2/27- 2/28/2007 Dog Jog, Hills & New Strength Plan

2/27/2007 Short Recovery Run Dog Jog

Gracie, my occasional running partner, went out with my on my short recovery run. We did the typical loop down our road and through Meghan's Run. It's kind of nice having her with me on these short, and usually mundane runs, because she forces me to be more aware of my surroundings as I have to be even more alert for the occasional bit of traffic. She is also hyper aware of anything that moves, like a squirrel or other rodent that she would love to chase down.

We did the 3.3 mile route in about 32 minutes with several stops to sniff this or that and the occasional potty break...for her not me.

2/28/2007 Medium Recovery Run & Strength Training

Today was all about maximizing the minimum amount of time to get the maximum amount of workout. It all sounds like corporate double talk when I put it that way. I was synergizing, and relaying my core beliefs...and uuggh. Anyway I had to squeeze in a medium recovery run with 6 hill repeats before I met with a trainer to start my new strength training plan. So here is how it went down.

It all worked out pretty well since I decided to do my run near the gym. The gym sits on the side of a hill, so I knew I should be able to find a suitable incline to do my hill repeats on. As it turned out I found a nice .45 mile long hill that ranges between 3 and 7% or somewhere near that range. It was part of a nice little 2 mile loop. So I ran around the first part of the loop to the bottom of the hill. I did the 6 repeats, and then finished up the loop back to the gym. The 6.5 miles that include the 6 hill repeats took about 56 minutes.


After finishing up the run I went straight into the gym and met my trainer to go through my new strength training plan. I was pretty psyched to see what he had worked up for me. As a fellow runner I was pretty confident that he would put together a nice group of workouts that would target just what I need. Here is the new workout:

5 minute Dynamic Warm-Up:
(All done Across Basketball Court and back)

• Lunge Twists
• Side Lunges
• Walking Knee Grabs
• Toe Touches
• Butt Kicks

Workout:

• Medicine Ball Toe Touches - 8 lb ball 2 sets x 15
• Medicine Ball Twists - 8 lb ball 2 sets x 15
• Supermans - 2 sets x 15
• Walking Lunges - Width of Court with 15 lbs
• Ball Leg Curls - 2 sets x 15
• Dumbbell Step-Ups - 15 lbs 2 sets x 15
• Hammer Strength Seated Chest Press 45 lbs 2 sets x 15
• Hammer Strength Seated Row 45 lbs 2 sets x 15
• Hammer Strength Lat Pull Downs 35 lbs 2 sets x 15
• Dumbbell Bicep Curls (seated) - 15 lbs 2 sets x 15
• Bench Dips - 2 x 15
• 4 way Shoulder - 4 lbs 1 x 20
• Fly
  
• Front Shoulder Raise
• Lat. Shoulder Raise
• External Rotation

We did one set of each just to go through the workout and make sure I was using appropriate form for each one and knew what each one was doing. Between the new workouts and the hill running I am so fracking sore today. The lower half of my body feels like it's made out of glass...but in a good way. During the workout I definitely felt challenged, but not overwhelmed until we hit that last set of 4 way shoulders. He told me that I would be glad that it was only 4 lbs. by the end of the rotation. I thought it wouldn't be a big problem, but by the beginning of the external rotations I was burning, and by the 10th in that set my shoulders were screaming, and I had to stop for a few moments. This will be a great challenge for me, and I'm betting it will really help when it comes time to start preparing for the Little Miami Triathlon.