McMillan Custom Marathon Plan: Week 4 Day 1

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Three weeks of Base Phase training behind and so far so good. Legs still feel good, I haven’t missed a workout, I’ve met every required pace and above all I’m still having fun.

Looking back I think my last day off from running was June 27th and somewhat surprisingly I’m doing fine with that. I thought by now my shins would be screaming for a break or my knees creaking with the jump in mileage, but McMillan’s strategy of hard/easy running seems to work well for me.

Anyway, onto tonight’s run:

Premium Running Music By Hella Sound

Hella Sound is a brand new web site that promises “the best running music, synced to your pace and designed to burn calories.” Sounds impressive, especially if you’re one of those runners that need the right music to propel you through a workout.

Finishing touches are being made to their web site, but you can still go ahead and register; Hella Sound will notify you when their first batch of music is available for download.

According to the web site, Hella Sound provide:

hard-driving original music, synced to your pace and built to burn calories. All of our songs are 30 minutes long and contain rhythmic and harmonic structure to help you stay focused during your run.

All of their music will be totally original and perfectly matched to your cadence (running strides per minute). Hella Sound will offer each song in preset rates (BPM/beats per minute) that will match your typical 135 to 175 running strides per minute.

Looks to be a great addition to the ever-increasing technology-inspired training tools available for runners and I hope it’s not too long before the first songs in their catalog are released.

End Of The Road For Garmin Forerunner 305?

Spent some time last night updating various software versions for my Garmin Forerunner 305Yesterday I thought I’d failed to charged my Garmin 305 correctly and therefore didn’t/couldn’t use it on my 15 mile long run. Today, despite being on charge for almost 24 hours, the same thing happened and the screen went blank as soon as I removed the unit from the charging cradle.

I searched online for a solution, but the news isn’t good; it appears the battery inside the wrist unit will no longer hold a charge and is actually quite a common problem. Several newsgroups, forums and even the Garmin web site suggested a soft reset — which is performed by pressing the lap and mode buttons at the same time, and then pressing the power button to switch the unit on — but this didn’t help at all.

I also read several blog posts where 305 owners had taken their units apart to check the battery connections - a bit too drastic a solution for my liking. I guess I’ll contact Garmin in the next couple of days to find out what my options are, but my gut feeling is that a repair will be almost as expensive as buying a brand new unit with full warranty.

I’ll let you know what Garmin comes back with….

Hundred Push Ups Week 5 Day 1 & More Essential Abs

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

McMillan Custom Marathon Plan: Week 3 Day 7

The final day of Week 3 is already here - where does time go eh? Not a very challenging day today, but an important recovery run none the less.

Will start Week 5 of the Hundred Push Ups plan later on today when I have a little more energy. Somehow I think I’ll need it….

McMillan Custom Marathon Plan: Week 3 Day 6