TRAIN ALONG // 12.24.09

Join me for a workout??

In 2010 I will be be giving glimpses into my workouts from time to time.  Hope you'll join me for a few!  If you do, let me know how it goes in the comments below.  I'd love to hear.  Scroll down if you'd like to jump straight to the cardio development workout on the treadmill I did earlier today.  Or read on to see how the whole training session (my first-ish for the year) was designed...

I've been planning on starting training for a couple weeks, but it just hasn't happened.  So I shifted my mindset.  Instead of feeling like I was behind, I decided I was a week early!  January 1 became my new target date for consistent focused training (original, I know...) 

As much as I wanted to be outside training today, I went to the gym.  There are fewer distractions indoors, so I can zone into my body and get to know it again. I want to know precisely where it's at, it's strengths, its weaknesses, its tightnesses, etc.  I can't do this while swimming, biking, or running...all I would get from that right now is - whoa! I'm outta shape!  I know I'm outta shape.  I need specifics.  I challenge the body with different movements, isolating things like:

Soft Tissue Quality
What's tight and might need some TP Therapy or ART?

Spinal Stability
Can I maintain a neutral spine throughout all movements?

Glute Activation
Are the Glutes doing their job or is IT Band/Hamstring taking over?

Hip Stability
Can I balance on one leg quietly...while moving thru my hips?

Ankle Mobility
Is my ankle tracking in line with my knee cap/hip/shoulder?

Shoulder Mobility/StabilityIs my scapula 'winging' with or without movement?

Until I am confident in my body being able to handle all the fun I want to have, I keep things basic, quiet, and focused on specific improvements.  I've learned that the more diligent I am with it, the sooner I'll be firing on all cylinders...and this happens much sooner than when I've tried to get all my performance improvement with swim/bike/run miles from the get go AND I can be confident that I'll stay injury free!

I was pleasantly surprised today, when I went through a number of movements, including some elastic exercises and a cardio development workout.  I felt awesome!  Sure I'm "outta shape" but I had a lot of things going for me.  In just those couple of hours I have a much better idea of how to spend my time training AND i'm confident that I can join my friends to ride Palomar Mountain on Saturday (a climb that's been compared to Alpe d'Huez) maybe not with a ton of fitness, not with a ton of power and not for speed, but I've got great spinal stability and hip stability at the moment, and those will come in handy, especially on hills. 

TRAIN ALONG // Cardio development on the treadmill

GOALS // Increase anaerobic threshold and increase leg speed

5 min ez warm up @ 7.0mph

4 x [1min @ 10.0mph + 1min off]

2 min break

4 x [45sec @ 10.5mph + 30sec off]

2 min break

4 x [30sec @ 11.0mph + 15sec off]

2 min walking off the treadmill warm down

I felt comfortable the whole way.  I felt so good at the beginning that I almost decreased my 1min rest in the first set to 30sec after the first rep but wanted to feel great the whole time so I stayed conservative.  My heart rate was getting up over 180bpm during those 1min @ 10mph and was dropping to 140bpm during the 1 minute rest.  Good sign. After the first set, during the 2 minutes of rest, I realized I didn't feel as challenged as I wanted to feel in my cardio system.  It was after all a cardio development workout.  So that's when I chose to increase the speed to see if I could get a response from my heart rate - as long as my legs could keep up with the speed and I could maintain my form.  And I did.  During the 45sec @ 10.5mph (5:40min/mi) my heart rate was getting up to 190bpm+, but I still felt strong through the entire interval (body stayed quiet, legs stayed under me, knees were driving up.)  During the 30sec rest my HR had only dropped to about 180bpm (I did not have a HR monitor on, only using my finger, timing for 6 sec and multiplying by 10) but I felt fine to keep going.  Ideally my heart rate would be dropping faster, but the fact that I felt strong enough to continue to work at that high heart rate, interval after interval was still a good sign.

Although I felt strong during the 3rd set and was holding my form together, it wasn't easy.  I needed to work really hard at keeping up the leg speed.  Having only 15 sec rest was challenging, but doable.  Just like I wanted.  In the end I was worked.  And satisfied.   I'd gone beyond my anaerobic threshold  an handful of times and challenged my legs to turn over faster than they had in a really long time.

After a 2 minute 'walk-down' I felt great. Fresh, sweaty, stronger. 

Try the workout.  Chose your intervals accordingly.  Challenge yourself at the end.  Get your leg speed going!  Let me know how it goes...Merry Christmas Eve!!!