Training blog - page 24

Day one hundred and fifty eight:  Wednesday 12 July 2006

Gym.  I wanted to focus mainly on upper body workouts today, so little time was spent in the weight room.

I started on the upright rowing bar machine, where I did the full three sets at bar weight plus 5kg of weights.  The current weight felt pretty comfortable, so I will be adding a further 2.5 or 5 kg to the bar on my next visit.  This was the only exercise performed in the weight room.

In the main room, I did inner thigh squeezes, where I managed the usual two sets of 20 reps at 180lbs.  Ab crunches were next and the number of reps done were 30 with a resistance of 50kg.  I quickly followed this with two sets of 20 reps on the 'Superman' ball.

I transferred myself on to the torso twist machine next, where I performed two sets of 25 reps per side.  On the tricep pulldown machine, I again (for the second consecutive visit) managed the full three sets of 20 reps at 20kg resistance.

Dumbell pullovers were attempted next.  I managed 15 reps with the 17.5 kg dumbell.

This visit was concluded on the hip flexor / total hip kickback machine.  I managed three sets of 15 reps per leg at 52 kg on the former and the same quantity per leg at 88kg on the latter.

Apart from a possible weight increase on the upright rowing bar, I am also considering the same on the hip flexor raises.

Finally, later this evening, I did the three at home exercises - hand grips, ab crunches and reverse curls (60 reps of each split over two sets).

Day one hundred and fifty nine: Thursday 13 July 2006

Bike.  Today the wind was moderate to strong in strength, especially near the Norfolk coast.  I cycled from my home in Little Melton to Heacham in North Norfolk (via King's Lynn), where I turned off to head south towards Fakenham.

A total distance of 104.9 non-stop miles were covered at an average speed of exactly 17 mph.  Average speed was not really important, I place a higher emphasis on time in the saddle at this stage of my training.  For the record, the ride lasted a little over 6 hours.  My legs were a little heavy by the time I reached Little Melton.

All in all, it was a very good ride for me; plenty of up and down hills in north Norfolk against a stiff headwind.  Of course, they are not mountains but today's effort can only help when I reach the mountains in about three and a half weeks time.

Click here to view the downloaded heart rate monitor file for this ride.

Day one hundred and sixty: Friday 14 July 2006

Bike.  Having woken up later than usual (presumably due to yesterday's effort) followed by things to try and sort out throughout the day, I couldn't get out on the bike until 6.20pm.  When I did, I cycled 43.0 miles at an average speed of 18.1 mph.

The weather was dry, ideal temperature but the stiff breeze persisted today, although not quite as strong compared to yesterday; I cycled in a south westerly direction as opposed to north.

My legs felt ok throughout the ride with only minor aches and pains from the previous day's endeavours.

In the evening, I did two sets of 30 reps of hand grips, followed by the same number of ab crunches and reverse curls.

Day one hundred and sixty one: Saturday 15 July 2006

Bike.  Today, the relentless load on my legs continued with another trip to North Norfolk.  This time the destination was Holt, followed by a ride along the A148 past Sheringham towards Cromer.  Again, the route was undulating and lumpy (this is common terrain in the northern part   of the county).  I cycled 69.9 miles at an average speed of 17.1 mph.

My legs felt very heavy; today was the end of another cycling week in which I have covered a total distance of 271.93 miles (my cycling week is from Sunday to Saturday inclusive).  Taking unrecorded mileage ie. commuting to shops etc. into account, I have comfortably exceeded 300 miles this week.  Looking at the accumulative mileage on my heart rate monitor, since the battery change, it reads 1,026 miles.

Tomorrow I will be giving my legs a well deserved rest before resuming normal duties on Monday.

Yoga.  This evening, I wanted to focus on Hatha postures since I've been concentrating on Viniyoga of late.

I started with a mountain pose (Tadasana) which was held for approximately 60 seconds followed by an open angle pose (Upavista Konasana) which I again held for one minute.  The next posture performed was a legs up the wall pose (Viparita Karani) for 60 seconds.

The next postures performed were a bridge pose (Setu Bandhasana) for 30 seconds, an inverted pose called a downward-facing dog pose (Adho Mukha Savasana) for 60 seconds, a spinal twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana) for 30 seconds.

The penultimate posture was a tree pose (Vrksasana), performed twice; once on each leg.  This particular posture lasted one minute per side. 

Finally, I closed today's training with a child's pose (Mudhasana) which was held for 60 seconds.

Day one hundred and sixty two: Sunday 16 July 2006

Rest day.

Day one hundred and sixty three: Monday 17 July 2006

Gym.  As I near the end of seven months hard work getting myself in perfect condition to ride up the four high alpine passes in one day, my leg muscles feel like civil war has started within them.

I started with leg presses and after two or three reps at 265kg, I had to dig incredibly deep to push the weight load back up against the gradient of the machine.  This I did for one whole set of 10 reps plus 4 reps of the second set.

My quadriceps were worked again shortly afterwards, this time on the leg extension machine, where I did the full three sets of 10 at 90kg.  Inner thigh squeezes quickly followed (in the main room) and I managed the full two sets of 20 reps at 180 lbs. 

I wanted to do the usual workouts in a different order today, so tricep pulldowns came next.  I continued very good progress here, managine the full three sets of 20 reps at 20kg.  'Superman' ball raises were performed very shortly afterwards,  with me doing two sets of 20 reps very easily.

Keen to further progress on the upright rowing bar machine, I added a further 2.5kg weight load to the weight of the bar, which already had a total of 5kg placed on it.  I managed one full set of 15 reps at this new weight plus 10 reps on each of the second and third sets.  Ab crunches were performed next, with me doing one set of 30 reps at 50kg resistance.

Four more exercises were attempted today: torso twists (two sets of 25 reps per side at 25kg), outer thig pushes (two sets of 20 reps at 120 lbs resistance), hip flexor raises (three sets of 15 reps per leg at 52 kg) and finally, calf raises (three sets of 15 reps at an increased weight load of 105kg).

Workouts not performed today: dumbell pullovers, leg curls, total hip kickbacks.

From today, I will not be increasing weight resistance on future visits between now and 7 August.  This follows advice from my gym instructor.

Yoga.  This evening's session was based on Viniyoga.  Regular readers of my training blog will know that all Viniyoga postures consist of five reps each with the exception of the corpse pose, which is usually performed only once.

I therefore performed the following postures: standing forward bend, upward legs and arms stretch, bridge pose, cobra pose, knee to chest pose and finally, a corpse pose which I held for approximately two and a half minutes.

Today's day of training was concluded on the exercise mat with ab crunches (two sets of 30 reps) being performed.

Day one hundred and sixty four: Tuesday 18 July 2006

Bike.  Today was absolutely perfect for cycling, with the temperature reported to be in the region of 30 degrees centigrade.

With my legs having the benefit of two days rest from the bike, today was the time to put them under load again.  I took the winter training bike with me to a fundraising location.

I cycled 51.51 miles at an average speed of 16.3 mph.  My legs felt fairly fresh on undulating roads and should be ok for a longer ride tomorrow.

This evening I spent some time on my exercise mat at home.  The usual hand grip exercises were performed, along with ab crunches and reverse curls.  Two sets of 30 reps were performed on each of the three workouts.

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