Kimmie, Do you have a good ab program recommendation? I keep looking at those elite woman, how do they get their abs? They also run so straight. My brain is tired by the end of the night and know I should do abs but run out of creative energy. I know with abs/core you want to mix-it-up, becareful not to overstress the hipflexors.

I think Shan's right but I also think that elite runners do work their abs, even if they do very little other strength training... usually some pushups. I will email you an ab workout, Bugs. I'm off to another appointment right now, so if I forget, feel free to remind me.

by having very little body fat??

KARA GOUCHER, MN GIRL!!! Her abs are huge.. She must use weights. I just can't believe you'd put on that kind of muscle doing crunches. Also, look at arms....she must do upper body work.. must MTA: ALTHOUGH, look at that right thigh...do I see dimples?

That is Groucher her debut in the NYC Marathon got her a national record. Bugs I'm not saying she doesn't work heavily on abs. I'm saying that as a woman in order to get that kind of definition you need to have very little body fat - so little that she probably does not get her period and is currently infertile. Women's bodies hold onto the fat in their mid-section for as long as possible because it serves to insulate their reproductive organs - this is why the tire is the biggest complaint of women. So all I'm really trying to say is that while she probably does TONS of core work she also has very little body fat.

hahaha everytime i ask dh if he wants me to have abs like that he tells me no... he'd rather me have a little fluff... and good point about you being done with babies - i just can't help but toss it in LOL I hope core work does everything you want it to do for you!! I just didn't want you to necessarily have your hopes set on looking like that ya know?? you should also talk to RockenMama she has well defined abs.

K) Do you do all those in one session or spread through out the week?

What I recommend is at least 10 minutes a day of abs and then once a week, do a concentrated ab session of 30 minutes. I'm not as disciplined as that, which is why I have a two pack and not a six pack. Funny you mention PB90x? I have heard great things about it and thought about buying it myself. But it does look heavy on the strength training, light on cardio. there is a DVD series specifically made for strength for runners... It's called Building a Better runner from the Ground Up. I have it and I like it... it moves kind of fast through the exercises though.... it's not a typical workout DVD where someone is leading you through a workout... This DVD basically says " Here's a plank" and they show you someone doing one and then they move on the next exercise. so, it's not clear how long or how many you do... But if you can learn it or pause it and do your reps and then move on, it works fine. Just not super user friendly if you want it clearly spelled out for you. I really want to BQ too.... I hope I can do it and then I'll let you in on my secret. ran 4 miles today... speaking of strength training, did lunges yesterday and my legs felt it today. Hard to balance everything.

My coach keeps saying " Muscles are made in the gym, Abs are made in the kitchen." You want to run faster. Run speed is based on power to weight ratio. The abs show up because the elite runners weight/ body fat percentage is low. Power comes from the legs and the glutes. Erika's hill running really builds that, so does speed work. Goucher did what most of the elite marathoners did. Get really fast at 10k and half marathon. Then move up to marathon distance. The latest advice I am getting... and it changes every couple of years.... is, if you want to BQ, look at a chart like McMillan and plug in your BQ speed. Then look at the corresponding speeds for 5k 10k and half marathon. For example for me to BQ, an equivalent 10k would be about 44 minutes. My current PR is 48 minutes. If I can't run a 44 minute 10k, I wont be able to run a BQ speed for a marathon, no matter how many long runs I do. So the advice I get is to build my speed then build the endurance. And running 10k and half marathons doesnt beat up the body as much as 20 mile training runs and then running a full marathon, so the progress is quicker. The catch is, sometimes you need to run a lot of miles to build the speed. One thing I learned from my coach is to warm up then do a 2 mile time trial, running it as fast as you can. Keep track of your quarter mile splits during the time trial. If your splits are very close togethe, you run even splits. You need to do speed work. If someone else runs the exact same time as you for the total race, but their quarter mile splits are all over the place, some fast, some much slower, they need to work on building endurance. Esoecially if the early laps are fast, and the later laps much slower. Endurance will allow them to run the fast lap pace for the entire race and thus be faster overall.

Cash - as usual you provide us with some really great information!! 2 miles tonight. It was very nice!