Marathon Relay

I had my first experience with a marathon on Saturday, running the 4th leg in the marathon relay (7.6 miles) with a split of 47:00.

Density Training

Total time of workout- 20:04
Time in the zone- 4:51
Time above the zone- 0:00
Time below the zone- 15:13
Max heart rate- 167 bpm
Avg heart rate- 146 bpm
Kilocalories- 116

I love a good workout, and these exercises really made me work. The goal was to do choose 5 exercises working different areas of the body, do 8 repetitions of each and then try to get 4 sets done in 20 minutes. The exercises that I chose included:
1) DB Swings
2) Push Press
3) SL Romanian Deadlifts
4) Inverted Row
5) Windmill/ American Get-ups
I was surprised at how much of a cardiovascular workout this was for being resistance training. One thing that I would have done differently would be to choose slightly heavier weights and try to bump it up to the next level; I found myself taking it a bit easier today just so I wouldn't be as sore Saturday. That is a plus about this workout; you can go at your own pace and intensity whether you're a beginner or an expert. One thing in particular I found interesting was when Nick pointed out that when compared to steady cardiovascular training such as going for a run which ultimately burned 0% of fat, this same workout burned 900% of that. I think I could see myself adding this into my workout maybe a couple of times a week.

DDR/Wii

Approximate total time of workout- 18:01
Total time below the zone- 18:01
Max heart rate- 157 bpm
Avg heart rate- 125 bpm
Kilocalories- 73

Today we played video games such as DDR, Wii, and Wii olympic games. I think that these activities are definitely made for fun more than the workout itself. I do think that these games are better than the traditional games to get kids up and moving and they also help with coordination and cognitive thinking, however, I don't think that we can honestly call them a workout. I did not get my heart rate into my "zone" at all, and I barely broke a sweat so I don't technically think you could call this type of activity a exercise. I think that of the three, DDR got my heart rate moving the fastest and made me think the most. The other two games don't get you moving long enough before you have to stop and read more directions.

Heart Rate Pace

Total time of workout- 29:11
Time in the zone- 15:08
Time above the zone- 10:51
Time below the zone- 3:12
Maximum heartrate- 202 bpm
Average heartrate- 175 bpm
Kilocalories- 235

Being a runner since the 7th grade, I have found out that this is my favorite type of conditioning. I am an endurance athlete working at a more aerobic energy system. As much fun that I have had trying other things such as the line drills last week, I still find that I would rather just go for a run. It was almost painfully slow to run the first 5 minutes but by the last 5 minutes when we were running at about tempo pace, the run was feeling pretty good. I don't think I have done much for intervals such as 400s since high school track, and it quickly reminded me how tiring it could be. Intervals may very hard to run but I think that if you did it even one to two times a week you could lower your VO2 max. That being said, I have learned throughout the last week that an athlete definitely has to train for specificity. A baseball player would probably not get much out of doing running intervals but in the same sense a runner needs to do more than line drills to get ready for the race.

Conditioning and Drills

Total time of workout- 32:53
Time in the zone- 12:21
Time above the zone- 3:27
Time below the zone 17:05
Max heartrate- 192 bpm
Avg heartrate- 156 bpm
Kilocalories- 215

I actually kinda enjoy doing some conditioning drills for a workout because as hard as it is, you know it will be over soon. A lot of the drills we did today were rather fun such as the 5, 10, 5's and the box drills. These got us moving for only a few seconds and then we rested again. It was interesting to see how a fairly quick interval could keep our heartrate up even during our rest period. Such as when we did the 4 tempo runs; we would build our heartrate up from somewhere between 180-195 in a time of about 20 seconds and then we would have about 40 seconds off, still keeping our heartrate elevated. I think that these types of drills are critical to many sports in which you would do much of the start, stop; forward, side, reverse elements; and also using acceleration and deceleration movements.

Fat Loss Secrets...

The biggest secret is that there is no secret at all... those are the words Mike Boyle used to start off his speech on losing weight. However, that being said, there was a lot I learned about weight loss in general. Besides dieting being the best way to lose weight, weight training and intervals are the most effective way to shed the pounds. That being said, people must do resistance training. I also learned that in order to lose fat you must have muscle, because that is the key thing that burns fat. Mike talked a lot about how to personal train an overweight client and I think that I will be able to apply a lot of what he talked about in my own career. Something that I found interested that he said was that too many people don't want to lift weights because they are afraid they will get too big; however, that takes much more work then they actually realize, and why don't they think that then when they eat so much. People must realize that they must lift to get their metabolism going. The thing that I didn't understand about his talk was the part he added about corn being a grain, and the number one calorie source in America. That surprised me; however, I realize to lose the weight, grains are something that might need to be reduced in the diet.

Get Metabolic!

Total time of workout- 25:53
Time in the zone- 14:35
Time above the zone- 5:18
Time below the zone- 6:00
Maximum heartrate- 195 bpm
Average heartrate- 165 bpm
Kilocalories- 189

At first I was a little apprehensive doing an interval workout being mainly an endurance athlete throughout my life. However, I really enjoyed doing this workout because like Chuck said, "It feels good to get your butt kicked". My favorite was doing the Burpee intervals for 4 minutes. It seemed crazy to have done such a short time span and yet be so out of breath; that was when my heartrate got up to 195! I also enjoyed doing the body weight complexes. The countdown from ten to one doing squats and push-ups was a great way to get my heartrate up. I would consider doing both of those two workouts again or even switching it up to do different lifts in the complex or hybrid form because I think that it would help to speed up a workout. I also find it interesting that a high intensity workout will surpress your hungry versus a low intensity workout actually making you want to eat. I do believe it though, and have actually experienced it. It's about 5:30 right now and I still am not hungry besides drinking a lot of water after the workout. I feel like the intervals really were a great workout for me and would add them to my current exercises.