I'm going to run to Mordor

For a while now I’ve thought about my overall fitness goals, as opposed to just my strength goals. I’ve been strength training since Oct 2012, which is a little over three years and I’ve never particularly done cardio. I’d heard cardio interferes with strength gains, and I’ve been deathly afraid of that. The truth is, however, that my training is beginning to plateau and I still haven’t conquered the Pull-up, which requires a good weight-bodyfat ratio. I’m also a bit sensitive about what I perceive as a bit of a gut developing, since my large waist protrudes a tad when I sit. I also get out of breath way easier than I did when I began training, probably due to the extra mass I’m shifting around.

tl;dr I need to up my game on the fitness front.

I’ve set a goal that by the Equinox this year (March 20) I will have shifted all of my strength-based calisthenics training to a single circuit, instead of a two-day split. If I leave some of the CC2 bolt-ons like my grip training to the second day (giving me more time overall to deal with it), it also frees up the majority of that time for a bit of cardio. I hate running, but it’s a handy skill to have down and I’ve attempted it in the past too. This time I plan to nail it, by having a good goal but taking it relatively easy. I’m going to run to Mordor.

I got the idea from Nerd Fitness, where they calculate the distance from the Shire to Mordor in miles (eurgh) and advise making it a goal for walking. I’ll be running it in stints in the morning obviously, but I think it’s kinda cute and motivating as hell.

The Plan

The distance between Hobbiton in the Shire and Mt. Doom in Mordor is 1779 miles according to Nerd Fitness. They’re US so they obviously use a filthy imperial measurement, let’s update that:

1779 miles is 2863.023 km

Ouch. Sounds like a lot more, but a nice standard metric instead of imperial bollocks :-P (Sorry US-friends!). Problem is, that that .023 km on the end bothers me. For the purposes of goals and nerdy role-playing I’m also saying that once I’m in Mt. Doom I’ll need to do my business and get a safe distance away. So I’ve rounded up to 2865 km. Goal set, awesome.

Now the attack plan. Aside from grip training, I’ll have a whole training session of up to 1hr total in order to run a distance. I’m a creature of habit, so having a standard distance to run laps of will help a lot. I’ve not got access to a track immediately (plus they get muddy), but my street is set up with roads and back alleys that can be used as a loop. Cracking. This also feeds into my role-playing as some sort of urban ranger type, nice. I did some measuring on Google Maps, and one loop of the “track” is measured as 646 m. To be on the safe side, let’s round that down to 640 m per lap. Attack plan set, let’s calculate.

• (2864*1000) / 640 = 4476.5625 laps *

Ouch. That’s gonna take some doing. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like those decimal points hanging on. Let’s round up.

• (4477640) / 1000 = 2865.28 km

So, by rounding up I’ll have run a total of just over my set amount. I doubt there’s a way I can ever ensure both figures don’t have hanging decimals so I’ll leave it there lest I go insane.

So, that’s how I’m going to get to Mordor. To keep me motivated on the way I’m going to code a bit onto the site in order to log progress, and keep a few extra milestones along the way – stuff like distance from Newcastle to various landmarks etc. All I need now is some decent running shoes!