JRags - Week 5 - Fuck Lynn Reservation, Go Pedemyrtle!

Another sunday. The log:

Monday:
AM - home to BI, to public safety to FINALLY get my fucking ID. i look like a murderer in the photo. back to BI.
PM - home from work, ended at kirstens house. back to packard and did 3 hill strides. felt pretty tough. dehydrated.

Tuesday:
AM - home to BI. hammered. felt pretty good, but was landing farther back.
PM - great run with nick! drove up to the fells and ran a slightly fucked up version of people eater fire house from near tower. started easy, but rolled fairly fast for the last 3 or 4 miles. felt great. first time ive been to the fells in quite a while. some drills, 2 strides, drove home, did core, stretched.

Wednesday:
AM - home to bi. faster second half. pretty good legs. we need milk. 3 hill strides and 2 flat.
PM - drove to lynn reservation, got out of the car as the trail race was on the line, and ran 32:20 for 5.31 miles of the hilliest trails ive ever seen. bates course on steroids. felt pretty tough going up the third tower. very easy day tomorrow, probably just running to work. 2.8 cool down

Thursday:
AM - playing it safe. 5 very easy to work. didnt feel too bad except tensor fascia latta i think in my right hip just behind and above hip bone. just sore.

Friday:
PM - terrible terrible run. went into work from 12:30 to 4:00 last night, slept 4 hours, and went back in. terrible idea. ate cereal right before the run, terrible idea. ran people eater with nick from the fells exit. back on roads. should be fine once i get some sleep and not-milk in my system.

Saturday:
AM - lakes with an extra mile out on mile 5 of long lakes with nick. felt much better than yesterday.
PM - 3 back from harvard after shopping with nick. cruised.

Sunday:
AM - great long run in the fells with nick corey billy and that tyler kid from U of R. woke up really late, so didnt eat anything. ran out to 1500 meter pond, around, back to far tower almost, then around north reservoir. back mountain bike trail and reg fells finish. felt awesome. pretty easy last few days on the legs after not sleeping thursday night. got down a nature valley double bar around 55 minutes. i think that helped stave off empty-tank-itis. quick stretch and ball square cafe.
PM - (probably going for an easy 3 soon)

75 on the week, most of that coming in the first 4 days. Took it easy thursday and friday after a pretty hard effort in the lynn reserve trail race. easy double saturday, and a pretty solid long run today.

FINALLY I get the chance to highlight core stability and strength this week. For the last 2 weeks or so, Nick and I have started organizing what we want to focus on this coming year in terms of "core" strength. We have been talking about it for months, and we finally came up with a routine of 2 days of "upper core" and 2 days of "lower core" a week, give or take. I'll explain.

As distance runners, I think we've focused way too much of "upper core," especially upper ab strength. Keeping your hips under you isn't really an upper ab issue, its more lower abs and hip strength. To really improve your running strength outside of your legs, I think you have to develop your hip strength, lower abs, and back.

The "upper" core I'm talking about is the area of muscles more or less from the top of your hip bone to your sternum, 360 degrees around (upper and lower abs, obliques, and back). For this, Nick came up with the routine of 3-4 x (4x45 seconds) where each set of 4x60 seconds is an upper ab, lower ab, oblique, and back strengthening exercise, in that order. For example, 3-4 x (60 sec crunches, 60 sec straight knee flutters, 2x30 sec side crunches, 60 sec superman). This way, we focus equally on all directions of strength, and you don't really need to take a rest interval, because the rest for each zone is built in by not working the same muscles every exercise. That's 12-16 minutes of upper core, which is much easier than it seems because the motions aren't repetitively doing the same excruciating sit-up every time.

The "lower" core is something we have ignored almost entirely with the exception of the multi-hip. In my mind, "lower" core refers to the muscles from the top of your hip bone down to your mid femur, again around all 360 degrees. The routine I came up with for this zone is a combination stolen from Jay Johnson, the Colorado University mid-distance/distance assistant coach. Here are a few videos of his workouts:
Pedestal
Myrtle
Why do core
Here's what I came up with, called Pedemyrtle...
Warm Up Set: 10 trail leg, 10 donkey kick, 10 donkey whip each leg from all-fours. (mostly from myrtle)
Strength Set: 10x single leg lifts from each of the 3 positions (flat, then elbow support, then hand support) of bridge (front, left, right, back)
Cool Down (mobility): Hurdle walk-overs. 2-feet-in once leading with each leg, and over-unders.

There's another video in there with Brent Vaughn talking about how bad he was at pedestal when he started and how much it has done for his running, so its a good look. Let me know what you guys think or if you have any questions about what everything is.

Peace, bitches.