Camino Fitness Week Four
Congratulations on reaching Week 4.
The main keys to success in building fitness, are moderation and consistency. So the majority of week four is the same as week three in Frequency, Intensity, Distance and Time.
So what’s NEW? We saw musings on the Dirty Dozen and the Deadly Dozen this week ;-) We don’t actually have a Deadly Dozen… but we do have a Fab Four Fitness Test (if anyone has a better name… I think we need a better name please).
The Four Event Fitness Test (Walking with weight, Push ups, Steam Engine (Bicycle), Plank) takes less than an hour and is an opportunity to get some statistics and see how your training is going. In Camino Fitness, we’ll do this on weeks 4, 8 and 12.
You’ll need:
1. A copy of Daily Dozen (for instructions on push ups and steam engine).
2. Stopwatch.
3. Pen & Paper.
4. A friend is helpful
Based on our experience, the Fitness Test (although a wee bit intimidating) is a huge boost to confidence and planning, as the results achieved between 4, 8 and 12 weeks can be staggeringly good.
So how to perform the test?
First three rules: Safety. Safety. Safety. There are really only two ways to not succeed with this training, one is to decide to stop and the other is to get hurt. We find that the community aspect of CF provides accountability and encouragement, and for the safety part, we use two tools.
1. Challenge By Choice.
We believe that no one ought ever feel pushed, or encouraged to do any effort that doesn’t feel right. How do we know if it feels right…? It feels right. We think of the example of Military Parachuting, the power of the decision to jump is with the Paratrooper and if something feels off with the equipment - don’t jump until it looks right.
2. We always operate in the Comfort Zone.
If that seems like an editorial error, it’s not. Contrary to many fitness training programs, we believe in going right up to the edge of your comfort zone, but not past it. Think of Usain Bolt in between the blocks and the finish line for Twelve Olympic Gold medals. He was in control every second of every race. Lindsay Vonn has great example of courage and control skiing the For a ski the legendary Streif race course in Kitzbühel. (Look for a link in comments)
What we find in training, and we’ve learned much from training mountain climbers and military operators in high-hazard/high consequence terrain, is that we extend the comfort zone by learning to be skilled and confident within that zone. Then as time proceeds and we train diligently, the size of the comfort zone expands as our endurance and strength grows. I like my brother’s advice everytime we’re about to try something bold, “No heroics”.
So as this relates to fitness testing. We will feel sensation in the muscles. The heart, lungs and cardiovascular system will experience effort, and potentially very high effort; but we want to immediately stop if you experience dizziness or joint pain or any sharp pain anywhere in the body.
We will also want to adhere to any guidelines or limitations set by medical professionals. Finally, we advise doing this test with a friend or coach or someone who can provide assistance. On a practical level, it’s easier for most people to have someone else do the timing and counting.
Fitness Test
Note: Immediately stop if you experience dizziness or joint pain or any sharp pain anywhere in the body.
Warm up:
- Daily Dozen
- 5 minutes easy walk
Test
- 1 mile for time with pack (weight - Challenge By Choice - Range from 5kg to 15kg). Followed by 1/2 mile cool down
- Push ups/Press ups = 2 minutes
- Steam Engines (on ground/floor) = 2 minutes
- Plank = As long as comfortably possible.
Key:
* 40 min walk: 20 minutes easy pace followed by 15 minutes tempo pace.
** Tempo pace is right where you are breathing quickly enough that it would be difficult to have a conversation, but not a full-out sprint. Choose a pace that requires effort, but that you can keep up for 15 minutes.
*** Strength. Challenge by Choice. A strength training could be the DD X 3 times for total of 36 minutes. It could be a Yoga or Pilates session, weight training, or walking with weight in your pack.
**** For the long walk, the pace should be easy, but because the distance is longer, we rate the intensity as moderate for this walk.