EoW Report

After last week's high mileage I decided to turn it down a bit this week. I had some pretty significant knee and leg pain last week, so I wanted to give it a bit of a rest this week. M-Th I got in 16.5 miles and then this morning I did a 4.5 mile run followed by some hardcore sprint work. The sprints are kicking my butt....but, I'm really hoping they help with my tone and endurance.

I've had a few folks ask me about my workout routine, so I thought I would take some time to explain my program. I am certainly no personal trainer, but so far my program seems to be working.

I probably do more cardio than I need to, but I've got the running bug and if I don't get a run, or some form of cardio, in then I don't feel like I've pushed myself enough. Most of my strength training sets consist of a rep pattern of 12,10,8,6,10 (adjusting the weight as I move along).

Monday:
3 - 5 mile run

Chest: decline dumbbell bench press, incline dumbbell bench press, flat dumbbell bench press or seated press on the machine, cable fly with a pec deck burnout at the end.

Tuesday:
5-6.5 mile run

Ab routine: exercise ball crunches (25), side bends w/ 45lb weight (20), 15 pushups, then repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 sets. Sometimes I'll do a flat plank for a minute before the pushups. I think I'm going to start hitting abs a bit more...need to mix it up.

Wednesday:
3-5 mile run or elliptical machine (I always play Wednesdays by ear...it depends on how hard I ran on Monday & Tuesday...sometimes I won't do any running on Wednesday)

Back/Lats: Lat pull downs, dumbbell row, deadlifts (light weight, usually 4x10) with a reverse situp burn (holding a 25-35lb plate), close grip pull down, wide grip seated row (or sometimes I'll do a wide grip laying row), I'll finish up with an exercise that I got from Men's Health magazine called the standing face pull...there are lots of variations of it, but I use a rope attached to the cable machine. I grab the rope with both hands facing each other and then pull it to my face, extending both hands just past my ears. It's a good stretch and it's suppose to hit the lats and traps a bit more.

Thursday:
5-7 mile run

Abs: exercise ball crunches (3x25) and side bends with 45lb weight (3x20)

Friday
No cardio (REST!)

Fridays used to be a complete rest day for me, but I've recently started doing a pushup and arm routine that I like a lot. The pushup routine also came from Men's Health Magazine....it kicks my butt big time. I use a small platform that is around 3-6 inches off the ground. It goes like this:

1. One hand on the platform the other on the floor, do 10-12 pushups then switch to the other arm
2. Start with one hand on the platform, the other on the floor, do one pushup then as quick as you can switch to the other arm/hand on the platform and do another pushup. Do this 10 times
3. Form a diamond on the platform, touch your chest to the diamond, 10 pushups
4. Form a diamond on the platform, touch your chest to the diamond then push up as hard as you can so your arms land just outside of the platform, do a regular pushup, push up as hard as you can so your hands land back on the platform...this is one. I can do this about 5-6 times.

I've done these a couple of different ways....sometimes I'll do three sets of each before moving to the next pushup type, or I've also done 1-4 as one set...doing a total of 3 sets.

I follow this with light weight bicep curls (3x12), military press (3x10), upward rows (3x10), and then tricep extensions (3x10). Sometimes I'll do the curls separate and then other times I'll do all of the exercises together as one set, repeating 2 more times for a total of 3 sets.

Saturday:
I've been rotating my Saturday runs. It's usually the only time that I can get outside and run, so I love to take long runs. But, lately I've been trying to mix in some sprint work as well. So, one week I'll do a 10 mile run and then the next week I'll do a 3-4.5 mile run followed by sprints. For sprints I'll do a 40-50 yard spring, jog back to the starting point and then take off again. I'll do this 10 times. As I mentioned...it kicks my butt.

Sunday:
REST REST REST REST!!!! Get ready to start it all over again on Monday!!!

So there's my workout plan. I'm sure there's lot of room for improvement, but so far it has worked well for me. I usually try to be done with my strength training in about 35 minutes. It's probably about time for me to mix up the strength training a bit, so I'm starting to look for new ideas. Feel free to send any suggestions my way!

One thing to note....when I first started lifting I wasn't concerned about increasing the weight at all. I stuck with lower weights but higher reps (12-15). As I got more comfortable and started to see more results I increased the weight a bit and lowered the reps. This took several months....I wasn't concerned about being the strongest guy in the gym. But, once I started to see results I was even more motivated to push myself harder.