Run to Win

I met Ryan Lee in August of 2007. He was a speaker at a conference that I attended, and the first night there he came into a small party we were having in a back room at the Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Austin. We chatted a little, and the next thing that you know him and a couple of other guys are doing pushups in the middle of the restaurant. Not just regular pushups, but ones that involved flipping over, and crawling around the room, doing handstands, and other various acrobatic feats that you don’t normally see in between tables of diners. Thankfully, he’d already finished eating before he started.

I’ve been in Ryan’s private coaching club for the better part of the last year, and he has a lot to offer. His prescribes Tabata workouts, which are high intensity 4 minute workouts that fast, efficient, and that leave you gasping for breath. You spend 20 seconds doing work and 10 seconds resting repeated 8 times. Normally I keep a piece of paper in front of me that have the exercises listed in order, and then program my watch to beep at the appropriate intervals.

Ryan has simplified the process, though, and has created the BodyBot, a web program that will let you set up a program, will lead you through it, and will show you on the screen what you should be doing at any given time.

I bought a membership to the program on Friday evening, and have been using it ever since. I’ve even gotten my wife doing the workouts with me, and trying to get her to lift weights or do body weight types of exercises can be like pulling teeth sometimes. The program isn’t perfect, but it does have a lot to recommend it. I’ll get into some specifics about what areas need improvement, but first let me demonstrate how it works so that you have an idea of what I mean:
(Click here to continue reading…)

This guest article was written by John Harker, a cardio kickboxing teacher in Santa Cruz, California. I have incorporated Tabata intervals into my workouts for a few years now, and they are a very effective way to get a lot of work done in a very short amount of time.

The Tabata workout is a high-intensity training regimen that produces remarkable results. A Tabata workout is an interval training cycle of 20 seconds of maximum intensity exercise, followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated without pause 8 times for a total of four minutes. In a group context, you can keep score by counting how many lifts/jumps/whatever you do in each of the 20 second rounds. The round with the smallest number is your score.

Credit for this simple and powerful training method belongs to its namesake, Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. Their groundbreaking 1996 study, published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise, provided documented evidence concerning the dramatic physiological benefits of high-intensity intermittent training. After just 6 weeks of testing, Dr. Tabata noted a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity in his subjects, along with a 14% increase in their ability to consume oxygen (V02Max). These results were witnessed in already physically fit athletes. The conclusion was that just four minutes of Tabata interval training could do more to boost aerobic and anaerobic capacity than an hour of endurance exercise.

Although Dr. Tabata used a mechanically braked exercise cycle machine, you can apply this protocol to almost any exercise. For example, a basic Tabata workout can be performed with sit-ups. The more muscles used the better, so use full knees-bent sit-ups. Sit-up non-stop for 20-second intervals, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Repeat for a total of 8 cycles.

How effective can just 4 minutes of exercise be? (Click here to continue reading…)

This week last year was centered on my preparations for the Boston Marathon.

• I began the week by discussing my taper and race goals, which wound up not being feasible no matter how realistic they may have began as.
• I quickly began to wonder whether the Boston Marathon would be rained out or not. This led to the very relevant question, is it possible to run a PR at a race like Boston? Obviously, that is going to depend on the individual’s level of training and their previous personal best, but this article delved into some of the factors that might make it easier or more difficult to run a good time in the race.
• For a bit of a history lesson, I explained where the name “Heartbreak Hill” came from. It doesn’t actually refer to the difficulty of the hill, because let’s be honest, it isn’t that impressive. The first time that I ran in Boston I didn’t even realize I was on it and had to ask when we’d get to it.
• With 1 day before the marathon the weather forecast began to improve. It looked as though the Nor’Easter was going to go through before the race and only make things miserable while everybody waited around in the athlete’s village. I republished an email from the BAA about how to avoid Hypothermia for anybody that might be interested in the kinds of conditions that had been expected originally.
• In running news and completely unrelated to Boston, I also wrote about how Tim Montgomery was looking at jail time for his involvement with steroids.
• This week 2 years ago, I saw a dumb woman at the gym try supersetting a leg press with a calf press. That strikes me as a quick way to hurt yourself. I also continued through the New Rules of Lifting by discussing the tenth) and eleventh rules.

In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about do-it-yourself home exercise implements throughout February and March.

This week, Scott describes how to make your own clubs.

What good are clubs for? Swinging, lifting, extra movements during exercises such as squats, a club is basically an unstable weight that you can hold at arms length.

Scott shows two methods for creating your clubs, either through filling a hollow vessel or fabricating your own from metal parts. I have to admit, most of the clubs that I have made in the past have been much lighter than the examples that he gives, but I have always used my clubs for juggling rather than as a weight implement. I’ll have to give them a try this summer.

• This week last year, I concentrated on the Eastern States 20 Miler. The night before the race, I published my race plan, which I followed up with a report card on how well I followed the plan. It is a good case study for those interested in doing such things themselves.
• In other racing news, I offered a reader some advice about running sub-16 in the 5k after a few years off. I also pointed out how to bypass the Mount Washington lottery without having already won the race. One of these days I’ll have to try to get into that race; it only has 1 hill.
• Continuing with this month’s theme on audio, I offered up some podcasts for runners. As far as I know, most of them are still going, although I don’t listen to them very often.
• The movie 300 involved a lot of actors who had to get into really good shape. Before shooting for the film started, they had a workout that was a “right of passage” of sorts for folks working the film, called the 300 workout. It is pretty tough, and I haven’t managed to do it yet. I also haven’t really tried.
• This week 2 years ago, I continued the animated lifting series with a demonstration of how to do an overhead triceps extension using a pulley, and the weekly series about the New Rules of Lifting continued, this time exploring the fourth and the fifth rules.

• This week last year, I compared the pros and cons of running with headphones, which is always such a polarizing topic.
• Shani Davis broke his own 1500m speed skate record with a time of 1:42.32. He bested his own record by 0.36 seconds.
• Jim Snyder provided some information about the treadmill record from the week before, including providing a video of the event.
• How do you compare your workload from week to week when your training consists of multiple activities?
• This week two years ago, I began a weekly series on what I thought about the 20 new rules of lifting found in the book by the same name. I posted two rules per week, beginning this week with the list of rules and the first rule: use your muscles as they were designed. I also demonstrated how to do a swiss ball bench press with dumbbells, suggested that you always eat before and after working out, and wrote a review on Under Armour gloves. Unfortunately, I have sense lost that pair of gloves and replaced them with Sport Hills.

I never got around to writing a “this week last year” article last week, so here it is this week for last week. If that makes sense.

• Some folks decided to try and break the 24-hour treadmill world record by running as a team on the treadmill. Each of the people in the “relay” needed to average 22 miles in 2 hours while they were on the treadmill. They succeeded, smashing the former record by over 14 miles.
• The Irish Road Rover was last week last year; I did not run but I got out and took some photographs. This year’s race is tomorrow morning, and unless they need some extra help I should be there with my camera again.
• I offered a very important swimming tip for the guys. Always tie your shorts! Pushing off from the wall and discovering your shorts are around your ankles can be embarrassing. Or so I’m told…
• Something I am asked on occasion is, “How many pairs of shoes do you need to be a runner?” Technically, you don’t need any shoes. I tend to have a lot of shoes, though, between trainers and racers and such.
• Finally, I discussed a story where Terry Francona made a bet that he could stop chewing tobacco. I challenged Red Sox fans to challenge themselves as well, but nobody took me up on it.
• Last week two years ago, I demonstrated how to do an overhead triceps extension and suggested that you should space your hands evenly on the bar when you are weight lifting. I also wrote a review of the Mizuno Wave Rider running shoe. They didn’t work for me, but I do use a different type of Mizuno’s these days.

In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about do-it-yourself home exercise implements throughout February and March.

This week, Scott describes how to make homemade medicine balls.

This summer, I definitely need to go the sand and foam in a basketball route. Last year, I painted almost every room in my house and made a medicine ball out of the painter’s tape that we used to protect our ceilings and windows.

That’s a nice, lightweight 2 or 3 pounder that is made entirely out of what otherwise would have become trash. So outside of getting a new piece of workout equipment, I also got to amuse myself by seeing how long I could keep each piece that I wrapped around the ball without it coming apart as I ripped it off of the ceiling.

Scott also describes how to make tornado balls, stress balls and juggling balls.

The tornado ball is basically a medicine ball on a string, and the juggling balls are basically stress balls with a different filler.

Another way to make a juggling ball, which is what I did when I was in high school, is to fill a tennis ball with water. You can add a dash of the chemicals that you use in your pool or a water bed to keep anything from growing inside of the tennis ball, and which also gives it a slight foaming ability that can create an oddly balanced ball that lets you do some really neat tricks while the ball is in the air.

You’ll need a syringe in order to get the water and chemicals into the tennis balls, but the hole will heal itself within a few hours of removing the needle. Just be sure not to mistake one of these for a real tennis ball; that’s a quick recipe for destroying your tennis racket.