Training Log Archive: fletch

2520/15300

Added a 10kg pack in the morning, but didn't take it home, so back to no weight in the evening.

2340/15300. Bit late on the 'morning' set, but still got the twice-daily thing done.

Almost got up for the Floreat renegade ride. Wish I had, but I still feel pretty ordinary and went back to sleep, only for my alarm to go off again 15 minutes later even though I'm sure I switched the phone (not just the alarm) off. Then felt worse when I got up at 6:30.

Was gonna start all this silliness tomorrow, but seeing as I hadn't done anything all day, decided to get into it straight away
Push-ups: 14, 18, 14, 14, 18 (meant to be 20+)
Squats: 19, 24, 19, 19, 50 (didn't feel so bad about the push-ups when I realised how much harder these felt today)
Sit-ups: 21, 27, 21, 21, 30
Dips: 15, 22, 13, 13, 18 (started on Week 3, switched to week 2 after 2 sets...)

Can't wait to see how sore I'll be tomorrow.

In other news, it's about time to add weight to the calf rehab... need to take a backpack into school tomorrow.

2160/15300

So... the ever climbing calf drop count isn't keeping me terribly interested any more, and I'm not really doing any of the core stability stuff that I promised myself I'd get into (or riding, but that might come back soon without doing anything stupid).

Anyways, I was wating a bit of time at work daydreaming and remembered the 100 push-up challenge, went to the website and also found the 150 (bench) dip challenge, the 200 sit-up (crunch) challenge and the 200 squat challenge. As I am superhuman, I have decided to undertake all of these challnges simultaneously. If I am sensible, I may also d a bit of other muscle endurance stuff to try to maintain a bit of all-round body balance (not likely, other than a few back extensions when I have access to the roman chair)

Push-ups - 27: Challenge to start from Week 3, Day 1
Sit-ups - 100; Challenge to start from Week 3, Day 1
Dips - 28; Start from Week 2, Day 1
Squats - 100; Start from Week 3, Day 1

It strikes me that the sit-ups is a hard one to regulate whether you cheat a bit towards the end, and the dips can be made a fair bit easier by changing the [lacement of the feet, but again, will do my best not to cheat too much...

Squats definitely wasn't a max test to get to 100, but I figure I'll be sore enough by tomorrow anyway.

1980/15300

Event: MetrO 11-12: Wireless Hill
 

1800/15300

Suppose I should actually do some training again. The bulk of my schoolwork for the year is done now, so no excuses really.

C • What? 5

1620/15300

1440/15300

1260/15300

Nearly did some exercise today, but I was too lazy.

Had a bit of a ride around during the day to finish off the Quinns MetrO map, but probably not enough to consider logging it as training. Fieldwork now done, map rescaled to 1:10 000. Now if only it would fit on an A4 piece of paper :(

There is a vastly superior start/finish point to the one I am using (Mindarie PS), but it was easier first time round to start/finish at my work. No need to chasse people for keys etc.

1080/15300

I wonder if I've ever managed to do that much rehab without missing a single session... I must be a numbers person.

Same loop as last time, except I did the hill that we always do on our occasional group rides round the river (near Pt Walter) that the lazy group riders that I've been caught up with the last couple of times seem to skip.

Took a long time to get out hte door this morning and never went terribly hard (deliberately) except for a little bit coming back up the freeway, where a bloke dangled in front of me for a while and looked a little like he was struggling. I was restrained and didn't chase unitl he had a big look over his shoulder and dropped onto his aero bars. Then I reeled him in, and did enough to drop him before we got to the Narrows.

Got to ride a few bits of the Great Perth Bike Ride course, quite unintentionally. I assume the people who were struggling along at some ridiculous crawl, headphones in ears and weaving all over the road were the tail end of this event, as I haven't seen many of themn out before. MAybe it was just coz it was a lovely warm morning.

As I thought I remembered, bike computer = 64.6km, GPS = 63.03.

900/15300

720/15300

After a week of waking up before my alarm, deciding I'm a bit sleepy still, turning off my alarm, sleeping for an extra hour or two, and getting up feeling worse than I did when I first woke up, I went to bed last night with no alarm and decided that if I woke up in time, I would ride to work.

My hope for a sleep in were dashed when I woke up at 5:45. Contemplated pretending I was still asleep, but dragged my sorry butt out of bed and rode to work. Conditions were pretty good - even the NM'ly seemed to have minimal effect, so I made steady, if unspectacular, progress despite feeling pretty unenthusiastic for large chunks of the ride.

3 x 15 bent leg calf drops after getting to work. Have decided that unless Jacko corrects me, 3 sets is enough. I'll stick with bent leg, as the soleus seems a bit more relevant to the problem than the gastroc, and soleus gets a bit left out with the straight leg variety. Now a massive 1.5 days into a 12 week program (that I'm going to start from scratch). If I make it through week 1, I'll add some weight to the pack again. Have also decided in the interest of saving work time that I waste logging these exercises to simply log the total number of reps completed as part of the rehab. So far 450, after a 'double day' yesterday. Should be adding 180 per day... (not going to bother logging it twice per day...) and should reach 15300 at the end of 12 weeks...

C • so specific! 1

A ride home of 2 parts. Fairly strong headwind the whole way. Pushed pretty ahrd for the first half an hour to get to a mate's house for some arvo tea. Seemed like a good idea as I failed to eat lunch, and my lunch-substitute coffee wasn't doing much for my energy levels.

Unfortunately, my stomach didn't agree with arvo tea, which made the rest of the trip pretty uncomfortable. Tried to keep up a reasonable effort till about 50 minutes, but then gave up and crawled home. Feel pretty knackered now, but expect to pick up a bit once dinner has digested.

540/15300

Couldn't face riding this morning. Still really tired for some reason. Even after not doing my weights session yesterday due to podiatrist then unscheduled swimming-lesson-attendance which ate a fair chunk of my evening.

Looking forward to getting new orthotics. Thanks Jacko. Don't know whether to be happy or disappointed that technology has progressed past plaster casting of my feet.

After talking to the wise one (That's what lack of hair indicates, right?) I have decided to revert to Alfredson techinque for rehab from here on. Did it this morning while half-watching my fitness class in first lesson. 3 sets each leg straight leg, 3 sets each leg bent leg. Time consuming.

C • Progress 1

Repeat of morning exertions. Is it really meant to be 3 sets straight leg AND 3 sets bent leg, or is it 3 sets of 15 of one or the other.

In the office. Same as what I should have been doing the last few days :(

Uniftted-down version of ye olde pyramid session.

1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 efforts with 1 minute recoveries. (omly 11 minutes of effort less than the entire session), with 10 min WU and CD to get to 50 min.

Still felt really flat after work, so glad I got this done. Day doesn't feel like a total waste now.

I really had intedned on doing the group ride this morning. Even had my alarm set, but I switched it off when I woke up 15 minutes beofer it, deciding istead to ride to school, then later deciding to sleep for another half an hour and drive to school. Oh well.

Nothing. Even forgot evening rehab. Felt totally dead when I got home despite an easy day. Don't know why. Went to bed early.

Single leg standard. Only evening.

Enjoyed a sleep in this morning after the ride yesterday, followed by half a day of holding up 6m sheets of gyprock.

Gorgeous morning out. Similar ride to last time, but I didn't turn right off Tydeman at the usual place. Went thru to the other traffic bridge, then onto PReston Point road and didn't drop right down to the waterfront along that bit.

Tried to just keep a pretty even effort the whole way around, and didn't really surge to go with any packs much. THe only ammoting things all ride were the two large groups that came screaming past, buried me in their midst, then sat up and dribbled along at 20-25km/hr with me still stuck in the middle.

Still have totally lost my nerve for cornering fast and flyng down hills. Hopefully that will return with the last of the skin on my hip. Don't think I'll bother with any MTB for a couple of weeks given my cowardliness.

Single leg standard

I did notthing today. I didn't wake up in time for morning rehab, and I totally forgot in the evening.

I did go to the beach twice, and I had a little swim, but it was quite windy and weedy and not really all that nice. Still, I was getting paid for it, so I guess I should be happy :)

Woke up this morning, checked the little dots on that other XP-something race and saw wherre tRicky was and felt inspired. No more moping about what I can't do - time to get back on the horse. Need to rediscover the can-do attitude of the WA 9hr Rogaining Championships from earlier in the year. The race was on... me vs Team Mawson.

Some might say that I haven't had the ideal preparation for this challenge, that I'm unfit, can't ride a bike (and stay upright), and that Mawson had a clear advantage as they surged for the finish, but I figured natural talent and awesomeness would be enough to get me through (sound familiar?).

Unfortunately, some of my gear had ended up in the wrong boxes from previous poorly organised transitions, so I wasted quite a bit of time before I got on the red beast and prepared for the epic challenge of the Xtra Painful Commute.

Despite my tardy start, I was still feeling confident, but I wasn't even out of my street before I realised how tough things were going to be. I was facing a stonking NM'ly breeze. (For the uninitiated, this is a Not-Mucherly - the gale-forced wind that constantly blows in the face of unfit cyclists no matter which way they turn, yet dies to nothing as soon as one stops at traffic lights or stop signs). A quick glace up at all the trees hanging limply confirmed that this was indeed a NMly of incredible strength, and it was going to have to be a sufferfest all the way in.

As I struggled manfully along, I was faced with a feeling that tRicky must experience constantly, as there was a steady stream of commuting competitors flying past in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION! THey were all going significantly faster than me - further proof of the NMly working against me.

Thinking of the Seagate sofites doing 200-odd km on a single speed MTB didn't help much with the hardship of the thumb-strain, as I was forced to change gears as soon as I hit any of the epic climbs that are the Freeway north bikepath, but I kept reminiding myself that I was in the zone, thinking positively and nothing could stop me.

Actually got into it a little bit as I went. Tried not to go too hard, as I need to save something for the return bout with the NMly this afternoon (no stopping and resting for me. How soft is Mawson). Finished strongly despite the odds, and had a leisurely shower and coffee, confident in my victory.

Absolutely shattered when I turned on my laptop for a race update to see little dot 66 sittung smugly in Burnie. Tracking history confirmed they had been there for quite some time. Depressing. Now time to re-evaluate - or possible just quit and take up knitting ;)

C • Nice report 6

The return journey. The NM'ly had unfortunately swung into a southerly, so I had an actual headwind for the ride home. Wasn't much in it for most of the ride, but it picked up a bit in the last 5km. Either that or I started dying. Fortunately I had a well timed meal of midgies as I passed through Gwelup, which kept me going through to the end.

Any Canadians out there know how easy it is for someone living overseas to get hold of a replacement Birth Certificate (Toronto if it makes a difference)? One more good look tomorrow before I file my second police report in a week and a half :(
EDIT: Found it... turns out I put it somewhere safe at work, which of course meant a lot of looking before I remembered / fluked upon it

Had to look a long way down the exercise type list to find this one.
Oh boy am I going to be sore tomorrow.
Session was (not in order)
3x15 upright row (15kg)
3 x 15 back extensions on roman chair
3 x 15 preacher curl (12kg)
Dips (10,9,6)
3 x15 Lateral raises (3kg)
3 x 15 bent knee leg raises
3 x 25 crunches
3 x 1 min plank
3 x 15 bench press (30kg)
3 x 15 dumbell flys (6kg)
3 x 15 each side lunges
3 x 15 squats (30kg)
3 x 15 each side calf raises (=rehab)

So, apart from the impending soreness, I've already decided there is far too much chest and shoulders in there, which I don't really want/need. Need to ad another ab exercise I think, switch upright row to seated row, swap bench press for push-ups so I don't get carried away with trying to lift heavy things...
I was pretty sure my core strength had suffered somewhat over the 8 years I haven't done any regular core training. My patheticness at the bridges certainly confirmed this... should try to make this regular, methinks.

Last night was an epic fail. Almost did the rehab, but then forgot, stayed up late and bailed on the morning ride due to overnight rain and lack of sleep.

Was slightly more successful after school. Hopped on the windtrainer and took a leaf out of MTBJen's book and did a windtrainer session of one song hard, one song recovery. After the first couple of efforts, i even switched up to my old regular intervals gear! The only downside was that I was listening to some of my favourite music that I hadn't heard in ages, and I got a bit distracted during the recoveries and missed the start of a couple of efforts. Thankfully didn't find any 17 second recovery tracks, and the longest effort was only 4 and a half minutes (which nearly killed me)
Felt way better than last Thursday.

A couple more days of non-white bars in my training log and people might start to think I'm training again...

Back to 3 x 5 minutes this morning, cunningly disguised as supervising the bodyboarders in my first lesson of the day.

Well, this was a first. Took our 3 classes of yr 11s to the beach on 2 buses, leaving me to drive my car and ski down. Had planned the kids to have a long swim with me as 'safety' on the ski, but it was too rough and windy and nobody swum.

Eventually I decided that despite not ocean paddling for a year, it was worth embarassing myself in front of the students to get a paddle in during work hours. Quinns is a funny beach. Not much surf, but what there is dumps right on the shore, so trying to get out I lost the ski once when my footstrap came undone (I was holding the ski by it) and I jumped off once rather than risk snapping a rudder before I made it out OK. Had a little paddle around and wasn't as wobbly as I was expecting. Was pretty choppy and windy though, and I fell out a couple of times. Amazingly, had absolutely no issues getting back in.

Dunno how long I paddled for. It wasn't very long at all, but I must have been hanging on for grim death, coz my forearms were stuffed by the time I nailed a beach landing eithout falling out or breaking anything.

Seeing as the ski was on the roof, I went down to the Mindarie marina after work and had another little paddle. Any thoughts of leaving the marina were dashed the first time I tried to head out to the marina mouth and could barely make any headway against the breeze. Was even stronger than earlier in the day. Storms on the way. Ended up staying well inside the marina, doing an easy downwind, followd by a little effort back into it on what was a (probably very short) 7 minute-ish loop.

Not a terribly interesting way to paddle, but good to get a little more water time. Hopefully next Monday's conditions are better and I can repeat today's fun.

3 sets of 15 each side on flat floor again. Meant to repeat in the evening, but I got distracted when I was about to start and by the time I remembered I was in bed.

Morning and evening 3 x 15 single leg, flat floor.

Decided that the old rehab routine was getting a bit stale, and probably needed to add a bit of overload, so thought I'd change from 2 leg to single leg calf raises. Soon realised that 5 minute sets weren't going to happen. Not long after realised that 3 minute sets weren't sustainable. By the end it was a struggle to do 15 slow reps in a set, so that's probably a good starting point.

Don't know what that says about the effect of the rehab. I hope that doing the concentric part single leg as well as the eccentric part makes a big difference, coz a few months ago, I was doing sets of 20 lowers on a step with 10kg in a backpack, but was lifting with both legs.

Little reminder what riding a bike feels like. mostly pretty easy with 5x 2min on, 2 off (not particularly hard efforts though) in there somewhere.

Achilles felt pretty crap today. Uncomfortable on the bike for the first time since I started to rider again. At least they felt better after the ride than they had all day. Perhaps I should make sure that I wake up early enough to do my morning rehab.

And I should book that podiatrist.

The usual. Didn't get up in time to do it in the morning :(

Only got htru one set in the morning before I faced the fact that I was already late for work. Did the full set in the evening. Bit sore, very grumpy.

Tried a session without orthotics or heel lifts in the Adistars. Sore the whole way, so pulled the pin. Might have a week or two off and resume my quest to me a cyclist.

Not a big fan of the carpark on the corner of Rochdale and WC Hwy any more. My passenger side window was smashed out while at running today. Pretty happy with the outcome though... they left Wil's bike and my laptop and only grabbed the top bag of 3 in the front and cleared out the glovebox. So they got my empty wallet (cards already cancelled) didn't get any keys, but annoyingly took my favourite race jumper and my shoes and orthotics. Will be coming for a visit soo Jacko! (and stragely took all my car documents from the glovebox??)

C • Parking 12