New healthy baby in the house; all the worry and waiting are over and now it’s my turn to contribute! It brings our population up to four and my spare time down to zero. Having two children really feels like a family to me – one didn’t so much. Now I have to begin to create a new routing that helps us all get what we want and need.
2010-07-02 was the last time I trained: I’m now at 17 days idle and feel pretty awful as a result. It’s time I start taking the minutes I have to spare and doing something with them. I have stretch-cords, an open stairway(that can be used for chin-ups) and a trainer; three items that allow me to train AND be available at a moments notice. It’s probably time to start doing short intensive trainer sessions (dreaded Tabata sprints!), stretch cords and incorporating daily push-ups and chin-ups into my routine. It won’t get me to Kona but anything is better than nothing.
I’ve just completed a short training set that consisted of:
2x {3x [20 catches (w/ stretch-cords[sc]), 20 pulls w/ sc, 5 chin-ups]}
I then did 2 x(6x 10 ski-pulls w/ sc
Back muscles feel like they have been busy. It’s a start!
It’s now officially spring: outdoor life is back! I did another 50 minute run today and it felt pretty good – I’ll start to stretch the duration to a little over an hour next time. Two to three weeks of easy hour runs will give me a good base to start from. I am also considering the possibility of getting out on the bike on Sunday: A bit of cyclocross-ice action may be just what I need… Let’s see if the opportunity arrises.
All in all -considering the time of year- I’m more swim/bike/run unfit than I have been in years. Thanks to the rowing however, I’m probably fitter in general.
I rested athleticaly over the weekend – however, I’m quite tired from lack of sleep. Nonetheless, I shall carry on and train tonight.
I’ll start with an indeterminate amount on the concept2 and follow up with that same amount on the treadmill.
I’ve learned a lot in the past few years by simply keeping this blog. The act of writing things down forces me to think about them and helps me to see obvious mistakes. A new ‘problem’ arose last year however; a problem which my experience to date did not let me identify or repair. I lost motivation last year without actually realising it! I now know in hindsight what happened and can -hopefully- prevent it from occuring again.
Right now I’m in annother strange -and new- position: because of a wasted year, I’m now more motivated than I have been in years and all i want to to is train, train, train. Being this fired up this early (or late) in the season can only be bad news for next year if I follow my impulses (which I am currently doing).
So what to do? Save the motivation – if that is possible – or use it while keeping the intensity of my training down? I’m going for the second option for now.
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The last few days have been doubles:
Monday:
AM: Indoor Bike 1:10
5 min w/u
4 min 150 bpm
2 min recover
6 min 150 bpm
3 min recover
9 min 150 bpm
4 min recover
9 min 150 bpm
3 min recover
9 min 150 bpm
2 min recover
9 min 150 bpm
1 min recover
2 min hard
2 min w/d
PM: Gym, mainly eccetric leg strength 32 mins
Tuesday:
AM: Run 8,8km
PM: Swim: 30 mins Technique, 26x50m on 55sec
Well, not really. I had nothing alcoholic to drink last night yet today I feel hung-over. I have experienced this before but wasn’t 100% sure of the cause, now I am: I ate a bucket-load of carbs yesterday in the form of white bread, Ice cream (three times during the day) and biscuits (three times also). This I fear is the cause. Also, my skin problem has flared up big-time. In the many years that I have had it I have never suspected that an over-use of carbs could be the cause, now I think it might be. So, from today I’ll try to cut them out completely in their ‘recreational’ form. I’m not sure if gels on the bike is considered recreational since I am endeavouring in recreation whilst eating carbs; I’ll have to think about that…
On the cards for today is the gym and an easy run to test out the knee. Regarding the knee; I don’t yet consider it an injury, nore a niggle. I’m just being very catious because an niggle can become an injury pretty quickly if it is ignored. Denial has been the main cause of some of my more serious injuries, so I’ll try to stop this one in it’s tracks.
I went to the gym and did a relatively easy session:
10k on the Concept2 (in 41:05)
5 minutes of eccentric leg presses to aid the bandy knee!
That’s that!
There’s not a lot going on athletic-wise at the moment, so there have bee no entries for a while. My one and only race of the year ended and I now am searching for a realistic goal for next year. I’ve entered Vätternrundan but don’t want that to be my A-Race; I just want to enjoy it and do a respectable time.
While I search for an A-race I would like to include a 90-120 minute run EVERY SINGLE WEEK. This is a goal I have had for years and I have to find a way to get my head around it – if I did, the sky’s the limit!
I’ll probably take it easy for the rest of the week and then start fresh and keen – ready for a new challenge.
Time for a rest – I will do a light run on Thursday or Friday.
Rest – simple as that.
Sunday I will go to the track and ? x 800m on 3:00. I wonder how many I will get done… When I am in A-race fitness I can knock out 10 pretty easily. I think 7 or 8 is possible. Failure to hit 800m it 3:00 will by my primary means of ending the session. If I feel I have to go too deep to make a set I’ll then decide to call it a day.
I got to swimming again tonight – that’s #3 – my third consecutive swim and I’m feeling better already. I have to keep this going and who knows what is possible. Keeping consistent is the problem and an occurrence in work today made me realise where I have been going wrong this year. I have endless motivation for a first-time goal such as a marathon, HIM, IM etc… once these goals have been achieved however, I need another motivational tool to get me to the next one. This tool is short-term markers and check-points. The toolbox I’ll use for this is: the swim-counting system I came up with last week, casual racing, and benchmarking such as hitting 10×400 on 1:20 on week x, 10×800 on week z, swim a 5:50 400m on week w etc… Once I decide my main goal for nect year, I’ll then sit down and work out the milestones, check-points and markers to achieve and motivate myself towards that goal. I WILL RACE NEXT YEAR.
Tired and dizzy today – another day off.
