Welcome to my Obstacle course training – week 1 post!

Hi everyone!

I’m not sure why I titled this post “Obstacle course training – week 1” since I’m not actually training for a specific competition… but I think I’m kind of rehabbed enough to start training properly. Sort of.

So, I’ve put “week 1” even though at this point it doesn’t really mean anything… it will just help me differentiate next week’s post from this one… if I choose to go again.

Let’s get stuck in:

So my two overuse injuries are still around… but they’re getting more manageable.

I still have golfer’s elbow on my left… I’ve had it since last September and it’s slightly better than it was.

I can now do a modified pull up.

I’ve found that on scaffolding (where I can’t close my hand around the bar) I can do a pull up where my left hand is in the pull up position (palm facing away from me) and my right hand is in the chin up position (palm facing me). I can do 6 of these with minimal pain.

Not no pain, but nothing that makes it feel like I’m making it worse.

My lower back still has hits me with random aches – but this is now more from not-moving than moving. Occasionally a particular movement will set it off, but generally it seems to hate me standing at my computer more than anything else.

So I’m generally able to proceed with modified exercises.

On Monday I ran 4.59kms in 34:15 with 135m elevation gain and 313 calories burnt.

On Wednesday I ran 4.51kms in 31:43 with 132m elevation gain and 308 calories burnt.

On Friday I ran 4.53kms in 32:08 with 133m elevation gain and 309 calories burnt.

The big thing about Wednesday and Friday was that for the first time in the 5 or so years I’ve lived here, I managed to do these runs without stopping at all. I’ve never done that ever before, and now I’ve done it twice in a week.

This was a conditioning issue… my calves and Achilles would need a break from the hills and walking was the rest they needed… then once they were under control my lungs needed to be in good enough shape, and then after that there was the mental hurdle of not walking when I wanted to.

Now that I’ve accomplished it, I can work on continuing to run the whole way every time and slowly chipping away at those running times.

Very happy with my progress here.

I think next week I’m going to break up Upper Body and Grip Strength exercises into different sessions… but this week I did an Upper Body routine on Thursday and Sunday.

This included 3 sets of:

• 10 hammer curls with 15kg weight
• 10 bicep curls (right only) with 22kg weight
• 10 shoulder presses with 15kg weight
• 20 second dead hang
• 6 modified pull ups
• 40 second farmers carry with 50 pound kettlebell (right only)
• 6 push ups
• 6 tricep dips
• 10 cable machine single arm cable row (both arms)
• 10 cable machine single arm inward flys (right only)
• 10 cable machine single arm outward flys (right only)

My back and arms seem to cope with these exercises pretty well. I haven’t been too sore the days after. I was doing a couple of grip strength exercises but I’ll talk about them next week.

On Tuesday and Saturday this week I did the 5 sets of:

• 10 24-inch box steps each leg
• 10 30-inch box jumps
• 15 calf raises
• 10 deep squats

I only recently graduated to the 30-inch box jump… they destroy me but they’re so satisfying. I know I can go higher but I don’t have the equipment.

The gym at work has these incredible foam boxes that you can Velcro to each other for huge height… the only problem is that I haven’t been into the office since March 2020.

A decent jump is clearly important for obstacle courses… you often have to jump to grab obstacles.

I weighed myself on Friday for the first time in, ah, 10 months. Pandemics and rehab have not been great for training.

There’s nothing special about my diet per se, but I’m still playing with when I eat.

I’m starting a new thing where on my running days I won’t eat for 22 hours… and then have protein and lunch straight after my run. On my exercise days I’ll have porridge with nuts for breakfast, and then protein and lunch straight after my training.

I still need to lose a few kilograms so that I can be light and strong once my elbow is better for the hanging obstacles.

I want to reduce my BMI, increase my bone mass, my muscle mass and my fat-free body weight. The bone mass numbers are a little annoying. I’ve been adding assorted nuts to my breakfast for 2 years and it’s lower than it was. I honestly thought it would be higher. So clearly some adjustments need to be made here.

My last training post was 10 months ago… that entire time was for rehab.

I was training for a comp, but my left golfer’s elbow is apparently a year long injury so I had to give it away. Anyway, here is my last post if you want to compare:

32 weeks to ninja comp (UNAA OR)

Thanks for reading my Obstacle course training – week 1 post. I’m excited to really start grinding and improving and hopefully be able to start doing more hanging and balance stuff.