Beer bellies are genetic. I don’t believe it, but I do believe that it does take a lot of exercising to work off the beer.
Tonight we continued our Strength & Conditioning Training (1 more to go), and it wasn’t easy. We did our usual training, working on basic stretches and our core. The toughest part was the ab training, 6-minute abs, where 2 minutes are crunches forward, 1 to the left, 1 to the right, then we end it with 2 minutes of bicycle crunches. By the end, my legs aren’t even moving anymore. It was like I was on a bicycle, but not peddling anymore – just gliding.
Mondays will be my crosstraining nights where I plan to experiment with different types of workouts and classes. I’ve had an indoor rockclimbing gym membership for half a year now, and I realized that I haven’t maximized its use to offset the monthly cost. I go to Rockreation over in West LA. It’s a great upper body and core workout, the gym environment is friendly, the music gets you pumped, and it exercises the mind by trying to get to a certain goal by trying different climbing routes. You can either rock-climb, where a partner is required to spot you, or you can boulder, which is my preferred choice of activity.
Ok it’s not “real” training, but this I decided to skip out on this week’s long run to party it up in Vegas. We went to 4 different clubs throughout the weekend, and I’m guesstimating about 5 hours of dancing. Going back to the good ol Calorie Calculator, I burned about 2313 calories. Not bad. It’s good to actually keep active, even on crazy Vegas weekends.
In the beginning of February, representatives of Crunch, a gym in Hollywood, offered to give all employees a one month complimentary pass. February flew by so fast, and time’s running out! I finally decided to go since today was scheduled to be a “rest day” or a “crosstrain day”. It’s somewhat on the way home, it’s free, I’ll get some cardio in, and there won’t be traffic when I’m done. How can I resist? I looked at the classes online and at 8pm there was something called “Raw Groove.” Fair enough, that’s what I decided to do.
The gym is somewhat small, but seems to have a wide variety of things to do. It had all the machines and weights of what you’d expect from a gym. What sets itself from 24 Hr Fitness or LA Fitness is the amount of classes they offer, multiple rooms for classes, they have a boxing ring, and it has that sense of “Hollywood” style. Not sure if that last one is a good or bad thing. No one really hassled me about signing up for a year contract which some gyms do. I had some time to kill before my class, so I worked on my shoulders with some of the machines.
I felt a little weird when I first entered the class because aside from the instructor, there were only 2 other guys… and there were oh, 30 other girls. 10 girl to 1 guy ratio? Oh darn, right? Who am I to complain? Once the music started though, I knew I wasn’t in a “beginner” class. I eventually got used to the moves, after a few moments of just standing there, and some times when I’d spin the wrong way. Damn, they were making some difficult “U Got Served” moves to Justin Timberlake, Flo Rida, Mary J Blige, and more. I came to realize how uncoordinated I am, but it was really fun. Watch out now, I’ll bust some of these moves out in the clubs! There were so many 8 counts, jumps, spins, and hits for a whole hour.. it was a well worth cross train session and was a good break from the running monotony. Tomorrow night’s classes: Cardio Tai Boxing, or Pole Dancing?
Week 3 Sunday Run
Every Sunday I make a trip out to Santa Monica from Pomona for the long runs. This morning, it rained. Practice doesn’t stop if it rains – the Team still runs. I decided not to make the trek because I have bald tires (I know, I know I should have changed them earlier… especially since I did a 720 degree spinout last night on the onramp, and luckily I didn’t hit anything – but that’s a whole other story I’m not going to get into). That terrifying experience of almost getting into a major accident was enough reason for me to just go to the local 24 and make up my mileage until I get new tires tomorrow. My goal for this week was to work on my cadence, while I make up for lost mileage.
Making up 5 miles at the gym isn’t too bad since we are still in the beginning. Even though my last post was about treadmills and pain, I toughed it out and went back on it. This time around it wasn’t so painful, and it took about an hour to do the 5 miles. What bugged the hell out of me though was that the treadmill I was on had a 20 minute cap, and I had to restart my cycle every 20 minutes.
Towards the end of the 5 miles, I experimented with my cadence, which last week, coach said that the optimal cadence should be 180 steps per minute. Last week I counted 165 as my cadence, so I counted what was mine on a 4.5 speed on the treadmill as a base speed. It was 155. I then raised the speed to 5.5, and it was 165 steps per minute. I also tried 6.0 speed, but I still had about 167 steps per minute. I brought it down to 5.5 again, and it came out to about 165 again. I felt very comfortable with that 5.5. So comfortable, that I was able to run for 20 minutes without stopping. I felt very efficient and tried to keep a very consistent tempo. Of course, a little of this was assisted with the motor of the treadmill, but it’s good to know where I stand in terms of cadence. Next time I’m on the pavement, I’ll experiment more so I can run like a gazelle (the photo of this post).
Week 2: Sunday Run
There’s a huge difference between last week (no intervals) and this week (with intervals). This week, everyone ran 4 miles, this time running from the Santa Monica pier, north on Ocean Ave to San Vicente and 4th Street, then back. We were assigned our pace groups, and I was put into Group 4. We ran 5:1′s, which is a 5 minute run, and a 1 minute walk. It’s supposed to help you regulate your heart rate, and also work out other muscles, especially when you walk. It is so much easier to do a long run with intervals, and I’m thankful for that. It’s one mile more than last, but when we were all done, I felt great. After, we were off to The Firehouse for some delicious brunch with the Team.
Strength Training 1
Today was the first day of Strength & Conditioning, which will be for a few weeks, every Wednesdays, at the Spectrum Club at the Howard Hughes Center in Los Angeles. The thing about it is that we don’t have to be members of the gym to work out there (there’s a list of allowed TNT participants at the front desk). The class mainly consisted of calisthenic exercises such as stomach crunches, bridges, planks, and more. It reminded me of a Power Yoga class I took a few years ago. The room was packed with the Team on yoga mats, working out to Marcela’s choice selections from “Step Up 2 The Streets” movie soundtrack.
I can understand the importance of these workouts, as I remember during my first marathon, my leg muscles were one of the first to give out. In addition to these exercises, I plan to add some machine workouts to strengthen my legs.
Just found out that MARCELA is my mentor! We were TNT virgins last year training for the San Diego RNR, and now we’re addicted to TNT! Ahh yeah, it’s going to be that much more fun!
Oh, and here’s a nice pic from a night out in Santa Monica. Love ya Marcela!
Week 1: Sunday Run
When my friend Warren and I initially walked to the meeting spot for the team in front of the Santa Monica Civic Center, I was amazed at the turnout for this upcoming season. It felt great to see many alumni coming back as captains, mentors, and participants. There were so many new faces, I couldn’t wait to meet every one of them. Many of my TNT friends were surprised that I was back yet another season, because I was pretty vocal about taking a break from TNT. It was surely a last minute decision to do it again, but what motivated me to do it all over again was to join with my closest friends who have not run a marathon before.
Beer bellies are genetic. I don’t believe it, but I do believe that it does take a lot of exercising to work off the beer. 
Mondays will be my crosstraining nights where I plan to experiment with different types of workouts and classes. I’ve had an indoor rockclimbing gym membership for half a year now, and I realized that I haven’t maximized its use to offset the monthly cost. I go to 
In the beginning of February, representatives of 
Week 3 Sunday Run
Week 2: Sunday Run
Strength Training 1
Week 1: Sunday Run
