Aims for 2018: Part 2 Exercise

Welcome to Part 2! Yesterday I chatted about what my aims are for 2018, today we venture more into what I hope to do in 2018 exercise wise. Let’s get to it! 1,2,3,4!

RUNNING

I want to break this down pretty simple. 2017 was pretty much a loss of a year running wise, I still raced a lot, but my times were not where I would want them to be, with my weight loss I am to get back to my faster times. Here is the breakdown of the times I aspire to achieve this year!

1 mile – 5:59 – I have rarely tried to run just 1 mile, but I know I can get into the 6 minutes so I think I can try and break into the 5 minutes this year.

5 km – 22:59 – My previous best was in the 23-minute region and that was good I think! So why not keep the trend going of just dipping below that as a sensible aim. With me probably doing more parkruns, I have the perfect chance to get this down.

10km – 46:59 – I have dipped once or twice previously into the sub 48’s. So I think I can achieve this with some effort! I have the perfect route for a 10km run, which is where I got so good at this distance so I will get that on the go again. Fingers crossed.

10 mile – 1:16:59 – When I tried to go a bit further in my 10km pace and I was feeling good I would get used to running 10 miles and I would hover in the 1:20min pace. So I know this one is a challenge, but I will make sure my stupid legs and lungs can burst through this to get down this low!

Half Marathon – 1:44:59 – My PB in the half marathon was 1:49:00, but with the EAM’s crew always hosting half marathons, I feel I can get decent practice into improving this. It will be hard as anything at this distance is. But it can happen.

Marathon – 3:49:59 – The big one for me. I want to get into the 3 hours again. I would love to get faster than this, but I have to be realistic. This I feel is realistic!

6 Hour Ultra – 40 miles – I have run two 12 hours before and I improved each time with my distance, so I feel I can push the extra 13.8 miles to achieve this. If not, anything over 35 miles is golden.

12 Hour Ultra – 70 miles – In 2016 I achieved 62 miles. and that was with limited training. There are 6 months for me to get up to this and the training started yesterday so I am pumped. I am not saying this will be the biggest challenge this year running wise because…

24 Hour Ultra – 100 miles – I want to try this properly, in 2016 my knee gave out and I had to stop at 12 hours. I want to beat this. I know I can keep going. Lot’s of planning and training will get me there. Fingers crossed!

CARDIO

This is more cardio related as I will break down some things in the next section. This one will be shorter, so that should be okay for you!

Rowing machine – 42195m – I see this on the concept 2 all the time and by God, I want to get that number down to 0 in one visit. I have done 20k before. I will train for this and get as close as I can to this number.

Stepper – 400 floors – My record is 200 floors, but I love that stepper and I want to try and get to 400 because I am literally a madman.

Bike – Belfast to London 322 miles – I always see people do those charity cycles and I plan to do a lot to get to certain marathons (Hi London and New York) so I think this could be a good thing to help get the funds up. I expect it to take two days..

WEIGHTS

I have a few exercises I want to get right and improve in 2018. I have never been too great at weightlifting, but I want to improve to help reduce fat and gain strength. Here is a short breakdown!

Deadlift – 150kg (330lbs) – I wanted to get better at deadlifts and I know I can get to 60kg pretty comfortably, so with some effort each week I think I can slowly build it up to this!

Chest Press – 100kg (220lbs) – I know what you are thinking, these aren’t crazy heavy weights Scott, but I want to get these right and I have strangely found that my Chest press is weaker than my incline… Thus…

Incline Chest Press – 120kg (265lbs) – I think I can eek out a bit more than the chest press so I am confident I can get to this one as I previously got to over half of this in a short number of months before.

Thruster – 100kg (220lbs) – I just got into doing thrusters this year from CrossFit and I have really enjoyed the effort it takes your entire body to do. I got it to 40kg. So let’s get it going!

Front Squat – 100kg (220lbs) – The same as thrusters, I only got into this move, I had always assumed that my flexibility in my wrists was not there, but I think I can get there!

Back Squat – 200kg (440lbs) – My PB is just over 100kg. Seeing as I am trying to double my PB’s this year. I might as well get in there!! Wish my poor back some luck.

Leg Press – 300kg (660lbs) – I was a heavy guy, a very heavy guy, my legs had to be strong to carry all that damn weight about, so I have always had great energy in this area. I have gotten just about 200kg before. Plus I like round numbers!

 

WALKING

I had tried to achieve 20,000 steps every day, but this couldn’t happen last year, so this year I will be on it and so, I have step myself a little target… I am going to walk 8,000,000 steps next year. Yes, you heard me. 8 million! Why? Well because I will be running a lot and getting the miles up that way, plus, I just like walking. So does Victoria, so guess who is coming along on my long walks!? (This is two posts in a row that I have to apologise to her… Oops). It is a long shot, but I think I can do it… I think.

SWIMMING

To my shame, I do not know how to swim, I am the guy you laugh at, clung to the side of the pool using a float doggy-paddling to the deep end and then trying not to have panic attacks once I am there. So a pretty simple aim right? Spoiler it is to train one day for a triathlon and I have heard you might need to swim to do one of those…

 

That is all for part two of my aims! Tomorrow brings my aims for the blog, it will hope for you, be a little shorter than these two posts, but still full of the greatness that is my writing (please sense I was joking… Please…)

If you want to chat more about any of my posts, please follow me on Twitter and Instagram also to receive updates, Until next time, thanks for reading and I hope to see you again soon!