7 /28/24 UPDATE: I thought people might want to revisit these, so I added them to the new Rough ‘n’ Tumble book currently in development, then dodged over here and updated this so that it wouldn’t be so confusing.
Short runs may be useful for building fitness and mettle — if done with intensity. These intense runs are designed to prepare you to fight hard and escape fast, period. What will they do to your next 10K performance? Might help, might hurt. Don’t know. Don’t care. I’m a martial artist, not a runner.
To record them in your training journal without having to write an entire paragraph, write “CR” for “Conditioning Run” and then a number (miles if single digit, minutes if 2 digits), a letter (one of the six “SAFE MP” designations), and whatever descriptive words you prefer to indicate the type.
Here are the types:
Rough ‘n’ tumblers do not muck around. So, before you begin whatever you’re going to do — whether it is hitting a heavy bag, doing calisthenics, or even running — decide if you’re going to work on Speed, Accuracy, Form, Endurance, Mobility or Power. If it helps to remember it, you you can abbreviate that SAFE-MP¹ for “safe martial practice.” Here are the runs:
- S = Speed. Run as fast as you are able without breaking stride. Try not to take any 12-count breaks.
- A = Accuracy. Set a goal and try to hit the mark. Pick a previous run and try to beat it in terms of fewer breaks taken, more distance covered, etc. You are keeping a training journal, right?
- F = Form. Wreck your form. Run backwards, run like an Apache, skip or side-gallop, run with your hands behind your head or behind your back (a POW run), with one hand gripping your waistband, etc. Experiment. What if someday you have to run for your life with an injury or impairment? One of my favorites is a Rocky Run — run while continuously punching the air.
- E = Endurance. Run while wearing a weighted vest or carrying a heavy or awkward object such as tire, sandbag or medicine ball. Take as few 12-count walking breaks as you must in order to finish.
- M = Mobility. Run on a trail, around cones, through mud or water, run zig-zags across a field, up and down steep hills, run an obstacle course, etc. Take as few 12-count breaks as you must in order to finish.
- P = Power. Intervals. Alternate between running as fast as you can — full out sprint! — and either walking or calisthenics. One of my favorites is “CR10P, Push-ups and Squats alternating.” I go the the local outdoor track, set a timer for 15 mins and then run a lap, do 10 Push-ups, run a lap, do 10 Squats, etc. and see how many laps I can complete before the timer beeps. Take as few 12-count breaks as you must in order to finish.
Trust me when I say, you’re going to love to hate these runs!
Examples:
- CR10S — 10 minute run as fast as you can without breaking stride.
- CR10A — Set a distance goal for a 10 min. run and try to hit it.
- CR5A — Set a goal — for speed, to finish without breaking stride, etc. — and run 5 miles
- CR15F P.O.W — 15 minute run with hands behind your head.
- CR3E Tire — 3 mile run carrying an auto tire.
- CR12M Hills — Run up and down hills for 12 minutes.
- CR16P Sprints — Set timer for 8 minutes. Sprint away from home until you gas, then walk for 7 breaths, then sprint until you gas, walk for 7 breaths, etc. until timer beeps. Then turn around, sprinting and walking as before, and make sure get home before the timer beeps a second time.
¹ I’ve made dice of various kinds to create random workouts. One of them is a 6-sided cube with sides that are S, A, F, E, M and P so I can generate focuses on the fly.
Robert Mitchell Jr. 