Training blog - page 23

Day one hundred and fifty one: Wednesday 5 July 2006

Rest day.

Day one hundred and fifty two: Thursday 6 July 2006

Rest day.

Day one hundred and fifty three: Friday 7 July 2006

Rest day.

Day one hundred and fifty four: Saturday 8 July 2006

Bike.  Firstly, apologies for not updating this blog over the last three or four days.  As you can see, very little training wise has happened other than rest and recuperation.  I have also double checked planning for travel to the Alps.

Today was a fairly windy day with intermittent gusts of wind.  Humid air seemed to have disappeared and ambient temperature was in the region of 23 degree celsius, which for me is absolutely perfect; not too hot not too cold. 

I cycled 69.4 miles at an average speed of 17.2 mph.  My legs felt a little rusty at first, having missed two or three days of action on the bike.  However, they soon woke up and responded to the demands I placed on them.  Having said that, I deliberately cycled at a steady pace, concentrating on "spinning" a fairly low gear.

About three miles from home, my front tyre sustained a puncture.  Fortunately, with my bike being equipped with very good quality tyres I managed to ride the remaining distance home (at a very slow speed) with the tyre shell remaining in a reasonable position, completely protecting the wheel rims from damage.  Both tyres currently on the bike are starting to show signs of advanced wear.  I intend to fit new tyres a few days before I leave for the mountains.

Day one hundred and fifty five: Sunday 9 July 2006

Gym.  I decided against joining up with fellow VC Norwich club members for today's club run; following yesterday's puncture, I was unable to repair the inner tube by using a pre-glued patch so the tube is now rendered useless.  Since I had no spare inner tube, I had no option other than to use my winter training bike.  This I did, to get me to the gym for the second visit of the week.

Today, I did very well at the gym.  I started by performing three sets of 15 reps on the calf raise machine, with my calfs raising a weight resistance of 100kg.  This was followed up by one and half sets of leg presses at a resistance of 265kg.  The final workout in the main weight room was on the leg extension machine, where my quadriceps lifted 90kg (three sets of 10 reps).

Moving into the main room, I started with 'Superman' ball raises where I managed the usual two sets of 20 reps.  The ball raises were shortly followed by inner thigh squeezes where today I only managed one full set of 20 reps plus 13 reps of the second at a resistance of 180lbs.  I am happy to report there were no problems on the outer thigh push machine, as I performed a full two sets of 20 reps at 120lbs resistance.

The seventh exercise performed today was on the ab crunch machine.  I managed to do the full 30 reps, against a resistance of 50kg.  Following last week's minor operation, I am happy to report that my elbow only experienced minor discomfort; certainly a lot less pain compared to a week ago.  Torso twists were performed next, with me doing two sets of 25 reps per side with a 25kg weight resistance.

Penultimately, I managed two sets of 20 reps followed by a final set of 15 reps on the tricep pulldown aparatus (20kg resistance).  Again, I report that my elbow seemed to hold up to the stress placed upon it on this particular workout.  Finally, I managed three full sets of 10 reps with relative ease on the leg curl machine.

To complete today's schedule, I did 60 reps of handgrip exercises, followed by the same number of ab crunches and reverse curls.  All of these workout reps were performed over two sets.

Day one hundred and fifty six: Monday 10 July 2006

Yoga.  Unlike yesterday, I did the three handgrip and ab exercises first.

Today's yoga session was centered around Viniyoga and as is always the case, most postures consisted of 5 reps each.

The first posture was a standing forward bend (5 reps) followed by an upward legs and arms stretch (5 reps).  The third was a bridge pose (5 reps), fourth a cobra pose (again 5 reps) and penultimately, a knee to chest pose (5 reps).

I concluded tonight's session with a corpse pose which I held for three minutes.

Day one hundred and fifty seven: Tuesday 11 July 2006

Bike.  I took my winter training bike for a ride today.  Although it was a dry day, I always take this steed with me if I need to leave the bike locked up. 

The purpose of today's ride was to fundraise; I am hoping to reach £3,000 before I leave these shores.  I raised a further £141 today at two locations and cycled 54.13 miles at an average  speed of 15.7 mph.

                         page one | previous | next