As promised I am posting a brief summary of my first week of Seal preparation training. No I am not joining the military. My goal is simply to build up my strength and endurance to the same level as required by the Navy Seal PT. It is an ambitious goal, yes I know. You can check out my previous posts if you would like the skinny (no pun intended) on how I plan to accomplish this.
So how did Week 1 go??
Well Week 1 and 2 were originally supposed to look something like this:
Running: 1 mile at 8:30 pace (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
Pushups: 4 Sets of 12 with 1 minute of rest between (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)Situps: 4 Sets of 20 with 1 minute of rest between (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
Pullups: 3 Sets of 3 with 30 seconds of rest between (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
Swim continuously 10 minutes (4-5 days per week)
So after attempting this starting point, I think the picture above captures the overly zealous nature of my self prescribed training program for Week 1. I had the right gear, I was confident, I was ready, but I was in for a rude awakening. Three years out of any regular workout routine and then jumping straight into an ambitious training program requires a more subtle approach. But then again, that isn't really my style.
In short, I have found I am much more out of shape than I had previously led myself to believe. This training is kicking my tail. The endurance is where I am struggling most. On my first day in the pool, I literally thought I was going to barf because I was so exhausted and I had only been swimming continuously for 4 freakin minutes. It's just ridiculous. It doesn't help that my form in the pool is poor. For my next trick, I tried to get on the treadmill at the gym and get a read on my pacing, since I usually run first thing in the morning around the neighborhood. I dialed in 2 miles (not sure why I doubled it) and a pace of 8.5 minutes per mile. This also did not go well. I got distracted watching the TV at one point early on and was nearly ejected off the back of the conveyor belt. After a very shaky recovery and checking to see if anyone saw what happened, I only lasted the grand total of about 6 minutes. When I tried to simply slow the machine down a bit, I accidentally hit the EMERGENCY STOP button and almost slammed my face into the machine. What an idiot! I can't even tell you how thankful I was that hardly anyone was in the gym that evening.
So....needless to say, my starting point has been modified. I've scaled back in a few places and increased a bit in others where I was able to do more than I had originally prescribed:
Running: 1 mile at 8:30 pace (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
Pushups: 4 Sets of 15 with 1 minute of rest between (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)Situps: 4 Sets of 15 with 1 minute of rest between (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
Pullups: 3 Sets of 5 with 30 seconds of rest between (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
Swim continuously 5 minutes (4-5 days per week)
In closing, as pitiful as the start was, I am happy to report that as of today, the first day of Week 2, I am noticing a bit of a difference. I'm sure it's mostly the result of my body just getting over the initial shock of getting back to working out on a regular basis. I'm not straining to complete the strength exercises anymore. The endurance training, especially the swimming, is also getting a little easier. My plan is to take some lessons from the PT's at the gym to hopefully improve my form in the pool so I am getting a better workout and not wasting energy needlessly. If I'm ever going to be able to swim continuously for the amount of time a Seal is required to, I had better get dang good at it.
More to come next Monday...
Love the honesty! You'll
ReplyDeleteget there husband.