The Stationary Bike: My New Nemesis

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I rode my stationary bike today. Given the level of mental and physical effort involved, I kind of feel like there should be a parade thrown in my honor or at least some sort of commerative plaque involved. Barring that, I'll give you a rundown on how it went.

Today's FURMAN workout called for 45 minutes on the bike. Seven minutes at an easy pace, 30 minutes at a moderate pace, and 8 minutes cooldown at an easy pace.

I haven't been on a bike in years so I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I also went in thinking of all the leg muscles I've built up from running the past several years and that I was only being asked to do a moderate workout.

"It will be a little challenging but not too bad," were my thoughts as I hopped on the bike and started the timer. "I've got this."

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Furman Training: Run Less Run Faster

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I've spent the last couple of weeks researching various training programs. I'm running the Chicago Marathon on October 11th, which means my "go" date for summer training is June 21st... right around the corner.

After reading and discussing the matter with several knowledgeable running friends, I've decided to put my fate in the hands of the Furman marathon training program. My friend Thad, known in the blogging sphere as Runnerdude, posted a recent entry about the program.

The appeal of the program is that you only run 3 days a week. The flip side of that is these are focused (read: hard) runs. No casual chit-chatting with fellow runners on this program. The first run is intervals on the track and the pacing charts are brutal. The second run is a tempo run, usually run at 70-80% effort. The final run is the long run but unlike most programs that encourage you to do LSR's (long slow runs), this program keeps you moving at almost race pace. And the mileage is insane. Week one kicks off with a 13-miler and I think we do our first 20 miler by week 4. Most programs spend all summer building up to the 20 miler.

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