Run The Rock: Short On Training Time

This past week has been a bit hectic, although that is no excuse for slacking. I am now only two months out from my first half marathon and missed almost an entire week of running. Fortunately, the time restraints that have kept me from putting in mileage have not kept me from training all together. Instead I fell back on a training technique that I tested in a previous weeks endeavor.

Early this past week I realized that life was getting in the way of my normal training. Without enough time to workout all at once I had to get some training in. This was a subtle reminder of a previous endeavor where I did one workout per hour for an entire week. This would be a great way to continue my training even though I didn’t have enough free time to go running.

With this plan I was able to accumulate 30-45 minutes a day of exercise without having that much time to set aside. It allowed me to take advantage of less than 5 minutes free time at work, or a few minutes before I jumped into the shower. As I noted in the wrap up for One Workout Per Hour, this was a great way to exercise everyday without having to commit a one hour block to a workout. Unfortunately I don’t believe that it was the most productive week considering that none of it was cardio based, but it was certainly better than missing the week all together.

On a side note, I have noticed that my overall sports performance has greatly increased since I have began training. My bowling average has increase from a 190 to a 201 in the past month alone, and I have added at least 40 feet to my disc golf drives. I believe that this is due to an overall increase in activity level and muscular control.

Do you think that sport specific training in one area can have such an effect on other sports?

Run The Rock: Time to Train

When my friend Charlie asked me if I would like to run the Dallas White Rock Half Marathon in December I couldn’t imagine saying no. I have always enjoyed running, even the days that I barely forced myself to put running shoes on I took them off feeling invigorated. A half marathon would be a great reason to start training again, and with fourteen weeks to train I would have plenty of time for a good program. So I had him sign me up and began searching the internet for a suitable training schedule.

After just two weeks of procrastination, as I began to fear that I might not finish the race and receive my 13.1 sticker, I began training on September 12th. Having spent hours over two weeks trying to decide on the best way to train and how to schedule my runs, two minutes is all that it took to find a basic training program online.