Rollning into February

So I've been a little absent on the blog over the last few weeks, but maybe that's because I've been worn out at the end of each day! Here's a quick overview of what I've been up to, where my focus will be as we move into February, and what workouts you can expect from me if you're looking to do a little training...

January 14-27
Over the past two weeks I've been sticking to my standard training schedule. Yoga on Mondays, Spin on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Fridays, and some total body circuit training on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I finished a great block yesterday with my friends Geoff & Joel. We hit the bikes for an hour and a half, kept an average heart rate of 165 during that time, then Geoff and I went for a half hour run (Joel went to a wedding). Of course since all this took place over at Urban Active I had to stop at East End Brewing to grab a bottle of their Barley Wine "Gratitude."

Spin call last Friday was also pretty intense. Since we have a number of people training for the Race to Any Place the class consisted of 3, 8 minute steady sprints with 2 minute recovers in between each. This weeks we'll do 2, 15 minute steady springs with 5 minutes in between each.

January 28-February 7
Normally Mondays mean Yoga, but I've really got to start focusing more on my running and swimming, so tomorrow AM will be a run day. I'll strive for a good hour on the treadmill before heading into the pool at LA Fitness. Check out the rest of my schedule below and feel free to join me for any workout you like!

• Monday Running & Swimming at LA Fitness in the AM
  
• Tuesdays 4:50am Circuit training (maybe Spartacus or a P90X DVD) & Spinning at 5:30am (Endurance Zone), 12:15 (Interval Zone/Rivers Club) and 6:45pm (Interval Zone)
• Wednesday 4:50am Flexibility & Spinning at 5:30am (I'm only teaching, not riding thanks to a biometric screening I have scheduled at work I'm not allowed to eat until after the cholesterol test, so I'm not going to ride and burn off the few calories I'll have left in me).
  
• Wednesday @ Rivers Club Spinning at 12:15pm (Interval Zone)
• Thursday Circuit Training (Spartacus Workout) & Swimming
• Friday 4:50am Core & Spinning at 5:30am (Interval or Race Day Zone)
• Saturday I'll be in Virginia but planning a 10 mile Birthday run (yep, it'll be the last year of my 20's!)
  
• Sundays 5 Mile Easy Run

Untitled by kcp487 at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by kcp487 at Garmin Connect - Details

January Week3!

Last week went pretty well. Thanks to everyone who showed up to work out each AM. Here's the schedule for this week, as always, feel free to join me for any workout any time!

Tuesday AM -Spartacus Workout & Spin (5:00am) PM -Spin (6:45 LA Fitness)
Wednesday AM -Flexibility/Yoga (4:50am)
Thursday AM -P90X Core Synergistics & Swim (4:50am)
Friday AM -Arms & Spin (5:00am)

Lock in your Race to Any Place Seat Now!

What's Up Space Monkey Mafia?! I hope everyone is pumped up for our the race next month on February 26th from 8am to 2pm (with drinks and race results to follow at Damons in the US. Steel Tower). So far I have spots for 24 riders and 29 people who said they want to do it.

Lock in your Seat Today!
So..... how do we figure out who's on the team? Simple, make your donation now to lock in your seat! Once you make your online donation, shoot me an email so that I can mark you as officially registered (ensuring your spot)!

If too many register before you sign up...
Don't worry, we are riding in the YMCA division and other teams in the group will be looking to pick up extra riders. We will also allow the riders on our JV team to split shirts and only ride one 15 minute interval (but only if the team fills up).

Here's what to do to lock in now!

• Email me and let me know you will give me a check next time you see me (I'll save your spot if you can get me the check before 1/19/11_

or

1. log onto http://www.racetoanyplace.com/Content/ProductDetails.aspx?p=5&m=5&m=0&m=0&m=0&prod=13
2. select "Pay Now Online" from the first drop down menu
3. select "Space Monkey Mafia" from the second drop down menu (everyone should select "Space Monkey Mafia" regardless of whether your on the speed team or the JV team
4. enter your donation amount ($40min -if you work for PNC, please consider making this $50 as the company will match your donation)
5. click "Add to order"
6. Then follow the instructions on the following pages to enter your payment info
7. Email kenpresutti@verizon.net as soon as you do this so that I can lock in your spot. Remember, it's first come first serve!

That's it, hope you're still planning on riding. Let me know if you have any questions!

Ready to Puke...

I'm not sure if that's a statement or a question, but I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Here's the official circuit (amped up a bit thanks to some inspiration from Craig).

Push Ups 1min
Burpee 1min
Roll Up/V Up 1min
Lunge across floor & back
Shuttle Run 1min
Plank 1min
Suspended Push Ups/Dips
3 Sets of Pull Ups -rest while partner does their set
Shadow Boxing 4min
Wide Push Ups 1min
Sit Ups 1min
Mt Climbers 1min

So really, I'm not sure why we're doing this...I don't think its that applicable to tri training, but I did think it would be fun...

January Week 2!

The first week of my new "pre-ironman" training routine went pretty well. Thanks to all my friends who came out to do these workouts with me. If you didn't make it by for a workout last week, feel free to do so this week. We're going to the same basic schedule:

This Week

• Mondays 4:50am-6:30am Yoga X & Swimming (I'll only be doing the first half of Yoga X which is 45 minutes or so of flow Yoga. After that I'm in the pool, but I'll leave the tape running for anyone who wants to do the whole thing) & Running in the evening
  
• Tuesdays 4:50am Circuit training (Push Ups 1min, Burpee 1min, Roll Up/V Up 1min, Lunge across floor & back, Plank 1min, Suspended Push Ups/Dips, 3 Sets of Pull Ups, Shadow Boxing 4min) & Spinning at 5:30am (Endurance Zone) and 6:45pm (Interval Zone)
• Wednesdays 4:50am Flexibility/Core training & Spinning at 5:30am (Recovery Zone)
• Wednesdays @ Rivers Club Spinning at 12:15pm (Interval Zone)
• Thursdays Circuit Training (Spartacus Workout) & Swimming
• Fridays 4:50am Flexibility/Core & Spinning at 5:30am (Interval or Race Day Zone)
• Saturdays Active Recovery Day (easy ride, walk the dog, carb-load, etc.)
• Sundays 8-13 Mile Run

Last Week
As mentioned above, all in all last week went pretty well. I consumed about 20,000 calories from Monday through Saturday and during that same time burned about 4,252 through training. That's probably about 5,000 calories above where I should be but it's no big deal.

By far, the hardest two workouts were Yoga X on Monday and Spartacus on Thursday. I for got how brutal that circuit is (which is why we'll do it again this Thursday).

Today's Yoga X Workout & Tuesdays Circuit

Today's Yoga Workout
Yoga today was definitely tougher than I thought it would be, but thanks to everyone who showed up and made it through. For me, triangle pose and warrior 3 were way harder than I remember.

I know everyone who was there is at a different level of fitness. Some of us were more experienced at yoga that others (I'm not including myself in the experience category), and I thought it might be good to throw out a few tips that have helped me improve.

1. Go take a class form a good qualified instructor!
The DVDs I'm using guide you through the moves, but they can't teach you proper form. Once you've been to a few instructor lead courses you'll understand more of the basics and know what the poses are suppose to feel like. After a few classes you'll be much more confident and even be able to work on poses by yourself.

2. Get a block!
I know, it's pretty funny that mine is pink, but hey I had a gift card to Best Buy and it was the only color they carried! By using a block you'll be able to maintain proper form without over extending yourself or slipping into poor form just to try and stay in a pose. They're cheap too, I think mine was only $10 or $11.

3. Don't over do it! The DVD today was a ton of Flow yoga. We were in plank, up dog, and down dog a lot. While these can be recovery poses, they are also very tough. Don't be afraid to take a child's pose if it feels like it's getting to intense. Jump back in whenever you feel you've recovered.

Tuesday's Circuit
Here's what my Tuesday AM circuit looks like, hope you can make it out an join us!

1. Run in Place (1min)
2. Burpees (1min)
3. Plank (2min/rest as needed)
4. Push Ups (2min/rest as needed)
5. Roll-Up/V-Up (1min)
6. Heavy Bag Shadow Box (3min/rest as needed)
7. Traveling Lunge to Pull Up Bars
8. Pull Ups (half of your max number)
9. Push Ups (half of your max number)
10. Repeat 8
11. Repeat 9
12. Repeat 8
13. Repeat 9
14. Side Jack-Knife (45sec ea. side)

See you in the AM!

Gearing Up...

Now that the crazy Christmas eating & New Year's drinking is over, I'm pretty pumped to gear up my new training program for the next 3 1/2 months before the real Ironman training kicks in. In that time I plan to really focus on improving my core strength, flexibly and overall aerobic base (although it's pretty hard core already). I'll also be looking to get a better hold of my diet and work toward 8% body fat.


Monday
The new routine kicks off tomorrow with an hour and a half of yoga at LA Fitness (4:50AM). I know it sounds like a lot, but half the routine is flow vinyasa style yoga and the second half is focused more on flexibility and relaxation. So far a few friends have committed to showing up and doing it with me, if you're free (and let's be honest, who's not at 4 in the morning?), stop in and join us. We'll be using the P90X Yoga DVD and trust me, it's no joke. I ignored Yoga in all my training for a long time because I thought it was kind of silly, but once I added into my regular workouts I realized it had real power.

Tuesday
Tuesday is one of the tougher days in my routine, feel free to join me for any or all of my Tuesday workouts! We'll start early again (4:50am) at LA Fitness with some circuit training. Mostly body weight types of exercises (push ups, pull ups, lunges, etc). Spinning class starts at 5:45am then its off to work for the day before coming back to LA Fitness for a 6:45pm class.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
It'll be Core & Flex on Wednesday, Spartacus Circuit on Thursday, and more Flex & Core Friday. Don't forget Spinning classes are mixed in, see the schedule in my last post.

Hope you're able to make it out to a few workouts this week, let me know if you need a guest pass. I'll be updating this post as we head through the week with notes on the workouts!