My Boston Marathon Cross Training Days

Last night I spent quite a bit of time working on my Boston Marathon training schedule.  Honestly, I’ve been pretty fortunate with my previous marathons.  I’ve generally followed a schedule that included long runs on Saturdays, a few runs during the week with a cross training day and a rest day.  Never have I really planned four months in advance.  However, this time I have a time goal that I know I’m going to have to really work at in order to achieve.  To avoid injury, I am mandating cross training days that will serve two purposes: 1) allow my legs to recover after speed workouts and 2) increase cardiovascular fitness.  Yes, cross training can help with recovery but it can be an ACTIVE form of recovery.  For me, biking and elliptical workouts should require just as much effort as a run.  The workout needs to have a purpose.

(page one of my training plan)

Certainly I do not know all things about the bike, elliptical, and stair climber, but due to the fact I’ve suffered a stress fracture and other hip aliments, I am quite familiar with how to get the most from 45 minutes on a machine.  They don’t call me Cardio Queen at the gym for nothing – I worked for that title. Anyway, today is one of my last cross training days before I start my marathon training on January 2, 2012 (and I will definitely still incorporate this workout on my non-running days).  It’s elliptical day and here’s how my last elliptical workout of 2011 will go:

Warm up: Jump rope for 2-3 minutes
Elliptical:

• The Interval Workout Program at a hard level
• During the hard intervals, push it hard by going fast at a speed I can hold for a few minutes (depending on interval length)
• During the recovery intervals, try to keep the same speed (but with lower resistance)
• Continue alternating for 30 minutes
• After 30 minutes, the last 10 minutes  at a medium resistance with medium a to fast speed (depending on energy level)

Cool Down: 5 minutes easy on the elliptical

And just for fun (or maybe torture?), I’m going to try this Ab workout.  I already tried a little bit of it and I didn’t like it very much.  It hurt.

And last but not least (and somewhat irrelevant), because it’s #RunningSongThursday, I’d like to share a few of my favorite workout songs in no particular order:
1) Eminem – Fast Lane
2) Eminem – Not Afraid
3) Eminem – ‘Til I Collapse
4) Rihanna – We Found Love
5) Pitbull – Give me Everything
6) Don Omar – Danza Kuduro (a little culture)
7) Justin Bieber – Never Say Never (only because it reminds me of The Next Karate Kid)
8 ) Jay-Z – Run This Town
9) Shakira – Waka Waka
10) Eminem – Crazy in Love
(Yes, I’m an Eminem fan)

Happy Trails and Happy Running,
Tracie