Training blog - page 20

Day one hundred and thirty: Wednesday 14 June 2006

Firstly, I spent some time working on the road bike I'll be taking to France with me.  I have now changed the gear ratios to suit mountainous terrain.  Doing this about seven weeks before I travel overseas, means my legs can get used to the new ratios which will come in handy when in the mountains.

Yoga.  As usual before a session of yoga, I did the usual handgrip exercises, reverse curls and ab crunches (two sets of 30 reps of each).

This evening, I focused primarily on Viniyoga.  With this in mind, I started with five standing forward bends, followed by the same number of upward legs and arms stretch, bridge poses, cobra poses and knee to chest pose. 

A corpse pose (as is usual on Viniyoga poses) finished today's session.

Day one hundred and thirty one: Thursday 15 June 2006

I took my road bike to Specialised Cycles in Norwich for the gears to be adjusted.  I do not have a workstand to be able to do this, so the shop mechanic Andrew agreed to do the adjustments at very short notice.  Thanks Andrew.

Yoga.  I did handgrips, reverse curls and ab crunches in this order, again before doing the main session of yoga.

I did quite a long yoga session this evening, centered around classic yogic poses.  Firstly, I held a corpose pose for several minutes.  Three different yogic neck exercises followed plus five eye exercises.

Moving on to main postures, the first one performed was a cobra pose (Bhujangasana), then a half locust pose (Ardha Salabasana).  A full locust pose (Salabasana) came next, which I was required to hold for 10-15 seconds.

I attempted a bow pose (Dhanurasana) next but find I'm still unable to perform this posture, possibly due to a stiff back.  After this, I quickly moved on to a head to knee pose (Janusirshasana) followed by a forward bending pose (Paschimothansana).

Many more (well four more) classic yogic poses were to come, with a shoulder stand (Sarvangasana) coming next.  I am glad to report that I am able to raise the trunk of my body higher and keep my legs at an almost 90 degree angle.

A fish pose (Matsyasana) was performed next, followed by a half spinal twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana).  A yogic seal (Yoga mudra) was the final regular exercise before settling into another corpse pose to wind down and finish this evening's session.

Day one hundred and thirty two: Friday 16 June 2006

Bike.  Today was a perfect opportunity to test the new components on the France bound road bike and to make sure that the torque settings I applied to the nuts and bolts were correct.  I experienced absolutely no problems; the drivetrain was extremely smooth and I found it was possible to transmit more power through the new components without causing any flex in the chainrings.  Absolutely perfect for the mountains where I will be applying a tremendous amount of force through the chainset.

I cycled a total of 53.9 miles (often stuck in traffic jams) at an average speed of 17mph, average heart rate of 145 bpm.  My legs felt good and at the time of writing this entry (1.00am on Saturday 17 June), they feel as fresh as they were first thing yesterday morning.

The wind was light to moderate in strength, with an average temperature of 71 degrees.

Late evening, I performed the usual exercise mat workouts, but this time in a different order; ab crunches first, followed by reverse curls and finally handgrip/forearm development exercises (two sets of 30 reps per exercise).

Day one hundred and thirty three: Saturday 17 June 2006

Gym.  I bypassed the weight room today and focused on the lesser weight load leg exercises whilst continuing my progress on the upper body.

First of all, I did torso twists at the unchanged resistance of 25kg (two sets of 20 reps per side).  Next, I did two sets of 20 reps on the inner thigh squeeze machine (170lbs), quickly followed by the same number of outer thigh squeezes on the nearby aparatus (120lbs).

A trip to the ab crunch machine was next on the agenda and I managed the single set of 30 reps at a resistance of 45kg quite comfortably.  'Superman' ball raises were next and I performed the usual quantity of two sets of 20 reps.  Leg curls were performed at a weight of 50kg and fully curled three sets of 10 reps with ease; all reps were done at full travel to my gluteal muscles.

Conversely, tricep pulldowns continue to be a struggle and in particular my broken elbow, which  continues to cause acute discomfort.  Here, I managed a full set of 20 reps at 25kg followed by a second set of 15 reps with a final set consisting of only 11 reps.

On a better note, I increased weight resistance on the hip flexor raise exercise from 45.3kg to 52kg and managed the full three sets of 15 reps on each leg.  I decided to do the hip flexor raises on the right leg followed by total hip kickbacks (three sets of 15 reps at 80kg) on the same leg, then changed sides and performed the same quantity of each on the left leg.  I concluded today's gym session by doing three full sets of 20 reps at pullovers, using a 15kg dumbell.

Exercises not performed today: leg press, upright rowing bar, leg extensions and calf raises.

Yoga.  Before yoga, I did two sets of 30 reps on each of the following:  forearm development / hand grips, ab crunches and reverse curls.

This evening was centered around Viniyoga and I managed five reps on each exercise, unless stated otherwise.

I started with standing forward bends, closely followed by upward legs and arm stretches.  Bridge poses came next, with cobra poses being the penultimate regular posture.  The final core pose was the knee to chest pose.

As is customary with Viniyoga, I relaxed into a corpse pose for a full five minutes.  This concluded tonight's yoga session.

Day one hundred and thirty four: Sunday 18 June 2006

Bike.  Today was VC Norwich club run day.  I met up with fellow club members and cycled a total of 53.0 miles.  On the outward journey of 29.2 miles, my average speed on my heart rate monitor read 16.1 mph (average temperature of 74 degrees farenheit) and on the return journey, 23.8 miles were covered at an average speed of 17.4 mph (mean temperature of 78 degrees farenheit).

My legs felt slightly jaded especially towards the end of the ride, but they generally responded.  They certainly will have to as in the forthcoming weeks, I will be placing a tremendous workload on them.

Day one hundred and thirty five: Monday 19 June 2006

Bike.  My legs clocked up another 52.49 miles today, as I travelled to a fundraising destination on my winter training bike.  It was a steady ride with an average speed of 15.7 mph.

All in all, a sunny day with variable cloud but with a moderate strength head / crosswind on the return journey.

Finally, an update on my legs.  They were ok, but are starting to voice their objections at the mileage which I am starting to accumulate.  I am sure my legs will eventually comply with the workload, but they may two or three weeks to concede defeat.

Day one hundred and thirty six: Tuesday 20 June 2006

Gym.  Today I started with calf raises, raising an unchanged load of 100kg (3 sets of 15 reps) followed by three full sets of 10 reps on the leg press machine.  Here, I pressed 260kg for the first two sets but decided to increase weight load to 265kg for the third and final set.  I managed the full 10 reps at this new weight.

I am sure more pain is felt when I do both leg press and leg extensions on the same day; both exercises work the quadricep muscles.  Here, I managed the usual 85kg (3 sets of 10 reps).  'Superman' ball raises were next.  I did the usual two sets of 20 on this core stability workout.

The second and final weight increase came on the inner thigh squeeze machine.  I decided to increase resistance from 170lbs to 175lbs and performed the usual two sets of 20 reps.  On the outer thigh pushes, I decided to push out 120lbs resistance (two sets of 20 reps) but feel ready to increase this to 125lbs on the next visit.

Next, I worked out on the leg curl aparatus, managing two full sets of 10 reps at 50kg and 8 reps of the final set, before aborting due to a hamstring tweak in my left leg.  Torso twists concluded today's gym session; I did the usual two sets of 20 reps per side, against a weight resistance of 25kg.

Exercises not attempted today: upright rowing bar, hip flexor raises, total hip kickbacks, tricep pulldowns, ab crunch machine and pullovers.

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