Friday 1 February 2008

Rest is best

Taking a day off from the ol' pavement pounding today, which is just as well, as my trainers are still waterlogged from last night. Not that I haven't got a full rack full of alternatives you undertand, but if the schedule says rest, I say yippee. Especially when my car nearly took off on the Erskine Bridge this morning. I love the fact that there's signs and news reports to say the bridge is closed to high-sided vehicles, except the lanes are hotching with trucks playing chicken with the wind.


Took in a core conditioning class at lunchtime. Tried it for first time last week and really enjoyed it - in a painful kind of way. The class alternates between upper body and legs each week, with main basis being on core strengthening. The only pieces of equipment are those huge inflatable gym balls and a mat. I don't think the instructor was impressed with Marco and I attempting to use them like space hoppers.

I know we're on to a new edition already, but last month's Runner's World had some cracking workouts for marathon training:

Mile repeats

When it comes to marathon training, veteran 26.2-milers swears by this modified form of tempo training. You should run each mile repeat about 20 seconds faster than your predicted marathon goal pace, with a 400m recovery walk or jog. You'll get the best results if you can build up to 10 to 13 mile repeats.

Yasso 800s

The goal, after several months of working up to it, is to run 10 x 800 metres in the same minutes: seconds as your goal time (in hours:minutes). If you want to run a 3:40 marathon, for example, you run your yasso 800's in 3 minutes, 40 seconds. This workout isn't based on physiology; it's just a very tough effort that's got a mathematical appeal to it.

My latest feature on Bug Bears has been submitted to the editor of MyRace. Publication will be out at the begining of next month. Big thanks to everyone who contributed. Special thanks to Ian for the inspiration. Incidently, Ian, if I get you in MyRace, will you ask Allybea to knit me some stripy socks?

2 comments:

allybea said...

Just let me know your shoe size ;)

Debs M-C said...

You're the best! Ian will be quoted in next month's edition. Twice actually. Does that count? If so, then size four please :-) My toes are smiling too :-) xx