The Tyson Gay workout

Tyson Gay is an American sprinter, one of the best 100 meter sprinters in the world. He recommends a workout that I have tried and it is awesome. So I figured I would share it. Here it is

“Core strength is critical for peak performance. Master your midsection the way Gay does with this novel move: Lie on your back on a decline bench, holding a weight plate against your chest with both hands. Then lift your upper body off the bench about 6 inches. Holding this position, press the weight plate straight up from your chest, as if you’re doing a bench press. Lower the weight (but not your torso) and repeat. As you push the weight, your abs have to contract even harder, says Gay. Do 12 presses, rest 1 minute, and repeat once or twice.

I do this regularly at the gym now. After about 2-3 sets, you abs feel like they are on fire. Really works well!

A little bit of weight training

I was recently advised by the trainer at Tri-fit (my gym) to devote time to weight training in addition to running etc. Very good advice, since muscle building is an important aspect of overall fitness. Just having decent endurance is fine, but muscles help burn fat, so its nice to have a few. This was about 3 weeks ago and I have been weight training every other day and have done a decent job of sticking to it. One BIG mistake though. As is my wont, I started lifting the heaviest weights and doing machines at maximum resistance I could handle. As a result, I have probably gained muscle but look beefier which is the last thing I wanted. So I am going to dial it down a bit in terms of weights, increase the repetitions and incorporate “band” resistance training (more on it tommorow). As always what you eat is very important and I still do not have a good handle of that. But as my friend says, it is all a work in progress

A little bit of interval training

Before I get into interval training, a little detour. Remember how I was complaining that driving on the 405 is soul-sapping. Turns out that biking along the ocean is super rejuvenating I took a long bike ride along the SM beach yesterday. It was freakin’ awesome. My soul is all good now, no bitterness.

OK. So,  Interval training is broadly defined as repetitions of high-speed/intensity work followed by periods of rest or low activity. I had never done it before and even currently, I do it a little unscientifically. But it is still working out very well.

On a treadmill I used to run steadily at 6.2 mph and a 0.5 incline for as long as I could. Now what I do is that in the last 2 mins of every 10 minute interval I run much harder than usual. This could mean that I either set the incline to be much steeper  or the speed to be much faster. I run for about 40-45 mins which means I do four 2 min intervals of very high intensity running. I have only been doing it for about 10 days but it has already made me a better runner.

I now need to figure out how to do the same for biking and road-running. Treadmills allows you to stick to a plan fairly easily. It will be tougher to stay on track on the road where it is easy to get distracted. Let’s see.

For those of you who run/train and are wondering why you are plateauing, please consider doing interval training. It will make a world of difference. Btw, currently my song for the 2 min high intensity intervals is “Mean Streets”

1 New Year’s resolution crossed off the list

I ran a 7 minute mile for the first time in my life yesterday. It is usually a breeze for a lot of people but I am not one of them. Took me forever and I was stuck around 7.20 and 7.30 for a long time. Feels good though.

To put things in perspective, top marathon runners run 26 miles at at 5:20 minute per mile or thereabouts. Quite humbling when you think about it. But I bet they can’t write JavaScript

Update: According to a couple of my friends, seems I can’t write JavaScript either

A little bit of interesting reading

I am someone who has swung from fat to fit and back to fat quite a few times. After a lot of research and reading, I found what most people figure out a lot easily Being fit means you are likely to live happier, richer and longer than overweight people.

However, I never knew of the monetary impact that the combined weight of the entire country has on its economic resources. I found this MSN article to be quite interesting. What if no one was fat? http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/Advice/WhatIfNoOneWereFat.aspx

 

La Jolla Half Marathon post-mortem

First of all, I am very glad to be doing a post-mortem of the run. Yesterday, I came quite close to having a post-mortem done on me. Read on for details. I will start with the bad news, followed by excuses and will finish with the good news.

I finished in 2:20:14 which was a good 2 minutes slower than last year. Considering that this was about 10-15 minutes slower than my goal, one has to conclude that I failed miserably. So I get an F for timing.

Strangely enough, I am still quite happy. Everyone knows I hate to lose but I do not mind so much if I think I did my best. And yesterday, I did better than my best. I ran my heart out. I ran hard, I ran smart and I really, really tried hard. For effort, I gave myself an A. I have never given myself an A for effort in anything in life before this.

Then why the slow time you ask? The answer in one word would be weather. San Diego weather is usually fuckin’ awesome, but yesterday was brutal to the max. The temperature was between 80-94 degrees during the race and there was no wind. Add to fact that there are at least 2-3 killer hills on the course meant that runners were in for a rough time.

Every runner felt the heat but luckily the race was decently organized and water stations were located at regular intervals. However because it was so hot, runners had to stop at every water station (not normal) resulting in crowding. This definitely had some impact on timings. Also in addition to the water stations, they needed volunteers with hoses to water people down at regular intervals. To give some perspective, I lost 4 pounds of water weight during approximately 2:20 mins of running. Even with very satisfactory support system for the race, they needed about 8-10 ambulances for people who had problems. Last year, I saw one ambulance. In short, the weather gods were definitely not feeling kind yesterday.

But I still finished, and finished well. More importantly, I tried my best, my very best. And that is a good feeling. Also, last year my timing, 2:18 was a good 9 minutes slower than average, 2:09. This year I was apprx 2 mins faster than the average timing, 2:22. I say that is good progress.

Also, I found out that the ratio of women to men at most running events is at least 3:1 in favor of the men . That itself is a good enough excuse to do a race again. Definitely going to try and run in 09 again.

Correction: It is not that great of a women:men ratio, the official numbers are 2250 males and 2560 females. Still not bad.

Obsessing about the half-marathon

Obsessing is something that I do very seldomly, but when I do it, I go all out So for the new few days, I am going to see how best I can run next Sunday.

Yesterday I did 8 miles on the tread mill in 1:17, a very decent effort. Especially considering I had a heavy lunch. Dare I hope?

Half marathon on the 27th

April 27th 2008 is the day I run my second half-marathon, exactly a year after my first one. It will again be in La Jolla California and is supposed to be a “tough” course. Last year quite a few people I ran with chided me for picking it for my first half-marathon. But like I mention to everyone at every opportunity, I finished quite creditably

Anyone who knows me even slightly, knows that I “wing” things. “Wing” is slang for “Attempting something without adequate preparation.”  

So of-course, I winged the La Jolla Half marathon last year. I did not train, I did not do long runs, I just showed up on race day.  It helped that I was in half-decent shape but BOY, it hurt bad! Aai Baba were with me then which I think gave me more strength and determination. I am not so lucky this time round. It was then I swore that I would prepare for my next one and here we are one year later and I will be attempting to “wing” my 2nd half-marathon, AGAIN ! I HATE myself.

To be fair, this time I am SLIGHTLY better prepared although all of 2008 put a spanner into pretty much any serious training. I think I was in better shape in December than I am right now  On the bright side, I still have 2 weeks to go this time. If I can train smartly in the next 2 weeks and most importantly rest well and keep my weight in check, I think I will beat 2:18 which was my last time.

I personally think I will beat 2:10 and wanted to beat 2:05 but am not too sure I can. Wanna bet against me, I am known to exxagerate

Captain’s log – Star Date: 18th March 2008, Tuesday

I have been spending time with family the last few days in Boston. I have been eating lot of good food without stuffing myself. Or maybe stuffing myself just once a day.

 Progress Report:

Food: Lots of good food, maybe a bit too much. But do not regret it one bit

Excercise: Impressed with myself. Shelled out 5 bucks thrice for guest passes at the YMCA gym. But got good 40 min work outs every time. Would have gladly spent twice the amount.

Weight: Will do it at Trupti’s

Captain is chillin’ in Boston

So captain’s log will be a little irregular.

 I ran 4-5 miles yesterday in the crisp Boston weather, didn’t feel a thing. Good stuff.

And Aditi Vahini had cooked some GREAT pasta.

So again, March 14th was not a bad day