STRENGTH & RUNNING WORKOUT

Welcome to the latest edition of workout Wednesday when each week I share a running or runner-specific strength workout. This week you are getting the best of both worlds because we are combining strength moves with a running interval workout. It's a great way to get in your strength and running in on the same day. This works best in a gym setting when you have access to a treadmill, but you could certainly do the run portion outdoors with a timer.

strength and running workout. Free PDF printable download. Save to Pinterest for later

CIRCUIT ONE

There are three exercises in the first circuit. Move through all three exercises with little to no rest. Move swiftly but not so fast that you sacrifice form. Proper form is always more important than speed. After you complete the exercises, take a short rest or water break and repeat two more times.

LUNGE

Starting with your feet hip width apart and your toes pointed straight ahead, engage your core and keep your back straight. Take one large step with your right leg to lunge forward until your front knee is lined up over your ankle and your back knee is nearly touching the floor. Once you are in the lunge position push back up to starting position. Perform 8 reps on each leg.

PLANK ROW

Start in a straight-arm high plank position with your wrists directly under your shoulders and your legs slightly wider than hip width for stability. Keep your body in a straight line from your shoulders to ankles while engaging your core. Do not allow your hips to hike up or sag down.

With your core tight and your glutes engaged lift your right elbow to row as you bend your elbow up toward the ceiling. Keep your elbows close to your side, do not allow them to flare out. You can do this exercise with or without weights. Perform eight reps on each side

BRIDGE

Lie on your back with your knees bent and push your hips off the floor so your body is in a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. Push your shoulders into the mat. Squeeze your glutes and engage your abs. Pause for 1-2 seconds at the top of the the move. Perform 12 reps.

CIRCUIT TWO: RUN

Run for 90 seconds at an easy effort pace, then run for 30 seconds at a hard effort. Your hard effort pace should leave you out of breath. Repeat for a total of 4 cycles. 

CIRCUIT THREE

Move through the three exercises with little to no rest. Complete the circuit three times

ELBOW PLANK TO SIDE PLANK

Position your elbows on the floor with your shoulders directly over your elbows. Your body should be in a straight line parallel to the floor. Engage your core while breathing normally. Squeeze your glutes. Be careful not to sink your hips or raise your butt in the air. Do not clasp hands in front as this throws off your alignment. 

Twist up into an elbow side plank position with your shoulder directly over your elbow. Don't allow your hips to drop. Hold the position for 1-2 seconds in the top position. Alternate sides and perform eight reps.

BICYCLE CRUNCH

Lie flat on the floor with the lower back pressed into the ground. Place your hands on either side of your head, do not lock your fingers or pull on your head. Lift your head and shoulder off the floor and touch your right elbow to the left knee. At the same time, straighten your right leg, keeping it several inches off of the floor. Alternate sides to repeat the motion you'd make while pedaling a bicycle. Perform eight reps on each side. 

SUPERMAN

Lie face down on the floor with your arms extended in front of you, raise your arms, chest and thighs off of the floor (like you are flying like superman) Pause for 1-2 seconds at the top position. Perform eight reps.

Download a printable version of this workout.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes in the comments, on Instagram or on Twitter. 

Take a rest day or schedule easy effort paced-runs in the day or two following this workout. Always allow proper recovery after a high intensity workout. Adaptation (getting stronger and faster) happens during the rest period after the workout, not during the workout itself. If you don't allow your body the proper recovery time you won't see the full benefit of your workouts!

Questions? I'd love to help.

Coach Lea

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5 WAYS YOU MAY BE SABOTAGING YOUR RESULTS

It can be frustrating if you feel like you are working hard but still not seeing the results you desire. Human metabolism is complicated and it is not always as simple as the common advice to eat less and move more. Here are five common, easy-to-miss ways you may be sabotaging your fat loss results. 

5 ways you may be sabotaging your results. save to Pinterest for later.

Not getting enough quality sleep

It's sometimes seen as a badge of honor to function well on a little sleep, but sleep is an often overlooked factor for fat loss. Most of our body's recovery processes happen during sleep. Sleep plays a role in stress levels, recovery and regulation of hormones. Aim for 7-8 hours of high quality sleep each night for best results. If you are currently getting considerably less, start by adding 30 minutes to an hour each night. Create and follow a sleep ritual to help develop the habit of a good night's sleep. People are often looking for the supplement or diet that will help them reach their goal while completely overlooking the basics, like sleep, that can have a much bigger impact. 

Not managing stress

High stress can cause you to hold on unwanted weight, can inhibit recovery from workouts, can cause you feel hungrier and potentially overeat. Everything is connected. During high stress times make an effort to spend at least 15-30 minutes a day in stress-relieving activities. Read a book, take a bubble bath, meditate, pray, walk, stretch, foam roll, get a massage, listen to music or anything other healthy activity that puts you in a relaxed state. 

Not eating enough

You may be tempted to severely limit your calories in order to get faster results, but the body doesn't usually respond well to drastic changes. You don't turn up the temperature in the oven to cook your turkey faster and your body doesn't work that way either. If you eat too little for long periods your metabolism may slow down to compensate. With limited food intake you may not be getting the necessary vitamins and minerals, which can cause you to feel tired and foggy-brained. Lastly, if you are severely limiting your calorie intake, you're more likely to overindulge later which will eventually sabotage your efforts.

A better strategy is to eat about 500 calories under maintenance level for a moderate calorie deficit. 

Eating "Diet" foods

Food marketing is tricky. Foods are often marketed with misleading labels to make people think they are making a healthier choice. Labels like fat-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, fresh, natural and organic are often slapped on unhealthy, high calorie, processed foods. If you don't pay attention to the nutrition label and read the ingredient list you may be eating foods that aren't healthy at all. Flavored yogurt cups are one of the worst offenders of a junk food disguised as a health food. They are usually loaded with processed ingredients and can have as much sugar as a cup of ice cream. Read the labels and ignore the marketing to make sure you are eating mostly whole foods from nature for best results. 

Focusing on weight loss and not fat loss

It can be detrimental to get too attached to the number on the scale. The scale only tells a part of the story: your body weight. However if you are trying to lose weight, you should focus on losing fat, not weight. When the number goes down on the scale it could mean you lost fat (good outcome), it could mean you lost water (neutral outcome, neither good or bad) or it could mean you lost muscle (bad outcome). A lower number on the scale is not always a good result. In order to maintain muscle as we lose weight we need to consume adequate amounts of protein and perform some sort of resistance training on a regular basis. Losing muscle can hurt your ability to keep the weight off, which can sabotage your long term results. Focus on non-scale victories like body measurements, sleep quality, performance and how your clothes fit. When we are training properly, we sometimes shrink in size while maintaining the same scale weight. 

Losing weight usually requires a lifestyle changes. Take it slow, be patient and learn to enjoy the journey. Focus on developing the healthy habits that will help you reach your goals. Here are 10 daily healthy habits that can change your life. Need help? My nutrition habits coaching program has three openings. See if you are a good fit. 

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Coach Lea

How to Find Your Perfect Running Pace

The biggest mistake most new runners make is that they start out too fast and burn out quickly. One of the biggest mistakes intermediate runners make is that they run too fast, too often and don't allow for proper recovery. You see a trend here? Whether we are impressing our Instagram friends with speedy paces or we are trying to achieve a pace that is outside of our current fitness level, most of us can learn a lot by putting the GPS away and running by feel.

If we set aside the runner ego that tells us we have to run fast all the time, then we can run by feel on our slow runs and our fast runs to perform better, recover better and reduce chance of injury. So throw away that GPS watch and let's get started. (Ok, that thing is expensive, maybe don't throw it away, just set it aside for now.)

The best way to run by feel is using the Rate of Perceived Exertion chart and the talk test. 

how to find your perfect running pace. save to Pinterest for later.

WHY RPE?

Every runner is different. A nine minute mile pace may feel like a RPE 4-6 for one runner and a RPE 9 for another. It's important in your training to work at your own fitness level and not according to arbitrary paces (especially when following workouts on the internet). If you always run according to your personal effort level, you will be able to choose the appropriate paces for your interval runs, long runs and recovery runs and progress accordingly. 

RPE 1 NO EFFORT

You are probably participating in marathon of the NetFlix variety at this effort level. Sitting. No effort at all.

RPE 2-3 LIGHT EFFORT

A light effort may be a moderate to brisk walk. It feels easy and you could likely go an extremely long distance before getting tired.

RPE 4-6 MODERATE EFFORT

This effort is a usually a running pace often referred to as conversational pace. It is exactly what it sounds like, you should be able to hold a full conversation with your running partner without taking gasps of breath between words or sentences. My running partner doesn't talk back, but that doesn't stop me. (Note to new runners, it may take 3-6 months before any runs are conversational, this is normal. Just be sure to take plenty of rest days and walk breaks as needed until you get there.)

Easy short runs for recovery and most long runs should be done at conversational pace. Conversational-paced runs should be done the day or two after hard efforts runs or long runs to allow your body to recover. 

RPE 7-8 HARD EFFORT

Hard effort pace is sometimes called tempo pace or comfortably-hard pace. You can usually speak a sentence or two but will need to take gasps of breath. You feel like you are working hard, but you still can maintain the pace over a few miles or long intervals. This is usually the top end of your aerobic threshold.

RPE 9 EXTREMELY HARD EFFORT

At a RPE 9 you can only speak a word or two at a time (and that word just might be a cuss word.) You would not be able to hold this pace for a long time or distance. You usually perform at a RPE 9 pace during sprint intervals. 

RPE 10 MAXIMUM EFFORT

RPE 10 is the top end of the effort chart. You are completely out of breath and unable to talk at all. You would not be able to hold this level of effort for long. It would most likely be appropriate for short sprint intervals.

RPE CHART

Instead of becoming a slave to your GPS watch, let it work for you. Experiment a little bit with pace on your next run. What pace are you running when you are at conversational pace? What is your hard effort pace? What is your max effort pace? Give it a try and let me know how it goes in the comments, on Instagram or on Twitter. The beautiful thing with RPE is that as you adapt and grow faster/stronger the chart adapts with you. 

If you always run your long intervals at RPE 7-8, you will find over time that the pace increases while your effort is the same. Our body adapts to the stresses we place upon it, which means if you run the same pace all the time, it will get easier and your workouts won't be as effective. If you run according to effort and the talk test you will always keep improving. 

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Coach Lea

THE PLAYLIST HIIT RUNNING WORKOUT

I  get most excited and energized by blogging, running and rock music so I am always thrilled when I get the opportunity for a passion trifecta to blog about running and music. 

Welcome to workout Wednesday when each week I share a new running or strength for runners workout. This week we have a fun running workout that takes all the pressure and stress out of your runs and lets you just go with the flow, or the beat of the music. 

The idea is to create a playlist with the beats per minute or BPM in mind. We start with a song with a mid tempo BPM for a moderate pace to warm up and then alternate between higher BPM songs and medium BPM songs until the run is complete. 

We naturally match our stride to the BPM so we may feel motivated to keep up a faster pace in sync with the music. Since most songs are around three minutes long (give or take), a playlist built around BPM can be the perfect high intensity interval workout.

The Playlist HIIT running workout. Save to Pinterest for later.

Start off with a song with a mid tempo BPM to get started, then make the next song on your playlist an uptempo song with 155-185 BPM. Some say 180 is the perfect BPM for runners as it's been claimed that 180 strides per minute is the most efficient turnover. 

How do you find BPM of popular songs? The site songbpm.com lets you enter any song and it returns the BPM. Spotify also has playlists built around BPM, so you can pick and choose your favorite songs to build you own playlist HIIT workout around the music that you love.

If you like alternative rock like I do, your playlist might look something like mine. With this playlist we are alternating between mid tempo and up tempo songs. I created a playlist on Spotify if you want to hear my song selections. Create your own playlist with the music that you love. 

THE PLAYLIST HIIT WORKOUT

Against Me! Don't Lose Touch 120 bpm

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs Phenomena 157 bpm

Band of Skulls - Sweet Sour 127 bpm

The Hives two-timing touch and broken bones 165 bpm

The Black Keys  Howlin for you 133 bpm

Cake the distance 183 bpm

Young the Giant My Body 130 bpm

Millencolin - Ray 197 bpm

The fratellis - Henrietta 122 bpm

The Kills Sour Cherry 160 bpm

Create your own playlist and see how it feels to run by music bpm. As a running coach I will advise you to not try to run faster than your current fitness level. If you can't keep up with the tempo of the song, it's always better to go at your own pace for safety and sanity.

I'd like to thank hubby, the drummer, for a little bit of music education as I put together this post. 

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Coach Lea

What's the Best Diet? 5 Qualities of a Healthy Diet

When I tell people that I am a nutrition habits coach they often ask, what's the best diet? They must assume that I hold all the dieting secrets, and have the inside scoop of the top secret magic diet that will melt all their fat and therefore, all their problems away. Not so fast.

Let's first talk about the word diet. It has a negative connotation. It is becoming a dirty word in the industry. When I mention striving to eat a healthy diet someone inevitability says, "It's not a diet, it's a lifestyle." I agree, the farther we can get away from food rules, the better off most of us will be. 

Your diet is what you eat. You may consume a diet of mostly Cheetos and fast food. While that certainly is not a weight loss diet, it's still a diet. People who have Celiac disease may be on a Gluten-free diet under their doctor's supervision. A weightlifter may be on a high protein diet and an endurance athlete may be on a high carbohydrate diet. Someone who is passionate about animal rights may be on a Vegan diet. Everyone is different and has different dietary needs based on personal preferences, goals and their own body.

There are a lot of weight loss diets circling around. There's the Ketogenic diet, The Atkins diet, the Mediterranean diet. There's Paleo and the Daniel Diet. You may remember once popular diets like Zone diet or the South Beach diet, and while not technically diets per se, concepts like intermittent fasting and Whole 30 have gained popularity. They all follow different protocols but they all promise weight loss results. How can that be? 

How do you know which is the best diet? What is actually healthy for your body? Which diet will cause you to lose those extra pounds once and for all? If you've tried everything from Weight Watchers to the Slim Fast diet of the 90s, you may be a little fed up with the whole process of dieting. The only way to tell what is the best diet for you is to try it, and if you tried them all (like I have) you probably have discovered that diets that severely restrict calories, food groups or entire macronutrients are hard to adhere to, and a diet you don't stick with will never work. 

The truth is almost any diet will be effective if you can stick to it over the long term. It depends on your lifestyle, your preferences and you own body. Some people thrive on a low carb diet, some people turn into a scarier version of the wicked witch of the west (raises hand!). There is no one best diet for everyone, but there may be a best diet for you. 

What's the best diet? 5 qualities of a healthy diet. save to pinterest for later.

THE BEST DIET HAS THE FOLLOWING QUALITIES

1. It's sustainable over the long term.

I would advise my nutrition clients not to waste their time with the cabbage soup diet, unless they plan on only eating cabbage soup for the rest of their lives. The problem with short term diets is they provide short term results. Even if you lost the weight on the "magic" cabbage soup diet, you will likely gain it back once you go off the diet. The best diet is one that works with your lifestyle and you can sustain it for life. Don't bother going on and off diets. Experiment to find something you like and that works for you and stick with it. 

2. Makes you look, feel and perform your best

There is nothing inherently wrong with trying a new way of eating to see if it will work for you. In fact, experimenting with nutrition is encouraged, how else can you learn what your body prefers and needs? The most important thing is to keep note of how this new way of eating makes you look, feel and perform. Don't try to force something that is not working for you. If you feel terrible all the time, your hair is falling out and you don't have the energy to exercise, then it may be time to reevaluate your diet and make adjustments accordingly. Just because something is working for your gym buddy, doesn't mean it will work for you. Everyone will react a little differently.

With that being said, I will also advise you to give it time, because dietary changes can cause temporary reactions that will pass once your body adjusts. It's like giving up caffeine. You will probably deal with terrible headaches for a few days, but it's just your body adapting to the change. Give any new diet adequate time and evaluate how it makes you look, feel and perform. Always be willing to adjust when necessary. 

3. Is well-rounded and it is not severely restrictive.

As humans, we naturally want what we can't have. Any diet that severely restricts calories or macronutrients (like fats or carbs) will be harder to stick to over the long haul for most people. A well-rounded diet will ensure that you are getting the macro and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) that your body needs to feel its best. When you severely restrict your intake, the body reacts with strong hunger signals and most people will eventually cave in to the cravings and overindulge in response. Instead of a restrict/hunger/overindulge cycle, most people do best with a more moderate approach to nutrition by eating a wide variety of mostly whole foods from nature, while allowing some room for treats. Everyone is different and should experiment to find the ideal protein, fat and carb balance. 

4. Allows for indulgences and life balance

Your diet does not exist in a bubble. You have a life to live and your nutrition is a part of your life, not a separate entity. Maybe you could quit your job and live on a weight loss ranch for six months to achieve results, but most of us have lives, friends, careers and families. We have parties, business meetings and holiday celebrations. Spending time with other people and enjoying yourself is a big part of a healthy lifestyle and if you lock yourself in your room in fear of being exposed to a glass of wine or a carbohydrate, then that's not healthy either. The best diet gives you some breathing room to enjoy life. 

5. Puts you in a calorie deficit

I saved the most important point for last. You lose weight when you're in a calorie deficit. That means you lose weight when you consume less calories than you burn. No matter what diet you choose to follow, if you are in a calorie deficit, you will likely lose weight. Of course, it is not always all that simple, because our bodies are complicated, but the first place to start is with a calorie deficit.

If you eat a perfectly organic, grass-fed "clean" diet but still consume more calories than you are burning then you can't expect to lose weight.

One of the reasons that people lose weight on low carb diets is that they stop eating bread, pasta and processed carbohydrates, which cuts out a large amount of calories. One of the reasons people lose weight on low fat diets is because fats have higher calories that carbs and protein, so when you restrict fats, you naturally cut calories. There's no magic in any particular diet. If you work to reduce your calories about 500 a day below what you burn, you should see a 1-2 pound of weight loss per week. (but keep in mind that weight loss is rarely linear. It would be rare to lose two pounds weeks every single week over a long period of time. The two pound a week rule is an average over time.)

If you restrict too much it can have negative consequences. Most people with thrive on a moderate cutback of calories to lose weight. If you are reasonably active, you sleep well, work to keep stress levels low and eat in calorie deficit most of the time, you will likely lose weight. Don't underestimate the importance of sleep and stress management when it comes to fat loss. However, if you seem to be doing everything right but still not losing weight, a doctor or Registered Dietitian can help you run tests to see where there might be other issues preventing fat loss. 

WHAT'S THE BEST DIET?

You see, there is no magic shake, drink, pill or food combination that causes weight loss. The most effective diet is one that you will stick to, that makes you look, feel and perform your best, that is well-rounded and allows for indulgences and most importantly, puts you in a calorie deficit. 

As a nutrition habits coach, it is not my job to tell my clients what to eat. I help educate them on reading nutrition labels and making healthier choices. I provide them with accountability for the choices they make and help them learn to listen to their bodies so they can eat in a way the works best for them. I have clients on different types of diets that they chose based on their lifestyle, preferences and interests. I don't discourage experimenting with healthy nutrition and I certainly don't tell my clients what they should or shouldn't do. I help them figure out for themselves what version of healthy living works best for their own body. If something they are trying is not working, I help them figure out the next steps. 

If you are tired of going on and off diets, yo-yoing in weight or feeling frustrated with the conflicting nutrition information out there, my nutrition habits coaching may be a great fit for you. We build solid healthy habits over time for a sustainable approach to fat loss. Interested? Take this survey to see if you would be a good fit. Try the first month at 75% off. 

There is no magic diet, the magic is inside YOU.

Still have questions? I'd love to help. 

Like this post? Do you know someone it could help? It helps me a lot when you share with your friends and followers. 

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Coach Lea