Running With Your Heart

When summer ended, I tried to sign up for the next Strength and Tone Fitness class at the community center. I was still at least a week out from the start and the classes for after Labor Day was full! Off to the library I went to find a different DVD workout. I haven’t tried any Kettlebell workouts before. I think there was a spike in popularity while I was in college, though, but it wasn’t enough for me to join. I picked up this DVD from the library, “Absolute Beginners: Kettlebell 3-in-1” and it isn’t enough for me to go buy that specific weight design, yet anyways!

For the workouts, I used one-8lb dumbbell. The DVD offered two versions: beginner and intermediate. I did two sets of four workouts, with two weeks between sets (unintentionally for the 2-week break, life happens). I didn’t vary the weight but I did keep it consecutive days. The beginner workout version did a few different moves: lower and upper body, then repeated everything for a second round. The intermediate workout version did different moves from the beginner version, no repeating rounds, and added a short cardio interval between each maneuver. Each version topped off by 20-minutes.

The first thing I noticed was that each workout was cardio-inducing. Even the beginner version without the cardio interval. Next, I noticed how my leg muscles burned. By Day 4, a rest day was absolutely required. I wondered if it was partially due to having hiked at Indiana Dunes National Park the weekend before. Not that that was of great distance but that it was a bit of walking on sand and trudging up and down sandy hills. It was probably the new workout I was doing day-after-day.

Sometimes I did a short 1-2 mile run before the strength session, no rhyme or reason to when. The temps weren’t really starting to drop just yet, hence why I kept it short. Still a few 70-80 degree days. The pace for these were 10:something to 11:something. But anything was better than nothing! When the second set ended, the legs didn’t burn as much, no soreness from kettlebell workouts.

I went for a long run on October 11; there’s no reason I should have gone for the 6-miles given my super low mileage. (I advise against this to new runners…) But everything was perfect! My average pace was 9:40 with negative splits. I couldn’t believe it! It felt so good!! Does it have to do with cooler temps being in the 50s F that day or was it the kettlebell workouts?

This evening, I quickly looked up what benefits Kettlebell workouts are to runners. To summarize:

• Strengthening the glutes, hamstrings, and quads
• Low-impact cardio
• Increase “muscular power”
• Improve mobility in terms of range of motion

Well, this makes sense! No need to dispute. I would say my 8 kettlebell strength sessions weren’t enough to increase “muscular power.” Ha ha! Though, the 6-mile run was hilly and did feel easier than of all of my spring and summer runs!

Now, I’ve been thinking about what races to sign up for next. I think it would be fun to try a one-mile race and see how I can tackle that. Therefore, this week, with little convincing I got my friend and husband to do a little ‘speed’ workout! The plan was to start with a short warmup run, 4-8×1-minute “hard” effort with a 1-2 minute recovery run between each hard effort, then a cool down run. Then I would cook steak for dinner.

It felt hard!! I would have been content to stop after #4. Then after #6. But we kept going! The boys combined the last two intervals for one long one. I ran into their cool down on my last split. In the end, I was happy we did it all. And it was fun. Felt really great! I’m eager to run another interval workout! I need to figure out how to buy/cook better steaks. It was alright for home and being my 2nd time cooking steak…

I am all signed up for the next strength and tone class starting next week. The staff member said it was already filling up; they’ve heard great things about this instructor! 😊 Now I need my next DVD to work on core… the instructor ends each class with 40 seconds to 1 minute plank, I’m in trouble!!