Lenten Challenge 2012

Over at Cook Ding’s blog, he just posted his yearly Lenten Challenge. To put it in his own words:

The challenge is this: from Ash Wednesday (Feb 22) until the day before Easter (April 7), train every day, without fail, no excuses; even if you have to move mountains. Simple enough said, a little harder to do.

I think this is a great idea. As I train pretty much every day anyway it’s less an issue for me but that doesn’t mean I’m off the hook. The last couple months have been exceedingly hectic and my training has suffered for it in both intensity and consistency. Combined with injuries acting up, I’m not in the shape I want to be. Case in point: last weekend I did some interval training and was disgusted at how poorly I performed.

Time to change all that and Cook Ding’s post gave me some extra inspiration on how to do this. Here’s my own challenge for you:

• Train every day from February 22 until April 22. Cook Ding stops at April 7 but the 22nd is my birthday and I turn 40 then. What better time to mark the occasion by being in awesome shape?
• It doesn’t matter how long you train, 1 or 100 minutes but it has to be each day. You don’t have to go all out every day either; spending 15min stretching on a rest day is also training in my book. Just don’t make every day a rest day …
• Pick a specific technique, concept, whatever to focus on. I’ll share mine in a bit.
• If you fail to train one day, train extra the day after.
• Be accountable. I’ll post my daily training on my Facebook page so you’ll see how I’m doing. Drop me a note there to tell me how you’re doing or post it on your own Facebook page, blog, whatever. By making your intentions public, you’re much more likely to stick to them.
• Get a training buddy. Share this post with your friends, training partners, students at your school or gym, etc. If you find somebody to do the challenge together with you, your odds of succeeding go up once again.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner in the arts or have been training for decades. We all benefit from extra training and setting goals to increase our skills. Besides, training hard is a lot of fun and the progress you make is always incredibly fulfilling.

Here’s what I’ll be working on:

• Strength training. My strength isn’t terrible but it’s not like it was half a year ago. So I need to spend some time on this too.
• Interval training. I’m going to up the conditioning drills to get in a lot better shape than I am right now.
• Flexibility. Due to some injuries, I’ve lost a lot of flexibility. I want it all back.
• Kicking techniques. Because of that lack of flexibility, my kicking techniques have gradually degraded to so-so levels. I want them back to “Holy crap!” levels.

This is a tall order for sure, but I think it’s doable. It’ll be hard, but the results will be worth it too. My only concern is managing the injuries. That’s the only thing I can’t really predict how it will go. But I’ll do all I can to take care of my body and avoid complications.

As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So I’m gonna put my money where my mouth is and add an extra challenge to it:

My benchmark will be the Tabata training protocol.

I’m going to do a session today (ouchouchouch…) and put it on video. Then I’m going to do another one on April 22 and tape it too.

If this weekend’s training session is any indication, today’s session will be an epic fail. I want the one on my birthday to be full of win.

That’s my goal.

So… How about you? Are you up for the challenge?

Let me know on Facebook where you will also be able to follow my descent into the hells of training. :-).

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Related Posts:

• Lenten challenge update
• Reverse Pyramid Interval Training on the Heavy Bag
• Lenten Challenge Tabata Protocol Test 1
• Ramon Dekkers Pad Training.
• Why the untrained fighter kicks your highly trained butt, Part Two.