Olympic Fever and Big Time Game Planning!

I love Track and Field.

Seriously, I really, really love Track and Field.

I am sitting here with goosebumps despite the 80 degree weather.  I've been watching the Olympic Trials events I missed this weekend and I am getting SUPER excited for the Olympics!  The end all be all of Track and Field is just 40 days away!

I'll be wrapping up a trip to Lake Michigan the day the running events start (Aug 3), so while everyone is out on the water, I'll probably be a stones throw of the tv.

All this T&F made me think about how little I have been running.  And when I say little, I mean- not at all!

I have two races on the books- a 5K on July 4th and the Detroit Free Press Half Marathon on Oct. 21st.  I'm not too worried about the 5k.  While I have not been running much, I have been spinning, so hopefully that helps.  I plan to run with the Royal Oak Area Runners on Tuesday and that's a pretty fast run for me.  I'll  finally try out my new Garmin!

Now, I am starting to worry about the half marathon.  I ran it last year- or I should say I completed it last year, as I did do some walking, for sure.  My time completely sucked and I was sore for days!  This is probably because I didn't train much.  I started training, it was going great, I increased mileage and that plus a improperly fitted shoe (yes- I did get fitted at a running store and they gave me a shoe a full size too small), I ended up with a stress fracture in my foot.

I had to take 16 weeks off.  I did, and never really got myself back on track.  Before the race, my longest training run had been 5 miles.

This year I not only want to destroy my time, I want it to be, well..kind of easy. I don't want to suffer and struggle for 13.1 miles.  Yes, I expect to be uncomfortable, but I don't want to be miserable. I also don't want another injury.

I am injury prone, I always have been.  When I ran years ago, it seemed that the only way to get better at distance, was to run, run and then go run some more. That always led to injury.

I have felt that there has to be a way to train less, yet get faster and stronger.  I stumbled upon Run Less Run Faster .  In a nutshell, you run 3 times a week plus cross train two other days.  I saw that and was intrigued.

I looked to see what other bloggers had written about the book, read reviews and finally decided to buy it.  It was less than $10.00 on Kindle, so I gave it a shot.  I just started it, but I think it's going to work out perfectly!  There is a 16 week half marathon schedule, so I officially start training Sunday July 16!

Anyone want to join me?

On to my fitness plans for this week:
Sunday: Rest
Monday: Spin- "GoChubChub"
Tuesday: Go Barbell AND ROAR 3 miles
Wednesday: Go 60
Thursday: Go60
Friday: GoBarbell and GoCycle Abs
Saturday: Spin
Sunday: Peanutbutter Finger's 1000 Rep Workout

If you are wondering what these new "Go" workouts are, there are classes at GoCycle.  I bought a summer unlimited pass, so I'm working out there a lot! I plan to describe these classes more on Tuesday.

Speaking of the upcoming week, the blog plan is:
Monday: New Egg Cups and Muesli recipes
Tuesday: Planning my vacation workouts and talking about the new classes I'm taking
Wednesday: Craft Room Reveal and some talk about getting our house ready to sell
Thursday: How to pack for vacation and house hunting
Friday: Swimsuit shopping. What a difference a year makes.
Saturday: Book Review: End of an Affair; Race Music; New books (new to me): Fit to Fat to Fit and Skinny Rules


Have a great week and see you tomorrow!

Circuit/Interval Workout for March

Equipment: Dumbbells, Bosu, Swiss ball, treadmill

Time: :55 minutes not including transitions 

How it works: Each "card" lasts 5 minutes. You alternate between being on the treadmill and being "on the floor".  I call them cards, because I actually printed mine out, glued them to card stock and laminated them.  Nerd City!

Start with "1. Core". Next do "A: Warm Up", then "2. Quad Push", and continue like this until you get through the final set of abs.

How to read the cards:

I think the strength training cards are pretty self explanatory.  Let me know if not. There are links to images/videos of the exercise being performed.

For the Running Cards: 
IN: Incline
A: This is for those aiming for a moderate speed
B: This is faster
A Note about speed: The speeds are just guidelines.  You may find you have to -2 or + 3 - or whatever.  
If you do the A speed, you should get about .5 mile on most of the runs. B should be closer to .6. 
e: time elapsed for that segment.

Example: For the Warm Up Card: You chose speed A. Start the treadmill at at .5 inclide and a speed of 5.5. You stay here for a minute.  At 1:00, increase the incline to 1 and maintain the speed. Do this for 60 seconds. At the 2 minute mark, keep the incline the same and increase speed to 6.5.  Maintain this for 60 seconds.

Get it?

Hope you give it a try.  I'll let you know how K and I do with this Tuesday.

By the way, I was able to just open this page on my iphone and do the workout from the phone. Very cool.

1: Core
60 sec	mountain climbers
30 x	bicycle
30 x	leg V, hands through V*
Repeat until 5 minutes is up.

*can't find a pic of this- sorry.

A: Warm Up
Time	IN	A	B	e
Start	0.5	5.5	6.5	60
1:00	1	5.5	6.5	60
2:00	1	6.5	7.5	60
3:00	0	7	8	30
3:30	1	7	8	30
4:00	0.5	7.5	9	30
4:30	0	6	7	20
4:50	0	3	3	10
5:00	Stop

2: Quad & Push
20x4	side lunge on bosu
12x 3	chest press on ball

Strength Training Note: You can do all the lunges first then go do all of the chest presses, or you can do the chest press in between the lunges.  I prefer to alternate so that my heart rate stays up a little higher.  If you finish all of this and have time left, try to get in another set of whichever you prefer. 

B: Endurance
Time	IN	A	B	e
Start	2	6.5	7.5	60
1:00	2	7	8	60
2:00	1	7.5	8.5	60
3:00	1	8	9	30
3:30	2	7.5	8.5	30
4:00	1	6	7	30
4:30	0	3	3	30
5:00	Stop

  

3: Glute, Ham and Pull
15 x 4	donkey kick
16x2	1 arm row from plank

C: Sprint
Time	IN	A	B	e
Start	0	6	7	30
0:30	0	9	10.5	45
1:15	0	4	4	45
2:00	0	9	10.5	45
2:45	0	4	4	45
3:30	0	9.3	9.3	30
4:00	0	6	7	45
4:45	0	3	3	15

4: Quad & Push
20x 2	sumo squat w/ weight
8 x 3	shoulder press
12 x 2	YTI
more sumo if time

D: Incline
Time	IN	A	B	e
Start	6	6.5	7.5	45
0:45	8	5.5	6.5	30
1:15	10	5.0	5.5	45
2:00	8	5.5	6.5	60
3:00	0	7.5	8.5	30
3:30	4	7	8	30
4:00	6	7	8	30
4:30	8	6	7	20
4:50	0	3	3	10
5:00	Stop

5: Glute, Ham and Pull
15 x 3	hip raise on ball
8x3 (HEAVY)	concentration curls

E: Combo
Time	IN	A	B	e
Start	4	5	7	60
1:00	4	6	8	60
2:00	4	7	9	60
3:00	0	8	10	30
3:30	4	6	8	30
4:00	4	7	9	30
4:30	4	4	4	30

6. Core
30	Weighted side bend
30	scissor
30	double reverse crunch
Repeat until 5 minutes is up.