Feb 16 & 17 Core again

February 16 & 17, 2009

Yesterday I worked out when I was completed spent, but my body really enjoyed it. I hadn’t done anything physically taxing during the entire day, and when I exhausted myself I started feeling incredible.

The workout was once again the “muscles nobody likes to work out,” but this time it wasn’t so bad. I actually enjoyed working them out because I can see how important they are for successful training. The other day at the track workout there was an injury prevention person talking to us and one of his major topics was the core. I had been ignoring this essential part of my body for a while because I assumed that it was strong enough, and that eventually I would get around to doing it, or because it’s a nuisance, or so I thought.

There has been an incredible change in my physical ability since this training began, and recently it has been almost exponential. I attribute at least part of it to my diet, and dedication, but recently there has been a lot of emphasis on my core (upper abs, lower abs, oblique, lower back). It’s important to do all of them or else, well it’s not balanced. I said before that for muscles you don’t want to work out it’s important to understand how great it will be right after you complete the set or in a week when they are stronger, because simply, they are a burden to exercise.

That all changed last night when I did my new cross training routine
• Cycling 10 minutes to warm up
• Upper abs, oblique and lower back 5 minutes
• Jumping rope 5 minutes – I highly suggest this, it’s a lost art. You can make it interesting doing it backwards, eyes closed, one foot or alternating, butt kicks, high knees, going around the room, it’s really open to imagination, plus it’s really hard to do it for 5 minutes straight regular, and boring.
• Lower abs and lower back 5 minutes
• Cycling 10 minutes, changing the resistance and standing at times
• Repeat the jumping rope
• Repeat the abs/oblique/lower back
• Repeat lower abs and lower back

That entire sequence is 50 minutes, and then you can do 10 minutes of stretching. Last night I used a foam roller, which I think I mentioned in a previous journal. It’s incredible; it gets into the muscles and varies the massage in ways that are impossible with regular stretching.

By the second go round I was looking forward to the core conditioning. It finally occurred to me that it is probably the single most important portion of your body in endurance events because it keeps the body connected and is constantly being slightly rotated, thus needs to be in really good shape. It was almost as if my body and mind made my core feel great and wanted me to exercise them for better future condition. I can’t describe it, but I’m looking forward to working out my core in a couple days.

Today is my light running day and I may do yoga tonight. I’ve been slacking on the daily yoga/stretching, and my sleep habits have been sub-optimal, but I still feel really good. I don’t want to overdue my body, because it will most likely lead to fatigue and sickness, which are both detrimental to a long training regimen.

I’m going to finish Younger Next Year today, and start another book, maybe The Omnivores dilemma again. Reading has opened up so much information to me, and it’s an easy way to have interesting conversations that oftentimes are completely different than how they started.

I think that’s all for today, maybe I’ll write another journal tonight to make up for yesterday.

Have a great day,

Ryan