Core body workouts abound on the Internet, and on your TV. I don’t know how much stock I really take in all of these workout plans that you can buy online. I may not be doing the best workouts in the world but I am working my main core muscle groups. As I stated in my running plan post I am running Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. In between I plan to do core body exercises on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Hopefully the combination of muscle workouts and running will allow me to condition my body to be better able to maintain a decent pace throughout and entire marathon.

Currently my workouts consist of the simplest forms of exercise, push ups and sit ups. The sit ups are actually what we would consider crunches, not true full sit ups. You may mock my choice of workouts, or you may not. Either way I prefer to do exercises which utilize only my body weight as resistance, and no machines. By not using a machine to workout you are actually using more muscles for each rep as your body is working to stabilize itself during the exercise. The key to any workout is having proper form, when you have proper form you minimize the possibility for injury and maximize the effectiveness of the workout.

A Good Form Push up

Lay on the ground with hands placed as wide as your shoulder or just a little bit further. Stay straight and bend your elbows to lower yourself to the ground, then extend your arms back up, rinse and repeat. Make sure you are keeping your body straight, as if there were a steel rod running from your head down to your ankles.

Check out this video at Run to Win to see how to do a good push up.

A Good Form Crunch

Lay on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, place your hands gently behind your head to support it, not to push it. You should then curl up your shoulders towards your hips and trying to keep your eyes looking at the ceiling. Slowly tighten your abs and lift your body to no more than 35 degrees. Make sure your lower back does not leave the floor.

My Plan

I am trying out the 100 push up challenge as well as the 200 sit up challenge. This is an online “program” which is supposed to get you to where you can do 100 consecutive push ups and 200 consecutive sit-ups. You start the program by completing an initial test which consists of doing the maximum number of good form sit ups/push ups. You then use this number to establish the level at which you are going to train. The programs call for three workouts a week and consist of a total of 6 weeks of workouts. I completed my second day of week one last night and so far I am happy with the programs. I know I am going to have to supplement my workouts with some additional exercises, but for now I think this is a good solid start to core body exercises.

Because this is my first time around I am actually going to rely, at least for this first half of training, on the automated Smart Coach at Runners World to spit out a training program for me. To get a basic training regimen all you need to do is provide a recent race time, for me it was 25:47 in a 5k I did around a year ago. You then select the race you are training for, I selected a half-marathon because I plan to run a half in November which will give me around 13 weeks to train for the full. I chose the lowest number of miles for what I am currently running, selected to train “Very Hard”, and my long day is on Sunday. The program is for 15 weeks which will spit me out right at the half I am wanting to run.

I intend to run three days a week and then starting in the 8th week I will pick up a 4th day of running. This will gradually move me from 6 miles per week at the beginning to 20+ miles per week by the half marathon. I am a little concerned because it is still crazy hot around here and I don’t do well in the heat but I just hope to stay well hydrated and push through the heat to get on track. I would rather run in snow and 32 degrees, than any hot summer day. Once I run the half marathon I will reset and generate a new program for the full marathon I plan to run in March. The following image shows the first 8 weeks of my program:

In addition to three days a week running I plan to do three days of core muscle exercises. My week will play to out to be Monday, Wednesday, Friday core exercises then on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday I run.

I plan to post regular twitter updates about my workouts so make sure you follow me on twitter. In addition to my short twitter updates I will provide a weekly summary of my progress so be sure to subscribe to either my free RSS feed or for free email updates.