Eric Frey.net

Today was the first day of Tabata in my revised workout program leading up to the Thanksgiving day 5k race. I did a circuit with the medicine ball. 8 exercises. 20 seconds a piece at maximum intensity followed by 10 seconds of rest before moving on to the next exercise. I went through all 8 twice, then did 2 rounds of 4 ab exercises the same way.

Here are the exercises I did, followed by the number of reps for each round:

• Thrusters: 13 - 10
• Throw and Chase: 5 - 4
• Medicine Ball Slams: 8 - 10
• Overhead Squats: 9 - 16
• Power Overs: 10 - 11
• Medicine Ball Burpees: 4 - 3
• Medicine Ball Cleans: 6 - 6
• V Sit Side Touches: 26 - 26

And the ab routine was:

• Bicycle Sit Ups: 42 - 55
• Supermans: 15 - 17
• Medicine Ball Crunches: 16 - 17
• Medicine Ball V-Ups: 6 - 8

There are some changes I need to make to this routine to make it a bit more intense. Read the rest of this entry »

No workout today. Just the bike ride to work and back, and doing small sets of burpees and squat thrusts throughout the day to catch up. Nothing done to fatigue.

Today I ran my favorite course. Since I’m preparing for a 5k race on Thanksgiving, and the weather is nice again, I want to get in some more running. Also, I figured I’d use Mondays as a strength day, so I had planned to take advantage of some of the exercise stations along the route, and the parking ramps to get in a strength workout during a relaxing run.

The course I run is about 3.5 miles and I had intended to run up and down 6 stories of stairs, and do 3 sets of 5 pull ups, hanging sit ups, parallel bar dips, and knees to elbows. I also wanted to do 3 sets of 10 monkey vaults to squats on a picnic table, and 3 x 25 sit ups. That’s what I did in about 1 hour and 2 minutes. I wasn’t running for speed, it was just for enjoyment and some cardio in the context of a strength workout. That said, I need to make some modifications. Read the rest of this entry »

Not much in the way of workouts today. Jogged .75 miles down to the park, warmed up, ran through some katas and did some burpees and squat thrusts. I decided I can’t bail on the burpee challenge, so I have a lot of catch up to do, but I need to scale the workouts so I don’t mess up my shoulder.

So far this week, my only workouts have been from my Kendo classes. Today I did a 5k run to see how my time compared to last June when the heat made drove me indoors for the better part of my workouts.

Last June my best time was 25:49, and I want to get below 25:00. Today’s run was finished in 28:27. I can account for about 1 and a half minutes at water fountains (I didn’t stop for water on that 25:49 time), but that still leaves me about 1 and a half minutes slower.

My goal is to get to sub 25:00, and if possible sub 22:00 for a 5k run on Thanksgiving. Since getting faster is one of my goals right now with martial arts as well, I’m re-working my exercise routine to focus on things that will get me faster. I’m going to make sure I get my running in, but more of my exercise routine is going to be spent doing Tabata intervals to help build explosive power and speed.

Tabata intervals are spent doing an exercise at high intensity for 20 seconds, and then taking a 10 second rest. This taxes the anaerobic energy pathways, but also ends up increasing aerobic capacity. It’s a very efficient type of work out. It is frequently done with sprints. 20 seconds sprinting, 10 seconds walking. This is done 8 times for a total of 4 minutes. It’s a very vigorous workout for just 4 minutes!

I’m going to be doing various circuits of strength or speed exercises in this manner. Since I’m going to be mixing up the circuits, I hope to keep from getting bored with maintaining a routine through the end of November.

Since each circuit will have 4 exercises, I’ll switch exercises with each 10 second rest and go 4 rounds for a total of 8 minutes of high intensity work. Then do an ab circuit for 2 rounds or 4 minutes. Total workout time will be 12 minutes, and I’ll scale up in rounds as I see fit. Most of the circuits have some variations on Olympic weightlifting to them, but some are specific to kendo, karate, or running. As I tweak each circuit and perform it, I’ll describe it in a blog entry. I’ll get video if I can. Right now, all of the stuff I’ve come up with seems very heavy on squatting and pressing movements, so I need to balance that a bit.