As an avid marathon runner, I’ve learned that long distance runners and sprinters are two very different kinds of people.
To run a marathon successfully, you have to build your body up to 26.2 miles, which means focusing on longer, slower runs for 16 to 20 weeks. But for sprinters, it’s all about building up your body to handle speeds.
For the last three-and-a-half years, I’ve focused my fitness goals on running all six Abbott Marathon World Majors. Now that I’ve collected all my stars and crossed that off my bucket list, I’m shifting my efforts elsewhere and playing around with my workouts.
I’ve always loved implementing Barry’s into my marathon training program because of its cardio and strength training HIIT [high intensive interval training] combo classes. A traditional 50-minute class dedicates half of the class on the floor focusing on heavy weight lifting and the other half on the treadmill running at slow and fast paces with walk breaks for recovery. The goal is slowing the heart rate back down for an ultimate calorie burn and the walk breaks are actually supposed to help you get faster over time.
If you’re not a runner, Barry’s also has a lift only class as well as a cycle and lift class that swaps out the tread for a cycle bike. No matter what you were into, all of their classes counted towards the challenge.
This spring, I decided to focus on getting speedier with my half marathon time. I was using this challenge to prepare for the three halves I committed to in March. Disney being first on March 1, solely a fun run filled with amazing photo opps and character stops. More seriously, I signed up for the LA Half Marathon with CORE Response, where I currently hold my half marathon PR, followed by running the leg of the Ironman Triathlon in Oceanside at the end of the month.
I decided to do Barry’s 30-day challenge which was committing to 12 classes in 30 days while doing one long run a week between eight to 11 miles to get my body half marathon ready. To make matters more complicated, since I was leaving to run the Walt Disney World Princess Half Marathon before the challenge ended, I had 21 days to cram it in and claim my prizes of a gift card or fancy water bottle. I was excited to train hard and fast and see how that translated at the finish line. It was sweaty, painful and defeating at times, but I’m so glad I did it, and here’s how it went.
The Progress Was Real
I took notes after class daily and I stayed consistent. This meant wearing the same shoes daily, a pair of Brooks Glycerin GTS23. While I took a couple lift classes, since my overall goal was to improve my race time, I stuck to the traditional classes as much as I could and counted those as my speed runs.
Every trainer is different, and every day of the week focuses on a different body part, so success isn’t necessarily measured in a linear form. For example, one day we’d have to tackle a large incline while focusing on glutes and legs. The next day, we’d stay on the flat road while focusing on arms and abs.
I tried not to take more than three classes a week while also doing other workouts since I was in the thick of training. On my first day, the fastest sprint I did was 8.5 mph and I was lifting two 15-pound weights as my heavy set. On my final day of the challenge, I was comfortably lifting 20 to 25 pounds and sprinting at 10 mph.
Another milestone was conquering hills easier after all this insane sprinting and focusing mostly on leg days. By the end, I was comfortably running uphill at a 6-8 incline for up to a minute if need be. On Day 1, even a 4 incline was challenging.
Highs, Lows & Challenges In Between
Because I was committed to getting this challenge done in a timely fashion, I had to run on the treadmill way more than I normally would, and my legs felt it. I’m way more of a running on the road kind of gal, so back-to-back days of sprints on there are no joke and I definitely felt it in my quads and already broken-down knees. Holding myself accountable due to muscle soreness became challenging, but I always stuck to it and am proud of holding myself to that. After all, isn’t that what an athlete really is?
Since my main goal was to see if pivoting from my usual training plan would help me get stronger and faster, that alone proved to be a win. But I really wanted to see how it translated in my race times, and after running two of my three halves, it’s hard to give it a fair read.
I already revealed that RunDisney races aren’t a place to go in with a PR. I enjoyed meeting other runners who were using it as a long training run for Boston in my corral and I ran in the brand-new Brooks Max 2 shoes that are built for these kinds of distances and have helped me PR before, but I spent nearly 20+ minutes enjoying character stops and bathroom breaks. I have zero regrets, but I finished way slower than I would’ve if I hadn’t stopped and smelled all of the Beauty and the Beast roses–literally. So, it’s hard to fairly assess what would’ve happened if I didn’t do all of that.
Despite stopping though, I quickly noticed I recovered much faster than usual thanks to the challenge. Even though I walked around the theme parks after and logged over 20 miles with a 3:30a.m. wake-up call, my body didn’t feel like it. I credit that to all the weightlifting I had been focusing on that made my lower body and core a bit more ready to go.
Keep in mind, I had to turn around and run the LA Charity Half a week later. While I was really hoping to beat last year’s time, with temperatures soaring above 90 degrees, my goal to PR turned into, “Let’s just finish standing up straight.” I finished that race dry heaving from the heat. Despite back-to-back race weekends, I felt great immediately afterward thanks to all the training I had put in from the challenge.
Group Camaraderie
I love that this workout is self-driven, yet in a group setting. The instructors almost always make it clear that their speeds are simply suggestions and every runner should do what works for them.
Nearly every class I took, the instructor gave me and others in the class a personal shout-out for our efforts and encouraged neighborly high-fives after fast runs. Having others running slightly faster or even slower beside you definitely helps fuel your fire to keep going and push yourself more. You think to yourself, “If the lady next to me is capable of running a 10.5 mph, so am I!”
While I’d sometimes see familiar faces, my progress was tracked in my app. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I felt motivated to keep going when I saw people surpassing me on the leaderboard because they were getting their classes done before I was.
While it remains to be seen what I’ll do with my fun prizes for being a “winner,” I can proudly say that I feel stronger mentally and physically for successfully completing it off my bucket list
