Training blog - page 2

Day six: Wednesday 25 January 2006

Bike.  I was correct in my prediction on muscle stiffness.  After all, I haven't done sit ups for well over a year so predictably it was the stomach area which caused most discomfort.  Not only this, but the muscles between each rib were noticably painful especially when coughing.  Well I think the saying no pain no gain generally by now is ringing true as all the different muscle groups I use on the bike and in the gym are starting to clash and develop. 

I agreed to meet up with Velo Club Norwich member and Myriad-uk.net owner Darren Evans for an evening training ride.  What a disaster!  We were constantly lost in the darkness, regularly stopping and starting, looking for non existent direction signs.  I cycled a total of 37.79 miles at an average speed of 14.8mph.  Regardless of this, it was still a good workout; cycling into a variable headwind.  The temperature was 3C with an initial light wind which became strong and gusty in strength mid-ride.

Day seven: Thursday 26 January 2006

Gym.  I did the same exercises in the same order as on my last visit, but this time I omitted sit-ups from the schedule; I can do these at home.  I did the full amount of sets and reps for all upper body efforts (generally 3 sets of 15).  Back squats were attempted for the first time and I managed to gently introduce my body to these, doing 1 set of 10 at 30kg.  I will be doing these squats at the beginning, after leg presses.  My quad muscles are certainly getting used to leg extensions, to the extent that I managed to increase the weight lifted to 50kg, an increase of 5kg.  Another 5kg was also added to the calf raises, making the total load lifted 100kg.

I can really start noticing the increase in strength, especially whilst on the bike.  On my next visit, I will be increasing leg press load to a minimum of 160kg, but I'm conscious of  doing too much too soon, so a 10kg gain should be sufficient.  Rest day tomorrow but a busy day to follow, with me starting yoga...

Day eight: Friday 27 January 2006

Rest day

Day nine: Saturday 28 January 2006

Yoga.  My first ever session of yoga, using a book borrowed from Norwich Millenium library.  In my living room, I muted the volume on my television and focused on a two hour stint.  First of all, I did a very basic yoga forward stretch, inhaling and exhaling deap breaths of air.  Next, I did a conscious breathing exercise, controlling the volume of air into my lungs and moving my arms up simultaneously.  With my body starting to relax, I went into a corpse pose tensing then relaxing every muscle in my body individually whilst breathing deeply.  These were the warm ups, so more intense exercises followed.  Firstly, I did some Hatha yoga, doing some three-part breathing, then an upright mountain pose (Tadasana) followed by an open angle pose (Upavista Konasana), legs up the wall pose (Viparita Karani), bridge pose (Setu Bandhasana), downward-facing dog pose (Adho Mukha Savasana), my personal favourite; the tree pose (Vrksasana) and finally the child's pose (Mudhasana).

The purpose of yoga is to relax the muscles, control breathing and help with stress / relax the mind, so maybe a decent night's sleep will follow.  I'll soon find out....

Day ten: Sunday 29 January 2006

Bike.  I had a fantastic night of sleep and it was difficault to get out of bed as I was so relaxed.

At 10.00pm I went out for a training ride to try out a new position on the bike.  My legs felt very strong, breathing was good, in fact last night's yoga session may have helped.  I cycled 34.14 miles including riding against a moderate headwind on the way back.  Average speed for the ride of 17.0mph, which is the fastest average speed I have achieved so far on the budget £50 Stelvio winter training frame.

My legs felt good post ride, with only mild quad and calf muscle aches.  This week, I intend to  increase the distance of each ride by 10%.

Day eleven: Monday 30 January 2006

Gym.  Another trip to the gym for me today.  As always, leg presses were the first exercises attempted.  Perhaps I was too ambitious; I tried from the outset to press 175kg but this proved to be too much - I only managed 5 reps.  I very much wanted to improve on 26 January load, so settled for 3 sets of 10 reps at 155kg.  No change on the calf raises, no back squats were attempted today, leg curls no change, I tried to do a load of 50kg on the leg extensions, but had an acute left knee pain, so reduced the weight stack to 41kg to do 3 sets of 10 reps.  I had painful and stiff abdominal muscles so I only did 10 sit ups.  Torso twists were unchanged, as were 'superman' ball raises, pullovers 3 sets of 15 reps at 10kg and tricep pulldowns no change.  Also, upright rowing bar exercises were not done due to this machine being in constant use, the same machine is used for back squats.

I'll make sure I arrive at the gym earlier for the next visit, so that I can do the full range.

Day twelve: Tuesday 31 January 2006

Rest day

                                        page one | previous | next