Training blog - page 18

Day one hundred and sixteen: Wednesday 31 May 2006

Rest day.

Day one hundred and seventeen: Thursday 1 June 2006

Gym.  Just a little note about yesterday, which is indicated as a "rest day".  I did the usual daily handgrip exercises, reverse curls and ab crunches (two sets of 30 reps of each).

Today at the gym, I started on the calf raise machine where I lifted 100kg with my calf muscles and managed three sets of 15 reps.  Next, I used the leg press aparatus to press a new weight of 255kg and I managed to leg press two whole sets of 10 reps plus 4 reps of the final set.

Leg extensions followed and as usual, I performed a full compliment of three sets of 10 reps at a weight resistance of 85kg.  Similarly, inner thigh squeeze weight was unchanged at 170lbs resistance, but I only managed one full set of 20 reps followed by a final set of 15 reps due to a slight muscle tweak.  Outer thigh pushes were unchanged at a resistance of 115lbs (two sets of 20 reps).

Good news on tricep pulldowns (although not so for my pain threshold).  I pulled down a much improved full set of 20 reps plus two sets of 15 reps, but at the same time I experienced incredible pain at the point where my elbow was fractured.  As I am off target for this particular exercise, I decided to block the pain from my mind as much as possible and grit my teeth / hang in there.  I simply reached the stage where my arm could no longer push the weight down.

Next, I moved on to the torso twist machine, where I performed the usual two sets of 20 reps per side at a resistance of 25kg and to complete this particular gym session, I performed two sets of 20 reps on the 'Superman' ball.

There were five workouts not attempted today:-  the upright rowing bar, hip flexor raises, total hip kickbacks, leg curls and pullovers.

On the next visit, I will be further increasing the leg press weight load to 260kg and aim to perform all thirteen workouts plus a further one, which I have recently discovered; the ab crunch machine.

Yoga.  This evening before yoga, I did the usual quantity of handgrips, reverse curls and ab crunches which I will be doing on a daily basis.

I only had one set of yoga exercises in mind; Viniyoga.  Firstly, each of these workouts (with the exception of the corpse pose) consisted of five reps.  To start, I performed standing forward bends before moving on to upward legs and arms stretches, bridge poses, cobra poses and the final regular exercise was a knee to chest pose.

To round off today's training, I settled into a corpse pose which I held for approximately three and a half minutes.

Day one hundred and eighteen: Friday 2 June 2006

Rest day.

Day one hundred and nineteen: Saturday 3 June 2006

Bike.  Again, yesterday was not quite a complete day of rest; I did the usual forearm development exercises plus reverse curls and ab crunches.

As much as I love watching football, I missed the England World Cup warm up match on TV in favour of mileage on the bike, something which I will regularly do even when the tournament proper begins.  Today I rode 78.2 miles at an average speed of 18 mph.  My legs felt very good and gradually tired after approximately 55 miles.  After 70 miles, my legs didn't have much left to give.  Of course, leg endurance will improve over the coming weeks, so I am not concerned about this.

The only pain experienced was in the lower back area, which is a first for me.  I can only put it down to the length of time in the saddle; approximately four and a half hours.

Yoga.  Before tonight's yoga session, I performed the usual forearm development workout plus reverse curls and ab crunches.  By this time, the back pain had all but disappeared.

Classic yoga exercises were the order of the day.  I started with a corpse pose, which I settled into for approximately two and a half minutes.  A series of three neck exercises followed, with an additional five eye workouts following shortly afterwards.

I performed a yogic seal (Yoga mudra) next.  The second main exercise was a forward bending pose (Paschimothanasana) and after this, a head to knee pose (Janusirshasana).  A half locust pose (Ardha Salabasana) came next; I remember performing this by lifting my right leg.  I then relaxed a little before switching leg.  However, I fell asleep on the exercise mat at this stage and recall waking up at about 2.30am.  Maybe I will invent a classic pose - the sleeping pose - after all!

Day one hundred and twenty: Sunday 4 June 2006

Bike.  Just thirteen and a half hours after finishing yesterday's ride, I was back on the bike for the VC Norwich Sunday club run.  Predictably, my legs had not recovered from yesterday.  Today I rode 60.7 miles at an average speed of 17 mph.  My lower back pains appear to have gone but saddle sores have appeared.

Other data from today's ride include an average heart rate of 139 beats per minute (bpm).  This equates to approximately 67.5% of my maximum heart rate, which is 206 bpm.

I cycled the last 12 miles or so of the ride on my own; being the rider at the very back of the bunch, I was held up by traffic which appeared after most riders had crossed the junction.  The pace was relatively high and by the time the junction was clear of oncoming vehicles, I found myself quite a distance from the main pack.  As a result, I took the decision not to bust a gut to get back to the other riders.

Approximately 5 miles from home, I accidentally rode over a large piece of road flint and within seconds I could hear the hiss of air being released from the rear tyre.  On closer inspection, no flint parts had penetrated the tyre, so I figured that either the inner tube valve had failed or that I had a "pinch flat".  It was the latter, so I repaired the punctured inner tube by applying a pre-glued patch.  For those not familiar with a "pinch flat", the puncture looks very much like two fangs have penetrated the inner tube, hence an alternative reference used by cyclists of a "snakebite".  A pinch flat usually happens when a section of tyre is momentarily unseated from the wheel rim and the inner tube sometimes follows the tyre position, so that when the tyre returns to its normal position, the inner tube quite often gets trapped between rim and tyre beading, creating two tiny parallel slits.

This evening, I did the usual quantity of hand grip squeezes (forearm development workout), reverse curls and ab crunches.

Day one hundred and twenty one: Monday 5 June 2006 

Gym.  Looking at the calendar today, there are exactly 9 weeks remaining before I travel to France to ride up the mountains.  I am very confident that I'll complete the ride without walking any part of the route.  The only time I'll be climbing off the bike / stopping will be either to replenish water bottles or to take digital camera pictures.

Today at the gym, I did twelve workouts out of a possible fourteen.  Firstly, I performed the usual quantity of 100kg calf raises (3 sets of 15 reps), followed by a full number of raises of the upright rowing bar (three sets of 15 reps at bar weight plus a total of 5kg weight disks).  After the upright rowing bar, I climbed on to the leg extension machine, where my legs raised three sets of 10 reps at 85kg.  My quadriceps burned from the very beginning of this workout and I really had to dig deep to complete each set.

I decided to do inner thigh squeezes next.  With a resistance of 170 lbs, I performed the full number of reps; two sets of 20.  Outer thigh push resistance was increased from 115lbs to 120lbs.  The first set posed few problems with the worked muscles beginning to tire after approximately 15 reps.  The second and final set though was a different story; I only managed 15 reps as my legs eventually ground to a halt 5 reps short of the required number.  Obviously when this happens, the pain is immense.

My arms continue to improve on the tricep pulldown machine; on this occasion I pulled down two full sets of 20 reps followed by 15 reps of the final set, against a resistance of 20kg.  On the next visit, I hope to reach the full quantity of sets and reps.  The triceps are definately showing signs of strengthening, although I am still experiencing intense discomfort during the time I perform this workout.  I then sat on the torso twist machine, where my abs twisted two sets of 20 reps per side at 25kg.

The core stability 'Superman' ball raises followed, with me doing the usual two sets of 20 reps.  Shortly afterwards, I walked over to the newly introduced aparatus; the ab crunch machine and performed the recommended one set of 30 reps at 45kg resistance.  I am happy to report that today my hamstrings were alive and kicking on the leg curl machine.  I easily curled two full sets of 10 reps followed by the final set, where the first 8 reps were full reps and  the last two being about 85% of maximum distance.

Finally, I moved on to the hip machine where I did three sets of 15 reps per leg at 45.3kg (hip flexor raises) and the same number of total hip kickbacks at a resistance of 80kg.  I am looking to increase the weight load on this exercise to 88.4kg on the next visit.

The only two exercises not performed today were leg presses and pullovers.

Yoga.  Before the yoga, I did two sets of 30 reps on forearm development exercises, reverse curls and manual ab crunches.

This evening's yoga session was a short one, focused on Viniyoga workouts.  The following exercises were repeated four times:- standing forward bend, upward legs and arms stretch, bridge pose, cobra pose and knee to chest pose.  To complete the session, I settled into a corpse pose which lasted approximately two minutes.

Day one hundred and twenty two: Tuesday 6 June 2006

Rest day.

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