Friday Thoughts 27
Slightly delayed Friday Thoughts. People often say they can’t believe I make a post every day, but it’s been so long now it’s only stressful on days like this, when our internet is down and there’s nothing I can do about it. Except for not post the blog till I get to the gym later this morning. So how do I do it everyday? Honestly, I just put a ton of pressure on myself to get in done. Since it’s been so long, that’s easy, but like I said, this morning didn’t have its normal rhythm and I didn’t like that.
Trail runners, try this workout;
Much of trail running, especially on big, mountainous courses that I prefer, is about being able to keep moving while you’re recovering. Climb up a big, steep hill, and then be fresh enough when you get to the top to be able to start running the flat or down. The trick is doing that without blowing up your heart rate and legs on the climb. Here’s a workout Hannah has been doing while training for a 20 mile trail run. She really hates it, which makes me think we’re going to keep doing it. She says she hates it because it’s boring, which is a lame excuse (especially when training for an endurance event), but I think she hates it because it exposes something we need to work on. Here it is.
Every 5 minutes for 5 sets:
Run 200m @ hard pace
Alternating step ups all remaining time
This workout spikes your heart rate, demands a lot from your muscles in the first 50 or 60 seconds, then you do steps ups for the rest of the interval. There’s no rest. The idea is to simulate the scenario above and get her used to trying to recover her heart rate while working. If you don’t step up slow enough, the 200m run times suffer. If you don’t run hard enough, we don’t get the heart rate spike we’re after.
We started with 4 sets, took a week off from it and have been back at it for 2 sessions. Next week I may increase the run distance to 300m. On a workout like this, I don’t necessarily want to keep adding volume. I think 6 sets of this would get sloppy and the intensity would degrade over the rounds.
My jaw dropped when I saw this video show up on my Instagram feed.
My hot tip for this: save your previous protein tub scoop before starting your next tub. Then you use the old scoop until you can dig out the new scoop. (Obviously only works if the scoops are the same size).
Peanut butter is very calorically dense. If you’ve never measured out a 2 tablespoon serving, I suggest you do. Especially, if like me, peanut butter is your fav food.
Playing with some of these rotation variations.
Can confirm this data checks out.