Jefferson Training

[antlas]

Your training volume is incredible. How many calories do you eat?

Your log is making me feel tempted though...I love LSS runs, but I've mostly cut them out to focus on strength (my #1 priority). Have you found that the volume impedes your strength progress at all?

[Jefferson]

Your training volume is incredible. How many calories do you eat?

Your log is making me feel tempted though...I love LSS runs, but I've mostly cut them out to focus on strength (my #1 priority). Have you found that the volume impedes your strength progress at all?

I eat as much as I can without feeling sluggish. Baseline is 1lb of meat, 1 pound of vegetables, 1 pound of rice/potato/sweet potato/, ~3 dozen eggs a week, and few pieces of fruit. During long workouts I'll eat 50g of carbs from sour patch kids and a protein shake. It's also not uncommon for me to eat 1,500 for dinner. I probably average 3,500 cals a day. So sometimes 3,000, other times 4,000.

I am sleeping 8 solid hours a night and taking a 15-20 minute nap everyday. Zero alcohol. And doing stress reduction strategies to downregulate sympathetic nervous system. For me 1 hour of training is roughly equivalent to requiring 1 extra hour of sleep.

When my schedule dictates less sleep I'll reduce volume and or intensity. I've said before that I never hesitate to take a recovery day, weekend or week. When you build a deep level of fitness it doesn't go away quickly.

My strength levels are slowly increasing, but I'm also weaker than when I did mostly strength work. However my strength endurance and work capacity is much improved.

For example: a few weeks ago I visited some family and did some heavy manual labor for 4+ hours in the morning, then climbed for 2 hours in the late afternoon. That would have been hard without having developed some aerobic base.

I think excessive (subjective) endurance work will hinder strength, but not to the degree most people think or experience because 1) they are going too hard and not at an aerobic pace 2) they don't eat enough food and don't eat quality food 3) don't sleep enough 4) don't do some sort of stress management

Finally, it's fun to get out and run around for me. That in itself is a stress reliever. I would never recommend the average person to run if it wasn't something they enjoyed (unless it was part of the job in which case suck it up).

I always feel like my responses become long winded, but there is so much context and nuance and I want people to make whatever the right training choice is for them - not just think they aren't doing enough because some random guy on the internet is a little bit insane and has a high requirement for physical activity.

Hope that helps.

[Jefferson]

3/25/17
Easy climb + mobility (emphasis on shoulders, lats, t spine, chest, hip flexors)

[Jefferson]

3/26/17

AM: 7 mile easy run. 23.5 miles for the week.

[Jefferson]

AM: 20lb ice bath @ 20 min.

PM: bench 165x5x5; squat 235x5x5; ring row 5x5
Nice easy day. Week 4 of operator template so 70% of training max.

[Jefferson]

3/28/17

1 mile lunch run in new trail runners to make sure they fit properly.

PM 3.5 hour hard climb

[Jefferson]

3/29/17

Lunch run: 10 mile run

PM:
Warm up
Easy climb 0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,5 (failed),3,2,1,1,1
Strength
Bench 165x5x3
Squat 235x5x3
Inverted row 15,10,5

[J-Madd]

3/29/17

Lunch run: 10 mile run

That's a helluva lunch break! I share your love for getting and putting some miles on! Thanks for keeping this log here.

[Jefferson]

3/30/17

PM endurance:

7 mile night run. Low visibility. 20% muddy. 100% fun.

[Jefferson]

3/31/17


PM:
Hard climb 2.5 hours
strength

Warm up
Center mass bell swings, renegade row, wood chopper, ohp circuit x 3

Strength @ 75%
Bench 165x5x3
Squat 235x5x3
Inverted row 15,10,5
KB swing (light weight, focusing on crisp clean movement)
100 reps @ 32kg

Notes: been neglecting my swings in comparison to run volume. Was feeling a bit tight but swings fixed me right up. Reminder to self... if running a lot, then swing. If can't swing then don't run. Keep it simple.