I won’t bore you with the 7 million reasons why I loathe the treadmill. (I can hear your sighs of relief ;0) ). BUT, on those occasions when an outdoor workout isn’t in the cards, a treadmill sometimes must be fired up. So that I won’t stab my eyes out, I create workouts that aren’t already part of the treadmill’s set of pre-programmed workouts.

1) Time goes more quickly when I manually adjust the speed and incline for pre-determined intervals.

2) I can adjust the workout to be more or less challenging, depending on the kind of day I’m having. This way, no two workouts are ever the same.

I have designed treadmill workouts for clients and they are beloved workouts (or so I’m told) – again, probably because you are actively involved in manipulating the workout, versus hopping on the machine and mindlessly jogging like a hamster in a wheel.

Any hoots, I thought I’d share a popular walking routine (for those non-runners), but this workout could easily be adjusted for runners – simply increase the speed.  This workout is called a pyramid…you increase either speed, incline, or both, for a given number of intervals until you “peak,” then you put it all in reverse. Be sure to stretch well after this routine, especially if you aren’t used to walking with an incline, and most of all, have fun!

DIRECTIONS:

I recently posed this challenge to one of my clients, and for her, it worked like a charm. Hey, some of us are motivated by having the ante upped, including yours truly. Do more (exercise) this week than you did the week before.

So here is how it works:

For one week, tally the number of minutes you spend doing physical activity.

1. Record time spent doing cardiovascular activity, such as walking, jogging, swimming, aerobics, and so on.
2. Record the time spent doing other activity, such as gardening, housework, painting a room, or whatever.
3. Record time spent sitting.

Then, create a chart with a weekly goal. For instance, you might list physical activities separately, followed by “household chore” activity, job-related activity, and sedentary activity.

In the next column, record last week’s minutes spent doing those activities and non-activities, then up the ante for this week. A good rule of thumb is to add 2-5% more to each physical activity (if you want to be conservative), or up to 10% of you really want to challenge yourself.
In addition, make one goal to reduce time spent doing sedentary activity, like TV watching.

Create a column for each day of the week and at the end of each day, tally your minutes. On the last day of the week, do a quick tally to see if you will reach your goal. If you are at risk of falling short, see if you can squeeze in extra minutes of activity to help your reach your goal.

Refer to my simple chart here if you need a visual. You might have more activities on your own chart, and be sure to include all 7 days  (i.e, don’t think weekends don’t count, ’cause they do!)

Hopefully, if all goes well, you will see your hard work paying off. Each week, you can create a new goal. Obviously, you can’t add time to your minutes forever, but you could eventually create a goal for, say, adding a new activity, or maintaining max heart rate for a certain number of minutes, and so on. It is a little hard to see the numbers on this chart, but I basically added time to each physical activity, and reduced the time spent in sedentary activity. For example, if I ran 120 mins last week, this week I’d aim for 130 or 140. If I sat and watched TV 200 mins last week, I’d shoot for 180 or less this week. Hopefully this all makes sense.

If you try this, let me know how it goes…
And if you have your own chart that you’d like to share, fire it my way and I’ll post it here on the blog.

This is one of my favorite workouts…two, twenty minute runs with strength training sandwiched in the middle. I purposely selected strength exercises that don’t require equipment so that this workout can be done outdoors.  You could easily tie a resistance tube around your waist and use that during the strength training segment as well. For optimal effect (i.e., if you want to up the “challenge” a bit), use a hill for the strength training too (you’ll see what a I mean below).

Split Run workout

5-10 minute warm up of light jogging or fast-paced walking

20 min jog/run at a moderate pace (6-7 on RPE scale)

10 mins:  Strength Training using stairs/hill (there’s the hill part I was referring to

12-15 push-ups from knees on the hill (facing uphill)

12-15 tricep dips on the hill (feet pointing downhill)

10-12 side-squat steps up hill; walk down and perform10-12 with opposite leg leading

15 squats on the hill, with back toward top of the hill (when facing down hill, the squats are MUCH harder. You’ll see

Stairs: run up 1x, single steps

Run up 1x, two steps at a time

Walk up 1x, single steps

Run up 1x, two steps at a time

2 mins:  Active recovery, walking, allowing heart rate to nearly return to normal

10 mins: jog/ run at more intense pace (7-8 on RPE scale)

5 mins: cooldown

5-10 mins: stretching, focus on hamstrings and hip flexors

* Note: Blue Sky Gym and the author disclaim any liability for any injury, physical or emotional, suffered during or as a result of exercise or activities recommended. As always, you should use common sense and consult your health professional before beginning any exercise routine or program.

Dear Diane,

I’ve signed up for a 5k race in May and after 3 months of “training,” I still can’t go much further than a mile without stopping to walk. What am I doing wrong?

Colleen

This question is from last spring, but with racing season well under way, it seemed like a good time to post my answer on the blog, as I’m sure many of you have run into this dilemma, or know someone who has.

A typical fitness routine includes the same type of cardiovascular activity, performed for the same length of time, with little variation – and while there isn’t anything inherently wrong with this approach (it is exercise, after all), you probably won’t improve if you continue to do the same thing. To boost endurance (i.e, go longer, faster), something has to change. There are 3 easy ways to improve endurance:

1. Add time to at least one cardio session per week for several weeks, then taper for one week to allow the body to adapt to the increased load. Then start back up where you left off, again adding time to at least one session per week.

2. Make one session per week more intense (harder). Speed work (400×6 sprints, for example), hill-work, or interval training (combine speed and hills, alternating between the two).

3. Strength train. Even the best endurance plan will fall short of success if there are muscle weaknesses. To improve endurance, muscles must be strong, so include at least 2 days of strength training per week.

Today we have a special treat…a guest post by Peter Engelbrecht, a triathlete and former All-American collegiate distance runner. Peter brings his expertise as a world-class athlete to Speedy Sneakers, a Columbus, OH-based a walking/running club for women that provides coaching and training programs for a variety of distance events. Visit the Speedy Sneakers site to view the current training schedule and learn more about becoming a member. I’m very excited to have Peter offer his insight and running expertise, and am certain you will learn a lot.

So without further adieu, Peter’s insight: TRAINING FOR YOUR FIRST 5K

When I first met my mother in-law, she told me that she had run a marathon. I was very impressed, as I did not realize she was a runner (let alone a marathoner.) After asking her which race she ran in and how her experience was, I found out that the marathon she ran actually was a 10k road race.

It could have been that my mother in-law had referenced her race incorrectly and any race of any type was a marathon or on the other hand since she was not a runner then a 10k was a marathon to her. The time and effort commitment to train and actually compete in the race was every bit of a marathon to her.

You may be in the same boat as my mother in-law, the task of training and running in any race is just as arduous as a marathon would be and I would bet that there are millions of others in the same situation as you.

If this is the case, let us try to make it easier by looking at three key points that you should think of when starting to train for your first 5k.

1. Train consistently

Do elite runners train every day? Some do, but they do not last long. The best of the best know to let their bodies rest and recover. There is no reason why you should need to run every day either. Your body needs rest to get stronger and get ready for your next run.

As a new runner, you should not aim to run every day but rather to be consistent in your running. Consistency will differ for everyone, so find out what it is for you and stick to it. I suggest running no more than three times a week for no more than 15-20 minutes at a time. Progressing to four times a week and an extra 5-10 minutes only when you feel like you have rested enough on the three day a week routine.

The idea here is to run consistently over long periods of time rather than running a lot and then becoming so fatigued or worse injured that you have to take time off. Fitness comes from being consistent over time.

2. Do not overdo it

One of the most common mistakes that new runners make when starting out is to do too much too soon. Since they are new they feel like they have to make up for lost time by running high miles and pushing themselves to their limits. This is a big mistake and one that does not need to be made.

More is not better, actually less is better. At first that may not sound correct and certainly not true. However, it is true and not only true it will serve you best to run fewer miles than you think you have to run.

If you are using a training plan then there is no reason why the first part of your training plan would not read, “1 mile”. Run this one mile until you feel like you can run it in your sleep then progress to two. Run it until you feel like you are strong enough to progress to more. You have heard of “baby steps”, well this is true too in running take small steps in the form of miles and even half miles then progress up slowly.

3. Have Fun

The last key to a successful first 5k or even a successful long-term running career is to just “have fun.” Most people look at running and training in general and think of it as a work task, like digging a hole, hard, arduous and just not fun at all. It does not have to be that way.

Have fun by incorporating family and friends into your running. Have them join you even if it means they bike next to you while you run. It can be great company, and very motivating. Finally make sure you reward yourself. Do not be afraid to eat pizza and ice-cream once in a while if you enjoy it and if you have earned it. Too many times new runners feel they need to be on a crash diet when they are also training this is too hard. Little unknown fact, elite runners eat like pigs at a trough when they are training hard. If they can enjoy life when running 13 -15 miles a day, so can you.
There is no amount of words that can be written in an article, no amount of beautifully scripted speeches that can be spoken that will ever get you across the line. Only you through your own commitment and dedication can achieve your goals. Now get out there and start training.