My weekly training and the "4-Hour Body" book

A recently popular book is the 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss.  Personally, I think he is a bit of a freak, and much of his conclusions are a result of experimenting on his own body as well as data gleaned through case studies of other people.  Some of his self-experimenting is a bit disturbing, but to each his own.  His first book "The 4-Hour Work Week" is a stroke of genius and I have begun to incorporate elements of this books teaching into my life.  I'll touch more on this in a later blog.

While I'm not training for an ultramarathon (yet) or a thru-hike, I have adopted some training elements from the 4 Hour Body into my weekly training routine.  My running injuries (pre and post minimalist shoes) are centered around a weak core (Physical Therapist basically told me I have a weak butt!) and lack of balance.  Thus, I have incorporated his Critical (M)Ass: The Kiwi's Complete A/B workout into my routine (Monday and Friday).  Tim Ferris is a lot of hype and yet, I think there are some pretty good nuggets in his book.

My interpretation of his approach/suggestions is that if you only have a limited amount of time to work out, then do these things as they will be the most physiologically inclusive/advantageous.  Reference this link on his blog for more information on the Critical (M)Ass workout.  He talks a lot about the kettlebell swing in his book which is included in the Critical (M)Ass workout.  He has detailed instructions on his blog for this as well.

My training approach for running specifically is to slowly build up my long weekend run until I can comfortably do a 12-14 mile trail run on the weekend as prep for the Superior Trail 25k race in May (I'm at 6-7 miles now) and then 20+ miles over the summer for my goal of doing the Superior Trail Marathon in the fall.  That's my goal for this year.  We'll see where that takes me and what next year will hold.  My goal is only to finish and to not finish last... my competitive nature will probably propel me better than last.  If my body starts to reject this training, then I will back off and only train for 5k and 10k trail races for this year.

To summarize my weekly routine, Monday: Kiwi's Workout A, Tuesday: rest, Wed: Interval or Fartlek run, Thurs: rest, Friday: Kiwi's Workout B, Saturday: Long Run, Sunday: easy run or rest depending on how I feel.  My plan is to not increase my long run by more than 10% with a step-back once per month.  Yes, that's only running 2-3 times/week.  Is this enough running to train for a marathon?  I don't know, but it is all I have time as I feel I have a greater need for building my core strength than to get lots of weekly miles in.  At this phase in my life, time is limited so I'm going to give it a try...  I'm curious to see what others think.

Here's my detailed workout

Monday
Double Leg Glute Activation - (Bridge) x15
Single Leg Glute Activation x15 each
1. Heavy dumbbell front squat to press (ass to heels)
2. One-arm, one-leg DB row
3. Walking Lunges with sprinter knee raise
4. Wide-grip push-ups
5. Two-arm kettlebell swings x20-25
--Repeat sequence (1-5) 2-4 times

Wednesday
Double Leg Glute Activation - (Bridge) x15
Single Leg Glute Activation x15 each
Bicycle Crunches
Interval or Fartlek Training Run (3-5 miles including warm-up and cool-down)
Yin Yoga - Butterfly Pose (3-5 min)
Yin Yoga - Sleeping Swan Pose (3-5 min each side)
Quad/Hip Flexor Stretch (3-5 min each side)

Friday
Double Leg Glute Activation - (Bridge) x15
Single Leg Glute Activation x15 each
1. One leg Romanian Deadlift (10-12 reps each side)
2. Chin-ups (4s negative lowering portion only) x 10
3. One-leg hamstring curls on a ball (6-12 reps each leg)
4a. Myotatic Crunch (on a Swiss ball)
4b. Front Plank and Side Plank - 30s front, 30s each side
5. Reverse hyper on a bench and Swiss Ball x 15-25
--Repeat sequence (1-5) 2-4 times

Saturday or Sunday
Double Leg Glute Activation - (Bridge) x15
Single Leg Glute Activation x15 each
Bicycle Crunches
Long Trail Run with Hill Work (1-2 hours)
Yin Yoga - Butterfly Pose (3-5 min)
Yin Yoga - Sleeping Swan Pose (3-5 min each side)
Quad/Hip Flexor Stretch (3-5 min each side)

The Runner in Winter — Running Times Performance Podcasts

Anton Krupicka never ceases to inspire me.  Advocate of minimalist shoes, master of eliminating the unneccesary things in life, and top ultrarunner.


"Running Times’ correspondent Joel Wolpert caught up with trail runner Anton Krupicka to see how he runs through the Colorado winter. As do all of Wolpert’s films, this one features local music: songs by Denver, Colorado bands The Lumineers and Paper Bird."

The Runner in Winter — Running Times Performance Podcasts

Introducing Toe Salad | ADVENTUREinPROGRESS

A fellow blogger that also writes about minimalist shoes, backpacking and family adventures has started a new website call Toe Salad. It is basically an open forum where people can input, dialogue, rate and review minimalist shoes. It already has a lot of valuable information and I think will be a great resource for those looking for options for minimalist footwear. There is a lot of minimalist footwear entering the market this year and the options are growing... The shoe companies are paying attention!!

Here's the link to the new website: Introducing Toe Salad | ADVENTUREinPROGRESS

Thanks Damien for pulling that together!!

TC Running Company: Embrace Winter

I really enjoy running outside in the winter and I'm sure that makes me an odd duck! I enjoy the challenge of determining what I'm going to wear from my footwear all the way to my headwear. I enjoy the serenity of the trails and even the sidewalks as most stay inside to keep warm. It turns out I'm not the only one. Check out the blog post below from the TC Running Company located a short distance away from my office:

TC Running Company: Embrace Winter

Enjoy the fresh snow!!

Forefoot Striking and Pronation: Insight from an Ultrarunning Podiatry Student | Runblogger

More and more studies are being completed on how running barefoot or in a minimalist shoe affects our running form. Here's an interesting article that was just posted on runblogger.com. I have been running in minimalist shoes and barefoot for over a year and have found that the 6 month adaptation period it talks about in the article is pretty accurate.  Click on the link below to read the article:

Forefoot Striking and Pronation: Insight from an Ultrarunning Podiatry Student | Runblogger

Running Update and My Shoe Lineup

Knee issues (patellar-femoral syndrome initially diagnosed in summer of 2007) sent me down a path of re-evaluating the active side of my life... I have fully converted to minimalist footwear and when warm enough (and not dark out), barefoot running. Running in a minimalist shoe has gotten me back into running and I enjoy it for the first time in my life. Running in a minimalist shoe retrained me how to run with the correct form and now I know how terrible my form used to be. I used to be a heavy heel striker, so it's now wonder I've always had some sort of knee, ankle or hip issue.

My minimalist shoe line-up started off with VFF KSO's (Oct 2009) and then I added Feelmax Kuuva Boots (Dec 2009), Feelmax Osmas (Feb 2010), Terra Plana Oaks (Dec 2010) and recently won a pair of Vivobarefoot Neos (or Evos depending on availability) through Donald's Running and Rambling blog. I love testing out new shoes and have pretty completely only wear a minimalist shoe whenever possible.

I do have a pair of Inov-8 295s (Almost 3 years old and ready to retire) and recently purchased a pair of New Balance MT 101's. These don't fall under my definition of minimalist (however, they are minimalist compared to the majority of running shoes used by the general population), but have worked well for me for trail running, running in snow and hiking/backpacking. The elevated heal of these trail runners doesn't seem to affect my gait too much on an uneven surface like trails and snow.

But alas, my new enthusiasm with running caused me to overtrain for a 25k trail race last spring and since then have been wrestling with IT Band issues. After much research and testing to keep it from flairing up, my plan for my training will now consist of 1 long run per week and cross-training (core exercises, hiking, biking, weight-training, etc.) I've also found that the slow-to-medium pace running seems to irritate my knee the most, so I've adopted a modified Fartlek method of running. It seems that my knee doesn't seem to bother me when I run fast and it doesn't bother me when I walk. So after I warm up, I run hard and then power walk (to catch my breath), run hard and then power walk, repeat, repeat.... This seems to be the ticket for now and maybe at some point I can reintroduce longer runs with consistent slower running. This and icing my knee after every run seems to be the key to keeping the knee from flaring up from the IT Band irritating it.

Does cushioning in your shoes affect your running?

A blog I follow has a really good synopsis on the potential affects of cushioning in your running shoes. I know that for me, eliminating cushioning in my shoes drastically changed how I run for the better. I feel that I run much more efficiently and am less prone to injuries in my knees and hips because my muscles now absorb the impact instead of my shoes and joints. Check it out:

My Tree of Life (Just One Step at a time): Is cushion the devil?