Oh baby, I need a lot of training. I ran an Olympics Kick-Off 5K at 6:30 this morning with about 250 other early-risers. I finished solid middle-of-the-pack. Not with the stragglers at the end, but I was definitely not one of the hot-shots who finished in 15 minutes.
As I was standing in line, waiting for water and dripping sweat, I overheard a girl talking to another guy. He asked her how she did, and she said, "Eh, okay. Not fast, but I beat all of these suckers," and motioned towards the water line.
I wanted to punch her in the face. And run laps around her. And challenge her to a push-up contest. Right HERE, right NOW! You think you're better than me? PROVE IT.
But in all seriousness, she was right. She didn't need to prove anything -- she already finished before me.
Her casual remark made me start rethinking my training strategy. So far, I've just been content to coast along. When I go for a run, my goal is usually: keep running. It doesn't matter whether I'm crawling along at a snail's pace, as long as I'm still moving. But you know what? Sometimes that isn't good enough. I don't want to just finish a race -- I want to own it.
Has anyone else out there felt the same way? How do you go from "just finishing" to actually competing? I'm going to start running intervals at the track, but are there any other ways to boost my speed?
On a semi-unrelated note, I'm posting a new workout. It mainly focuses on the upper body, but there are a few sneaky leg exercises thrown into the mix. I did it yesterday morning, and my muscles are still randomly twitching.
I've linked most of the exercises with videos or descriptions. A lot of the moves come from the Nike Training app. If you don't have it, I highly recommend downloading it.
Upper-Body Workout (Do 12 reps of each exercise, unless otherwise stated. Repeat each group three times, with as few breaks as possible)
-5 minute warm-up on the treadmill
Group One
Group Two
Group Three
Group Four
Group Five
-Suitcases (15 reps)
-Plank on medicine ball (60 seconds)
-Crazy Ivans (15 reps)
The one thing that I saw made a big difference in my speed, was intervals on a huge hill. The training I did for my first tri - at least the run portion was strictly just on that hill. I never ran the full distance and it worked out great when race day came around. Jack that heart rate up so much that when its time to run the distance, your heart is so used to being at the point of explosion that running a flat course at a decent distance becomes easy. :)
ReplyDeleteI also find that there is a point to your burn, that once it hits you just keep your pace, grit through it, and your second wind hits and your ready to finish strong.. its just allowing yourself to get through that initial burn until your legs agree to the fact that you are taking them to hell and back.. sometimes they aren't always willing, but in the end, they break down and do was massa says. (For me at least!)