Two-a-days, ya dig?

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Today's Workout: 6 hill repeats

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If any of you were high school athletes, particularly in the fall sports, you probably had "hell week(s)". This was the time frame at the end of summer where the varsity athletes had to come back to campus, while all our friends were still lounging around or making money, and spend our days doing two-a-day workouts. These weeks were meant to be intense physically and mentally. For teams that needed to cut people, these weeks would weed out the stragglers. When I moved on to college, two-a-days were usually reserved for the runners that needed to hit higher weekly mileage to train for their events. So for the average joe like ourselves, there really doesn't seem like a point does there?

Not so fast.  I know what you're thinking, who has time for two workouts a day? And won't I get injured? But people like me on a time crunch, or people like me that are looking to improve their overall health, can actually benefit from two-a-days.

Will you benefit from occasional two-a-days? Definitely if you fall into one of the below categories described in Runner's World:

Obviously I am on board with fitting two-a-days into my routine for all of the above reasons. Any of them making you contemplate a training plan change??

Training Plan(s)

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Today's Workout: 6 miles biking

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12 weeks until the Nike Women's Half Marathon, which means it is time to ramp up the training. Nike has put together a comprehensive website here that provides training plans for 5ks, 10ks, Half Marathons, and Full Marathons. For each distance, they give the options for a beginner's plan to "finish the race", and intermediate plan to "set a new PR", and an advanced plan to "lead from the front".

What I thought was interesting was that even for the "advanced" marathon training plan, they do not have the runner going over 20 miles before the race. Looks like they are also on my side in the great marathon training debate to not go the marathon distance prior to the race. Below is their version for an advanced half-marathon training plan. I think I will try to work out a combination of this, and ones that I have used before, to find something that will work with my class and work schedule, and will publish it tomorrow.

The Great Marathon Training Debate

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Today's Workout: 5 min warm up, 8 hills (walk in between), 5 min cool down

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I will preface this post with saying I have only run one marathon. I have run a few halves, and I plan to run many more full and half marathons. My brother has run a handful of marathons, my high school and college teammates have also dabbled in the distance. However, when I am looking for training plan guidance, I always look to my dad. He ran in college, and professionally afterwards. I have mentioned his running story before, here. As a 2:19 marathoner, I think his opinion is worth a lot.

I suport his firm belief that you do not need to run 20+ miles before actually racing the marathon distance.

I know this statement for many of you will result in viewing me lacking validity as a runner, but hear me out.

While a lot of plans you can find online will have you going close to the full marathon distance or further before the actual race - I STRONGLY advise against this. The only benefit to running that far before the marathon is for the mental reassurance that you can. However, your body is literally not meant to run this far, which is why it is such an accomplishment to run a full marathon. After a run at that distance you will be very sore, and your muscles will be drained. Unless you plan on taking the rest of the week off, you will then be training on dead legs that will not ever fully get the chance to recover by the time of the race. However, taking a whole week off from running will negate all those miles your ran.

The longest I would go before the marathon is 18 miles (15 miles preferably). Determine what  your goal time is for the marathon and however long it takes you to do the run (18 or 15 miles), go on the bike or elliptical for the remaining time and do some interval work. This will show you that you can continue aerobic activity for the required length of time, build your cardio endurance, while giving your legs a break from the pounding on the pavement.

I know not going above 20 may freak you out, but the only people I know that have run that distance before a marathon while staying healthy and were able to finish the race around the time they wanted were college teammates that were used to 70-80 miles/week routines throughout college. Even still, some accomplished runners have a hard time maintaining those distances and staying healthy. I for one know from experience that I cannot do more than 65 miles/week continuously without getting injured. So, if I want to do increased cardio work it has to be on the bike or elliptical. I guarantee you will be better off (mentally and physically) being able to run 18 miles at a strong pace a few times (in addition to other low impact cardio) than running 26 miles slowly once before the race.

This is what my ideal marathon training plan looks like:

It also surprises me how focused everyone gets on going over 20 miles before a marathon while completely neglecting any weight training regime. 26 miles is a long way for your muscles to carry your body and even if your heart is in shape for it, your muscles need to hold up too. You want to do higher reps (like 20-25) with lower weights that will give you a burn and build endurance without bulk.

While some friends take this advice, others have gone a different way and (in most cases) regretted it later. I only bring up this topic because I am finally getting some backing from valued opinions: Runners World, Active, and Competitor.

Like I have mentioned before, I am not a registered trainer, this is just my outlook on marathon prep.

Fit Day Update

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Today's Workout: Total body: 20 squat jumps, 20 wall sits, 20 mountain climbers, 20 burpees, 20 push ups, 20 ball pass with stability ball --> repeat three times.

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So I have been tracking my progress on Fit Day for officially one week. I took this first week to eat as I normally would, not restricting anything, so that I could get a better idea of where am I am what I need to focus on. I think its easy to find a number of diets to try on the world wide web, but this allows me to tailor it to what I need to eliminate (hello carbs!) and what I need more of. I did lose a tiny bit, but I am sure that is just thanks to the timing of when I actually weighed myself this morning.

So I was happy to see that in general, I expend more calories than I take in. Also, I also liked that in general, when I am expending fewer calories, I also eat less (maybe that was just luck). However, I am taking in more than I should be to loose the weight I want in the time frame that I want, so I will need to pay attention to that next week.

So this handy tool tells me what I need to attack in my diet. Cutting carbs significantly will be key. I can also reign in my protein a tad. As a women, I need to up that calcium a bit. I have low ferritin levels, which means my body has a hard time absorbing the iron I take in. I need to increase my iron intake to improve the likelihood that I meet my recommended levels. I need to up my vitamins with some more fruits and veggies too.

Alright, so I am close to being on track without actually starting to address my diet, which is good. I plan to be side by side with the yellow line come next Friday!

Have a good weekend, everyone! I am going to try to make it through this work day and then head home to set up for tomorrow's holiday party!

Fit Day

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Today's Workout: Total Body - 5 min warm up on the elliptical. 2 X 20 walking lunges, 2 x 20 squats, 2 x 20 dead lifts, 2 x 20 bench press on stability ball, 2 x 20 overhead press on stability ball, 2 x 20 triceps dips, 20 ball pass core, crunches on stability ball with weight, and 60 second plank.

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With 2012 coming to a rapid close, a new year is right around the corner. As a general rule, people like to use this to jump start a health kick. One key way to achieve your goals is holding yourself accountable.

It can be really difficult as busy adults to make sure we are exercising enough, eating enough of all the right things, and staying on pace with our target goals.

One of my favorite tools while I was a college athlete was Fit Day. It is a FREE online exercise and weight loss journal that allows you to create goals, track food, log activity and see progress.

I think one of the best tools is the weight log. You enter your current weight, your goal weight, and when you want to reach that goal weight (realistically). This is great if you want to get fit for a specific trip, a wedding, a birthday, etc. It will then tell you what your allotted caloric intake per day should be to achieve this weight loss, how much you should be losing a day/week, how many calories you should burn, etc. - It is like having your own personal nutritionist.

My weight is significantly higher than what it used to be, and what I would like it to be. I can use my crazy work schedule, grad school, holidays, and everything as an excuse, but the reality is I am responsible for my own actions and I can take control of the situation. I would like to get back down to my college weight of 125. Considering this was my peak running form, I know it may be difficult, and I would be happy in the 130-range, but I want to set a high goal for myself. I decided to pull this tool back out and use it to keep me on track.

Another great tool is the food log. You can search for something that you at, or manually log in the nutrition information. It will keep track of your caloric intake, the percent of carbs/proteins/fats etc. and show you which areas of your diet need a little cutting back and which need a little more consumption.

This is only an example above (I am definitely eating more than 600 calories a day). As you add to your log, you will get a pie chart (as seen above) showing a breakdown of your diet.

The log you can use for exercise is similar. You can look up the activity adjust it to you workout, and account for it.

One thing to keep in mind, your workout is not the only time of day you are expending calories. The site does have you identify you life style (mine due to work is mostly sedentary) and it accounts for these in "lifestyle" caloric expenditure. But, this site also allows you to account for so many other activities in your day - walking, grocery shopping, even talking on the phone (!?!?). It is up to you if you want to include these in your caloric expenditure for the day, but remember just because you are not in you lululemon does not mean you are not cutting cals.

I will try to update you all once a week on how I'm doing. Hopefully this will help keep me accountable :) I hope this tool helps some of you reach your personal health goals!

Training when you travel

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Today's Workout: 5 miles easy, 9 min pace. Left achilles is not wanting to play ball.

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Less than TWO WEEKS until Thanksgiving! Where is the time going? I will be going back to Minneapolis and, as is tradition, we will be running the Turkey Trot.

Lifetime Fitness and Second Harvest Heartland collect food and proceeds for a local food bank. Nothing like giving back on day we set aside to remember how grateful we should be for our life's blessings.

They are holding similar races in Boise, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Go here and register for the race if you live in these areas!

Because my birthday falls during the week of Thanksgiving, once in awhile my birthday actually falls on Thanksgiving Day, like last year. Because it was my birthday, Kyle said he would join my family on the run - his first 5K! We decided to run it together, and we finished in about 24 minutes - not bad for his first go at it!

Due to his class schedule, he will not be back early enough on Thursday to join us this year. But he will be back in time for food. Seems like he planned it that way.....

I have a lot of traveling coming up. With holidays right around the corner, I doubt I am alone in this camp. We all know it is hard to stick to our routines around the holiday season, and the constant packing up and hitting the road is a major factor.

Shalane Flanagan, a profession runner and Olympian, writes about this very topic here. I had the pleasure of meeting Shalane when I attended Cross Country camps at the University of North Carolina in high school. She was a stud when she ran for the Heels, and it was a treat to meet such an accomplished runner at a young age.

We got to go a runs with her, grab a few bites to eat, and she personally gave me a ride to the airport when the camp ended. We got to pick her brain about everything, but one thing that for some reason has always stuck with me is when she made a comment about not liking to run more than once a day because she doesn't like to have to take more than one shower. As a young runners who basically idolized her, we of course thought she must be so hard core and that is why she is SO successful. While she does work incredibly hard, comments like this reminded us that she was a normal person who was incredibly talented.

A few tricks of my own:

- If you are traveling somewhere that you go to often (in my case to see family in Minnesota/New York/Chicago, or to see the boyfriend in NC) leave some workout gear there to use whenever you are in town (If your family is on board with being your storage unit). Just a pair of shoes that aren't beaten down, a couple t-shirts and workout shorts/pants are all you need, and can be stored in a box in the back of a closet. I stumbled across this trick by accident, when I left some workout gear in NC after a visited. It was nice for packing sake to not have to make room for those items in the bag for my next trip knowing they were already down there waiting for me. (Make sure to clean your gear before you leave so when you return its not all stanky!

- Sometimes it seems like you need a vacation after traveling for the holidays because you are constantly running from one thing to another. It can be difficult to find time to get some sort of workout in. Try doing a quick 15-20 minute (longer if you have the time) workout right when you wake up in the morning. If you can get out and run a mile or two, or if you can do one of these workouts (arms, legs, core) that do not require any weights, you will feel a million times better. Doing something is much better then doing nothing. Also, doing something first thing in the morning wakes up your metabolism before you eat an over indulgent brunch or (insert every meal during holiday season). It is common to see one healthy decision leading to other healthy decisions. Starting your day off on the right foot can help keep you from feeling the the need to make a guilt-induced New Year's Resolution.

- Try to get those you are visiting to get in on the fun! Asking friends or family around you join you for a run or to do a quick workout  is a great way to kill two bids with one stone. You get to spend quality time with them doing something that will make you both feel better!

I hope some of these tricks help you in your busy lives!

Half Marathon Training Plan

As I mentioned in this post, I ran the Air Force Half Marathon this past September along with a friend. It was her first half-marathon (she ran in high school but not competitively since) and I have run a Marathon and Half Marathon before, and I ran in high school and in college. I ran 1:47 and she ran 1:53.

This is the plan I put together for us.

If you want an explanation for the terminology (SO run, fartlek, tempo run, etc.) you can visit my Training Plans page.

While this plan was tough, it is definitely doable for those of you out there with busy schedules. None of the weekday workouts are designed to last longer than 45 minutes. We did the majority of them over our lunch break in the office gym (a lot of treadmills have interval/hill workout options). Sometimes we opted to head to a local track or hit up some of the Georgetown hills after work for a change of scenery.

I also want to point out that I rarely do more than 4 days of running a week. It is important to listen to your body and know your limits. I am injury-prone so giving my legs a day off is imperative. By switching up the exercise your legs stay fresh and you have a different exercise to look forward to each day.

Finally, it is important to note that these workout days are interchangeable. Sometimes, when I knew I would be going out of town, I would do my longer run during the week knowing that I would only have time for shorter runs on the weekend. Or maybe I move the leg/arm days around depending on access to a gym (although there are great arm and leg workouts that you can do without any weights - post to come!).

I have helped other people come up with race plans for different distances/experience levels which I will post soon. DISCLAIMER: I am not a certified trainer, these are just recommendations on how I do things/have suggested friends do things. What me to help you put together a potential plan for an upcoming race? Just ask!

Hold yourself accountable but also remember to enjoy the process!!