Hurricane Training

I read in the March issue of Men's Health about trainer Martin Rooney. He has a book out targeted toward mixed martial artists, ultimate fighters, etc. called Training for Warriors. Now I'm no warrior, and the average ultrarunner is about 100k from Rooney's target audience. But, I like to challenge my body and workout hard. So after reading the article this morning over breakfast, I decided to incorporate what Rooney calls the Hurricane Workout into my morning run. The idea behind the workout is that you go from one exercise to the next with no rest. After 5 exercises, you rest 2 minutes, then do it again for a total of 3 sets.

Here's how my workout went:

Run to the park (3 miles)

Hurricane workout:
3 X

• 1 min sprint
• 1 min bench jumps
• 1 min crunches
• 1 min pushups
• 1 min squats or lunges
• rest 2 minutes

Jog home (3 miles)

Holy cow. The "Jog Home" was more of a walk/jog home. That's all I could do after getting hit by the hurricane.

I recognize that this type of workout is geared more for training fighters. Intense 5 minutes of work (e.g. a round in a fight), followed by 2 minutes of rest. I'm not training to be a fighter. I'm a long distance runner. Runners, especially ultrarunners, don't need that kind of fitness. Right?

I guess that depends on on what kind of ultrarunner you want to be.

Give this kind of workout a try sometime. You might like it.

Run hard out there...