Year of Cardio – An Overview

In a few past, and many upcoming, posts, the “Year of Cardio” will be discussed quite frequently. But what is this “year of cardio” exactly?

Well, it was an idea that my wife (Digital Mustard) and I came up with  to kick our fitness and, to be honest our weight loss, into high gear. It first involved running a race of every milestone distance (5k, 8k, 10k, 10-mile, half-marathon, and full marathon) but then it started to evolve and other events were added such as a National MS Society 2 day bike ride, triathlon, and some rowing challenges.

For some distance runners, they might call this a good quarter of training and events, or even a good weekend if you complete the dopey challenge. For Karen and I, finishing this will be something monumental. Something to celebrate.  Something that we will tell our sons every year until they are just so sick of hearing it, that they go out and try to one-up us. This will be LEGEN……wait for it…….DARY! (5 years too late on that?)

Neither of us is built like traditional distance athletes and neither of us has any real background in distance running. We have to will our way through any distance running event with grit and determination. Prior to this quest, the longest race we have “run” together in a single session is the 2011 Broad Street Run (10 miles), though we walked a good portion of that event, something we both want to atone for. In 2014 we also completed the Miami to Key West Ragnar Relay but that was a few broken up runs (and is a story for another time). Karen has run a half marathon individually, and actually tried to do a year of cardio in the past, but life happened and a few months later she gave birth to our first son.

This year though….this year will be different. I completed the 5k on January 1st with no training beyond my normal CrossFit workouts. It is my thought that I can keep that up through the 10k, but anything longer than that 6-ish miles will need to be practiced and prepped for. Below you will find my, very rough, itinerary.

Not sure how the year will unfold, and whether we’ll complete everything on this list. Much will have to be done individually because we still have to be good parents while all of this is happening (which may be the topic of a future post). If you’re interested in completing any of these races with me please feel free to reach out!