Health, Fitness, and Nutrition

Samantha Pruitt

True, cardiovascular endurance and overall running economy are very important to my UltraWoman goal. However, building foundational strength now- results in raw power and reduced injury risk so that I will be able to log those big miles later on. Longer, leaner and faster. Long distance and Ultra racing require a strong WHOLE body in order to sustain the endless hours of repetitive pounding, climbing, descending all without breaking down and losing form. Identifying then addressing weak areas before you go big makes perfect sense. My stronger areas will compensate for weaknesses in my the chain, but not forever. The imbalance that is created results in inefficiency of muscle use, over use injury and eventually joint instability or muscle failure. Balanced strong muscles, including a rocking core and strong connective tissue and joints allow you to maintain a quality gait all day long. Sign me up for that six pack please!

So that’s the why, but now what? For me, it is 2-3 days a week of pippin HOT fresh hell at the gym. For you, if you’re not sure what to do or are afraid (as a multi sport endurance athlete) that brute Popeye strength will weigh you down, then hire a coach who knows your sport. I did and frankly, even being a coach myself, it’s the best thing I ever did. Eating up that HOT fresh slice of hell is a lot easier done when its been served to you, not by you. Since I have decide this ExCouch Potato’s next life changing goal will be to run a 100mile Ultra Trail Race, I went to the local expert, Luis Escobar www.allwedoisrun.com I value his endless knowledge of the dirty details of my sport and our combination of no bullshit badass personalities. No whining, no bathroom breaks, no limits. Building my Ultra foundation requires just as much mental training as it does physical and Luis bakes a mean homemade pie.

To share a few lip licking tastes of my hell pie; we do high reps of balls, bands, jumps, weights, twists, burpees, fist fights, ropes, snaps, bounces, hops, leaps, slides, (did I mention a lot of hoot and hollering), lifting, pulling, pushing and yes….running. One flaming pitch fork highlight last week was warming up on the treadmill with Coach Luis behind me- holding a thick band tied around my waist- then at a 3% grade going from a 10mm to a 8mm for 60 second sprints while he pulled me backwards. WOOHOO!

Another inferno of fun was a 45min combination of non-stop boxing, medicine ball ab toss, box jumps, balance beam ball catch, kettle ball swing squats and overhead pulls til you wanna puke. SWEET!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150703119667079

Seriously, what is this middle age mid packer ExCouch Potato doing? This is the busiest time of my life ever professionally and I am beyond stressed out! Is building a rock solid foundation for a beyond insanity race next year really that important in relationship to our company producing the first San Luis Obispo Marathon & Half in just 8 weeks http://www.slomarathon.com/

To add hot melted caramel onto this fresh hell pie I’m getting up at 5am to drive to http://www.custom-workouts.com/ in Santa Maria in the dark so I can get my ass kicked by this Born To Run mad man! This is truly insane! Just as insane, in fact, as what my Garmin said last weekend when I ran my fastest ever 4 consecutive miles at the end of a fifteen mile long hilly trail run. So I say BRING ON THE PIE!