MapMyRun

If you do much running, especially on paths or off road you need to check out MapMyRun. We've all taken the car out and driven our route to estimate home long our favorite run is. With MapMyRun that's a thing of the past. Just sign up and you can look at a Street View, Satellite, or Terrain view (among others) of your route. Just click along your route and it will give you total distance. You can view elevation to see the how much you route rises and falls over its length. You can save you route and either keep it private or share it with others. You can even download an app for your IPhone to take it on the go with you.

Here is an overview of some of the great features:

Search for Runs: This allows you to search for runs by location and keyword. If you travel much or want to look for other local routes this is a great help.

Daily Log: This allows you to enter information once a day with a variety of personal data. You can track how much sleep you got, your morning and evening body weight, morning and evening resting heart rates, ect.

Races and Events: It will allow you to go search and find the information you need to prepare for your upcoming 5K or Marathon. At this point this feature is not working.

Activity Log: The activity log lets you translate your entered routes in to actual workouts and track them on a regular basis. On the first page of the “Add Activity” section you can enter start and end times, the type of workout (run, hike, bike, etc.), quality, effort, and the shoes you were wearing during the workout. The next page gives you a place to log distance, heart rate, pace, route (linking in the routes directly from the site), total time (hh:mm:ss), and speed (in MPH).

Calendar: The Calendar shows activities.

Map Import: You can import map data from many GPS devices, *.GPX file, or directly from gmap-pedometer.Running News: This is running news and information. The Running News section, like the Races and Events, seems to be still a work in progress.

This really is an amazing tool. Click the link at the top of the page to try it out!

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Pyramids to increase Pushups, Situps, and Pullups

Need something new, try this program to test your toughness in three of the most time proven exercises. It is a lot harder than it looks.

Do a set of each exercise: pushups, pullups, and situps. Round down to the nearest 5 unless your max is under 10 (for example 32 would be 30, 48 would be 45, but a max of 7 would stay at 7). This will be your max for that exercise. If your max is less than 10 you will pyramid by 1's. If you max is between 10 and 20 you will pyramid by 2's. If your max is between 20 and 40 pyramid by 5's. Greater than 40 pyramid by 10's

So the workout would pyramid up to you adjusted max and then back down, all by a set number. Something like this:

Pushups (max 45) : 10-20-30-40-45-40-30-20-10
Situps (max 32) : 5-10-15-20-25-30-25-20-15-10-5
Pullups (max 7) : 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

You will move from one exercise to the next in a circuit, taking a 1-2 minute rest after all three are done. Then move to the next step on the pyramid. You will continue until the longest pyramid is complete. If you finish a shorter pyramid, just continue doing the lowest amount on that pyramid until you complete the others. So in the above example our workout would look like this:

Pushup 10-20-30-40-45-40-30-20-10-10-10-10-10
Situps 5-10-15-20-25-30-25-20-15-10-5-5-5
Pullups 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

You will be working for 13 total sets taking you about 30-45 minutes depending on your pace. You will have completed 285 pushups, 190 situps, and 49 pullups. This workout is great for doing during vacation, off-season workout, or preparing for military or police PT tests. If you struggle with these exercises then do pushups from your knees, crunches, and chair-assisted pullups. Continue with the easier versions for three weeks, then retest yourself to set a new max on the original exercises.

You should do these exercises three days a week, alternating with cardio days (preferably running if preparing for a PT test). Do this program for three weeks. Then either retest your max after two days of rest, or jump back into your old weight routine. This method is a proven to boost your max dramatically in each of these exercises.

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