've for my 50.
April-May
This part of the year is probably the most blurry to me. I spent a few weeks after NJ50 trying to lose weight doing the Paleo challenge but that failed. I hit a nunch of PRs during this time training my strength numbers with my homemade program. In retrospect I wish I was smart enough to not program for myself but I think I did an OK job. I'm a lot happier now following a different program that I did not design. I still have the freedom to add fun things into it now and then (20 rep squats anyone?). Anyway, about halfway through may I started doing the Madcow 5x5 program where I hit my squat and DL pr's that have yet to be surpassed due to injuries, etc. but I'll pass the squat within a few weeks. Madcow was a really good program. It's one that I would go back to if I wanted to focus solely on powerlifting for an 8-12 week period in the future, and it's likely that I will do that sometime later this year. My opinion is that I ate too shitty while on Madcow and blamed the actual program for getting fat and not my diet. It's a phenomenal program. I ended it halfway through June. Also, I must note that I got really depressed during this time. It was one of the roughest thing I've gone through in my life and my training definitely reflected it.
June-August
I wrote a midway through the year post at the end of June, saying that I wanted a 405# squat, 525# DL, 185# press and a 255# bench by year's end. Unfortunately it doesn't look like I'll hit any of those besides maybe the bench if I were to test that out. I basically gave up my dream of running during the summer because I got lazy. I think my Runningahead.com says I only ran like 18 miles over the course of 4 runs in nearly 2 months. I also ran Layne Norton's strength/BB hybrid program for a 4 week trial period over the summer. That may have been one of the most effective programs I've ever used. I do plan to run an 8 week cycle of this someday but this time with nutrition dialed in (300+ g's of protein a day) and no other training. This would have to be later on in 2012 after my 100 but it's something to consider. Even though I got lazy during the summer I ended up getting some good strength numbers and saw a definite increase in the size of my upper body. August rolled around and 2 of the most memorable things of the year took place. I placed 2nd in the TARC Summer Classic 6 hour race barely training the entire summer at all for it. Call me young, call me stupid, but I'm really proud of it. To date that was most likely the best run of my life. The second amazing thing was going to the Appalachian Trail with Contois to pace him for his first 100m attempt. I have to admit that was probably one of the most memorable things that have taken place in my life.... I've never seen an area of the world like that before and ever since we went I've been eager to go back. I guess I'm a nature virgin but it was really cool to me. I spent all of June and pretty much all of July depressed as well, but it got better as time went on.
September-October
This point in 2011 was spent with me being a lazy turd. To put it simply I had a long summer and by the end of August the only thing in the world I wanted to do was get back to Springfield College. I had been depressed, miserable and sick of living at home and spent a lot of this time being very lazy with my training. I attempted a half assed effort at running 100 miles, an attempt I rightly failed at the Ghost Train Trail Ultra. I developed a heart problem at this time because I was not managing the relationships in my life that I needed to be. As you grow in life, individual or athlete aside you can reflect on past periods of times where you see room for improvement. This was probably the sloppiest time of my year, and if nothing else my goal in 2012 is to not let my training take any more big dips like the one it took during these 2 months.
I don't have much blogged here, but I spent most of these 2 months doing the GSLP program. All in all a phenomenal program, one I will probably dabble with again. I think Jonny Pain has some really good opinions on how to get strong and big and I have continued to implement them into my training. I only changed the program up to give the PL club's program at my school a shot instead.
November-End Of the Year
I got my head straight after the Ghost Train and realized I needed to make changes. I started going to the powerlifting trainings at my school and lifting with some legit strong people and also changed up my program. I started busting out dips and pullups more consistently, which have always been big weaknesses with me. I also started running a lot more frequently. I signed up for the Viaduct Trail 100m race next July during this time, a race that I will put my heart and soul into leading up to it. I think personally I closed out 2011 with a big improvement and I'm proud of the turnaround I made in such a short amount of time.
OVERALL:
2011 was the first year where I began to think for myself and select a proper training program to implement my goals. CrossFit no longer was the only way to train and I trained with several different methods to see what I liked and what I didn't. I developed a love for barbell strength training and an immense fond sensation of ultra marathons. I ran 50 miles, something that if you had told me 3 years ago I would ever do in my lifetime I'd probably ask you where you got the weed you just smoked.
It was also a year where I wasn't consistent with my training or diet, something I need to vastly improve if I ever want to be the person I want to be. This year in general was a great jumping off point and learning experience, one that I can develop my training for 2012 off of with improvements and keeping the things that did work.
Highlights of the Year:
1. Running 50m at the NJ Ultra Festival in under 10 hours
2. Deadlifting 475#
3. Squatting 365# on 2 different occasions
4. Finding Baystate Gym and training there for 8 months out of the year
5. Returning to Springfield College
6. Writing my first song on guitar
Low Points of the Year:
1. The 3 month depression I went through
2. Injuring my back deadlifting in July (haven't deadlifted regularly since)
3. The other nagging injuries I got that were minor but added up to several changed training sessions.
I'd like to thank all my readers for joining me on the ride for 2011. I hope that I can become 10x the athlete I became in the 365 days I spent in this year in the upcoming one and can become an inspiration to others to accomplishing their goals as well.
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