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!