Spring: Outside Workouts and Cheap Frappucinos

Good afternoon! Coming at you from West Des Moines, where it is 34 degrees and snowing. YAY! I hear the eastern part of the state is having better luck as of now; fingers crossed the May snow somehow misses you! In the meantime, I walked past a worm heading into my apartment and shook my head. What are you doing worm?! I'm pretty sure 34 degrees isn't even livable for a worm. Its like it forgot it was in Iowa....anyways. Back to real things. ;)

Today's post is all about things you aren't thinking about when its snowing: exercise outside and cold coffee drinks! But alas, the weather must turn back to somewhat normal sometime here soon, and you'll be enjoying said things. Let's start things off with an interval workout! This is straight up track practice at its finest (so an easier day), but it is good stuff and its a great workout for when you're not running track. This workout is very easily adjusted. The more you do, the harder it is. If you're just starting out, try 5-6 and see how you feel. If you run on the daily, you can look at somewhere between 10 and 15.

Sprints/Strides Workout

Location: Track/football field/random grassy area*
*the random grassy area requires a stopwatch, the other two don't really need one.

Warm-up: jog for at least 5 minutes. Dynamic stretches: leg swings, walking quad and hamstring stretches.

Workout: Starting on a straightaway (or at one end of the field), run hard (but not all-out on the first one) to the other end of the field/the end of the straightaway. (If on a grassy area and using a watch, shoot for 20 seconds on the first few sprints. If that feels too easy, you can bump it to 25 or 30 seconds).
Walk back to where you started.
Rest 90 seconds to 2.5 minutes, depending on how long it takes your HR to slow down to where you aren't panting.
Repeat, running a little faster on your second and third reps. By your 4th, you should be at your top "sprint" speed.
Beginners: 5-6 reps.
Intermediate: 8-10 reps.
"All-I-do-is-sprint"ers: 10-15 reps, depending on how you feel.

Note: it is important to take the short rest between each rep. The first few won't feel like you need to rest, but the main point of an interval workout is the drastic increase in heart rate between reps, so you don't want to keep your HR up really high during the entire workout. Its best to let it drop a little (but NOT to resting!) before starting another rep.

Let me know if you have any questions/concerns on this workout! If not, wait patiently until its nice out again (fingers crossed that's in the next few days!) so you can try it out. :)

Next topic: cheap frappuccinos! Let's not pretend this isn't amazing, because it is. During this week last year in Iowa City (which also happened to be finals week; did Starbucks plan that?!), the line for Starbucks was seriously 40 people long. Caffeine, sugar, saving money, what more could a college student ask for?


The deal starts tomorrow buuuut it runs until the 12th so surely there will be a sunny, warmish day by then. :)

That's a wrap! Have a wonderful rest of your Thursday friends!

--KQ