How often do you get to raise money for a good cause, support some incredibly brave people, and get away with as many boob jokes as you can think of? What day can you find such awesomeness? No not Christmas you sicko, the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run on Saturday, October 20th! The Liz Hurley Ribbon Run was established to help raise funds for the Liz Hurley Breast Cancer Fund at Huntsville Hospital Foundation. The purpose of the charity is to raise money for breast cancer awareness, purchase equipment for breast cancer diagnosis, and provide continuing education for the Breast Center staff.

Inspiration

So I explained why it is such a good cause, now I want to talk a little bit about the most inspirational part of the day for me. The day breaks down into 3 parts:

Men’s 5K
Women’s 5K
The Survivor’s walk

If you can watch a group of women who are either dealing with breast cancer or have defeated breast cancer walk together with their loved ones and not get inspired, there is something wrong with you. It seems like my allergies act up every time during that part, totally not me tearing up.

What’s in a Name?

Now my second favorite part, the boob jokes. The team names are a proud and hilarious tradition for this race. There are many teams who will be vying for best team name.

I’ll give you a sneak peak at some of my favorites:

Jogging For Jugs
Save 2nd Base
Rockers For Knockers
Ta Ta For Now
The Rack Pack

And remember these are just some of the names you will see. If you are looking for a team full of cool people AND an awesome name, look no further than team Adventure Boob Camp.

Think you can beat these names? Just click here to register a team for this year’s Ribbon Run or go solo. Make sure you register soon because it sold out last year!

Get Ready!

What if you’ve never done a 5K (3.1 miles) race? Let’s start training today!

Let’s assume you have 4 weeks to train to get ready. Not an ideal amount of time if you’ve never done one before, but you can make plenty of progress.

Ideally you will be training 5 days a week to get ready, but just remember this. Don’t let a slip become a fall. If you miss a few days here and there, just pick it up with the next training session.

Too many people give up just because they miss a few days. You will be running/walking/running 3 days a week and strength training 2 days per week.

Let’s assume those days are:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Cardio
Tuesday and Thursday: Strength training

Strength Circuit

Do these exercises every Tuesdays and Thursday.

Each exercise will be for 45 seconds, rest 15 seconds, and then move on to the next exercise. After you go through the entire circuit, rest 1 minute, and then repeat 2 more times.

For the exercises where weights are required, select a weight that is challenging but allows you to get through the whole 45 seconds. Keep track of how many reps you can do and either try to beat your reps or move up in weight each week.

Do the following exercises:

Squats
Pushups
Lunges or split squats
Shoulder press right arm only
Shoulder press left arm only
Plank
Bent over row
Deadlifts
Upright row

Cardio Training

Week 1

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Walk for 4 minutes run or jog for 1 minute. Repeat this pattern for a total of 30 minutes.
Note: If you have an orthopedic issue or any other reason that prevents you from running, the run portion will be you walking the absolute fastest you can.

Week 2

Monday and Wednesday: Walk 3 minutes, run 1 minute, repeat for 28 minutes total
Friday: Sprint (go as fast as you can) for 400 yards or 1 minute if you don’t have access to a track or are against the metric system. Walk for 400 meters or 2 minutes, then sprint again. Do 10 total sprints with the accompanying rest breaks

Week 3

Monday and Wednesday: Walk 2 minutes, run 1 minute, repeat for 30 minutes total.
Friday: Find a very steep hill. The ladies in my boot camp, love to hate the hill that starts at the bottom of Airport and Whitesburg Road if you are looking for a good one. For 30 minutes get up and down that hill as many times as possible. If you’ve never had the pleasure of doing hill work, there is nothing like it.

Week 4

Monday: Walk 1 minute, run 1 minute, repeat for 30 minutes total.
Wednesday: The goal for today is to run for the entire 30 minute time block.
Friday: Just go for a 30 minute walk today to stay loose

This is a bit of an aggressive program if you are just starting out, but you will make great progress in 4 weeks if you stick to it. On race day, just remember to have fun and do your best. If this is your first 5K, the goal is to finish. When you finish, no matter what the time says, it will be a world record for you. Pat yourself on the back, know you gave it your all, and you did it while helping women fight a disease that will touch all of us at some time in our lives.