Jessi Stensland - Adventures in Endurance Performance

TRAIN ALONG // 12.29.09

I visited the track for the first time in a long time today. The plan was to get in some great movement and a few short intense intervals. My friend and I had about 75 minutes to workout.  Here's what we did:

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MOVEMENT

Spinal Flexion/Extension (on all fours)
Thoracic Mobility with Tennis Balls
Mini-band External Rotation
Mini-band Bent Knee Lateral Walks
Knee Hugs
Leg Cradles
Hand Walks
Lateral Lunges
Squat Jump
Lateral Hops
Pillar skipping:  Linear + Lateral

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TRACK WORKOUT

8 x [400m hard + 200m easy] + an additional 200m to make 5k total.

This is one of my favorite track workouts.  It was passed on to me by Greg Welch who attributes it to another well known runner whose name escapes me.  It is a short workout that gives a ton of great feedback about fitness level and efficiency.  There are two elements the workout: the running and the rest.

The idea is to decrease your overall 5k time each time you run it, whether you run the 400s faster and take the same rest, run the 400s the same, but take less rest, or, ideally, do both.  The fitter you get, the faster you'll be able to run the 400m and the less time you'll need to recover during the 200m. The goal is to decrease the time you need for each element, and therefore decrease your overall 5K time. 

Keys to performance:

• Run the 8 x 400m hard, at a pace you can maintain for all eight sets.
• Run the 200m as recovery. Take enough time to maintain 400m pace.
• Record splits for each 400 and 200, then record your overall 5k time.

Here's how it went for me today...by 400s...

1 = 1:33
2-4 = 1:30
5-6 = 1:35
7 = 1:40
8 = 1:35

200s were between 1:03 and 1:10

OVERALL 5K TIME = 22:19

Ideally all the 400s would be the same or get faster as the set goes on.  I, obviously, did not accomplish this.  Next time I'll shoot to make the first 4 x 400s feel a bit easier, so I can finish at the same speed as I start.  I've done this workout as fast as 18:17 and as slow as 26:00.   I'm happy with where I'm at, for as little as I've been training. It's a great place to start. I'll aim to shave 20-30 seconds off each time I do it.  I usually repeat this set once every two to three weeks to evaluate my fitness.  It's great getting instant feedback from a workout like this.  What ends up happening is that you need less and less time to recover.  Its a great workout for anyone training for any distance as it helps increase the anaerobic threshold and power in the running stride.

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After the workout we finished up with:

Pillar Bridge // Diagonal Arm Lift
Single Leg Lowering
90/90 Stretch
AIS Stretching
Self-Massage

Do a dynamic warm-up.  Try out the 5km.  Use it to measure your fitness from time to time.  Push yourself.  Aim to improve.

Move well!

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!!!