Thursday, December 31, 2009

Posture while running/walking/driving

How many times have you heard while running up hill..."drop your chin, lean in"... here is why.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPMzxU5bos0&NR=1

how about "get on your toes"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkUqkdPQHis&NR=1

Friday, December 18, 2009

Year end workout - Old School Church run

Mist. 44 degrees. Uniform: 2 layers of dry fit, gloves/hat. I was watching the cars pull in thinking to myself, what am I going to do with all these people. I always felt grateful for all of the participants who do boot camp and for PRUMC who unknowingly let the fox into the the hen house. This morning I was especially grateful that so many folks would show up in bad winter weather. And, I received a very nice Christmas gift. Thanks.

Jimmy made the call. "Old School Church Run!" The big surprise this morning is that it did not rain. First stop was the wall V crunches on Peachtree, then the duck pond and on to Cathedral. We spent some time on the Cathedral playground before running across the street to the Baptist bleachers and stairs. We hung out for a while at Garden Hills playground and waited for everyone to have a turn on the swing set. Then we made our way to St. Phillips and did our final exercises for the year.

I have taken great pride and personal pleasure watching your fitness & speed improve daily. The dynamic of group training is producing fantastic individual results. I have always said this is the toughest group workout in Atlanta.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

E Rivers Campus - legs

31 degrees. Uniform of the day - Two Layers. We began with 200s. 200 meter strides are a quick and easy way to to get your legs warmed up and your heart rate elevated. Then we hammered up the stairs to the stump garden where we did reverse planks, stair step aerobics, leg presses, leg curls, more stairs, then we rolled out and around campus back to the track. We ran a few more 200s then some standing leg raises. We ran up the center set of stairs to the picnic benches and did reverse flutter kicks (lying on your stomach). Then we ran back to the stump garden and more reverse planks. With our feet shoulder width apart and our hips high, we turned our toes together and toes apart. Then more stair steps and again around the school and back to the track. We ran a few more 200s (we eat up 200 meter strides like red and green M&Ms). Then we did side kicks (hips), then swing set leg curls and squats. Finally, we did one leg dead lifts with each leg.

Speculation is rain for tomorrow. We hope everyone shows up for our final organized workout of the year.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Church Run Hills

64 degrees. I believe it was 64 on the 4th of July. I don't think it rained a drop. 9 guys and 5 gals showed up. The workout started innocent enough. Stretching, stump garden stair steps and leg presses and easy running is normal. We did a few lunges, more step aerobics on Rivers and a few squats at the bottom of Muscogee. Then the fun started. Considering the crowd, we decided today was going to be a tough man workout. The first set of hills was on Muscogee. We ran 1/3 hard up and easy down. Then we ran 2/3 hard up and easy down. Then we ran to Peachtree rd, crossed and ran down Lake View. Then we ran 1/3, 2/3, and up to Peachtree again, took a right, did a few lunges to catch our breath and took a hard right at Cathedral. Rather than exercise, we ran the hill at Cathedral 3 times and then ran to Baptist. We ran the Baptist stairs 5 times, hammering up and easy down the soft grass hill. Then we ran back to Lake View and did our last set of hills. Guys were grabbing their knees and sucking air at the top of the final hill on Peachtree. The total was 4 1/2 miles (4 sets of hills and 5 stair laps).

Please make plans to get together early next week.

Monday, December 14, 2009

BRIX

Warm. Large group. Carolyn said we will have precipitation for tomorrows participation, perspiration and palpitations so, we will do legs under cover tomorrow. Today we started with more Tiger jokes (thanks Charles), push ups and dips. Then we picked up bricks. Running with bricks is tough. I have to thank Jess for this workout. Jess is a former PRUMC instructor and a current USMC special forces instructor. He invented the brick workout. I feel like we missed something this morning. Oh yea, we forgot one exercise. Still, my shoulders are tired as I sit here and type. The gang ran a Muscogee mile after we stacked the bricks. The times were fast again. Shana broke 7 minutes. Reba holds a slim margin on W1.

This is our last week of Boot Camp. I am sure folks will want to meet and work out together in my absence. I would like folks to volunteer to meet and lead workouts. Kind of like instructor for a day. Let me know if you want to keep rolling over the holidays. Respond on this blog.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Friday Fun Day - Buckhead Marta

Christine returned to the front. She is a shark. Chris is leaving us 40 lbs and 10% body fat lighter. He is a civilian heading for the desert. We will miss him. Steef is sticking to the front like a stamp. Gary and Matty were leading the parade. Reba was sticking to them like green on a Christmas tree. Michael loves his new life in fitness. John Mears is quietly transforming into a beast. Jennifer, Shana, Kaffee, Harriott and Allison are in good enough shape to hammer up Peachtree and never be to winded to interrupt the discussion. Lisa is looking like a real runner. Our mother to be keeps showing up for these tough man workouts looking like she swallowed a basketball. Be careful Maggie. Finally, as Maggies belly gets bigger, The Preachers is getting smaller. If John Daly can lose 100...

We ran from E Rivers to the Buckhead Marta. We stopped 20 times for exercise. Mostly push ups(170), dips (120) and legs. We completed 750 repitions of various exercises. Good crowd today. The cold was not a problem.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Church Run - Legs

Warm morning. Uniform of the day, Tee Shirt and Shorts. It did not rain a drop on us. We warmed up, went to the stump garden, did some stair step aerobics and legs presses. Then we worked our way to Rivers and Muscogee lunging and squating and stepping all the way. There was a long set of hills on Muscogee. The fellas hammered. Dave D feels better and was happy to set the pace. We hung out at Catholic Cathedral for a while working on legs and hips. Then we ran across the way to Batpist where we continued with legs, hips and calves. Although there were more guys than girls this morning, it was a chickie workout. The fellas would rather do push ups than plie's, but strength, flexability and balance are part of the program.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

BRIX

Gary led all exercise and running. John M. was hot on his heels. We had 20 folks there this morning. 12 men. We ran a few strides and did a few push ups on the grass before we started. We ran the long way across the field and increased our speed with every cross. We started and ended in the stump garden with deep push ups and dips. We carried 5lbs bricks in each hand and began running and exercising. The exercises concentrated on shoulders and arms. Three laps around the school takes 30 minutes and equals one mile. Then we stopped in front of the school to stretch again before a Muscogee Mile. The mile times again reflects the cumulative days of training. Most of the group was under 7 minutes.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Monday Funday Crazy Eights

Lots of people today. There were some in shape dudes pushing it from the front. Things were going so well we threw in a set of 8 count body builders (Navy SEALS) and 6 count ab builders (my invention). The push ups looked good as did the other exercises (mostly abs). We did speed drills at the end of every diagonal stride across the field. These exercises and drills are the same US Olympians do every day. The Peachtree Battle Field was rocking with fast legs this morning. 5 miles 500 repetitions of mostly abs.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Friday Fun Day - Marta

Reba was 1st OA(over all). She led all men and women. We started from the E Rivers parking lot. If you need a Christmas tree, they are in the E Rivers parking lot. We ran north up Peachtree. We made a ton of stops this morning. Along the way we did 200 push ups (20 a set X 10 sets). We also did dips, lunges, squats, flutter kicks, stair step aerobics, leg lifts and kicks and calf raises and stuff like that. We balanced this mornings exercises between arms/shoulders and legs/hips. We had a decent crowd.

As always, Friday's workout is a workout of attrition. Folks turn back at different points, usually because they are running out of time. The fellas finished the drill in the tunnel under Peachtree Rd. The Preacher gave us a devotional and we ran back.

5 miles, 750 repetitions of various exercises (200 of which are push ups). I would challenge any group in Atlanta to hang with this group.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

12-03 - Strides

E. Rivers is a wonderful location for Boot Camp. Good parking, largest yard in Buckhead, Track, stadium stairs, swing sets, stump garden, lights, bathrooms (not really), and privacy. This morning we utilized our space with group training. Strides are 120 yard up tempo runs followed by a jog around the turns and then another 120 yard run. We split into two groups and did ab exercises while the other group was running. 10 men and 10 women. The men ran together with Reba and the ladies enjoyed each others company. 4 miles 500 repitions. This was a decent track workout.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Field Trip

As the rain was coming down hard, we decided to take a field trip to the church. Gary, Michael, John M., Harriott, Sally, Kaffee and Jennifer(W1 for the second time this week) got together in the Gym. We did the typical gym warm up. We ran, side stepped, cross overs, high knees and butt kickers (all speed drills). Then we did a set of suicides. The fellas and Jenn took turns doing pull ups while the others did exercises. We had three stations. Resistance bands for the shoulder and arm exercises, Jump rope for the cardio and balance balls for the ab work. We had three groups and switched every 45 seconds.

Yesterday morning was a perfect outdoor workout. Jenna joined us so the front was a little faster. We did legs yesterday. We ran 4X300m @ 5k pace w/ 100 recovery, 7 minutes of various leg stations around campus, 2X300M then another 7 minutes then 1X300 with the rest of the hour spent doing leg exercises around the basketball court. (included were swing set leg curls, my invention and done no where else in town).