We are Family

We had a heck of a family reunion on Saturday. Man was that beautiful. The air was chilly and the ground was frosty at the start of the Saturday workout. The Sun and the temperature rose for the 80 minutes we worked out together. We are grateful to everyone who showed up. We figure there were 60 folks on the track at E Rivers at 8:45am Saturday morning. There was a bit of a festival atmosphere. There was a ton of energy in the big crowd.

It must have been a decent workout cause we were mostly tired and sore this morning.

555 - We hammered out and back down Valley Road this morning before 240 continuous core exercises (no break) on the warm carpet and then a 10 minute stretch.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/66056714

830 - did the Old School Brick workout on PRUMC campus with 2X800 in the neighborhood then another 200 exercises on the warm carpet.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/66056710

Saturday Morning Fitness Extravaganza

Don't miss this once in a lifetime offer. This workout is guaranteed to work muscles. This will be the warmest morning of 2011. We already have commitments from dozens of your friends. All of the PRUMC workouts are combining for one fabulous group training hour. There will be a coffee social after the workout.

But wait, there is more. Tomorrows workout is open. That means you can invite a guest. Also, if you are not currently a participating member of PRUMC Boot Camp, you are welcome to join us for this reunion.

That's not all. If you have kids, they are welcome to attend too. Bring your children to the workout so they can see how tough you are. Gain instant respect from your offspring and significantly reduce back talk.

Dont miss the event everyone will be talking about. Get in with the in crowd. 830AM at E Rivers Elementary.

Run to the Stack of Bricks

HEAT WAVE COMING. Seriously. Bring your towel to the workout on Saturday at 8:30AM. We will be sun bathing on the field at E Rivers after the workout. Its a perfect opportunity for a pose down for all of us who have been working out around the calender.

Since it was still cold this morning, we improvised our upper body workout. Rather than carry iron, we did a bunch of push ups and dips. We also ran the Lenox route backward so we could access the brick pile on the Lenox side of the Peachtree Park foot bridge over 400. It is a huge brick pile and the individual bricks are rather large, larger than our normal E Rivers bricks.

We performed a couple hundred shoulder, back and arm exercises before running around Around Lenox (catch that?) and back to PRUMC. We did another couple hundred repetitions of upper body exercise on the carpet just outside of the fellowship hall.

3 miles, 700 reps.

We have 14 more workouts in this session. Dont miss any.

Long Run

"The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat." Bill Squires - The Wack

"Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run" -Bruce Springsteen

"There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people." -Bill Bowerman - Nike Founder

"Because that's all I have time for." -Stu Mittleman, on why he runs 20 miles a day

"Workouts are like brushing my teeth; I don't think about them. The decision has already been made." -PattiSue Plumer - olympian, American record holder 5000M

"The only secret is that it is consistent, often monotonous, boring, hard work." -Robert de Castella - Olympic Gold Medal 1984 L.A. at age 39

"Its the mind that tells you when to give up." -Jamaican sprint star, Marlene Ottey
"Mind is everything, muscles mere pieces of rubber. All that I am , I am because of my mind." -Paavo Nurmi, Nine-time Olympic Gold medalist

"There is a great advantage in training under unfavorable conditions." -Emil Zatopek Olympic Gold Medalist

"I will not last forever. But I am damn well going to know I have been here." -George Sheehan - Runner/Philosopher

"winter running is like developing a taste for beer, at first it tastes like hell but the more you practice the better it gets." -g

"Drinking is no excuse for missing a workout" - Boss

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/65233224

Out easy - down hill. Back hard - up hill.

Plus 250 core exercises on the carpet in the warm church.

Stairs

http://relativestrengthadvantage.com/running-stairs-the-most-badass-fat-loss-conditioning-drill-ever/

It was sprinkling ever so slightly when we arrived to PRUMC at 5:49AM this morning. No problem. We have an indoor facility right down the street. Its a 9 story parking deck. Oh joy. Delmonte calls it "the crazy 8s of the winter session." True, but Harriott would remind us that "concrete kills our legs." Yep, quite a beating. Too bad. This is the strength training that is critical to the base building of our winter workouts. You ever wonder why we always pass people in the up hill portion of a road race? We are stronger.

We started at the 1st floor and ran to the 9th... 4 times. That's 36 stories. We took the long way down the ramps and stopped along the way to do 780 repetitions of various lower body exercises. Example: Squats, Lunges, Leg Lifts, Leg Presses, Leg Curls, Kicks, ect...

There was plenty of jokes. Some not overly clean but we gave The Preacher 5 minutes at the end of the workout to straighten us out. For such a beating, we had a good time.

4 miles, 780 reps.

The Princess did 3 sets of stairs then hit The Village. The Village idiot kept them moving for a solid 3.5 miles. I think we are supposed to be looking for Ben Affleck this week. When did Atlanta become Hotlantawood?

Week 4

Typical rake for PRUMC Boot Camp. Everyone takes home hardware.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/64959846

Week 4 started with an easy loop around Lenox. We worked core muscles this morning. 600 reps of various exercises. The weather is perfect for outdoor workouts.

Everyone seemed to be in a great mood on Monday morning. Mary Blythe got engaged last weekend. She works out with us for a year, gets hotter, happier, healthier, next thing you know, she is plucked off the market. Best wishes to the happy couple. We are sure to be working out with MB as the big day approaches.

These are the days to bear down and work. We have motivated crowds showing up every day. Keep it up. Stay hydrated. Take NO days off. If you have to miss boot camp, fine. Go for a 3 mile run. Its 30 minutes of your life. Everyone has 30 minutes. No excuses.

Fitness Holy Trinity

The Fitness Holy Trinity (FHT) is: Sit ups, Push Ups, Back Bends (Superman's). We recommend the Fitness Holy Trinity every day. We have experimented with this combination for a decade and a half. Whenever we were away from boot camp, we would run, then crank out sets of the FHT. These are the basic exercises that can maintain core strength.

We started today's run from PRUMC to Frankie Allen. We were going to do strides & exercises on the Buckhead Baseball fields but decided to split. We ran all over town. We stopped on 10 separate patches of grass and did 20 Sit Ups, 20 Push Ups, & 20 back bends. It is amazing how many random patches of grass there are around town.

4 miles, 200 sit ups, 200 push ups, 200 back bends.

The make up workout is tomorrow morning at E Rivers @ 8:30AM. If you need to go earlier, show up at 8, run a half hour, and the exercises will start at 8:30.

PRUMC Campus old school Brick Workout

We don't carry bricks anymore. We used to carry bricks. Heavy bricks. Now we carry 5 pound weights which are a little lighter than the bricks. After a mile warm up (2 laps around The Church), we pick up the weights. We then ran 3 laps around The Church with the weights in hand. We stopped about every 300 meters and cranked out shoulder, back and arm exercises. After a mile and a half with bricks in hand, we drop them. Then we ran a half mile at 10K race pace. After dropping those weights, our arms felt super light running the half.

Everyone is sore. Getting back into the daily grind is wearing us down. It is tough to answer the bell every morning. These are the days we have turn the brain off and push through.

Friday fun day tomorrow. Come join us. We promise happy smiling faces will be waiting.

Church Run

555 - 4 miles, 500 reps of core.
830 - 4 miles, 500 reps of core.

More good crowds. The stud factory is rocking.

Parking Deck

We were back at full force this morning. No Snow. No Holiday. No excuses. Just large groups of people happy to be back into their routine.

555 - PRUMC to One Buckhead Plaza Parking deck. We ran 3 ramps then exercised - three times per set (9 ramp parking deck). We did three sets (27 ramps, about a mile and a half of up hill running). As each set was only a half mile climb, we ran a mile cool down to pad our total. 3 miles, 700 reps, all lower body.

830 - Princess Boot Camp did the Buckhead tour. We criss crossed our way around the village until we put together 3 miles and 700 reps, all lower body.

We have been experimenting for years with running streaks. Our definition of a streak is a minimum of 3 miles a day every day. No days off. The most common streak is 10 days. Most folks can make 10 days. The second most common streak is 20 days. Fewer people can make it 20 days. The streak that will transform your fitness is 40 days.

MLK Day Freedom Run for Fitness

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

We were free to roam the city streets this morning. A good crowd enjoyed a quiet loop around Lenox Mall.

"A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Confucius

50 weeks X 20 miles = 1,000 miles. Most of us will do 1,000 in 2011.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." - Hewrews 12:1

"Do you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." - 1 Corinthians 9:24

"My feeling is that any day I am too busy to run is a day that I am too busy." - John Bryant

Heat Wave

Temperatures will top 40 today. If Frosty the Snow Man doesn't split town now, his laughing and playing days will be over.

We are going to meet at 7:30AM tomorrow morning. We feel it is best to meet after sun rise. Be dress to go out. We are going to run first, then exercise inside the church.

s NO w Boot Camp

Dont freak out. The time off this week may be doing us some good. Most of us are so hard headed. We push so hard. We train so hard. The forced time off is allowing our bodies to rest and repair. We are not going to lose our base fitness by taking a week off.

That being said, many of us have been running every day in the snow. Those of us with an active streak have not taken a day off. We would not recommend running outside today.

The gym at the church is open and the treadmill and exercise room is open. Reply to this message if you want to get in there. Let me know if you want to meet tomorrow morning.

Plan on working out most Saturday mornings for the rest of this session. We will get our 30 days in this six week session.

Urban Boot Camp

The crowd keeps growing. Thanks to all the participants who are inviting folks to join. As always, we allow prospective participants join us as our guest for a few days. This allows folks to get an idea about what they are getting themselves into. It is interesting to listen to the new comer. For those who have been hanging around for a while, its easy to take our fitness for granted. The folks who are meeting us for the first time seem to really enjoy the workout and speak with wonder about the groups advanced fitness. It is important for us to remember to keep an eye on the new guys and gals and make sure to make them feel welcome and part of the group. We seem to do a really good job of welcoming folks and encouraging them. Its fun to watch the group dynamic in the beginning of a new session and especially the beginning of a new year.

The folks who are committed to fitness in January will literally be miles ahead when spring arrives.

We are meeting at Deka at Shops Around Lenox tomorrow morning at 8AM for a run. Deka will have Newtons available for demonstration. We can actually trial run in them. Many of us have made the switch. Most of us would have never dreamed of switching from our favorite shoe. Everyone seems to like them. Newton claims these shoes will make you faster and reduce injury. We are all for that.

Pump and Run

Spring training continued this morning on campus at the world famous Peachtree Road United Methodist Church (PRUMC) Boot Camp. We have had nice crowds for the new year. It appears there are numbers that plan to thrill the crowd when they shed the winter threads.

Toady's discipline targeted upper body. It has come to our attention that the faster we pump our arms, the faster our legs turn over. Faster arms = faster legs. So after running around PRUMC twice for a warm up, we ran around PRUMC three times with 5 pound weights in hand. We stopped about every 300 meters and pumped out 40 repetitions of various shoulder, back and arm exercises. after 400 reps, we dropped the weight and lined up on the street. The neighborhood behind The Church has a natural half mile. The half mile horse shoe runs down hill to the half way then logically, up to the finish. We ran the half mile twice.

Many of our workouts simulate 5k race conditions. Today we wore oursevles out for 2 1/2 miles then practiced keeping good form at 5k race pace for the final mile.

3.5 miles, 400 reps