500 Reps

Zunana from bodyrock.tv posts daily workouts and the one she posted for today was a 500 rep workout. I've been sitting on the sidelines planning for too long so I decided to give her workout a try.

Here is the workout. And to keep things interesting you are supposed to see how fast you can do it, while keeping good form of course. It took her just under 36 minutes.

1. Prisoner Squats – 50 reps
2. Sit Ups – 50 reps
3. Backward/Forward Lunge – 25 on each leg (one time back and forward counts and 1 rep)
4. Push Ups – 50 reps
5. Reptile (Plank Knee to Elbow) – 50 reps switching the legs
6. Turkish Get Up – 50 reps
7. Side V – Crunch – 25 reps on each side
8. Split Push Ups – 50 reps total
9. Jump Forward and Two Jumps Back – 50 reps total
10. Reversed Plank Knee Tucks – 50 reps total

If you want to see a video of her doing the workout and her words of wisdom head over to her site, it is much more entertaining than mine.
http://www.bodyrock.tv/2009/11/10/five-hundred-rep-workout/

Otherwise, stick around and read about my experience.

I didn't give the workout much thought before I started it, like how long I expected it to take or anything like that, I just got going. I'm glad I did because I might have talked myself into only doing 30 reps instead of 50 or something like that.

Prison squats - I didn't think these were too bad. My quads were burning a bit toward the end but I could have done a lot more. My knee has been bothering me a bit lately and I was worried about how it would handle them, but it didn't hurt any more than normal. I tend to stay away from squats because of my knees, but maybe if I do them without any weight I can strength the muscles and that will fix what ever is wrong.

Sit ups - When I do sit ups I usually don't go through the full range of motion like she did in her video. It was hard not to use momentum and just use my tummy muscles to pull myself up, but I don't think I did a great job. I had to take a break in the middle of these because I was really feeling the burn.

Lunge - For this one I did 5 reps on a leg then switched. Since the squats didn't bother me too much I didn't think these would either, but halfway through it was all I could do to get through the 5 so I could switch over to the other leg. These burned like hell and I was starting to wonder what I got myself into.

Push Ups - I've been trying to do a couple of sets of push ups to failure in the morning. I've been doing an okay job and do them around 3 times a week. I usually do between 40 and 50, so I figured these shouldn't be a big deal. I was wrong again though. I took quite a few breaks and had to do a couple of them on my knees so I would keep going. I managed to get through them though.

Reptile - I had never heard of these before so I didn't know what to expect. But since my arms were dead from the push ups, I figured they would be interesting. I didn't really feel these anywhere but my arms, but I'm not entirely sure I was doing them correctly. I did have to take a break or two because my arms were so tired.

Turkish Get Ups - I'd seen these but never done them. I grabbed on of Amy's 8 pound weights and almost started one get up before I switched over to one of her two pounders. (Actually they might only be one pound, they don't say) That was more than enough weight, my arms were so completely dead by the end of these I could barely lift the weight anymore. I managed to get through these with only a couple of breaks.

Side V - For these I did two sets of ten on each side and then a set of five. By the end of each set I was feeling it, so switching sides was a nice break.

Split Push Ups - These completely kicked my ass. My arms were so dead when I started them I wonder how I was ever going to get through them. I managed to, but all but about 10 of them were on my knees and the form on about 10 of those was far, far from perfect. Breaks were frequent and long during this exercise.

Jumps - I liked this one. It was tough and my jumps were quite a bit shorter at the end than the beginning but I only took one break this time. My balance isn't great so I had some extra hops and steps that others probably wouldn't have needed.

Reversed Plank Knee Tucks - This was kind of an awkward position. My arms were still dead so that didn't help anything either. I didn't think this was awful, but I had to take a break in the middle because my lower back was starting to hurt. Hopefully that means I was strengthening it, because I tend to hurt it more often than I would like.

My total time was 66 minutes and 35 seconds. So I managed not double her time, but only by a few minutes. I'm not sure that this post accurately described how completely dead I was while I was doing this. It really amazed me, but I'm not sure why. My heart was pumping extra and I was completely drenched with sweat by the time I was done. I'm sure that I am going to feel it in every part of my body tomorrow. I thought it was a great workout but it just goes to show how far I have to go before I am in good shape.

If you decide to give the workout a try let me know how much faster you were than me.

Do the Little Things

When I used to play basketball one of the things my coaches stressed was "do the little things". The little things are the things that are easily over looked in the big scheme of things. Things like chinning the ball, keeping your head on a swivel, ball fakes, crisp passes, going to the ball, boxing out, etc. If you don't know what those things are, that's part of the point. Everyone knows how exciting a dunk or steal can be, but for those things to happen consistently the little things need to be done first. Our team took great pride in doing those little things even though our fans didn't notice them and they didn't make the highlight reel. However, our fans did notice the results those little things produced, a state championship.

The last couple training cycles I went through, all there was to running was to run. That did work for me, I was able to bring my times down quite a bit. As I'm getting back into running again though I'm starting to realize that I need to do the little things for running too. Little things that will help me produce better results more consistently. Some of the little things I'm focusing on (or need to) are my core, total body strength and flexibility.

For my core I started doing the Ab Workout for Runners from About.com after my runs. It only takes a few extra minutes and if the amount of hurt is any indication, I'm sure I will feel and show results soon.
Here are a few ab workouts from Runner's World that I plan on stealing parts of to incorporate into my routine over time to mix things up and keep my workout fresh to avoid muscle memory.
Abs Plan
The Ultimate Ab Workout for Runners
Ab-solutely Necessary

While I'm still trying to develop a plan to follow this winter I know I'm going to be incorporating some strength training into it once or twice a week. Until I find something better I'm going to be following Skip's Dumbbell Training Workout. I like it because they are simple exercises and pretty much every muscle group gets hit at some point. My plan is to do two sets of 12-15 reps on my strength days.

I've talked about flexibility, or my lack of, before. I really think that being more flexible will help me as a runner. It will help prevent injuries and help me have better range of motion, which would make me faster. I don't have a plan for this one yet though, so if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. What I would like is a series of stretches (static or dynamic) to do after my core workout (or before my run) that would take a few more minutes. Then in addition, I'll do yoga once or twice a week.

I'm sure there are a ton of other little things to do too, like diet and sleep, that I either don't know I should focus on, or don't know enough about so I can focus them. So if you can think of any that I missed let me know.