Training blog - page 19

Day one hundred and twenty three: Wednesday 7 June 2006

Bike.  Before reporting on today's training, I'd like to provide an update on preparations.  Yesterday during my rest day, I visited the doctors and completed a form which the nurses will read.  The form asks for information on where I am visiting.  Based on my reply, I may need to be vacinated against diseases like malaria; I've been informed that mosquitoes are common in the high Alps.

Today, yet another cold and sore throat has developed.  I travelled to a fundraising location on my winter training bike.  I cycled 65.02 miles at an average speed of 16.4 mph.  My legs felt very good with only a very minor sign of tiredness in them after approximately 60 miles.  Since last Saturday, I have cycled 204 miles so far.

I am currently awaiting an upgraded USB heart rate monitor download interface from Polar UK.  As soon as I receive this, I will post an exercise file on this training blog.

To conclude today's training, I did the usual quantity of forearm development exercises, reverse curls and ab crunches.

Day one hundred and twenty four: Thursday 8 June 2006

Gym.  Well today I woke up with a severe fever but still decided to visit the gym.  Before this, I did two sets of 30 forearm development exercises.  Despite my best efforts, my body was simply not allowing me to produce the same strength as I normally would.

I decided against doing the two highest weight bearing exercises; the leg press and calf raises, so all in all, very little to report today training wise.

Firstly, I did leg extensions (one set of 10 reps plus one set of 5) followed by inner thigh squeezes, where I managed one set of 20 plus 10 reps of the second set at 170lbs resistance.  I tried outer thigh pushes and only pushed 6 reps at 120lbs before the fever got the better of me.  By this stage, I found it increasingly difficault to breathe but still tried some torso twists.  Again, I did not manage the full 2 sets of 20 reps, only one set per side at 25kg resistance.

The 'Superman' ball raises were only one of two workouts where I performed the full number of reps; I managed the usual two sets of 20 reps.  Next came tricep pulldowns (10 reps at 20kg), ab crunch machine (at 45kg 1 set of 15 reps with three minutes rest then the remaining 15 reps).

I then aborted today's session just 55 minutes into it.

Day one hundred and twenty five: Friday 9 June 2006

Rest day.

Day one hundred and twenty six: Saturday 10 June 2006

Rest day.

Day one hundred and twenty seven: Sunday 11 June 2006

Bike.  I joined up with four other VC Norwich riders for the Sunday club run.  I cycled 50.6 miles at an average speed of 16.2mph.  Average heart rate for the ride was 144bpm.  This was slightly higher than usual for a club run as I spent much of the ride at the front, particularly on the return journey home where a head/crosswind prevailed.  During the last 5 miles of the ride, I increased the pace with cyclists behind me to see whether I could sustain a higher heart rate.  I managed this very well, so feel my cardiovascular fitness is developing very well and is on schedule.

Day one hundred and twenty eight: Monday 12 June 2006

Gym.  Thirteen out of fourteen exercises were attempted today.  Having not leg pressed any weight for over a week, I decided to start with a 250kg weight load and if the first two sets went well, planned to press 260kg for the final 10 reps.  Well I managed 250kg without too many problems and did indeed add an extra 10kg disk but could only manage 7 reps at this new weight.

Calf raises came next.  I lifted the usual 100kg weight load using my calf muscles (three sets of 15 reps).  After climbing off this machine, I did some leg extensions; three stes of 1o reps at 85kg, followed by two sets of 20 reps on the 'Superman' ball.

Tricep pulldowns were another exercise unattempted for about a week and it showed; I did one full set of 20 reps followed by two sets of 12 reps.  I am optimistic about returning to the progress made in recent weeks on this particular machine.  The aparatus next to the tricep machine was used next; torso twists, where I did the usual two sets of 20 reps per side at a resistance of 25kg.

Again, the inner thigh squeeze and outer thigh push machines are next to each other.  I managed the full two sets of 20 reps on each at 170lbs and 120lbs respectively.

The ab crunch machine is situated in the centre of the main gym room.  I did 1 set of 30 reps at a resistance of 45kg.  Nearby is the leg press aparatus.  I managed to curl three sets of 10 reps quite easily, with all reps performed to a 100% distance of travel to my gluteal muscles.

I then went back into the weight room, where the serious strength building aparatus is and did two full sets of 15 reps on the upright rowing bar, but could only manage 10 reps for the final set.  Again, this is an exercise I have not performed for over a week.  To conclude today's session, I did three sets of 15 reps per leg on both the hip flexor raises and total hip kickbacks, with a resistance of 45.3kg and 80kg respectively.  I feel confident of increasing resistance to over 50kg on the hip flexor raises, so will be focused on doing this on my next visit to the gym.

Exercises not performed today: pullovers.

Day one hundred and twenty nine: Tuesday 13 June 2006

Rest day.

                                               page one | previous | next