SSC and Sunday House Workout

Well, I was feeling like crap yesterday.  I do not have a tolerance for alcohol at all.  This past friday we had our fun run and there was certainly a bit too much fun taking place and I woke up feeling like a heel that had been stomped on.  So, after oversleeping for the Saturday Track workout, I felt bad and rushed over to our workout 30 min late.  They had just finished the warm up.  I did a quick warm up, drills and commenced our workout.  10 X 400 @ 1 mile pace with 1 min recovery.  My mod was to turn it into 2 X (4 X 400) @ 5 sec per 400 faster than 1 mile pace with 1 min recovery.  That looked like this for my first round 69 sec, 70 sec, 71 sec, 78 sec.  Really fell apart on the last one.  At that point I felt like puking.  I did one more 400 @ 76 and called it a day.  However, I didn't really call it a day.  The SSC crew was there.  I joined in.  Here was the workout.  2 X 800 with 20 push ups after each.  Negative split the second 800.  3 rounds of parallel bar walks, monkey bars, 10 Pull ups, 10 hand stand push ups, bear crawl across the pole vault runway and two highway hill sprints or highway hell sprints.  After that is was 5 min of tire flips, which we split with a partner.  One length of 5 flips and trade off.  This was a heavy tire.  The entire effort definitely got my HR up, but the Saturday Sweat Club crew is so very encouraging, I enjoyed it immensely.  Now,  the rest of the day was filled with work and an overall sense of sleepiness from the workout.
Sunday morning/Mothers day, I woke up and did a quick 16 min workout.  Here's how it went. 3 rounds of 20 push ups on the cinder blocks, 20 dead lifts with the 70 pound cinder blocks each hand, 20 burpees on the cinder blocks and I finished with 150 meter downhill and 150 meter uphill run with Jet and the baby jogger.  16:10 was the total time. Drenched in sweat, lungs expanding and contracting and ready for the day.  Now off to the the Safari for mothers day to spend time with my beautiful wife and wonderful son.  Be well and stay resilient.

AFM Fitness Challenge Training

So, today I met up with one of our most experienced fitness specialists as it relates to power sports and track and field.  I think I have ten years on him, but a truly genuine and knowledgeable individual.  We worked on some of the skill sets associated with the AFM fitness challenge that I will be competing in.  Time to wake up the anaerobic and explosive energy system.  They have been asleep for far too long.  I'm guessing they've been asleep for about 10 years.  Today we worked on Standing Broad Jumps for distance, Burpees for repetitions in 1 min, Med Ball Chest passes for distance and we finished up with 40 yard dash start technique.  Here are the highlights and lowlights.  My burpee fitness was not too shabby.  I think I peaked out at 34 burpees in 1 min employing a more explosive kick out technique on the way down.  The broad jump is not my specialty.  I think I peaked out at 7 1/2 feet.  I just don't have the ups or the distance capacity.  Greg was a full 18 inches further at 9' 1".  Stellar.  The chest pass and starts were more technique work, so we didn't measure distance, but I was definitely tapped by the time we hit those.  The metabolic stimulus was very high for this endurance athlete, daddy, and 34 year old.  I'll get some of it back.  I expect my resilience to shine through and I'll see some gains in a couple of weeks.  Challenge your body, keep it guessing and expect to see results.  It sometimes take stepping out of your comfort zone, but that is exactly what created elevated confidence.  As for my athletes, we are doing a brick workout tonight.  Here is what is on the list for our workout.

Team PAC Brick 5-9-2012

Cycling
Warm Up:
5 min of Zone 1 - 80-100 rpms
5 X 1 min Zone 2 - 110-120 rpms - Recovery is 30 sec easy

Main Set:
3 X 5 min @ Zone 3 effort climb 65-70 rpms standing
Every 20 sec you will complete a 10 sec pop bringing your cadence to 80-90 rpms.
Recovery is 2 min after each effort

Running
Main Set:
Progressive Run Post Ride
This will be progressing through your paces over the course of 4 miles.  Start off at about long run pace and take about 15 sec off per mile until you are just shy of your tempo pace.  We’ll run the 3 mile loop on town lake and finish at the gym.    

Baby Jogger Sprints

Today it was baby jogger sprints.  It's my way of getting ready for the Austin Fit Challenge.  The sprints were an attempt to recapture my sprinting youth, but I'm clearly not young anymore.  The youth is sitting right in front of me, hooting and hollering as I accelerate for 15 sec at a time and try to hit my top speed.  It starts the same way every time.  "Jetlyn!  Are you ready for take off?  5, 4, 3, 2, 1."  He always looks back in anticipation.  Really cute and it motivates me to keep going.  Especially once I'm finished and he looks back, wanting more.  I say.  "Daddy is tired, but we'll go again in a min or so"  The min goes by, the countdown begins and we go again.  Being creative is the name of the game when trying to keep pushing toward ultimate resilience.  Always keep your body and mind guessing.
Coaching tonight will be a brick workout.  Here's the workout.

Cycling Portion:
Warm Up:
5 min of Zone 1 @ 90-100 rpms
6 X 1 min of Zone 2 @ 90-100 rpms Single leg effort

Main set:
10 X 10 Sec Sprint @ 110+ rpms  
This is a Zone 7 effort  Recovery is 1 min of easy pedaling
5 X 30 Sec Push @100+ rpms
This is a Zone 6 effort - Recovery is 1:30 of easy pedaling
2 X 2 min Push @90-110 rpms
This is a Zone 5 effort - Recovery is 2 min of easy pedaling

Running Portion:

Post Ride Run - 20 min @ a moderate to easy pace.  This can be your long run pace.  The second option is to head over to the moonlight run.

Just Move

I have to move.  It's imperative.  I can't really explain it.  My athletes frequently ask me how I do it every day.  I guess it is so well ingrained that I don't really think about it as a chore, but a necessity to feel normal.  I'm addicted to it.  It's not an unhealthy addiction, but definitely one that might slightly derail me if it didn't happen.  It doesn't have to be too much, but just enough.  I'm sure that level of movement will change as I get older, but for now I just go with the flow.  Example:  Today I ran with my son and pushed the baby jogger for about 5 miles.  Nice and easy.  I love watching him take it all in.  I think he enjoys it.  I certainly do.  We jogged to the playground, played for about 45 min and then finished up the jog.  I moved just enough to feel alive.  Give it a try.  Not too much, not too little, but just enough.  Now to writing our cycling workout.  Here is what I think we'll do.

Warm Up:
5 min of Zone 1 @90-100 rpms
5 min of Zone 2 @90-100 rpms  about 2 gears up
5 min of Zone 3 @90-100 rpms about 2 gears up

Main Set:
5 X 5 min of Zone 3 work at varied rpms.  
2 min recovery after each.  
Breakdown:
5 min @ 65-75 rpms 2.5 min left leg/2.5 min right leg
5 min @ 60-70 rpms Standing Climb
5 min @ 60-70 rpms Seated Climb
5 min @ 70-80 rpms Standing Climb
5 min @ 90-110 rpms Seated TT

Cool Down:
10 min Cool Down Zone 1