Beach Workout

I.S.T.B.

I Survived The Beach – workout that is!

Whew! What an interesting experience! On the average Fall Marathon training schedule, my coach sets aside Tuesday nights as “Hill Workouts”. I’ve attended hills in the past and I know what a huge difference they’ve made in my Half Marathon performance time. I know a lot of people say that hill workouts aren’t necessary, but I believe in them!

For instance, my first “real” Half Marathon time rang in around 2 hours and 28 minutes. At that time, I didn’t think I could ever run any faster…really. I felt as if I gave that race my all. (That race was in February.)

December of the same year, (after training all Fall on hills once per week), I ran a Half Marathon time of 2 hours and 12 minutes.

The following December (again after training all Fall on hills once per week – and ramping up my mileage to train for a Full Marathon), I ran my current Half Marathon PR time of 2 hours and 1 minute.

I’m not saying that running hills alone helped me reach my goal times – I’m just saying that it definitely contributed. So for all of the “hill haters”, I am a believer!! :0)

Ok onto my real reason for this blog. I live in Southwest Louisiana. Our elevation is completely flat. If you want to find a hill, you have to run a parking garage or a bridge. For a group of 20-ish people, that’s not the safest idea (neither is running a parking garage or a bridge by yourself but you know what I mean)….

At one time (ie: my entire life up until a few months ago), my town HAD an outdoor man-made hill that was used for concert purposes. Unfortunately, that hill no longer exists.

Like a good running coach, ours found another solution.

The Beach.

Yep, the good old lovely beach.

I’ve run this workout the past two weeks and let me tell you, this workout is like hills on STEROIDS.

 

Our coach sets cones out along the beach and as a group, we run four timed runs in and out of the cones – with breaks in between. I almost died. Seriously.

 

Never in my life have I worked SO hard for just 2 measly miles! I’m not going to lie, this run was tough and it hurt…but I felt amazing after it was all said and done!

After the run was over, we ran a cool-down….on the sand, of course!

This running in sand business is not to be played around with, especially when the sand is not packed down.

Apparently the beach does have a slight elevation. Great. A hill workout combined with sand. My idea of fun!

 

My peeps after the run!

So there you have it. I’ve completed this workout twice and I’m still alive! This was a TOUGH workout and I’m crossing my fingers that my “new hill” a.k.a. The Beach will help me towards reaching this year’s goal! :0) Can’t say I didn’t try at least!

Have you ever tried running in sand? What did you think?

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