Bodyrocking

http://www.bodyrock.tv/

I found this site a while ago and it intrigued me but I wasn't quite strong enough to attempt the workouts then. Now is a different story. I'm still not strong enough to complete some of the exercises, but I'll get there. I'm still doing stuff with dumbbells and medicine balls, but the arm exercises were boring me and I needed something with more spark. I don't want toned arms for the sake of toned arms anyway, but I want to get my upper body stronger so that I can do squats and so forth with more weight and run faster without my shoulders getting tired.

http://www.bodyrock.tv/2010/12/15/ninja-jump-sandbag-pick-up/

Of course, the ninja jump is a piece of cake compared to the more arm intensive stuff...but how exciting!

As for running, I have been jogging lots and getting used to doubles but I still feel a little soft. That's to be expected with increased mileage, though, so I'm not concerned. yesterday, I combined a 5K race with a longer run. That sort of thing is similar to some Daniels marathon workouts, and I wanted to try it out because I feel that those workouts really pay off for me and I want to get back into them. I jogged 5.5 miles to the race, then ran the race (not a PB at 22:45, gun 22:56), then jogged home, then ran with my family. total: 18 miles. This was the longest I've run since the marathon and my muscles are still chirping about it. But it went well overall and now I'm going to crack open the Daniels book and see where I can integrate some of those workouts.

But first I have to choose a fall marathon! I don't really want to travel far for it because I'm cheap, I get carsick, and I'm sensitive to gluten cross-contamination and would much prefer to eat at home with my 'safe' cookware before a long gut-reliant race. Fortunately, there are two marathons nearby. one is in early October, would require a short car trip, and is a slightly hilly but pretty countryside route. The other is in early September, is much closer (if it weren't a full marathon, I'd jog there because I've jogged to the vicinity umpteen times for other things), and is a boring though somewhat pretty route that 5 8km out and back repeats and some sort of blip to make up the last 2.2km, plus it is an evening marathon. I'm starting to lean heavily toward the latter: I like boring repeats, I don't really like hills that I'm not used to, I run the most of the course regularly during other runs, and I'm intrigued by the evening marathon aspect. There isn't a lot of time between now and early September, but I've got a lot of long runs behind me this year and my mileage is already pretty close to where I'd want it to be. All I'd really have to do is sharpen up and then taper.