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Training blog - page 11
Day sixty seven: Wednesday 12 April 2006
Gym. Today, my legs were not at the races, particularly the quadriceps. I forcefully tried to perform the usual three sets of 10 leg presses at 225kg, but after the first set, knew that my legs had not recovered from Monday's gym session. I did manage two sets at 225kg plus one rep in the third set of 10 reps, but jumped off the aparatus before I could tear any muscles. Upright rowing bar was unchanged, as were leg extensions, again as the quads were being worked, I found these painful. 'Superman' ball raises were as usual. Again, with pullovers, my rib muscles were fatigued from Monday's effort, so I only managed one set of 20 reps at 12.5kg. Torso twists (which work side abs) were unchanged.
Having been advised by my instructor to change my position on tricep pulldowns, I performed the target quantity of three sets of 20 reps but due to my broken elbow injury, have been forced to reduce the weight resistance from 20kg to 15kg for the time being. Inner thigh squeezes wee unchanged at 140lbs, as were outer thigh pushes (105lbs). Leg curls were also as usual (three sets of 10 reps at 50kg). I am now suddenly finding leg curls a little easier to do; I'm not sure whether this has anything to do with the knowledge that I have reached June's target of 50kg.
I am pondering whether to work each group of abs separately; doing torso twists, ab crunches and reverse curls, instead of performing full sit ups. Once I have spoken with my instructor, I will report back on this page.
With today's session giving me a warning about fatigued muscles, I plan on resting for two days, which were previously scheduled rest days and will resume training on Saturday 15 April.
Day sixty eight: Thursday 13 April 2006
Rest day.
Day sixty nine: Friday 14 April 2006
Rest day.
Day seventy: Saturday 15 April 2006
Bike. The weather appears to be improving, so today I used the Specialized bike with heart rate monitor (HRM) to assess my cardiovascular fitness. Although better compared to last year, I am still a long way off reaching a base fitness level which is adequate to begin threshold training. I also assessed the time taken to recover after an effort of 80-85% of maximum heart rate. This gave me an idea of my general condition. I would say recovery time was not poor or great, somewhere in between. I have some weight to lose, especially on the upper body. My legs have developed to an ideal muscle mass for a cyclist.
Today, I cycled 51.31 miles at an average speed of 18.2mph. With two days rest behind me, my legs felt OK. However, although gym training has improved my general core strength, my legs need vast improvement in turning bigger gears faster. I am confident this will improve over the coming months as I combine strength training at the gym with a lot more time on the bike performing large gear drills; leg muscles gained from gym workouts will amalgamate with muscles gained from cycling to form what I hope will be very powerful legs. I must also realise that recently, my legs have only been turning just the one gear on the winter training bike.
Finally, an update on the gym and Yoga. Both are on schedule in regards to where I should be and am pleased to say that I have reached June's target on the vast majority of gym exercises. Yoga has certainly improved my breathing efficiency and feel that my lungs can now take in a higher quantity of air on each occasion.
Day seventy one: Sunday 16 April 2006
Gym. I performed a full programme of thirteen exercises at today's gym session. After two days of rest, my quadriceps seemed grateful for the rest; I experienced no problems in doing the full three sets of 10 leg presses at 225kg. I performed the twelve other exercises in the following order: upright rowing bars, leg extensions, 'superman' ball raises, torso twists, tricep pulldowns, inner thigh squeezes, outer thigh pushes, leg curls, hip flexor raises, total hip kickbacks, pullovers and finally, calf raises. The only changes from the previous session were that I increased the torso twist resistance from 20kg to 25kg, did the full three sets of 20 reps with a 12.5kg dumbell (pullovers). After this evening's Yoga session, I performed two sets of ab crunches (30 reps per set).
On the next visit, I am hoping to leg press 235kg, perform three sets of 20 reps with the upright rowing bar, increase inner thigh squeezes to 145lbs, leg curl 55kg and move up to the next weight stack on total hip kickbacks, which I believe is in the region of 63kg.
Yoga. To start this session, I did a routine breathing exercise; lifting my arms up to follow the intake of air into my lungs. This is a fairly common warm-up exercise.
The main exercises commenced with some classic yoga. Firstly, a classic cobra pose (Bhujangasana). This pose is slightly different to a similar named Viniyoga posture, which I performed later in today's workout. Next, I did two half locust poses (Ardha Salabasana) using each leg. For the first time, I successfully managed a full locust pose (Salabasana) with both legs raised simultaneously. Soon after, I went into a head to knee pose (Janusirshasana) and again, repeated this posture using the other leg. Next, I performed a forward bending pose (Paschimothanasana), which I held for one minute. The final classic Yoga pose was a Yogic seal (Yoga mudra), held for 30 seconds, followed by a three minute corpse pose.
A couple of Viniyoga poses came next, all of which were repeated four times. Firstly, a standing forward bend, then upwards legs and arms stretch, then a bridge pose, a knee to chest pose and finally a Viniyoga cobra pose. To conclude this session, I relaxed into another corpse pose, which I held for three or four minutes.
Day seventy two: Monday 17 April 2006
Before starting today's Yoga session, I did 2 sets of 30 ab crunches and the same quantity of reverse curls. By the second set of each, my abs were certainly burning, so I guess I'm doing the exercises correctly! Whether this is only a temporary sensation, I'm sure to know soon enough. I have also recently invested in a pair of wrist grips. These look a little like pliers in appearance except they have a curled spring loaded loop between the handles. The idea is to develop my forearms as they will be used quite often when cycling up the switchback hairpins. I did one set of 30 reps on each arm (holding each squeeze for approximately 5 seconds) followed by another set of 30 per arm of a fast squeeze and release action. By the first 10 reps of this set, my forearms were hot, giving a burning sensation.
Yoga. This evening's session was entirely based on Hatha Yoga. Firstly, I did the three-part breath drill as a warm up to the main exercises.
I started with a mountain pose (Tadasana), then an open angle pose (Upavista Konasana). I performed this posture significantly better than the very first attempt approximately a week ago; today I found I could reach the tips of my toes. Next was a legs up the wall pose (Viparita Karani) followed shortly after by the Hatha version of a bridge pose (Setu Bandhasana). Again, I feel improvement here; I can stretch and lengthen my spine substantially more than say six weeks ago.
To give today's workout variation, I performed a downward-facing dog pose (Adho Mukha Savasana) and also a spinal twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana). The former was held for approximately 30 seconds and the latter one minute. A tree pose (Vrksasana) followed, with the penultimate exercise being a Child's pose (Mudhasana). A wind-down pose is always advisable, so I performed a corpse pose to finish this particular sequence of postures.
In reviewing general progress since I started Yoga, I would confidently say that my lung capacity and breathing efficiency has improved greatly, as has spinal flexibility. With high altitude mountain cycling on the agenda, these drills I have been doing will pay dividends in France. I can certainly appreciate how Yoga plays a big part in cycling.
Day seventy three: Tuesday 18 April 2006
Rest day.
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