“You’re just a girl. Don’t worry about not being able to do pull-ups,” I said to Kim when she struggled trying to pull herself up. It had the desired effect, and I continued to remind her throughout the workout whenever I thought she was slacking that she was ‘just a girl’. She is a girl…but as driven to perform as on human I’ve ever known. Still…it’s fun to get a rise from her.
And she gets one from me, too. Not intentionally…but I can’t help but push myself whenever I’m with these young, fit runners I used to coach. I want to show them that not only am I not old…that I’m getting younger. We’d just completed a rock lifting station when I told her to “follow me.” I took off at a sprint into the woods yelling over my shoulder that we needed to find things to jump and run around (and not into). I continued with her hot on my heels for 30 seconds by which time I’d looped back to the bridle trail…and recovery. We did plenty of high skips along the way and included picnic table hops, pole climbing and a new version of abdominal work on the swing set. With feet on the swing and facing down with hands on the earth as in a push-up position and our bodies fully extended, we brought our feet in towards our chests before returning them to the extended position. After a set of 15 or so, we were both ‘feeling the burn’ in our cores and our shoulders were beginning to fail…trying to keep us from doing a nose plant. Kim would call me later to say that her abs were killing her…attributing it to this move and climbing the poles. She’s right…they really get the core.
I conducted a fitness evaluation and wrote a training program for another of the Rite Aid Cleveland Half Marathoners. Two years ago, April Halm was diagnosed with asthma and placed on steroids and given an inhaler that she was told she would use for the rest of her life. She thought she had another option…changed into some running clothes, headed out the door …and ran one block. She was overweight and out of shape, but determined to improve her situation. And here she is today, 25 pounds lighter, medicine and inhaler free, and having run a couple of road races, but preparing to run the Rite Aid Half Marathon. She took the fitness test, scoring 314 points and is looking forward to the challenge of completing the distance. As with the other runners I’ve worked with so far, I believe the fitness evaluation…finding out where they are…has motivated them to consider total fitness and set achievable goals. Anyone doing this will be more likely to succeed at their fitness-related goals. I found out quickly that April is someone who challenges herself…she struggled to do every last push-up…and this told me a lot about her and the program I could design. I encouraged her to think more about running fast than just running and that we should continue on with new targets and goals after Rite Aid. I think she’s in.
Survival Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150.
Calories burned: 600.
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