Consistency.

Consistency. 
One word to describe my biggest takeaway in 2024 is consistency. Every day you have the opportunity to grow. Speaking financial terms, compound interest is the interest earned on the money you've saved AND the interest you earn along the way. It’s the same in fitness. The small work you do each day adds up. The day after day repetition builds on one another and leads to something great. This is where the 100 pull ups a day challenge was birthed. It started on April 11 2024, a group of guys committed to a 30 day challenge of 100 pull ups a day. This was my first time ever “training” pull ups. In less than a year I’ve completed 2,100 pull ups in 5.5 hours, and by the end of this year I have the goal to beat Goggins’ pull up record in about half the time. All it took was 10-20 minutes of my day, building a habit of pull ups, and at some point you become exponentially better at it.

In this newsletter you can expect 2 key workout sessions for the week, reasoning behind those workouts, business updates, recommendation for the week, and how small actions can lead to big success.

Workout of the Week
Track Day - 5k Workout
2 mile warm up
12×400m @ current 5k RP (race pace), 60s standing rest
2 mile cool down

Saturday Session
8 × 1k on, 1k float
Paces: 1k on at current HMP; 1k float at 1-2min slower
My example workout:
- 2 mile WU (warm up)
- Strides + Plyo
- 8 × 1k @ 6:50/mi, 1k Float @8:30/mi
- 2 mile CD (cool down)
Note: use your current fitness to predict what your Half Marathon Race Pace would be

Workout Philosophy
5k Workout
Total session is roughly a 5k (4800m). Last week’s session was our first workout back for some resemblance of speed without over taxing the body. This week we want to increase the speed a little more, again without over taxing the body. At first I wrote up 12×400m at goal 5k pace with 60s standing rest. My goal is to run sub 18 min (when I’m currently a sub 19:30 runner). I’ve never really touched the sub 6min/mile paces, so I’m starting off the intervals at my current fitness level to avoid injury. What will be important for me in the meantime, is running strides throughout the week at my GOAL 5k race pace. Just short 100m strides after easy runs will do the trick.

Saturday Session
1k on / floats are one of my favorite workouts. You get a solid effort throughout the entire run because the floats don’t allow you to fully recover. The idea for this workout is to get your body used to clearing lactate through a sustained effort. Personally, my heart rate rarely will drop below 160 on the float efforts which would still be roughly the high end of Z2 for me.

Business Updates
Cam and I met for the first time this year, and mapped out what success in 2025 looks like. “What is the one thing we can focus on to meet our goals this year?” This is the question Cam and I go back to time and time again. Cameron has even dedicated a full newsletter to why this is important. The one thing we are focusing on is consistent drops. It starts with our ultra collection in April, and we’ll go on a consistent schedule all the way through marathon season.

When you look at the entire year and what we want to accomplish as a business, I couldn’t help to wonder how in the world we will actually get there. The end goal for us to be full time building Monarx into a machine seems so far away… but that’s where small actions lead to big results… that’s where we focus on the one thing to get us there.

Recommendation of the Week
Rich Roll sits down with Ultra Endurance athlete and coach, David Roche. Roche made his 100 mile debut this year at the infamous Leadville 100 where he went on to set the World Record, beating the previous 19 year standing record from Matt Carpenter by 16 minutes. Roche ran a 15:26:34 (9:15 min/mile) on the iconic Leadville course that sits at 10,000 ft, gaining over 15,000ft of elevation through rugged Colorado terrain. In this episode, Roche talks through his unconventional training methods that he believes can be applied to any distance of training.

Small Actions Lead to Big Results.
There is a lot I learn in fitness that I apply to my own life. One being small actions leading to big results. To break 2,000 reps, all it took was 7 reps every minute for 5 hours. Breaking that down even further, I did 4 reps on the top of the minute and 3 reps on the 30s interval. Another example is during ultra running. You never want to think about the total distance and how far you have to go. When I started each day in Arizona, the idea was to “grab” a marathon in the morning. That seemed pretty easy for me. And then I focused on the next 10 miles (just another long run around Back Bay Newport). Then I focused to get to the 40 mile marker. Then another 5 miles. And sure enough, I only had 5 more miles to grind out. You never wanted to think about waking up the next day and doing it all over again. You focus on the present, and the small step you need to take to keep you moving.

Breaking down 2,000 pull ups to reps of 4 and 3 or breaking down a 200mile ultra to 5 mile increments is how I’m able to endure. If I take a step back and see how many more miles or reps I have left, the finish line starts becoming out of reach. And that’s with anything in life. As I spoke in the previous section, it seems like we’re a long ways from achieving our year end goals for Monarx. But instead of focusing on how much more we have to go, we focus on what we can do right now in the present moment to move us in the right direction. “It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, as long as you don’t stop.” It’s the small, consistent actions we take every day that will reach us to our goals.

You can use this mindset for your own 2025 goals. Ask yourself what is the one thing you can do to get you to the finish line? What are the small steps you can take to put you in the right direction of accomplishing your big goals.

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