Friday Thoughts 74
Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Thoughts, where I share random idea, half formed blog posts and some of my favorite clips from the internet. Enjoy!
Daily Walking Challenge Day 16!
We’ve crested the halfway point, can you believe it? Word around the gym is that there are a lot of people going to hit 30/30 this year to be entered into win a new pair of shoes. Keep that consistency going. If you haven’t been consistent, time to get back to it. Just because you messed up, doesn’t mean the challenge has to be completely over. Good habits are adaptable, sure you won’t get a chance to win a pair of shoes, but you can keep working on building this valuable, lifelong habit.
Ten Day Training Cycle
As I prepare for the Mount Washington Road Race, I’m testing something that I’ve been curious about for a while- ditching the 7 day in week and instead writing my program in 10 day cycles. There’s a lot of different time domains and intensities I’m trying to hit during the week, and using a 10 day week let’s me play around with what I do when. I’ve always been curious about this idea but stayed away because it’s confusing thinking in different time chunks than you have been for your whole life. All in all the first 10 days went well, I did about 90% of what I had planned and tweaked a couple days based off how I’m feeling- which is the whole point. I want to a plan I can follow, but want the flexibility to move and change things based off how I’m feeling the particular day.
Reading
The Miner household has been on a reading tear and we’re not slowing down. Months ago we ditched the nightly TV time for book time and we love it. On a podcast recently, someone asked how his friend reads so much, and his answer stuck with me, he said, “I read anywhere from 5 minutes to 90 minutes on any given day, sometimes less, sometimes more.” Like with most things, you’ve just got to get started and let the momentum take you. The biggest thing reading has done had made me less tolerant of Instagram. It’s funny, I almost feel like I’m having the opposite effect described below. Going from a book where you’re engaged and focused and swtiching over to doom scroll social media, it just doesn’t pack the same punch.
TEMPO
Tempo is a great skill to have in the weight room, and I think more importantly, it’s a really great way to progress someone and make them stronger without putting as much importance on how heavy their lifting, which with the aging population and for newbies is crucial to long term development. Remember, if adding 5 pounds to a lift every week worked like the text books say it does, we’d all have 1000 pound deadlifts by now and I’m still waiting on mine.
Good Training Is Boring
I know, we’re never going to win the internet or have the hottest, trendiest gym craze with a sentiment like that. We will, however, make real, sustainable changes and have the most impact. The real gyms, outlast all the trends. Remember the Lindy Effect. Keep doing boring workouts - you don’t need more entertainment, you need better training.
Thanks for reading, see you next time!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain