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Turkey trot training plan
Above is the 1st week of the plan. Click on link below to go to the full calendar and plan.
HERE IT IS! THE 26 DAY TURKEY TROT TRAINING PLAN FOR ANYONE (Click on "PLAN" to go to link)
The link takes you to the plan PDF which includes the calendar and links to learn all the routines.
I'll summarize the important lessons you should learn each week. By the end of the 26 days you will have mastered the basic components of a training plan that do not involve special running sessions. On the day of THE TURKEY TROT race, you can run/walk fast over a set distance (1 MILE, 3k, or 5k) and measure time of start to finish, but THIS PLAN is set up to have you moving at your fastest speed (run or walk) over 30 minutes and record the distance you covered in that time. The next time you race, or next Thanksgiving you can try to beat that distance (go farther in the same 30 minutes) to get a personal record (PR)!
The easiest way to do this is to pre-measure a route that takes you 20 minutes out running/moving fast. Many people subconsciously start speeding up once they make the halfway mark in a race, and so as you come back you may cover the same distance back to the start in less time (negative split). Even if you are short of the start, you can cool down and walk the few minutes back. YOU WILL NEED A PHONE APP FOR MEASURING DISTANCE AND YOUR FINISH TIME. Start looking for a route and practice doing this beforehand to avoid problems on race day.
WEEK 1: Your priority the 1st week is to perform MYRTL's everyday. http://www.njsportsmed.com/files/myrtl_routine.pdf After that you are only scheduled to do them before runs. You do this to get your pelvic girdle (hip bones and connective tissue structures that hold the bones firmly together to form a bony ring, to which the lower limb bones then attach) "loosened up".
These are mechanically easy moves, but if you are tight in the hip area (most runners are, as are people who sit a lot) perform them slowly and smoothly; don't force movements that are difficult. As usual i was overzealous in my approach and early in my training period I forced one of the " backward hurdle" moves (it's like swinging your leg back over a high bicycle seat to get off). I "pulled something" and had soreness in the hip for 4 months afterward that made it difficult to get out of bed in the morning and sit at movies! Don't expect you will swing or move your leg as high or wide as the person demonstrating the routine in the picture. For the "hurdle" moves, for example, start by putting a tall cereal box on the ground/floor next to the side you will be lifting over the "hurdle". Perform the forward and backward "hurdle" moves such that your leg and foot completely clear the box as you swing over it, without straining. This will demonstrate the approximate starting height you can safely "hurdle". Raise the height as you are able. The same tentative approach should be used for other moves. Start low, progress as you can without a straining effort. By week's end you should see improvement in mobility.
The 1st week you will WARM UP with a brisk walk before you run/walk at faster pace. The plan's ratio of minutes running/walking faster to walking, or the R:W RATIO, and the total minutes for each session is taken from a "beginner to 5k" plan (see the PDF). It's designed to increase the amount of time you spend running (or moving at greater effort), compared to walking over the 4 weeks, and to increase the total time of the session, but NOT BOTH at the same time. THE RATIO IS A GUIDELINE. Try to adhere, but if it becomes too difficult, scale back your effort (go slower) or decrease the distance.
POST-RUN STRETCHES http://www.active.com/fitness/Articles/10-Post-Workout-Stretches-Everyone-Should-Do can be done after the session (I do them before and after because I feel better running). On the PDF I have worked out how much time it should take to do 1-4, and 6,7. If you are laser focused on the task it will take less than 7 minutes. If not, it really should not take more than 10 minutes. If you have a problem with performing the Quadriceps stretch while balancing on one leg standing up, try it lying on each side. I often start this way, as my left knee is a problem and it's hard to grasp my left foot standing up. Once loosened up I can do it standing. You may not wish to do the upper body stretches, but i find my shoulders and back are fatigued after a long run and all-over I feel better doing them to prevent rounded shoulders and a stiff back.
WATER AND FOOD for ENERGY: you wont need either, most likely, if you hydrate before and after.
NEXT POST WILL DISCUSS WEEK 2.
GET YOUR SHOES READY TO GO!!!
why Not me?
This hilarious book by comedy writer and actress Mindy Kaling is definitely "chick lit"; she says it herself. I had no intention of buying it or reading it, although I love her portrayals of women on TV. Even the commercials she's in are funny. But I happened across an article in Glamour magazine while waiting in an office, that reprinted the last chapter with her book's title "Why Not Me?". It was a "Eureka" moment. What she said, I thought, pertained to work situations, relationships, and running. In this chapter she answered at length a question put to her the year before by a young girl asking how she found confidence. At the time, Kaling was tired and gave an answer that was without much insight.
In her new answer in the book, she says confidence must be "earned" through hard, very very hard, work. She recalls a childhood experience in which she had received a trophy at a basketball camp for being best dressed, not for working at improving her skills. Her mother, an ob/gyn (this is why Mindy plays one on "The Mindy Project") took it from a place of prominent display in their home and told her daughter she should not be proud of a trophy given so she would feel bad about herself! Mindy resolved to earn trophies after that experience. Ms. Kaling says now she realizes that in earlier Hollywood years, when she was not confident in her comedy writing for "The Office", she was justified. It took hard work over 11 years in her field to give her the confidence to stand up to judgements about her writing and acting, as well as looks, weight, and celebrity. "Because confidence is like respect, you have to earn it."
That chapter captures the essence of earned confidence in competitive running and walking: it doesn't come easily. There are so many confusing routines (strength training, stretching, foam rolling, warm-ups. intervals, hill repeats, etc) to learn that hopeful participants are likely to be overwhelmed and give up. What Mindy is saying is not to expect confidence at first. Lace up the shoes, follow a training plan, and learn over time the skills and routines you need to compete, like she has done in building her comedy career. It will take a "tiniest bit of bravery" to take steps toward being someone new and doing something new, and persistent hard work. But you will earn confidence. And that's what makes running races, personal or organized, so exciting!
I ran one short "fun run" a year for many years. That can be a derisive term to runners who try to take their sport seriously. But that's what was available to me, and those races weren't fun. If I registered for a longer or more respectable race and tried to train, I developed tendinitis. Somehow it wasn't obvious to me that I wasn't training properly. I had no confidence that I could make it to race day uninjured. I secretly blamed my weight but saw other heavier runners do well. As the years passed it seemed hopeless that I would ever be good at something I really liked to do. But when I did get on the right track, convinced of the importance of all the related routines, finishing near the top of my age group became a realistic goal. I now work more diligently and with perseverance. Each day's work done correctly means I will be prepared to handle the next day's routine without injury, and the next. This is the earned confidence Mindy Kaling writes about. This is fun!
Make the most of your cooldown or walk
Do you NOT look forward to "rest" days that have as an option cross-training or strength exercises because you feel guilty just resting? It's okay to rest as prescribed of course! But if you truly wish to get in some extra work that has a chance of leading to stronger running or walking and possibly a more athletic physique, you might try incorporating a few upper body exercises in your post-run or walk cool-down. A strong upper body can help propel you forward as you run and will help maintain your form when fatigue sets in.
On your route or path, find a park bench or low wall (steps can work too sometimes). Stop and perform a set of dips and push-ups on an incline. Continue your cool-down/walk on a loop that brings you back to this spot 3 times. If you're in an area or on a path in which that there are 3 stops at which you can perform these exercises, like a park, you won't need to loop around. Runners World™ has a video (see below) that shows how to perform traditional upper body exercises properly. Triceps dips are done on a chair, but you will perform them on the bench or low wall. Incline push-ups are shown as an alternate to those done on the floor. As the video instructs, if your form breaks, this is a signal to stop.
If you are new to upper body exercises, start slow, with 3-5 repetitions in each set; otherwise repeat as many as you can comfortably finish at first, doing 1 set of each exercise at each of the 3 stops. Some training programs suggest doing the most repetitions in the first set, decreasing with each following set (for example 10, 7, 5 or 20, 15, 10 to start depending on your fitness level).
If you tell yourself you cannot return home until the sets are completed, and if there are others nearby, you will be motivated to get them done and in good form. Good luck!!!
http://www.runnersworld.com/workouts/upper-body-strength-for-runners
Should have checked facts first. Bridge length is measured at 5 miles not 7 miles.
http://www.mackinacbridge.org/facts--figures-16/
Welcome everyone!
This entire website is actually a huge post. It puts down in print much of what I've needed to learn over the years to 'keep on, keeping on' in running competition and make it an activity that contributes to my total well-being. It tends to speak to those who must go it alone in this sport, because that's been my story. But like many runners, solo and in packs, I've been motivated by learning about new ways to get the most out of training, new gear to make it fun, and what others have done to improve performance and perseverance. I feel part of this community, whether I am out there alone on a pre-dawn training run with a headlamp wrapped around my wrist to show the way, or in the middle of a weekend race with a chip that will record my time across start and finish lines.
I think there are those out there who, perhaps in cheering a spouse or friend on in a race, wish to join in but are reluctant to ask for all the help they need to get to that start line. They may have made several attempts, met obstacles, and given up. In the state of Michigan, "timmies" is the name that is given to persons who are afraid (timid) to drive their own car on the 7 mile-long Mackinac Bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The Bridge Authority will arrange to have someone drive for them in some circumstances. That's an extreme condition. If you're kind of a "timmie" when it comes to competition, EARNED RUNS can't drive you, but can provide directions. Get that bib, pin it on, and feel the urge to move forward fast.
BRIDGE TO PHYSICAL SELF
Running, walking, and fitness activities enable us to experience our physical selves in a world mostly accessed through use of fingers on a mobile device.
Finished my first 50K challenge, a virtual but real effort April 6, 2021. Qualifies me as an ultra-marathoner! All rights reserved.
EARNED RUNS is edited and authored by me, runner and founder. I began participating in road races before 5Ks were common. I've been a dietitian, practiced and taught clinical pathology, and been involved with research that utilized pathology. I am fascinated with understanding the origins of disease as well as health.
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