Circuit Training

Just read Ryan Hall's blog, and he best summarizes why it is so awesome to run the bigger races. Of the four races that he has mentioned, I have done three of them and more importantly he pretty much summed up why I will be doing Boston next year:

1. The Boston Marathon: This marathon surpasses all the hype it gets. You will never forget running past the scream tunnel at Wellesley, up Heartbreak Hill (the challenge makes the journey all the more special), and down Boylston to the historic finish where the best runners in the world have been finishing for over a century.

Last night, went to the Big River group run for the first time in forever. We had a team meeting afterwards, so worked out pretty well to attend. Crystal dragged me out for her drills portion with her coach, so we did 25 minutes warmup to the track, which is located at a local high school not too far from Francis Park where we normally do the group runs. Weather was pretty nice - low 80's and overcast, and a slight breeze. We met her coach up there, and he explained to us the workout that we would be doing that day which was circuit training. For those not familiar, circuit training is a combination of high intensity aerobics and resistance training designed to target fat-loss, muscle building, and heart fitness. An exercise "circuit" is one completion of all prescribed exercises in the program. When one circuit is complete, one begins the first exercise again for another circuit. Traditionally, the time between exercises in circuit training is short, often with rapid movement to the next exercise.

The track was closed, so we did the workout on the grassy field adjacent to the track. Normally, we would have divided up the track into 5 different "stations" (where each exercise would be completed). The exercises were split up into 30 second segments, then sprint to the next station (~10 seconds, supposed to be around 80-100 meters), and is just continuous movement. Our stations were squats, pushups, toe touches, single leg squat/lunges, then plyos, all with hard sprints in between. Did 3 sets of this which took 10 minutes or so, and was pretty toast at the end of it. Definitely need to work on form on some of the exercises, but was a hell of a workout. Jogged back to the store, light stretching then went to our meeting/BBQ at Ben's house and called it a night. Total mileage: 4 miles - I had 33:06 on my watch.

Pretty sore today, need to stretch out a bit and try to gut it out for track work tonight!