About a month or so ago our group went through a warm-up of a couple of easy laps around the track and then we started with something I was somewhat familiar with. We were doing skips and high kicks and bird-drinkers (I call them that because that's what it reminds me of, you tip forward with one leg straight back until you touch the ground with your hands . . .)
This week was different though. I'd started doing fartleks that same week of run-hangover. The ones I was doing went like this:
I would begin my warm-up by doing a nice easy mile of 10 to 11 minutes. Then begin the fartleks by walking 45 seconds and sprint 45 seconds. I did that for rest of the run as much as I could. Usually about another mile or two and run back to the car. By the way, I don't like doing tracks because it gives me more of a reason to end the session early. If I'm on a trail, I gotta turn back around at my checkpoints.
Suffice to say by the time of our group training this last Wednesday I was completing six miles in an hour. Imagine a 5 foot 6 inch guy of 250 pounds running six miles in an HOUR!
I did that at the SVMH last year and that was at the end of my training. It took me three and a half hours to complete the SVMH last year because after that hour of non-stop running, I hurt way too much. Feet, hips, SHINS. . . but I enjoyed it because I was able to turn my mind away from it by talking to other people and walk/running the rest of it. I couldn't walk much after the race for a couple of days which put me off running for a couple of months. After that, I tried to keep up to running a few times a month just so I wouldn't lose it too bad.
Right now, in the condition I'm in, I can complete the half-marathon in under three hours. Maybe even two and a half! And I won't be suffering too bad afterward, just maybe a little soreness.
So back to the reason of this post. Our warm-up again consisted of running a couple of laps around the track. But our warm-ups after were longer and little more intense. Let me see if I can remember all of them. I've already placed a request for the coach to make a list of the warm-ups for us because after doing those, I felt really good on the fartleks we were doing. Those, by the way, were 90 second fartleks.
Warm-ups (I may make my own names for them)
Forward Arm Roll (20 WIDE circles)
Backward Arm Roll (20 WIDE circles)
Forward Lunge (20 lunges)
Backstep Lunge (20 lunges: these are more difficult because your balance isn't as good when you step backward that deep)
Skip (20 yards and back)
Side skips (20 yards and back)
Quick knee-highs (20 yards and back)
Quick butt-kicks (20 yards and back)
Quick forward-kick (20 yards and back, and make you look like a prancing horse the way your foot kicks forward)
Drinking bird (20 yards and back): take long step, drink. Take another step, drink . . .
Left rocket kick: like a quick knee-high, but only the left foot kicks up on every third step. And you kind of kick it in a circular motion. It rolls from the back to the front over the right knee.
Right rocket-kick (20 yards and back): like the left except with the right foot.
Ankle jumps (20 seconds): these you do from the ankles only as quick as you can!
Power jump (20 seconds): these you do like a squat. You drop til your thighs are parallel to the ground, your knees should NOT pass your feet and you jump as high and as quick as you can.
There may have been more, but that up there is enough to get you plenty tired and you still have to do the fartleks. I didn't think I'd be able to do it, but I didn't do too bad. I wasn't running the sprints I usually do for my fartleks, but I did keep up a steady 8 minute mile pace which had me breathing pretty heavily for those 90 seconds. The other 90 seconds I didn't walk. I couldn't. My feet were real tight from the warm-ups and it felt better to keep the 3-steps-a-second pace (which had me on the balls of my feet) while taking those in small steps which was a bit faster than walking. It was a jog. But a quick jog I guess. I did that for about 30 minutes.
I . . . was . . . EXHAUSTED. But curiously invigorated. It was a weird feeling. By the end of the 30, everything felt nice and loose. No tightness or cramping. I was very surprised. My feet felt great, my legs buzzing. I had a nice chocolate milk after the run and a nice chicken enchilada meal with whole beans and mexican-style brown rice, some lettuce with a spoon of guacamole and salsa when I got home( It took me a while to figure out how to do the brown rice, but I finally nailed it).
Yesterday, I should have gone at least for a light run but I figured I should use the sprint stick and the foot log to get rid of some minor kinks I got after the training. I'm feeling great today, if a little sore which is expected. I'll be doing those warm-ups again today before my run this evening and attempting the 90 second fartleks on that trail run. I'm getting excited just thinking about it!
GD
p.s.
again, forgive the grammar. too lazy to check my writing.
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