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McMillan Custom Marathon Plan: Week 17 Day 1

Steve — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:24:05 +0000

Week 17, Day 1
Phase: Marathon
Workout: 45 to 60 minute Easy Run
Purpose: Build Endurance

Easy treadmill run today; 45 minutes at 2% incline and a variable speed. Nothing special, just a nice recovery run after yesterday’s slog of a 20 miler.

On a positive note, I’m still not feeling 100%, but the worst of it is behind me….

Also did 10 minutes of Essential Abs followed by 120 push ups (6 sets of 20). Didn’t feel up to doing the complete Week 6 Day 1 workout, so made do with the 120. Maybe I’ll get back to the Hundred Push Ups on Wednesday? We’ll see.

McMillan Custom Marathon Plan: Week 15 Day 3

Steve — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:21:03 +0000

Week 15, Day 3
Phase: Marathon
Workout: 65 to 75 minute Easy Run
Purpose: Build Endurance

Felt tired today. Actually I was half thinking of taking a very rare rest day today, but decided to head out the door and see how things developed. Funny thing is I had a great run.

My pace in the first couple of miles wasn’t great, but I soon found a nice rhythm and starting ticking off the miles at a fair clip. Ended up running for just over 75 minutes and covered 10.5 miles.

My legs feel heavy and fatigued (probably from yesterday’s hill workout), but hopefully 15 minutes with The Stick will work a minor miracle and I’ll be good to go again tomorrow.

I also did another day of the Essential Abs program; Day 2 of Week 2 which comprised the following exercises:

Reverse Crunch
Crossover
Crunch: feet first
Opposite arm/leg raise

Workout #1 (Monday) – 16 reps of each exercise
Workout #2 (Wednesday) – 17 reps of each exercise
Workout #3 (Friday) – 18 reps of each exercise

Been trying to stay off the beer during the week, but tonight I feel like I’ve “earned one”. Cheers!

McMillan Custom Marathon Plan: Week 15 Day 1 & Essential Abs

Steve — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:01:41 +0000

Week 15, Day 1
Phase: Marathon
Workout: 45 to 60 minute Easy Run
Purpose: Build Endurance

Can it really be Week 15 already? Amazing. It seems like the last five weeks have flown by and now I *only* have six weeks left to pull everything together for what will arguably be the biggest race of my life; the 2008 Richmond Marathon. After hours and hours, and miles and miles of training, I know anything less than a new all-time marathon PR will surely be a disappointment. I can’t imagine any other outcome.

Still, I have six weeks of hard, hard training to go, so back to reality please….

Today’s workout was just an easy 45 minute treadmill run. Tomorrow looks far more interesting and Coach McMillan even gives me three workouts to choose from – how generous!

For the record:

Time: 45:00 minutes
Distance: 5.8 miles
Pace: 7:46 minutes per mile

I’m also back on the six-week Essential Abs program in a last ditch effort to improve my core strength before Richmond. Today was Day 1 of Week 2 and comprised of the following exercises:

Reverse Crunch
Crossover
Crunch: feet first
Opposite arm/leg raise

Workout #1 (Monday) – 16 reps of each exercise
Workout #2 (Wednesday) – 17 reps of each exercise
Workout #3 (Friday) – 18 reps of each exercise

All good fun. Time for dinner and some computer time….

End Of The Road For The Essential Abs Program

Steve — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:48:50 +0000

Just completed the last workout of the final week of the Essential Abs Program.

Today the plan called for 15 reps of each of the following exercises with 7 seconds rest between each one:

Corkscrew
Hip Up
Reverse Crunch
Crossover
Oblique Crunch
Catch
Toe Touch
Crunch: legs up
Crunch: frog legs
Isometric back extension

Now the plan is over I’ll probably go back and repeat Week 5 and 6 for a while with the hope of maintaining whatever core strength I’ve built up over the past six weeks. I may eventually increase the number of reps from 15 to 20, but will start with 16 of each exercise on the weekend. Wish the push ups plan was this manageable!

Hundred Push Ups Week 5 Day 1 & More Essential Abs

Steve — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:56:58 +0000

I knew Week 5 Day 1 of the Hundred Push Ups plan was going to be a tough one. I glanced at it briefly last night to refresh my memory and kind of wish I hadn’t bothered. I was even tempted to postpone the start of the week to Monday, but figured it would be just as tough whatever day I chose to do it.

So after my six mile run and weekly yard work was out of the way, I decided it was now or never.

Required: 40, 32, 30, 25, at least 40

I was dreading the opening 40 but they actually weren’t too bad at all. After taking full advantage of the allowed 60 seconds I started on the set of 32; this was where it started getting tough, but I managed to make it through…just. My arms failed me on the next set however, and I could only manage a shaky 22.

60 seconds later I lowered myself into position and gutted out 25 good ones, but could only manage 23 in the final set of the workout; no way could I get anywhere near the required “at least 40″. I’m slightly disappointed, but also quite proud that I managed 142 push ups in one workout – 18 more than my previous highest. Looks like I’ll be repeating Week 5 again next week, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s all progress, right?

Actual: 40, 32, 22, 25, 23

If anyone else is following the plan, please note the slight change in Week 5. On Day 2 and 3, there are actually 8 levels instead of the usual 5 and the time between sets is reduced to 45 and 30 seconds respectively.

With the push ups behind me, it was time to perform the penultimate workout of the six-week Essential Abs program; a nicely structured program that gets progressively more difficult as time goes on.

Today the plan called for 15 reps of each of the following exercises. I usually substitute the frog legs crunch for the corkscrew and switch the isometric back extension for the plank exercise. Today was no exception.

Corkscrew
Hip Up
Reverse Crunch
Crossover
Oblique Crunch
Catch
Toe Touch
Crunch: legs up
Crunch: frog legs
Isometric back extension

Push Ups, Abs, McMillan

Steve — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:20:44 +0000

Thought I’d continue the trend of combining all three workouts into one post. Hope you don’t mind…

I’ll start with the end of Week 4 Hundred Push Upsexhaustion test. Basically I just needed to perform as many push ups in one go as possible which would determine the column I’ll be following in Week 5 of the plan due to start on the weekend.

A couple of weeks ago I managed 48 in the exhaustion test which actually surprised me quite a lot to be honest. This afternoon I expected at least 60, which would comfortably put me in Week 5′s third column.

Somewhat disappointingly I could only manage 50. I felt fine up until 40 but it all went downhill from there. Maybe I wasn’t quite up for it? Maybe the 356 push ups I’ve already done this week is a factor? Anyway, all is not lost and I’ll begin Week 5 on the weekend in good spirits. I’ll need to be as it’s a very tough week!

So, with the push ups out of the way, I decided to do Week 6 Day 2 of the Essential Abs program; 14 reps of each of the following exercises:

Corkscrew
Hip Up
Reverse Crunch
Crossover
Oblique Crunch
Catch
Toe Touch
Crunch: legs up
Crunch: frog legs
Isometric back extension

No real problems today. The “catch” and the “toe touch” were easier than last time so I must be making progress, and with only two days left on the plan I need to work out some sort of maintenance plan to keep the abs work going.

Finally it was time to head outside and go for my easy run of between 30 and 40 minutes. Ah, how nice….

Week 3, Day 5
Phase: Base
Workout: 30 to 40 Easy Run
Purpose: Build Endurance

Not much to say about the run. After last night’s tough workout, all I was capable of was running at an easy pace. It was just a question of running for about 18 minutes, turning around and heading home. I managed to keep my pace in the “easy run” and I hope to be ready for tomorrow’s long run of between 14 and 16 miles.

Here’s to a great weekend! Have fun and be safe…

Essential Abs: Week 5 Day 3

Steve — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:04:47 +0000

13 reps of each of the following exercises tonight. The only one I’m not that good at/don’t enjoy is the Corkscrew, so I tend to jump right in to the Hip Ups and add in an extra set of Oblique Crunches later on in the workout to make up for it.

Here we go; Day 3 of Week 5:

Corkscrew
Hip Up
Reverse Crunch
Crossover
Oblique Crunch
Catch
Toe Touch
Crunch: legs up
Crunch: frog legs
Isometric back extension

If you’re interested in the first four weeks of the plan, click on the following links for more information:

Week 1 and 2
Week 3 and 4

Enjoy the weekend…

Essential Abs: Week 5 Day 2

Steve — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:52:49 +0000

With all the excitement surrounding the Hundred Push Ups plan, I haven’t really had time to mention the six week Essential Abs program I’m also following at the moment.

Tonight was the second day of Week 5, and after quite a challenging Week 4, I must admit, despite the addition of a few new exercises, I was happy to see a drop in the number of reps required.

Level 3 (which covers both Weeks 5 and 6) is designed to be performed 4 times a week and the number of abdominal exercises increases from 6 to 9. Simply do one set of each exercise, resting just 5 seconds between exercises.

For Week 5, perform 12 reps of each exercise on Day 1 and Day 2. On Day 3 and Day 4 perform 13 reps. I’ll talk about Week 6 at a later date.

The plan also calls for an increase in aerobic activity to 30 minutes three times a week – not a problem for me with my current marathon training schedule!

So, without further ado, here’s what the plan looks like.

Week 5:
Level-Three Exercises

Corkscrew
Hip Up
Reverse Crunch
Crossover
Oblique Crunch
Catch
Toe Touch
Crunch: legs up
Crunch: frog legs
Isometric back extension

Workout #1 (Monday) – 12 reps of each exercise
Workout #2 (Wednesday) – 12 reps of each exercise
Workout #3 (Friday) – 13 reps of each exercise
Workkout #4 (Sunday) – 13 reps of each exercise

If you’re interested in the first four weeks of the plan, click on the following links:

Week 1 and 2
Week 3 and 4