Booty Lock

I actually decided on this topic last night after my strength workout, but didn't get a chance to post. This morning, however, I amazingly have nothing of the sort. I have a feeling that the booty lock is just biding it's time and will hit me up oh-so-good after my trainer workout tonight.

Last week, I began my strength training for the new year. The routine basically goes like this: various one-legged squat exercises on Monday, pure core work on Wednesday, and a full-body circuit of bodyweight excercises on Friday. I'm also throwing in some extra push-ups and chin-ups even when they are not assigned because my upper body is so weak.

That was supposed the plan for the next eight weeks or so, but Coach Dave attended a big coaching conference at East Tennessee State University over the weekend and I think he may be cooking up some big plans. My husband commented on my lack of power a while back (which is a correct assessment), so it appears that my early season training is going to focused on building muscle and trying to snap off some crank arms.

I really like this approach as it is something that always intrigued me in my days as a college distance runner, but I never really got a chance to try it out. What I'm refering to is the idea of training for speed before endurance as opposed to more widely accepted idea of putting in 12 or more weeks of long aerobic work before speed and power come into play. It seems counterintuitive that I'm training for power when my season is focused on endurance races, but it really does make sense. I've always had naturally good baseline endurance, but have never been able to put together the fast with the long. You need both to win races. So I'm going into this with the idea that you need to be strong enough to turn a given gear ratio at 60 rpms before you can be fast enough to turn it at 90 rpms.

Plus, it should help me in getting over those annoying little grassy humps in 'cross next year...