Ending the Starting Phase

Season 2: The Road To Boston
Chapter 1. Building the Foundation

1.2 Ending the Starting Phase

Belated Merry Christmas. Happy New Year!
Loving the vacation so far. Though I still have to work for two days before I could enjoy another holiday vacation.

On this last week of December, I would be squeezing a few more strength training, more core drills and a few more boxing rounds. Have I reaped or seen my rewards for these exercises? Not much. :'(

I am still over 150 pounds. The belly fats pretty much tell the truth. Hehehe. And more holiday foods to eat. Wahaha!

No sense of panic though. I haven't started to run yet and I am still pounding the heavy bag harder than I ever had and longer. Signs of not dropping any hard-earned stamina. At the boxing gym, we used to work out for three full minutes and then get to rest for 30 seconds before another tiring 3-minute session.

Following this boxing timing strategy on my own room, I set my alarm in 4-minute cycles. I spend the first 30 seconds resting and recovering.. just trying to reenergize for another intense boxing round. The last 3 minutes and 30 seconds, I get to pound the heavy bag to my delight. I am using a box-like timer. It has four faces, one on each box side. The different faces could show the actual time, the room temperature, an alarm setting and a countdown timer. The 4-minute countdown stops, beeps and then restarts (after I turn the face of the box 90-degrees to see the other timer features and turns it back again to the countdown face). It's not an easy task to turn the box with the boxing gloves on. But it's part of the workout I guess. :D

The extra 30 seconds of the 3:30-minute boxing round should help me build up my stamina. Stamina that I would be needing a lot in preparation for the Milo Marathon. For eight full rounds now, I will hit the bag with abandon. After the hard work, I feel relieved of all the stress I had prior to hitting the heavy bag.

By the numbers looking at my Training Log from Runner's World, I had 13 strength training sessions, 6 boxing days, 11 core drills sessions and a basketball game for December 2009. Not bad considering the busy holiday preparations and coming off a right knee injury.

And to end the month and the year, I would love to squeeze a few more foundation-building exercises:

1. Strength training on Monday (28) and Wednesday (30)
2. Core drills on Monday and Tuesday (29)
3. Boxing on Tuesday
   

That should complete my December, off peak, training month. Next year, I will start running again and with a different twist. I will gladly blog about the new running plans and routines leading up to my (1) Globe 10K Race in March (2) Milo Qualifying Marathon in July (3) Boston Qualifying Marathon runs at Milo Finals, QCIM and PIM marathons. Wake me up because I'm dreaming. And dreaming big.

Happy Holidays.