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Training blog - page 21
Day one hundred and thirty seven: Wednesday 21 June 2006
Yoga. Today, I started by doing the three exercise mat workouts; forearm development grips, ab crunches and reverse curls in this exact order. Two sets of 30 reps were performed on each of these exercises.
A short Viniyoga session followed with me starting on standing forward bends (5 reps), then upward legs and arms stretches (5 reps), bridge poses (5 reps), cobra poses (also 5 reps) and finally knee to chest poses (5 reps).
This session was concluded with a 3 minute corpse pose.
Day one hundred and thirty eight: Thursday 22 June 2006
Rest day.
Day one hundred and thirty nine: Friday 23 June 2006
Gym. Today's visit was the second of the week. I started with calf raises, on which I did three sets of 15 raises at 100kg followed by leg extensions at the usual weight of 85kg. The full number of reps (3 sets of 10) were performed.
The next aparatus I visited was the upright rowing bar, where I raised the weight of the bar plus a total of 5kg weight disks for a total of two sets of 15 plus a final set consisting of 12 reps. Torso twists came next and I did the usual two sets of 20 reps per side at 25kg. These are becoming ridiculously easy, so the natural step would be to increase weight resistance to 30kg. However, too much weight will mean I add unwanted muscle bulk; I am doing a lighter weight but lots of reps in order to tone my upper body. I will need to speak with the instructor to see whether I can do each rep slower or in two parts to give this particular exercise a greater degree of difficaulty.
Inner thigh squeezes were done at the usual quantity of two sets of 20 reps at a resistance of 175lbs, followed quickly by outer thigh pushes. I decided to increase resistance from 120lbs to 125lbs. With me suffering a tweak around the gluteus maximus area (the side of the bottom), I could only manage 15 reps today.
One of the easiest workouts was next on the agenda; 'Superman' ball raises and I managed the usual two sets of 20 reps with absolute ease. The eight exercise attempted was the ab crunch machine. I did one complete set of 30 reps at a resistance of 45kg. My abs seem to find this weight quite easy so I may decide to increase the load on them to 50kg on the next visit. I do have a major problem in doing this though - the final k-wire in my broken elbow appears to be backing out between upper and lower elbow joint and is causing severe discomfort. The ab crunch machine does place quite a strain on the elbows. I am doing my best to divert the pain and focus mentally on doing the exercises but the level of pain has increased significantly over the last two or three days and is reaching an intensity where it is impossible to not feel the full effect of the injury. Basically, the elbow joint is grinding and juddering either against each other or against the k-wire.
Hip flexor raises were performed next with each leg raising a 52 kg weight load. As usual, each leg raised three sets of 15 reps. The penultimate workout was total hip kickbacks, where each leg did three sets of 15 reps at 80kg. On the particular exercise, my legs/hips feel ready to take on an extra 8.4 kg, so the next weight load will be 88.4 kg.
Finally, I am delighted to report that I am now using a 17.5 kg dumbell to do pullovers. Naturally, my arms and ribs need to get used to the extra weight so today I only managed one full set of 20 reps plus 15 reps of the second.
Exercises not performed today: tricep pulldowns, leg press and leg curls.
I will shortly be facing a very difficault decision; do I wait until after I return from the Alps to have the k-wire removed from my elbow or do I have this removed immediately? If I decide on the latter, the wound from having the 7/10" incision re-opened will take approximately 10 days to heal. That would be fine providing I can return to training the day after the operation - with the mountains six weeks away I cannot afford to miss 10 days off the bike and gym etc. Maybe the hospital will be able to dress the wound sufficiently so that I can do intensive work on the bike. I will report back on this blog once I have spoken with the Orthopaedic staff.
Yoga. Just before starting a Hatha yoga session, I did two sets of 30 forearm development exercises (hand grips).
With Hatha yoga, I normally start by practising the three-part breath. This I did twice. Next, I performed a very tradition Hatha posture; the mountain pose (Tadasana). A couple of my favourite postures came next; an open angle pose (Upavista Konasana) which I held for 1 minute and a legs up the wall pose (Viparita Karani). Again, this pose was held for 60 seconds.
A 30 second bridge pose (Setu Bandhasana) was performed next, along with a 1 minute spinal twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana).
I finished tonight's yoga session with a tree pose (Vrksasana) on both legs plus a child's pose (Mudhasana).
A busy training day was finally brought to a close with two sets of 30 reps on each of the following exercise mat workouts: ab crunches and reverse curls.
Day one hundred and forty: Saturday 24 June 2006
Bike. Unfortunately after leaving the gym yesterday, I developed an acute pain in the right knee which I woke up with today. The pain seems to intensify when the upper and lower leg is at a 90 degree angle to each other. Maybe a session on the road is just what the doctor ordered - maybe my knee was hinting that it missed the bike so much!
I cycled 67.6 miles today at an average speed of 18.9 mph. My main aim today was do some rolling hill work ie. sprinting up them in a high gear and also some intense cardio efforts (at about 90% of my maximum heart rate) out of the saddle with my arms on the drop handlebars. This I did - my legs felt fantastic as did my lungs and heart. I aim to do more of these efforts with the intention of increasing power and aerobic efficiency (VO2 max) together with specific hill training (again 90%+ of MHR) up some steep gradients.
An update on the knee - I experienced no pain whatsoever during the ride only for the discomfort to return once I arrived back home.
I finished today by doing the three exercise mat workouts, doing two sets of 30 reps on each.
Day one hundred and forty one: Sunday 25 June 2006
Bike. Today was Velo Club Norwich Sunday club run. On another gloriously warm day, I cycled 59.0 miles at an average speed of 17.1 mph.
My legs felt slightly jaded after yesterday's effort, but I feel they are starting to become acclimatised to constant cycling. I am on schedule to reach my goal of cycling 300 miles per week and should reach this target approximately two weeks before I travel to the Alps.
Within the next two weeks, I am anticipating increased strength in my cycling specific leg muscles.
To finish, I did two sets of 30 forearm development hand grips.
Day one hundred and forty two: Monday 26 June 2006
Gym. Today's session at the gym consisted of ten workouts.
Firstly, I performed three sets of 15 reps on the calf raise machine, using a weight load of 100 kg for the first set only and decided to increase resistance to 105kg for the second and third sets.
The second exercise was leg presses at 265 kg. Unfortunately, the right knee discomfort flared up, so I had no choice but to jump off the machine after only one rep. Leg extensions came next, better news to report here; I was able to increase the weight load from 85kg to 90kg (3 sets of 10 reps). I am also able to report that weight resistance on inner thigh squeezes was further increased today from 175 lbs to 180lbs (two sets of 20 reps were performed).
Outer thigh pushes remained at a resistance of 125lbs but unlike the previous visit, I managed the full two sets of 20 reps today. Another improvement came on the ab crunch machine. The elbow pains at this stage of the session were not particularly causing great discomfort, so I increased resistance from 45 kg to 50 kg and did the full single set of 30 reps. However, within the first ten reps, a bone or the k-wire was threatening to penetrate the skin just below the triceps. I managed the remaining 20 reps in two stages; ten reps were performed followed by a short 10 / 15 second break before completing the set.
'Superman' ball raises were the seventh exercise attempted today. As always, I did two sets of 20 reps with absolute ease. On a similar note, I managed the usual quantity of three sets of 10 reps on the leg curl machine, at a weight load of 50kg.
I spoke with my instructor regarding a possible weight load increase on the torso twist machine. He suggested that I do not add weight resistance but increase the number of reps per set and also perform each twist slower. This I did and managed two sets of 25 reps per side at 25kg. Last but by no means least came tricep pulldowns. In considerable pain, I managed two full sets of 20 reps followed by a final set which consisted of 13 reps. I desperately wanted to do the remaining 7 reps but my arms could not respond. Looking back, this is my best performance at tricep pulldowns so far, so I have to be content with the improvement I have made here.
Exercises not performed today: upright rowing bar, pullovers, hip flexor raises and total hip kickbacks.
Yoga. As is usually the case, I did the three exercise mat workouts before doing a Viniyoga session this evening.
The same postures were performed in the exact order as the previous Viniyoga session (see Wednesday 21 June 2006 entry). Even the corpse pose was held for the same period of time - 3 minutes.
A full compliment of classic yogic postures will be performed in tomorrow's session.
Day one hundred and forty three: Tuesday 27 June 2006
Bike. Today's weather wasn't great, dry but fairly windy with a temperature of less than 18 degress centigrade. However, I'd rather be on the cooler side than the 32 degree temperatures predicted for later on this week.
I focused on fundraising today, so used the winter training bike to travel to Bungay in Suffolk. The route was quite hilly and undulating, so found this very useful to see if I could power up the inclines. According to my computer, I cycled 57.44 miles at an average speed of 16.2 mph. During the ride, I developed saddle sores. For those who are non cyclists or who are but have never experienced one, saddle sores are usually one or a series of boil type sores which can in extreme cases develop into an infection.
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