Old School Platoon style P.T. Run

We stayed close to home today. We had less than 20 participants. We started out in the stump garden. We knocked out 200 reps of stair step aerobics, dips, leg presses, box jumps and over and backs(Side step aerobics). We ran around the school and stopped at the top of the hill, dug out the weights and carried them down the hill to the catty corner of the field. We simulated a TRX workout, did jazzercize with hand weights and V crunches on the bleachers (in 3 groups). We rotated from station to station. Swing set, Weights on track, bleachers. Those got us up to 400. Then, we ran up the center set of stairs and stopped at the picnic benches outside the cafeteria. We laid flat on our stomachs and did reverse leg lifts (kills butt and hams.) We then ran off campus down Ptree Battle. We stopped for sit ups, squats, lunges, took a right on Rivers and continued exercise with stair step aerobics on the retaining wall, then dips, then ran to Muscogee.

We alternated V crunches and squats at the base of Muscogee before hammering up to Ptree. Our total was 800. We exercised on the soft grass on the corner of Muscogee and Ptree (sit ups?) before running back the way we came. We finished exercise at the retaining wall before running back home. Upon our return, we took a squad to the catty corner, retrieved the hand weights, placed them on the drive way, then finished the workout with strides on the field.

3 miles, 1,000 repetitions of various Exercise (we hit everything today, total body). One thousand of anything is a lot.

After 20 opportunities since the Peachtree Road Race:

John S 19
Colby 18
Emi 18
Caroline 17
Lucy 17
Jennifer 17
Harriott 17
Lisa 16
Gary 16
Marc 16
Kerry 15
Charles 15
Kaffee 15
Wendy 15
David M 14
Cleve 14
Dave B 14
Charlie 13
Mary Anne 13
Bob 12
Prancer 12
Cassie 12
Mary Blythe 11
Jimmy F 11
Matty 11
Michelle 10
Jimmy S. 10
Dave D 10
Slawek 10
Terri 10
Rich 10
Susan 9
Sally 8
Niki 8
Leslie 7
Allison 7
J. Oneill 8
Michael 8
Carolyn 7
Irene 6
Lauren 3
Steef 2

Top women Emi, Caroline, Lucy, Jennifer, Harriott & Lisa are getting salty. They appear to be going for it. We can see the eye of the tiger in these girls. They are developing the 1,000 yard stare. They strike fear in the hearts and minds of other women (& Men). They chew up asphault like M&M's.

Neighborhood Stroll

Easy. We know today was easy because we were talking and laughing the entire workout. In the running community, these workouts are called "conversational." The intensity remains easy enough that we are able to carry on a conversation while we run and exercise. We ran to the Duck pond, front of Cathedral, through Baptist parking lot (no stairs today), down to Garden Hills Park, the GH Elementary, then Atlanta International School and finished in the Publix Parking Lot. Of course, we ran back to E Rivers (our home away from home.)

We ran an easy 4 1/2 and did 555 core exercise.

Arms

Yesterday was too hard. It was a beautiful thing to witness but, it exacted an expensive toll. We are going to have to dial it back the rest of the week. We ran strides on the grass, listened to music and worked the muscles above our belly button. We ran an 800 after. The quick Chicks split 95, 91.

Track

The world over, a quarter mile oval is a sacred proving ground where the community can come together for the purpose of fulfilling our physical awakening. PRUMC Boot Camp can go anywhere, any time for any thing. But, our discipline is deeply rooted in a lineage that comes from the TRACK. There is a Track Star is every one of us that is fighting to come out in a beautiful expression of SPEED.

Today we tapped in to the inner Track Star. In the spirit of giving, we took turns bearing the burden at the front of the pack. Each 120 meters down was followed by a walk/jog 80 before another hard 120. At the completion of each revolution, there was a recovery period were we switched our focus from hard running to core exercise. 15 laps, 40 reps per lap.

3.75 miles, 600 repetitions of various core exercise.

Over half way through this session, we can see who will impact their fitness the most:
Name # of workouts
John S 17
Colby 16
Caroline 15
Emi 15
Kaffee 15
Lucy 15
Jennifer 15
Lisa 14
Harriott 14
Charles 13
Charlie 13
David M 13
Gary 13
Kerry 13
Marc 13
Wendy 13
Bob 12
Cleve 12
Dave B 12
Mary Anne 11
Mary Blythe 11
Prancer 11
Cassie 11
Michelle 10
Jimmy S. 10
Jimmy F. 10
Dave D 10
Slawek 10
Terri 9
Susan 9
Rich 8
Sally 8
Matty 8
Niki 8
Leslie 7
Allison 7
J. Oneill 7
Michael 6
Carolyn 5
Irene 5
Lauren 3
Steef 2

Colby missed day one and has not missed another day. This kid is "dying unto himself" in order to be reborn a fast, fit stud.

Church Run

We enjoyed a nice crowd for a Monday morning. For those of us who are tempted to complain about the heat wave, please allow us to remember "the dead of winter."

Buckhead was illuminated this morning by a brilliant full moon...

The Full Buck Moon – July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.

So we rolled like Thunder through Buckhead making Hay. We hit all of our favorite stops working all the muscles below our belly button.

3 miles 726 repetitions on 7/26.

Irene, Urene, we all rene

This wonderful glorious day a half a hundred years ago, a beautiful baby girl entered into this world. We have the great honor and privledge to spend an hour with this young lady every day. So we started the day with 50 push ups.

Then, we split up. The horses cantered off campus for a 40 minute run around Bobby Jones. We stopped along the way 10 times and rested our legs. During our 30 second recovery, we pumped out 20 push ups. The total was 5.5 miles, 250 push ups (a new record).

The foxes stayed on campus and recieved a core workout they will likely recall tomorrow morning when they get out of bed. There were muffins after.

We are half way through the current session. There are 15 workouts left in this session. Thats about 52.5 more miles and 9,000 more repetitions of various exercises. This group is getting tighter every workout. Lets keep it together.

Upper Body

Warm up. The point of showing up early is to warm up. Cold muscles don't stretch. Hanging around next to the wall stretching cold muscles does not prevent injury. The minimum requirement is 2 laps. Two laps, a bit of stretches followed by some strides can wake up our bodies, loosen up our muscles and get us ready for intense physical training. Showing up late and jumping into a workout with this crowd will absolutely get us hurt. This group hammers like no other. Many days are "race effort" workouts. No one would ever step to the line cold and wait for the gun.

We had two groups. Mostly men and women. Each group ran down and back on the grass while the other group did various exercises with hand weights. When the strides and exercise were over, we stepped to the line and waited for the gun. The quick chicks paced the pack through two laps. 95, 92. Not bad for a controlled effort at the END of a tough workout.

4 miles, 600 repetitions of various upper body exercise.

To Piedmont Rd and Back

The above group of studs are rarely seen so relaxed.

John Oneil had too much fun at the Braves game last night to appear this morning. I wonder if any of the Braves miss a game when Oneil goes to work.

Out and back. We ran North up Peachtree Rd all the way to Piedmont Rd. We must have stopped a dozen times for core body exercise. The final count was 555 repetitions. Once we arrived at our final destination, we turned around and headed straight back. We figured the group ran 5 miles. The nice part of the workout was the down hill finish. We work, work ,worked our way up the hill, then turned around, spread our wings and flew back to our cars.

We are in our 3rd week of the current 6 week cycle. The group is beginning to morph into an elite urban assault unit. Keep showing up. Its is the group that makes group training work. The bigger the pack, the stronger the attack.

Church Run

Drink more water today. We likely sweat between 1 and 5 pounds of water weight this morning. It was not overly hot, just humid. The amazing thing about water is water is an amazing thing. Water can change how you feel. How you feel can change how you act. How you act can change the outcome of every moment of your day. If we are dehydrated, we will likely feel tight, sore or bent. When we are sucking down the H2O, we are likely feel pressure. The kind of pressure that makes you pull off the highway and hit the rest area. That is good. If we are well hydrated, we are likely feel better in our daily routine. We are less like to tell Jr. to take it easy on us because we are beat up. We are more likely to go to the driving range and feel better hitting a basket of balls. Lets face it, what is the fail safe way to avoid a blistering hangover? Well, don't drink but even better; have a huge glass of water before we go to sleep. Guess what, we can do that regardless, all day. We will feel better.

3 miles, 888 repetitions of various lower body exercise.

8s

Babes
___________

Kaffee
Prancy
Wendy
Mary Blythe
Emi
Carolyn
Caroline
Mary Anne
Kerry
Lucy
Harriott
Cole
Sheridan
Robin

Dudes
____________

Bob
Jimmy F.
Gary
Colby
David M.
Cleve
Charlie
Jimmy S.
John Oneil
Dave B
John S.
Down Town Preacher
Dave D.

Thanks again to Mary Anne and Jimmy for having us over to their home yesterday. Its nice to slow down every now and then. We are always in such a hurry.

Speaking of that, we pushed through 5 miles and 500 repetitions of various core exercises pretty quickly this morning. 110 of the 500 were push ups. We also did sit ups, bicycles, 8 count body builders, straight leg raises, flutter kicks, cross overs, back bends, plank crunches, & V crunches.

A few folks are looking forward to The Big Peach Sizzler 1oK on September 18. We basically do enough every morning to get us ready for this flat and fast race. There are a few folks that have shown an interest in running a personal record and getting a faster qualifier for next years Peachtree Road Race. Anyone who has been hanging around all summer should consider this race.

We have been talking about how much water we drink. We feel like 100oz a day is barely enough and 200oz is not too much. We believe that drinking that much wa wa can help keep off weight and help us to "feel better." Why not try it?

Friday Fun Day

We are invited to Mary Anne and Jimmy's Sunday at 5PM. @ 1846 Fernwood Rd.

Today's attendance:

Niki - Out of town for a week, hopefully hamstring will be better when she returns
Marc - Just hitting his stride
Mary Anne - Learning about her "other gear"
Jimmy - Will train through the pain
Kaffee - guards the secret keys to the kingdom, but will share them
Gary Mann - Runs like a kid, does push ups and pull ups like a Mann
John S. - Mission oriented ( future elite )
Terri - may stay... we hope
Michelle - headed to D.C. to balance the budget. See you in a week
Colby - GUTS
Jennifer - Robobabe
Sally - Well, Long Tall Sally, she's built for speed
Caroline - Fine, refined, otherwise defined - Southern Princess
David M - Finally found his home
Cleve - Still dusting off the wheels
Leslie - Miraculous Transformation
John O - getting interested
SLAWek - Slaw Dog. He is rolling
Charlie - The invisible stud. Will show up soon
Dave Baker - Not racing tomorrow... or today
Lisa - Weekend Warrior is ready
Harriott - The Queen Mother
Allison - Southern Charm in motion
Mary Susan - Susan aint going away
Lucy - emergent front running hot mom
Charles - Down Town Preacher is praying for all of us. Some more than others

Upper Body

We ran on the grass today. The yard is really soft and forgiving. Running on the soft surface is so much better for our legs. We think we went down and back 20 times. Each down is 120 meters, as is each back. 20X240=4800. Another way to say that is "3 miles". We had two large groups. As one group ran down and back, the other group lifted 5 pound hand weights. If we ran down and back 20 times, we must have exercised 20 times. Each turn with the weights averaged about 35 repetitions. 20X35=700.

We ran a hard 800 at the end of the workout. We had a blue light special today. All shoppers who split there first quarter under 100 seconds received a half off discount. The Horses neither asked for nor received quarter.

3.5 miles, 700 repetitions of various upper body exercise.

Diagonals

These are the dog days. The grind. When our eyes open, if we make sure our feet hit the floor, if we keep moving and show up, if we keep putting one foot in front of the other, good things will happen in our fitness. The name of the game is consistency. Those of us that show up every day will experience one of two things. We will either get hurt, or we will get in great shape. Step one) show up. Step two) take care of yourself. If all you do is show up and take care of yourself, you will experience an increase in wellness.

3 miles, 600 reps of core.

Church Run

We assembled at the far end of the track on the basketball court. We stretched a little bit then ran up the stairs to the stump garden. We did some Stair Step Aerobics (SSA) then took turns doing box jumps and squats. We ran off campus down Peachtree Battle to Rivers. We took a right at Rivers and continued with walking lunges. Everyone caught up and relaxed against the wall before we took off up Rivers. On our way to Muscogee, we did SSA then squats. We ran UP Muscogee to Peachtree; then more walking lunges. We crossed Peachtree and ran down Lakeview. We did some side stepping jump squats along the duck pond before running to the Cathedral back door. Inside the Catholic Courtyard we started with SSA, then circled up around the Holy Astro Turf for mostly hip exercises. We crossed over to the Baptist back lot for a few sets of stairs before running to the front courtyard for "bar" exercises and a set of leg curls on the Baptist Bleachers. Finally, we ascended gloriously to our highest point of the morning atop the hill at St Phillips. We pressed legs then lifted calves, then ran home.

3 Miles, 600 Repetitions of various lower body exercise.

Water. Drink it

Crazy 8s

Pull ups, Sit ups, push ups, bicycles, back bends, plank crunches, 8 count body builders, V crunches, Side crunches, lying toe touches, maybe a few others. Total Core.

We (X)ed off the field with cones and welcomed back a few old friends returning to us. We slowly began to run around the grass field in the shape of an 8. On either end of the track we slowly jogged the turn before cranking up our pace while motoring to the catty corner turn. Along the way we gathered a small crowd that held the up tempo pace for more than a few strides before peeling off. Every other 8 (two eights is 800 meters) we stopped for the above exercise.

It was hot and humid this morning. We had to cut it short. 4 miles, 420 reps.

The Longest Hour

Chicks
-----------

Kaffee
Carolyn
Michelle
Shana
Jennifer
Cassie
Emi
Mary Blythe
Lisa
Lucy
Caroline

Dudes
----------

John Mears
Jimmy F
John S.
David
Colby
Matty
Cleve
Slawek
Marc


After a set of suicides, we split into two groups. Jeffrey tortured the first group with a few new moves while the second group sat Indian style on the basketball court and took turns sharing in group therapy. After a long cry and a group hug, we exchanged gifts. Then we played on the swing set. We stopped by the picnic tables for breakfast on our way to meet the others. Jeffrey then released his death grip on the sharks and turned his viciousness on the minnows. Still shell shocked and bewildered, the horses recovered with a cat nap while the foxes received a relentless beating in the devils den.

Completely recovered but lacking desire, the forward platoon reluctantly relieved the Corps of duty, and assumed the wrath and onslaught while the Corps retreated for Rest and Recovery.

The unit united in the end and demonstrated duty, honor and courage.

2 miles, 800 reps. White guys cant dance.

Strength Training

Stadium stairs running is an old school, time tested way to become stronger. Jazzercise with the 5 pound weights is a little new wave, pop culture ish. Both are fantastic basic training methods that can prepare us for nearly any physical challenge.

We split up into two groups. The Fellas and the Gals. One group stood high above the Peachtree Battle Field on the concrete ridge that hugs the school. Y'all exercised arms, back and shoulders while the other group ran easy down the far set of stairs, picked it up for a half a lap around the track, then hammered up the center stairs. As the runners were returning to the ridge, The jazzercise group dropped their burden, spread their wings, and took off in flight.

We had to switch it up with a quarter to go. Some of us were walking out and others were thinking about walking out. So we finished on the field. The exercise remained tough, but we eliminated the stairs.

People are getting hurt. What are we to do? Wear a Phiten necklace? Drink more water? Drink Chia Seeds in our water? Wear Newtons? Not push it too much? Ice that which is sore? Ice some more? Get treatment? SHOW UP EARLY AND GET WARMED UP?

yes

3 miles, 600 reps of all upper body.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/your-brain-on-exercise/

Church Run

It was another beautiful morning in the heart of Buckhead. The humidity is coming back a bit but the temperature is still mild. We gathered at the far end of the track early this morning. We stretched our legs and some of us did a few pull ups. Once everyone was together, we ran up the stairs and continued the warm up with a set of stair step aerobics in the Stump Garden. Then we split into boys and girls. The boys did box jumps while the girls did squats. Then we switched. Our journey away from campus started down Ptree Battle and took a right at Rivers. Walking lunges were followed by Preacher seats then up Rivers for more stair steps aerobics on the retaining wall. At the base of Muscogee, we did a set of squats, then raced to Peachtree St. After another set of lunges, we crossed Ptree and ran down Lakeview to the Duck Pond. We all became tree huggers while exercising hips at Duck Pond. Our destination this morning was Jesus Junction. We arrived at the Catholic courtyard and were delighted that we could enter. We did yet another set of stair step aorobics before laying on our backs on the Holy Astroturf. After a combination of hip, butt and high ham exercises, we hot footed it over to Baptist back lot. There, we ran up the stairway (to heaven?) 3 times then ran to the Baptist front courtyard. We gathered on the Batpist Bleachers for inner thigh then hamstring exercises. From that spot, we ran to the Episcopial front door. St Phillips sits on a lofty perch that requires one heck of a climb. We exercised on the grass overlooking Peachtree Rd before calling it quits and running home.

3 miles 700 repitions of various lower body exercises.

Happy Reunion

Ancient Chinese Proverb: "The more you sweat in Peace, the less you bleed in War."

We had a bunch of new people today. Awesome. Please go out of your way to make them feel welcome.

We did diagonals. We started with a set of suicides, grouped into four, and ran strides on the grass in between core exercises.

Folks are still buzzing about the Peachtree Road Race. We agree that it was one of the best ever. Not only were our times fast but, we looked GOOD.