Training & Nutrition - If you think you're in shape ... try this!

1. Warm up with about 10 minutes of short sprints. You can do this back and forth in your driveway if it is long enough (about 20-30 metres), or around the block, sprinting, then using your legs to stop, then sprinting again, etc.

2. Hop for the next 45 minutes or so. You can do this in your driveway or in your basement or in the backyard, or wherever. Hop on one foot, hop on the other foot, hop on both feet. Try the triple jump hop (standing on your left foot, hop forward landing on your left foot, then hop forward landing on your right foot, then hop forward, landing on both feet, then hop forward one more time as far as you can go landing on both feet). Try your own hopping pattern to cross the backyard or basement. Try the same pattern again. Try a different pattern. Add in a little bit of skipping or more sprints here and there if you feel like you just don't have another hop in you, but return to hopping as soon as you can. Keep this up for about 45 minutes.

3. Stretch for about 5 minutes, and you're finished the workout.


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That's pretty much what I did in my physical education class yesterday. The class is about teaching us to be able to teach physical education, and the instructor ran us through our paces yesterday.

I thought I was in good shape! I cycle a lot and I walk a lot. But this morning ... and all day, actually, I've barely been able to move!!! I woke up muscles in my legs I didn't know where there, and also used muscles in my back and shoulders I haven't used in a while ... I'm guessing that was when I was trying to hop really long distances and swung my arms to help with the motion.

I've either got to figure out how to add hopping to my routine ... or make a point of hitting the gym this winter!!

see plyometrics. Fitchick puts them in her article about every other month in Bicycling.

being "in shape" is sport-specific. Unless you do a sport that entails short sprints, hopping & jumping (say, basketball), I would question the utility of the workout. 45 minutes of hopping on a paved surface also sounds like a recipe for tibial stress fractures. As a physical therapist, I try to keep workouts focused on functional goals-- not just making people sore for the sake of a hard workout. As far as cycling goes, I'll bet you are in good shape,

This was sport specific ... in the sense of teaching us how to teach children the track and field events and other similar things. We were experimenting with ideas of various training techniques ... for example, instead of teaching them the triple jump step right away, we'd get them to experiment with various hopping patterns on their own first, and learning each other's hopping patterns, and then introduce them to the triple jump pattern.

So since we're being taught how to teach, we were the students, and we were going through all the moves.

Only ... I haven't done track and field events in YEARS!! It was a lot of fun while we were doing it ... but not so much the next day when I tried to walk!

Since we're starting to get into off-season mode, I welcome this kinda stuff.

I had one instructor at a health club, drop dead gorgeus, incredibly fit, very sweet, but I named her Queen of Pain b/c she loved coming up with stuff like this. Knowing i'm a cyclist, she loved to hammer my upper body. Had me doing 5 lb dumbbells overhead, holding them straight up, as I hopped on one foot in a slalom thru some cones, then the other foot back.

Hated it, but I loved the results I got.

And, of course loved watching her get sweaty wearing workout clothes, but that's a different topic.

Well be sure to hop safely ... bend your knees, hop on a softer surface (i.e. carpet, grass, gymnasium flooring), etc. etc.

Actually, I am trying to figure out how I can start skipping ... jumping rope. That might provide a similar workout. Unfortunately I think the ceilings in my house are too low for that sort of thing, so I'm not sure where to do it. I also haven't owned a skipping rope since I was a kid.

But today ... to stretch out my muscles ... I decided to go and ride a century (100 miles). :D It's the first time in a long time that my legs have felt tired at the end of a century. My legs have been sore for various reasons ... especially when I've done a lot of climbing ... but they haven't been completely worn out like this in a long time.

They might have skipping ropes at the gym at school. Or take your own & find a corner of the gym where you can practice.

5 minutes of jumping rope & I'm pooped.

Skipping rope is one of the best cardio exercises around. When I worked at the Hollywood YMCA, we had an instructor that had a 30 minute skipping class. He was a former boxer so skipping came natural to him...his workouts were always challenging.