Spring is here!

Finally! What a long long long long long long winter. Did I mention it was a long winter? You knew that already. It was tough training this winter here in the Northeast. Dave and I broke down and bought a pair of running snow shoes. Holy tough! I look forward to buiding fitness with them through the trails next year but it is demoralizing to be "running" in them and only covering 3-4 miles per hour!
As the weather warms up, and we return to cycling outdoors, please be safe and practice "defensive biking" always assume the car drivers don't see you because 9 times out of ten they don't.
On the racing front there is plenty coming up!

• The Marcie Mazzola 5k Fellow TFMer Shannon Malone is very involved in this race, come on out and support the cause!
• The Long Island festival of races at Eisenhower: 10k, half marathon and marathon
• Hither Hills off road half marathon on May 1st: http://tiny.cc/cjorc
• Greenbelt trail 50k and 25k runs
• Carl Hart Mothers Day Du
• Long beach trophy run (10 miles)

There is something going on every weekend now, have fun training and racing, we'll be back in the lake soon!

Treadmill tips

Treadmill: bringing the running in place tactic to a whole new level this winter. If you are like me and you need to run a bit through the winter for your various spring/summer sports related quests, you are spending a lot of time on there throughout this cold/ice snap. According to the urban dictionary, the treadmill is a.k.a.

the dreadmill: The conveyor belt to nowhere that one has to walk upon to keep their body in shape, or in times of neglect becomes a place for clutter collection...



Damn, I have to get off the computer now and walk on the cursed dreadmill...

It was 40 these past few days, I hope you got outside to cycle or run.
 
Knowing that spring is a few more weeks around the corner and also realizing that the dark still comes on too quickly in the evening, I have some tips to help the treadmill running go a little smoother.
 
1. Progressive miles: Start at an easy pace and increase it slightly every quarter mile. I do it like this:
6.0 for a quarter, then 6.3, 6.5, 6.8
I repeat that starting at the next highest pce for the next set: 6.3, 6.5, 6.8, 70
then
6.5, 6.8, 7.0. 7.2
then
6.8. 7.0, 7.2, 7.5
then
warm down easy for a mile.
Adjust the speeds for your own current fitness level. If your peak marathon or half marathon pace is a little slower than mine, start at 5.0 mph or 5.5 mile sper hour and work your way up each quarter. If you are faster, than start a half mile per hour to a mile per hour faster.
 
2. 30 second accelerations:
This is a favorite workout of mine. The 30 sec accels at 5k - 10k pace help you increase the speed of leg turnover without completely breaking you down. Warm up 1-2 miles easy then run 10-15 x 30 sec faster with 1-2 minutes easy between each. Warm down for 1-2 miles.
 
3. Ipod intervals:
1 mile easy warm up then run a song faster, run a song easy. Alternate this pattern for the length of your run and then warm down for a mile.
 
4. 3/2/1's:
Warm up a mile then run at 10k to half marathon pace for 3 minutes (2 min recovery); 2 minutes (3 minute recovery) and 1 minute (4 minute recovery). Repeat this 2-4 times and warm down a mile.
 
Hopefully these four workouts will spice up your tread (dread) mill running for the next few weeks until the weather clears!
Happy Training!
Jen

Winter training

It's been a no joke winter here in the North East! With another snowstorm predicted for Tuesday next week, on top of the snow we already have, it will be awhile before you can get outside on the bike without completely gunking it up with slush and road grime. Trails are out too, unless you snowshoe or cross country ski. For those of you who are grinding it out in the gym or at home in the basement on the trainer and/or treadmill, try these workouts to break up the boredom:

1) The Pyramid:
Warm up 20 minutes easy. Ladder up to 4 minutes and back down in 5 minute increments like this:
4 minutes easy/1 minute faster
3 minutes easy/2 min faster
2 minutes easy/3 minutes faster
1 min easy/4 minutes faster

then reverse it and head back down. Tack on a warm down for 10-15 minutes and you have a really nice 60-75 minute workout that flies by.
"faster" can mean a multitude of things:

• faster run speed
• higher RPMs
• Bigger gear on the bike
• exchange speed for a hill on the treadmill

2) The circuit:
Warm up for 10 minutes.
Alternate 3-4 minutes fast on the treadmill or trainer with one minute worth of functional strength training. Here's my favorite combinations after the warm up:
3 min cardio
20 push ups
3 min cardio
double arm bent over row with barbell
3 min cardio
Squat with a front raise (dumbbells)
3 min cardio
Box jumps (I use the stairs in my basement, second from the bottom)
3 min cardio
Alternating lunges with a bicep curl
3 min cardio
Dips
Warm down 10-15 minutes
Finish with abdominal crunches

Your 3 minutes of cardio can be all on the same piece of equipment or you can switch it up between the bike, treadmill or jump rope! Strength training in the one minute off typically equals a set of 20-25 repetitions so you don't have to stare at the clock. The switch up between the cardio and the strength training allows for new pathways to be created from your brain to motor units and the time flies by!

Give them a try and leave me a comment to let me know how you made out.
Happy training!