plyo, et cetera

peter and I did the usual monday night run. somewhere around three miles. the liberty loop and back. it's a good, quick run to stretch the legs.

on tuesday I went up to steiner and did a two mile warm up run on the treadmill. then I got out a jump rope and did a ten minute plyometric routine. so good. such a fabulous workout. ten minutes is all you need, and it magically makes you a quicker, more efficient runner. [I have a testimony of it. this was the magic ingredient to my fastest marathon ever. I never thought I could run that fast for 26.2 miles and then somehow I did--without really training hard for it! all it took was a ten minute plyo workout once a week in the last half of my training, I swear!] anyway, I did my plyo then I stretched out with a two mile (does the distance on the eliptical machine actually translate to actual miles? I always wonder.) eliptical workout. good times for sure.

here is a peak into my plyo-jump rope routine. I like to break it up into 30 second segments.

mix up any of the following:

*easy jump roping or 'recovery jumping', if you will
*jumping from side to side across the rope
*jumping forward across the rope from a standing position
*jumping roping with high knees
*jump roping with feet together and no extra bounces between jumps

this workout is actually surprisingly tough and your calves will kill in the following days until you get used to it. I am a firm believer in this. trust me.

wednesday was swimteam. I really love swimteam. I led the lane. swam hard. did a lot of IM. one day I'll master the fly. and my backstroke felt surprisingly better. it was good.

I didn't run today because I wasn't feeling well. tomorrow I'm going to do an easy run to stretch out the calves, etc. then saturday is a ten miler. and hopefully a ride with the buchanan's and maria. it should be fun, can't wait!