This page is all about how to prepare to train for a 5k run. So what I’ll cover is the bits you need to think about before you actually start your training. If you’ve made a decision that you’d like to run a 5k, there a few things you need to consider first… Is running going to be right for you? We ‘re only talking about a 3 mile run here, so training for it isn’t going to take over your life, but you are going to have to commit some time to it.
So much for riding outdoors or even making it to the computrainer classes this weekend. We had our second decent snow storm here in Davidson that started on Friday night. All in all we got about 6 inches of snow. Just enough to turn the roads into a mess. Unlike the north, when snow hits around here, it usually has a lot of ice mixed in. Those who dare to go out driving are risky indeed. The roads in our neighborhood are still covered and very few cars have gone in or out all weekend.
We generally hit the computrainer classes on Saturday morning up at Cool Breeze Cyclery. We use Saturday as a good base ride consisting of 30-35 miles. Here lately, we have started hitting some threshhold rides in preparation for the upcoming time trial season. Let’s just say that plan got snowed under.
Cyclops and Global Ride Cycling training DVDs to the rescue. Fortunately, we were able to go downstairs and climb onto the Cyclops trainers. Yesterday we rode two 1 hour sessions. The first was an interval session to Robbie Ventura’s Power training DVD. After that we hit a good hill climbing threshold ride with Urban Assault on Italy. Needless to say, when we were done, there was a very large sweat puddle on the floor beneath.
Today we are going to ride to two new Indoor Cycling Training DVDs. Both of these are from Global Ride and they are the remaining DVDs from the Italy Box set.
DVD #1 is called Speed and Power in Italy. A good combination of rollers with some good climbs mixed in. DVD #2 is titled Climbing Sufferage. Hmmm, I’m not so sure I like the sounds of that. I am positive that my riding partner and wife wont care too much for it. sshhhhhhhh.
Regardless of the outcome, riding indoors this weekend is the only option that we have. Hey, it’s a heck of lot better than the alternative of sitting on the couch, eating, and drinking Fat Tire beer all weekend. Next weekend will be our Super Bowl ride. Hopefully these two hour sessions will somewhat prepare us for the long, long ride during the Super Bowl.
I just completed my third night of riding indoors to my newest cycling training DVD. This one is titled Urban Assault in Italy. The DVD has several language options, a spoken coach ride option, and a live class option. Each segment of the DVD had a great collection of music to ride to. This was most helpful in finding and maintaining a good climbing rhythm.
Overall I like the Live class option the most. The instructors voice was louder and easily understandable. The spoken coach segment was good as well. It was just a bit harder to hear. I feel like the spoken segment caused me to ride harder primarily because the coach was telling you to pick up the pace on the second 20 minute climb. Your riding along at a steady thresh hold beat and then you pick up the pace for 90 second intervals. This was a heartbeat raiser for sure. I found it harder to make the last 3-4 minutes at this pace. Thanks to the scenery of the Italian villages, oceans, and mountains, the ride seem to go by without any feeling of boredom.
I’m looking forward to hitting this Cycling training DVD at least 1 – 2 times per week. I want to hit the 20 minute climbs back to back. I feel like this will help my training efforts for this years Assault on Mt Mitchell ride. Unfortunately, 3 – 4 hours of that type of climbing is hard to simulate.
My goal is to ride on the trainer during this years super bowl. Sounds stupid, I know. But I rode a half time last year and I got more out of that than the regular 12 pack of beer. Plus I felt pretty chippy the next day.
John
Today starts our third week of P90X. The first, second and thrid week consists of the same daily workouts from day 1 to day 7. When we move into phase 2 – week 4, it looks like there will be a few different classes thrown into the mix.
After 2 weeks, I wouldn’t exactly say the workouts are any easier, however, our strength and endurance which each class is improving. We are still working hard and sweating our way to the end of each class. As each day passes our confidence in the P90X system keeps growing. We are certain that P90X is working. But we are sticking to it and bringing it each day. That’s the key.
Now off for a good back and chest workout.
L8R,
John
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Wow, we made it thru our first week already. So far, so good. I skipped writing about day 7 which was stretching and will combine some info into this post. Last night we started on day 8 which is back to the first DVD of chest and back.
The day 7 Stretch X was a great relaxing workout. The warm up session got are blood flowing and actually caused a few drops of sweat. The instructor broke this DVD down into about 3 different sessions which targeted all areas of the body. The stretching was perfect for loosening up all of our tight and sore muscles from the first week of P90X workouts. We followed this session up with a 1 hour interval workout on the cyclops trainer to a Robbie Ventura power cycling DVD.
Sunday is our start day. Now we are onto week 2 of phase 1. This session hammers you with push ups and pull ups. We each increased our total reps on every exercise this week. The pull ups are still the hardest part and we end up having to spot the last few reps. The other exercise that we find to be pretty hard is one called the Dive Bomber. You start this move off by being in a somewhat downward dog position. Then you slowly scoop your body down and forward in a diving motion. Once you get to the forward spot, you reverse the move. This exercise kills your shoulders and arms.
Speaking of arms, it’s time for me to run to the sporting goods store. Right now I only have a few sets of dumbells (35lb, 15lb, 5lb). I want to pick up a set of 25lb before our next arm workout DVD.
L8R,
John
Boy, did this DVD bring back a few memories of the past. Day 6 of P90X was a good Kempo workout. I went into hoping that it wasn’t some badly unpracticed form of martial art routines. I’ve tried a few what they call aerobic kickboxing classes in the past and although it was a great aerobic workout, I felt really let down that the instructors didn’t practice the correct form.
I actually trained in martial arts for about ten years. Our school did a lot of true kickboxing events. This was 15 to 20 years ago before the hardcore stuff we see on TV every night now. Back then you could barely find kickboxing on TV unless is was some special event and someone like ESPN carried the fight. Today the UFC like matches are much more brutal and combine a lot of martial arts practices into the events. Back when I did it, it was more of a boxing match that allowed you to use your feet for kicking. The pros at the time were allowed to use their knees and did a lot of leg kicking as well.
I will rate the Kempo workout of P90X at about a 90% as far as good form goes. For the most part, the instructors showed and practiced decent form. One routine that they were really off in my opinion was on side kicks. Proper side kicks should power thru the heels and make use of the opposite foot as a balancing tool by rotating your rear foot away from the target. Furthermore, to effectively power into the target, you should not lean your back away from the target. I realize that P90X is a workout and not supposed to teach you martial arts. However, it was comical to watch my wife try to maintain her balance using a few of the methods she was watching in the video. Once, I showed her proper sidekick form, she was having a much easier time with the kicks.
Now, for all of the arm blocks and punches, I was very pleased. The instructor even showed good horse stance squats, four proper blocks, and several series of punches. I really enjoyed this workout after we got going. It’s been quite a while since I have done a good martial arts workout. Just like any sport where you practice muscle movements over and over, the drills and defensive techniques become instinctive over time. I told my wife that while doing this video I really want her to concentrate on good form. Because in a few weeks, I’ll make her practice some of the blocks, and show her why form is so important.
Overall, the P90X Kempo workout was a butt kicker. It’s only been 6 days and I can tell that my flexibility is increasing thanks to a lot of the stretching exercises mixed into every workout.
Speaking of stretching, day 7 is next and the DVD is called Stretch X. This should be a blast considering almost all of my muscle groups are sore and tight.
I managed to follow the P90X Kempo workout with a decent 20 minute interval session on the Cyclops trainer. Not as much as I wanted, but better than nothing at all.
Yeh Baby,
I just received my newest cycling DVD from Global Rides DVDs. This one is titled Urban Assault in Italy. According to the cover, this should be dome good power training for my indoor studio.
The first section is called Soaring over Sori. Hmm, should I be concerned about hearing the word “Soar” 2 times in the title? Sounds like soreness to me. It appears that this is more of a warm up climb to get us into section 2. I hope so.
The 2nd section is titled Rapallo to Ruta. Looks like we will be riding out of the city by the ocean and up towards the the mountains. Should be a good climb into Ruta.
After some good climbing the 3rd section looks to offer a bit of recovery. This section will lead the ride into Portofino, Italy. There should be some good and rich scenery on this one. After all, Portofino is called “the playground for the rich and famous”.
Last but not least will will climb Camogli. It reads as a strong 20 minute climb in the early morning. The DVD producers through in some rock music for this section. That should help keep a steady peddle stroke during the climb.
This should be a fun cycling training DVD. I look forward to trying it out and writing a good review of the product for my readers to see.
If you would like to read more about Global Rides Cycling DVDs, please click on the banner below.
John
Pull ups, squats, pull ups, lunges over and over again. Day 5 of P90X proved to be another challenging workout. But we are starting to get the hang of it now. Our legs got a great workout tonight and the pull ups hit the back really hard as well.
The cool thing is that we each noticed an increase in our pull ups. I wish we had a real pull up bar rather than using the $30 pull up bar that fits in your door frame. Unfortunately, it is a bit uncomfortable. It has been very helpful to place a stool under the pull up bar. This gives us a bit of support and allows the legs to aid in the lift. Yeah, it might be cheating a bit, but our goal is to make the arms and the back do as much work as possible before resorting to a leg spot.
The leg work was insane. Just when you thought you had done about all the version of lunges and squats ever created, here comes 2 more versions. The hardest exercise by far was the sitting wall. This is where you sit like you are in a chair with you back against the wall. The goal is to make a 90 degree angle with you knees and stay in that position for as long as possible. The next version of this routine had us lifting one leg while in the chair position. Talk about hard. One thing for sure, tho, this routine hammered the quads.
This DVD was followed by the Ab Ripper DVD which added another 15 minutes into the session. This is the 3rd time this week we have hit the abs. Yep, they are felling the burn alright.
Two days left and we are thru our first week of the P90X workout set. Tonight we will do Kempo X, which should be a modified version of a kickboxing workout. Then the last DVD of the week is Stretching.
L8R,
John
OK, so I majorly under estimated a Yoga class workout. Day 4 of P90X was a Yoga Xtreme workout. I went into it thinking, OK, here we go, let’s do a bunch of stretching. Heck, I’ve done Yoga before, so no big deal right?
WRONG
It was a stretch alright. Wow, the first 25 minutes had us twisting, stretching, reaching in ways the body just shouldn’t have to. The hardest part of the Yoga to me was relaxing the resisting muscles during the stretch. It proved to be a much harder workout than I had imagined. Within 30 minutes, I was sweating profusely.
The P90X DVD was a perfect placement for the workout. It seemed like every muscle group that was previously worked out and still sore were the target of focus with the Yoga routines. The stretches really focused on the legs, back, core, and shoulders.
I’m sure the Yoga gets easier as you learn to relax your muscles during the routines. During some of the hamstring stretches, I really noticed that deep breathing helped relax and extend the stretch upon each exhale.
I had planned on riding an interval class after the Yoga but decided to wait until tonight. Day 5 is Legs and Back. Hopefully I can punish my legs and wear them down before I jump on the bike. It should make for an interesting 2 hours of leg work for sure.
Now off to the chiropractor. 🙂
John