Training blog - page 8

Day forty six: Wednesday 22 March 2006

Yoga.  Over the past week, I have had a cold, flu, sore throat and diahorrea.  I have biked to the shops to buy essential items but even a two or three mile ride was difficault; I could barely turn the smallest gear.  Breathing was seriously hampered; I found I was gasping for air even whilst turning a gear combination of 39x27.  On balance, I felt that I could not gain anything by training during this period, other than a possible injury in the gym and having a longer term ailment such as bronchitis.  I now have just remnants of the cold so feel ready to resume training.

Today, I gave my 29th pint of blood, so was advised against going to the gym which I was planning to do.  Cycling home, I felt a little anaemic;  the body loses approximately an eighth of its red blood cells and all other components and takes approximately a week to return to a normal count.  Instead I did some Yoga with the intention of returning to a normal training routine from tomorrow. 

Firstly, I started with some warm up exercises; shoulder shrugs, neck rolls and leg stretches and a rhythmatic Yogic drill of arm raising, as my lungs filled up with air.  I also used a corpse pose with individual body parts being exercised.  Once warm up was complete, I did some proper yoga exercises.  A Hatha mountain pose (Tadasana), legs up the wall pose (Viparita Karani), a Hatha bridge pose (Setu Bandhasana), downward facing dog pose (Adho Mukha Savasana), tree pose on each side (Vrksasana), child's pose (Mudhasana).  These were all Hatha yogic workouts.  Finally, to complete the session, I did a couple of Sivananda yoga exercises; a neck exercise, repeated five times per side and two eye exercises, repeated ten times each.

Day forty seven: Thursday 23 March 2006

Gym.  Today I resumed my gym programme, having been advised by a staff nurse that it would be safe to do so, after giving a pint of blood.

Amazingly, I loaded eight 25kg disks onto the leg press aparatus for the very first time and thought (while my legs were fresh) that I could maybe manage the first set at 200kg, bearing in mind I have a lower than normal haemoglobin count than normal.  I'm pleased to say I have now reached my June target; I pressed a full three sets of 10 reps fairly easily.  No change to either leg extensions or calf raises.  I increased the inner thigh squeeze load from 125lbs to 130, doing the usual two sets of 20 reps.  No change to outer thigh pushes, tricep pulldowns and 'superman' ball raises.  Determined to gradually reintroduce pullovers, I managed to do 7 reps this time with a 10kg dumbell.  Pullovers assist breathing muscles in between the ribs.  Torso twists and leg curls were also unchanged, as were hip flexor raises.  To conclude this session with total hip kickbacks, as predicted, I increased the weight load from 36.2kg, but instead of moving up one weight, I decided to increase to the next one; 45.3kg and managed the usual 3 sets of fifteen reps per leg quite easily.

Do I take any supplements?, a commonly asked but reasonable question.  The only tablets I take every day are paracetamol, to ease the pain I am experiencing in my elbow, a one-a-day multi vitamin which also contains iron and a citalopram anti-depressant. 

On the next visit, I will feel ready to move up a weight load on hip flexor raises.  I'll also try to further increase the number of pullovers and also move to within 5kg of my June target on leg curls.

Day forty eight: Friday 24 March 2006

Gym.  On the way home from fundraising, I made a quick visit to Lakenham Sports and Leisure Centre.  My leg muscles were not fully recovered from yesterday's session, so I decided to spend about an hour on the exercise bike, to spin my legs at over 100rpm at a fairly low resistance.  I started at level 5, pedalling for 15 minutes then switched the resistance to level 6 for a further quarter of an hour and finally level 7 for about 20 minutes.  At certain times, I carried out a 'spinning interval'; basically an all out effort, during which I sustained 160-170rpm for 60 seconds at a time.  To finish, I did three sets of 10 leg extensions at 60kg.

On Monday 27 March, I will try and increase leg extension weight to 65kg; just 5kg short of my June target for this particular exercise.

Yoga.  I also fitted in a session of Yoga today.  As always, it is important that relaxtion/warm up exercises are done to prevent muscle pulls etc.  Firstly, I did a typical corpse pose, followed by a corpse pose with rising arms and controlled breathing.  Next, I did some Raja Yoga; a jacknife pose (Padahastanasana) and a backward bend.  Finally, I performed several Vini Yoga poses; a knee to chest pose which I repeated five times, upward legs and arms stretch, bridge pose and cobra pose, again all repeated five times.

Day forty nine: Saturday 25 March 2006

Rest day.

Day fifty: Sunday 26 March 2006

Bike.  Today, I joined up with the VC Norwich Sunday club run.  On a windy day, I recorded 52.92 miles at an average speed of 15.3mph.  I am certain I started the ride severely dehydrated; I must have accidentally activated the electric blanket overnight and woke up this morning extremely warm and sweaty.  I felt strong though, but on the return journey I simply did not have the gears to keep up with the riders in front of me; the chain on my winter training bike is quite worn, as is the large chainring, so quite often the chain would slip.  Consequently, I rode home, pushing smaller than usual gears.

Day fifty one: Monday 27 March 2006

Gym.  Well they say that bad luck comes in three's and in my case, I'm no exception to that.  After closely inspecting the chain on my winter training bike, I can report that one of the rollers is missing; the connecting pin for that link is still in place, but only just.  I had to ride home from today's gym session in one of the smallest gears possible; any extra power/pressure on the pedals meant that the chain would not bite on the smallest chainring and consequently the chainring teeth would become damaged.  Tomorrow, I am planning a training ride, with a stop in between, so that I can fundraise.  I guess I'll have to be careful; my next income is not due to be paid to me until Friday 31 March.

Today, I did increase leg extensions to 65kg (3 sets of ten reps) and managed the new weight fairly comfortably.  Next exercise was leg curls; again I curled an extra 5kg and managed the same number of repetitions and sets.  As stated previously, I find that leg curls hurt very much and I managed the first two sets relatively easily but had to dig deep to complete the last set of 10 without stopping mid-set.  Next, I did leg presses at 200kg.  The first set was fine.  I then suffered an acute pain coming from the right thigh area.  Being very conscious of longer term damage, I only managed a further 5 reps.  Inner thigh squeezes were unchanged, as were outer thigh pushes, torso twists and tricep pulldowns. 

This time, I managed two sets of 10 reps at pullovers, using a 10kg dumbell.  The pain in my elbow is still intense at times but seems to ease a little by taking paracetamol.  'Superman' ball raises were unchanged.  Hip flexor raises were increased from 31.7kg to 36.2.  I feel I could possibly move up to the next weight as early as my next visit.  I decided to stay at 45.3kg for total hip kickbacks, but again may increase weight load very soon.  Finally,  I went back into the mixed gym room and did the usual three sets of 15 reps (calf raises) at 120kg.

Just before heading home, I did re-attempt leg presses but could only manage a further 5 reps, to make a total of two full sets, before the thigh pain returned.

Day fifty two: Tuesday 28 March 2006

Rest day.

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