Training schedule

It was important to incorporate different components of fitness when designing the training programme. The components that were of importance for the challenge were: Body composition, Muscular endurance, Cardiorespiratory fitness and Muscular power.

 

Body composition would have an influence on running this event because too much lipose or fat tissue would result in extra weight therefore slower the performance and lengthen the time. The same could be said about too much extra muscle, adding weight which would unbalence the power to wieght ratio. Muscular power is the ability of a muscle or a group of muscles to exert a maximum amount of force in the shortest amount of time this could be usefull during the stance phase of gait when push off is required. Muscular power could be the difference between a fast finishing time or not meeting the goal. Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to sustain repeated contractions against a resistance for an extended lenghth of time, training this component will prove to be a valuable assest. Cardiorespiratory fitness is probably the most important component in order to achieve this task in which the heart and blood vessals need to be strong enough to transport and supply the muscles with sufficient amounts of exercise to prevent fatigue.

 

This training programme includes these components, the variables are time and rate of perceived exertion which increases as the challenge draws closer.

 

Interval training consists of short sprints on a steep incline between 30 seconds to a minute long also boxing with pad work and punching bag. Strength training is a combination of chest, biceps, triceps, shoulders, back and legs. Cardio involves two high intensity runs for 30-40 minutes with one run being on a treadmill and the other on a hill to build muscular endurance. Rehab occurs 4 times per week and involves stretching to decrease the chance of injury and rotator cuff exercises to prevent an old injury from returning. Rest involves days where no activity takes place.

 

RPE or rate of perceived exertion fluctuates and generally increases closer to the event for maximum results. Loading cosides with RPE as well as time and also increases generally as the weeks draw closer.