The workout went well and my legs feel fully recovered from the Frederick Marathon just ten days ago. I’m hoping to run another 5k this weekend and submit another time to the tweet5k competition which closes at 11:30pm PDT on May 30, 2009.

Here’s to the next 1000 miles!

You may or may not remember from an earlier post, but 10k Strength Builder starts off with a 10 minute warm up at “base pace” which includes several 30 second striders to prepare your legs and lungs for the workout.

The warm up is followed by 5 x 6 minute steady state intervals at a simulated 10k race pace. The incline starts at 0% but builds to a 5% grade by the end of the 6 minute period. For the final 6 minutes, Coach Troy doubles the incline so you end up running base pace at 10%! Oh yes, you get 90 seconds rest between each 6 minute effort.

The complete workout takes just over 50 minutes and is pretty challenging to say the least. Funny thing is, I felt so good tonight, I doubled up and did another 5 x 6 minutes with the same 90 seconds recovery. The shoes worked very well but I’m going to test them out in a local 10k on Saturday morning just to make sure.

I also received a card from the Shamrock Marathon organizers today containing bib number and race weekend instructions. The marathon starts at 8am on Saturday, March 22nd and my race number is 147. Sounds lucky doesn’t it?

Before I could stop sweating I found myself doing Day 2 of the Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred DVD workout. Jillian, in case you didn’t kno, is a personal trainer who gained prominence on the NBC weight-loss reality series The Biggest Loser. My wife, Ally, started the program a few days ago and thought it would be fun if I tried it too. If you fancy a nice gentle 20 minute cool down after a challenging treadmill run, this isn’t the workout for you. Trust me, it’s tough, and you’ll hurt in places that haven’t hurt for years! Great fun though and I’m sure it will add something to my overall fitness. I certainly hope so anyway….

The workout, set to upbeat music which can be turned on or off, starts with a 10 minute warmup at a comfortable “base pace”. Midway through the warmup Coach Troy throws in several 30 second “striders” at 2mph above base pace and a 2% incline. The striders are simply designed to elevate your heart rate and prepare your legs for the impending 5×6 minute repeats.

Once the 10 minutes are up, Coach Troy increases the speed to your estimated 10k race pace. I’ve never really trusted the accuracy of my treadmill, but I’m quite confident that a moderate 8.0mph will elevate my heart rate sufficiently and replicate 10k pace. Each 6 minute repeat begins gently at a 0% incline, but increases 1% every minute. You finish up at your chosen speed and 5% incline – pretty challenging and my heart rate of 179 proved this!

(Make sure you’re working out in a well ventilated room and have plenty of fluids available. This is a tough workout, rated at 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 and will soon have you sweating plenty. It’s a good idea to have a towel handy too!)

Thankfully you get a 90 second recovery after each 6 minute repeat, by which time your heart rate will have dropped (it drops quicker the fitter you get) and your legs will be ready to go again. Troy works you through 3 more repeats in the same fashion as the first, each one stressing your body slightly more than the previous one.

The real strength builder is saved for the last 6 minute repeat. You start off at the same speed (in my case 8.0mph) and same 0% incline, but after each minute you have to increase the incline by 2%. Halfway through the repeat and you wonder if you’ll ever make it to the end, and by the end of the 6 minutes you’re running at 10% grade and your chosen speed. My heart rate maxed out at 181, my legs were burning, but I made it. Thankfully Coach Troy rewards you with a 4 or 5 minute cool down!

I must say to anyone who doubts you get a decent workout on a treadmill, you have to try the 10k Strength Builder. The 50 minutes go by really fast and you know when you’re done you’re going to be stronger and faster for the effort. It’s also great for someone who doesn’t have a local track to run on or who finds it hard to stay motivated running intervals on a 400m oval.

If you’re interested, take a look at a live preview of the DVD on the Coach Troy web site.

The DVD is available for just $14.95 on Coach Troy’s web site and in my opinion is really good value. If you’re thinking that it’s cheaper than other DVD’s in the Runervals and Spinervals Series, this one is classed as an “Off the Cutting Room Floor” edition. Here’s an explanation from Coach Troy:

In our quest to create the most useful and effective workouts in the industry for serious athletes and fitness enthusiasts, we are constantly trying new and improved video production methods. In some cases, our attempts fall short and the video picture quality, sound quality or other aspects of the show do not meet our high production quality standards.

‘Off the Cutting Room Floor’ workouts are fantastic training sessions that we feel fall short on production values but meet our high standards of training effectiveness for our loyal customers. Therefore, instead of ’scrapping’ these highly effective workouts, they’re made available at a reduced price through limited distribution.

Enjoy and Happy Strength Building!

Despite knowing this Runervals DVD like the back of my hand, I never quite bored of the workout and always manage to raise my game and probably push myself harder than I’d push myself outdoors. Even though the weather is starting to improve, I plan on performing this and a couple of other Runervals workouts at least once every couple of weeks. The treadmill can be a great training tool and I still plan to use it through the Spring/Summer months.

As always, the workout was a challenge, but enjoyable and very rewarding. I must admit I wasn’t totally looking forward to spending almost an hour on the treadmill, but after the first 5-10 minutes I got into the swing of things and ended up with a strong workout under my belt.

I didn’t go crazy with the 10k pace for fear of pulling up lame with a pre-marathon injury. For me, the week before a marathon is a fine balance between getting enough rest and keeping a certain amount of quality work going. I hate to just plod through the miles this week as it puts me in a sluggish frame of mind for the race. However, a workout like tonight’s really gets me pumped up without taxing my system too much. Of course I still have 6 days to go and I won’t be doing anything taxing after Wednesday of this week, which will give me Thursday, Friday, Saturday to really taper and get fired up for the race.

Fun times….and for some reason I’m starting to really look forward to this race. Should be an interesting week.

The good news is, my foot felt fine and once I’d warmed up, my shin felt pretty good too. I also wore my new Brooks ST3 racing shoes which I’ll be wearing at Shamrock, just to make sure they felt as good as they have in previous long runs and races. I wasn’t disappointed – they felt great!

After a quick water bottle refill, I was straight into my second Strendurance workout of Phase B. If you remember, the other night I said “I actually found Phase B to be less of a challenge” [than Phase A]. Tonight was a different story – I guess the treadmill workout hadn’t taken its toll and left me feeling quite low in energy. I did manage to get through the workout, but even found the jumping jacks to be a challenge tonight – usually they’re the easiest part of the workout for me. I won’t mention how long the 30 seconds of mountain climbers seemed to last….

The one bit of not so good news – the Strendurance workout, despite only being 24 minutes in length, really seems to aggravate my foot. It must be all the plyometric-style exercises (jumping jacks, flicks, mountain climbers, squat thrusts etc.) If I look back at my other blog, the same thing happened to my foot when I started the Strendurance plan last year. I guess I just have to take things easy, wear cushioned shoes (like I did tonight) and maybe back off the intensity of the plyometric stuff.

Anyway, all in all, quite a successful evening – another 6.5 miles in the bank (21 for the week so far) and another Strendurance workout under my belt.

If you’re as fast as a couple of runners in the Strength Builder DVD, each six minute interval will be equivalent to a mile repeat (or more) on the track. Running 5 of these with just 90 seconds recovery is definitely a challenge and by the third one my legs always begin to feel fatigued. You really have to focus, maintain your form (“lift those knees and use those arms” as Coach Troy keeps barking at you) and gut it out to the end of the workout.

10k Strength Builder is never an easy 50 minute workout, but you step off the treadmill knowing you’ll be a better runner for making the effort. I like to do these high intensity treadmill workouts on a Wednesday evening if possible, by which time I’ve usually recovered from the previous weekend’s long run. It also gives me a couple of recovery days before any races I may be doing on the upcoming weekend.

Tonight was also a test for yet another pair of new shoes which I’ve been trying to track down since the end of October 2007! Finally, after months of online searching, hassling my local running store, emailing the folks at Brooks and checking the eBay listings, I found a pair on Zappos.com. Actually, the challenge wasn’t finding a store that sold the shoe, it was finding a store that carried the ST3 in my size (US 9.5).

The shopping experience at Zappos was a great one – I ordered around 8pm on Friday evening and immediately received a confirmation email (always a good sign!). At time of checkout I’d chosen their FREE SHIPPING offer, which they quote as a 4-5 business day turnaround – not too bad at all – but later that night I received another email informing me the order had been upgraded to FREE OVERNIGHT delivery at no extra charge. Great news! Sure enough, the good old UPS man delivered the new shoes on Monday and for a couple of days I’ve been itching to try them on a faster run. Tonight was the night to put them to the test…

I’ll be wearing the ST3′s in the Shamrock Marathon on March 16th and hope they can assist me to a good race as they have in previous years. You can read more about the ST3 and why it’s my shoe of choice for longer distance races over at my other blog www.cymru66.com.

One last thing, I also received 6% cash back on my purchase by shopping at Zappos.com through the excellent eBates system. If you’re not familiar with the eBates web site, it’s basically an easy way to earn cash back on any online purchases you make. Zappos is just one of hundreds of first class merchants participating in the program who all offer varying rates of cash back incentives.

You can also earn money by referring friends and family to their site (full details can be found here). I’ve been an eBates member since 2007 and have earned almost $150 in cash back and referrals – that’s almost 2 pair of running shoes! Click here if you’d like to join or if you have any questions about the eBates program feel free to send me an email (steve dot speirs at gmail dot com).

Happy Miles and Happy Shopping!

–Steve