Week 9. The worst week of training since this record began.
Starting out with my birthday putting a stop on training, and then ending with the release of a PS3 game I have been waiting keenly for. In total I have managed to get to the gym once. Just once!
Monday. Lame excuse, forgot my contact lenses so didn’t go.
Tuesday. Went to the gym and had a good session. Pleased with my effort.
Wednesday. Rest day.
Thursday. Was going to go to the gym but Resistance 2 turned up in the post one day early so I went zooming home like a seven year old who has just been told that his parents had bought a puppy. Net result. No gym.
Friday. Today. I am going to the gym and I intend to work really hard but as I still have a new PS3 game to play I don’t know how focused I will be. I hope I have enough motivation to go the distance on all of the machines.
To make up for the worst week of training ever. I really do intend to go for a big kayak on the weekend. Saturday looks like the better of the two days temperature wise, with a whopping 0°C being forecast. I have a few emergency get outs in case it is too unpleasant and will report in on Monday.
Friday, 28 November 2008
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
finally got back to the gym
Nigel was doing interviews last night so after work I was alone in the gym but at least I managed to go.
I used the rowing machine as a warm up. 10 minutes setting number 4 (setting 4 is somewhere between wimpy and difficult settings). The clock thing on it was broken so only showed the time and distance but it was no bother for me and upon completion I was sufficiently warmed up.
Before I really got a sweat on I went around and worked the machines with seats (to avoid the slightly embarrassing bum sweat wipe down that follows).
Free weights. 15 reps 2 sets of curls with the 5kgs. 10 reps 2 sets of curls with the 7.5kgs. The 5kg weights are almost too easy, and the 7.5kg weights are almost too hard, as there isn’t a 6kg weight I am currently using both until I can lift the 7.5’s with ease.
Back extension exercises. 59kgs 3 sets of 15-ish reps (give or take a couple). Each rep on this exercise takes quite long as you slowly go from the sitting to the upright pushing the weights, so I sort of forget how many reps I am up to.
Leg pushes. 3 sets of 15 reps pushing the 42kgs. Piece of cake, though I wish I had done these exercises first as I was then off to the cross trainer and my calves were still a bit achy.
Cross trainer. Level 8. 20 minutes of intervals. Despite starting with a slight calf ache I blitzed this and am thinking next time I will either knock the level up a few notches or will add another 10 minutes.
Time was ticking on though so I forwent the time on the treadmill and headed to the pool. I was pleasantly surprised to find it pretty much empty so donned the goggles and set about some lengths.
I had a bit of a groin strain pretty much straight away as the water was quite cool and I hadn’t given my legs enough of a warm up but 30 minutes of solid swimming seemed to banish that minor twinge.
And that was me done. Happy with my effort.
This morning I have been to the doctors for some blood tests. They are checking my general blood quality and also for arthritis and other degenerative conditions that may be manifesting in my still painful shoulder. I believe that deep down the doctor is more than happy with his diagnosis that it is a self inflicted trauma injury from the gym, so I am not overly worried about the results.
I used the rowing machine as a warm up. 10 minutes setting number 4 (setting 4 is somewhere between wimpy and difficult settings). The clock thing on it was broken so only showed the time and distance but it was no bother for me and upon completion I was sufficiently warmed up.
Before I really got a sweat on I went around and worked the machines with seats (to avoid the slightly embarrassing bum sweat wipe down that follows).
Free weights. 15 reps 2 sets of curls with the 5kgs. 10 reps 2 sets of curls with the 7.5kgs. The 5kg weights are almost too easy, and the 7.5kg weights are almost too hard, as there isn’t a 6kg weight I am currently using both until I can lift the 7.5’s with ease.
Back extension exercises. 59kgs 3 sets of 15-ish reps (give or take a couple). Each rep on this exercise takes quite long as you slowly go from the sitting to the upright pushing the weights, so I sort of forget how many reps I am up to.
Leg pushes. 3 sets of 15 reps pushing the 42kgs. Piece of cake, though I wish I had done these exercises first as I was then off to the cross trainer and my calves were still a bit achy.
Cross trainer. Level 8. 20 minutes of intervals. Despite starting with a slight calf ache I blitzed this and am thinking next time I will either knock the level up a few notches or will add another 10 minutes.
Time was ticking on though so I forwent the time on the treadmill and headed to the pool. I was pleasantly surprised to find it pretty much empty so donned the goggles and set about some lengths.
I had a bit of a groin strain pretty much straight away as the water was quite cool and I hadn’t given my legs enough of a warm up but 30 minutes of solid swimming seemed to banish that minor twinge.
And that was me done. Happy with my effort.
This morning I have been to the doctors for some blood tests. They are checking my general blood quality and also for arthritis and other degenerative conditions that may be manifesting in my still painful shoulder. I believe that deep down the doctor is more than happy with his diagnosis that it is a self inflicted trauma injury from the gym, so I am not overly worried about the results.
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Non starter
Aww man, this week seems to be a non starter. First I spent the weekend doing nothing, then last night I forgot some pieces of kit so couldn’t go to the gym. Hopefully tonight I will actually make it. I have to, I am starting to feel that the fitness regime has slipped.
Anyway. You probably don’t know, but I write this blog in a word document before I upload it to blogger because my spelling is atrocious and I need a spell checker before I submit this to the web.
This word document of mine also has loads of other stuff written on it to do with the Devizes to Westminster race. Copy and pasted text, links, and other useful bits of information, and whenever I have a good idea, I add that too.
One of the things I did when I first had the idea of taking part in the race was to write down some date specific goals. A lot of the goals are months ahead, things like, April 2009 - Get a boat. July 2009 - Start getting sponsorship. April 2010 – go to Devizes.
Well it has been a while since I looked at it so I just had a quick read down the list, and for November 2008 I was going to paddle from Shrewsbury to Telford. Well it’s now the 25th of November and I haven’t done this yet. The river levels have always been too high or I have been to busy, so here I am with only one weekend left in the month.
Well I have nothing planned for this weekend, the river level is not too dangerous, I set myself a goal, and I am feeling like I have let my whole training regime slip. I am going to kayak the 25 miles from Shrewsbury to Telford on Saturday…..
…. I have just found out that this is possibly the dumbest thing I have planned to do to date. Having checked with the wife to see that it is okay for me to book a Saturday of paddling I then checked my favourite weather website. Metcheck. This is what it tells me…
(You will need to click on the image to see the predicted weather in it's full chilling glory.)
1 degrees centigrade that feels like –2 degrees! (that’s about 28 degrees Fahrenheit for my international friends, or 271 Kelvin’s away from absolute zero for anyone of a scientific disposition) With an unhealthy dose of sleet to keep me feeling really chirpy. I have paddled this route a few times in the past and the one memory that remains of this trip is the chill that sets into my hands and face. And I usually paddle when the sun shines.
Though, as I start to talk myself out of going because of the weather, I am reminded that the DW race itself doesn’t exactly take place during the summer.
As I sit here now, I am telling myself that I must go. Potentially on Saturday I won’t be so keen to test my metal. Place bets now. Will I or won’t I?
If I do go though, I will take my mate SatNav to give me some statistics of speed and time.
Anyway. You probably don’t know, but I write this blog in a word document before I upload it to blogger because my spelling is atrocious and I need a spell checker before I submit this to the web.
This word document of mine also has loads of other stuff written on it to do with the Devizes to Westminster race. Copy and pasted text, links, and other useful bits of information, and whenever I have a good idea, I add that too.
One of the things I did when I first had the idea of taking part in the race was to write down some date specific goals. A lot of the goals are months ahead, things like, April 2009 - Get a boat. July 2009 - Start getting sponsorship. April 2010 – go to Devizes.
Well it has been a while since I looked at it so I just had a quick read down the list, and for November 2008 I was going to paddle from Shrewsbury to Telford. Well it’s now the 25th of November and I haven’t done this yet. The river levels have always been too high or I have been to busy, so here I am with only one weekend left in the month.
Well I have nothing planned for this weekend, the river level is not too dangerous, I set myself a goal, and I am feeling like I have let my whole training regime slip. I am going to kayak the 25 miles from Shrewsbury to Telford on Saturday…..
…. I have just found out that this is possibly the dumbest thing I have planned to do to date. Having checked with the wife to see that it is okay for me to book a Saturday of paddling I then checked my favourite weather website. Metcheck. This is what it tells me…
(You will need to click on the image to see the predicted weather in it's full chilling glory.)
1 degrees centigrade that feels like –2 degrees! (that’s about 28 degrees Fahrenheit for my international friends, or 271 Kelvin’s away from absolute zero for anyone of a scientific disposition) With an unhealthy dose of sleet to keep me feeling really chirpy. I have paddled this route a few times in the past and the one memory that remains of this trip is the chill that sets into my hands and face. And I usually paddle when the sun shines.
Though, as I start to talk myself out of going because of the weather, I am reminded that the DW race itself doesn’t exactly take place during the summer.
As I sit here now, I am telling myself that I must go. Potentially on Saturday I won’t be so keen to test my metal. Place bets now. Will I or won’t I?
If I do go though, I will take my mate SatNav to give me some statistics of speed and time.
Monday, 24 November 2008
Week 8
How about a late end of week report? So much happened last week that this blog got bumped to back burner status but I'm back at the keyboard now.
First off the week began with a weekend of total exertion. Saturday and Sunday I went to the gym with Nigel and also scaled Snowdon.
Monday was a deserved day of rest.
Tuesday I had an epic session in the gym and really blitzed the cardio stuff. I was pleased with my efforts and felt that I was getting somewhere.
Wednesday I also planned to have a massive session but in the end found that I was running out of steam. I thought that it was because I was in need of rest, but now I think there might be another reason for the fatigue too.
Thursday a day of rest.
Friday me and Nigel hit the gym but didn’t really push the boundaries of exercise. Neither of us were in the mood. Nigel because he had been enjoying a week off work and I think would have rather been mucking about on the computer at home. I had endured a hard day at work and was looking forward to the weekend. After a half effort we went home.
Saturday was my birthday so I exercised my drinking arm. And Sunday I was recovering. A rest day if you will.
In balance, I don’t think we moved forward on the fitness scale last week but I have renewed vigour for the gym and am planning on a strong session tonight.
And then on another note. My little sister got me a Food for Fitness book for my birthday. It’s great, it seems to be on the sport science end of food books so I am now going to eat a diet more designed for what I need with precisely the right weight of proteins carbs and lipids. And this book is the reason why I think Wednesday I was fatigued because I had overdone the carbohydrates (fatigue being one of the side effects of a high carb diet). I have only just started reading it but I guarantee that there will be more food based blog posts to come very soon.
First off the week began with a weekend of total exertion. Saturday and Sunday I went to the gym with Nigel and also scaled Snowdon.
Monday was a deserved day of rest.
Tuesday I had an epic session in the gym and really blitzed the cardio stuff. I was pleased with my efforts and felt that I was getting somewhere.
Wednesday I also planned to have a massive session but in the end found that I was running out of steam. I thought that it was because I was in need of rest, but now I think there might be another reason for the fatigue too.
Thursday a day of rest.
Friday me and Nigel hit the gym but didn’t really push the boundaries of exercise. Neither of us were in the mood. Nigel because he had been enjoying a week off work and I think would have rather been mucking about on the computer at home. I had endured a hard day at work and was looking forward to the weekend. After a half effort we went home.
Saturday was my birthday so I exercised my drinking arm. And Sunday I was recovering. A rest day if you will.
In balance, I don’t think we moved forward on the fitness scale last week but I have renewed vigour for the gym and am planning on a strong session tonight.
And then on another note. My little sister got me a Food for Fitness book for my birthday. It’s great, it seems to be on the sport science end of food books so I am now going to eat a diet more designed for what I need with precisely the right weight of proteins carbs and lipids. And this book is the reason why I think Wednesday I was fatigued because I had overdone the carbohydrates (fatigue being one of the side effects of a high carb diet). I have only just started reading it but I guarantee that there will be more food based blog posts to come very soon.
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Flat Battery
Another lesson about human physiology was learned last night. On Tuesday I had blitzed the gym, an hour and a quarter of full blown cardio-vascular exercises was enough to get a sweat on but that seemed about it. The muscles were not really protesting, and Wednesday morning I did not feel any ill effects, no aches, nothing. So I went back to the gym on Wednesday.
Nigel has the week off and was already on the rowing machine when I arrived. He was 7 minutes into a 20 minute stint, so I set my clock to 13 minutes so our end time would coincide. That knackered me out.
I then went off and played with the weights. I decided to vary the lifts a little bit. Sets of 15 curls with the 5kg weights, interspersed with sets of about 10 curls with the 7.5kg weights. My thinking is that the 5kgs are easy to lift so I can bang out some quick repetitions to build stamina. The 7.5kg weights are harder to lift so will encourage building muscle mass. I did many sets of both, I lost count but spent about 20 minutes with the free weights.
To follow that up I did the triceps push down exercise. 7kgs, 15 reps, 2 sets. No bother just that shaky, gritted teeth, veins standing out on my neck for the last could of pushes.
Weights done, I thought I should make a showing on the running machines. I headed over, set the treadmill and set off at 7.5mph. Approximately two minutes into the jog I discovered I was well and truly fatigued.
It was a strange tired too. My muscles were all revved up and keen to pound on, my heart and breathing were regulated and even, but I had just run out of steam. It felt very much like I had run out of fuel. My batteries were flat.
I called it a day, and due to Nigel’s hangover, he didn’t really protest when I suggested that the gym was not for us any more. So we made our way to the pool, and after showing off my new goggs, I had a go at swimming but I had nothing left. There was no fuel in the tank.
I got home and consumed many carbohydrates to refuel the obviously dwindled stocks and today I am not going to the gym.
The lesson learned that the rest day that sports scientists bang on about is not just to allow the muscles to recover and grow, it also is a chance for the fuel stocks that have been burned off to be replenished. I will bear this in mind in the future.
Nigel has the week off and was already on the rowing machine when I arrived. He was 7 minutes into a 20 minute stint, so I set my clock to 13 minutes so our end time would coincide. That knackered me out.
I then went off and played with the weights. I decided to vary the lifts a little bit. Sets of 15 curls with the 5kg weights, interspersed with sets of about 10 curls with the 7.5kg weights. My thinking is that the 5kgs are easy to lift so I can bang out some quick repetitions to build stamina. The 7.5kg weights are harder to lift so will encourage building muscle mass. I did many sets of both, I lost count but spent about 20 minutes with the free weights.
To follow that up I did the triceps push down exercise. 7kgs, 15 reps, 2 sets. No bother just that shaky, gritted teeth, veins standing out on my neck for the last could of pushes.
Weights done, I thought I should make a showing on the running machines. I headed over, set the treadmill and set off at 7.5mph. Approximately two minutes into the jog I discovered I was well and truly fatigued.
It was a strange tired too. My muscles were all revved up and keen to pound on, my heart and breathing were regulated and even, but I had just run out of steam. It felt very much like I had run out of fuel. My batteries were flat.
I called it a day, and due to Nigel’s hangover, he didn’t really protest when I suggested that the gym was not for us any more. So we made our way to the pool, and after showing off my new goggs, I had a go at swimming but I had nothing left. There was no fuel in the tank.
I got home and consumed many carbohydrates to refuel the obviously dwindled stocks and today I am not going to the gym.
The lesson learned that the rest day that sports scientists bang on about is not just to allow the muscles to recover and grow, it also is a chance for the fuel stocks that have been burned off to be replenished. I will bear this in mind in the future.
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Like Red October
I went for the full cardio-vascular workout last night.
15 minutes on the rowing machine. Set to a very wimpy level 3, I just used this as a warm up and a way to elevate my heart rate a little bit.
Then with barely time for a breather I made my way across to the running machine. 20 minutes, interval training, 7mph. This really got a sweat up. I was pleased that I boxed this off without thoughts of wimping out creeping in.
Again, without really pausing I went across to the cross trainer. 20 minutes interval training, level 8. No problems.
55 minutes of pretty much solid workout. I had got a sweat on and spent a moment or two huffing and puffing but I was fine really. I would have started with some resistance work but the gym was really full and there were people on all of the weights and machines I wanted to use. And anyway, I had some new goggles I wanted to try out.
I haven’t really ever used goggles. When I was at school years ago I had borrowed someone’s goggles and they were crap, they leaked and I effectively ended up with cups of chlorinated water pressed to my eyes all the time. So I didn’t really know what to expect with these, I was ready to be disappointed but hoped that they would be ace.
I slipped into the pool, donned these cyber-goggles and started to swim, I ducked my head underwater and I found myself surprised to find that I could see as well under water as I could above. I don’t know why I was surprised, I should have expected something like this, but I just was. It took quite a while for my brain to adjust to having vision underwater too, my brain assumed that because I could see, I could also breath. For about twenty minutes every time I swam underwater I would have to emergency surface like the Red October, coughing water out of my lungs.
Goggles thoroughly tested I headed home after two hours at the gym. I am planning on going again tonight as I again don’t seem to be aching at all despite all of that effort.
15 minutes on the rowing machine. Set to a very wimpy level 3, I just used this as a warm up and a way to elevate my heart rate a little bit.
Then with barely time for a breather I made my way across to the running machine. 20 minutes, interval training, 7mph. This really got a sweat up. I was pleased that I boxed this off without thoughts of wimping out creeping in.
Again, without really pausing I went across to the cross trainer. 20 minutes interval training, level 8. No problems.
55 minutes of pretty much solid workout. I had got a sweat on and spent a moment or two huffing and puffing but I was fine really. I would have started with some resistance work but the gym was really full and there were people on all of the weights and machines I wanted to use. And anyway, I had some new goggles I wanted to try out.
I haven’t really ever used goggles. When I was at school years ago I had borrowed someone’s goggles and they were crap, they leaked and I effectively ended up with cups of chlorinated water pressed to my eyes all the time. So I didn’t really know what to expect with these, I was ready to be disappointed but hoped that they would be ace.
I slipped into the pool, donned these cyber-goggles and started to swim, I ducked my head underwater and I found myself surprised to find that I could see as well under water as I could above. I don’t know why I was surprised, I should have expected something like this, but I just was. It took quite a while for my brain to adjust to having vision underwater too, my brain assumed that because I could see, I could also breath. For about twenty minutes every time I swam underwater I would have to emergency surface like the Red October, coughing water out of my lungs.
Goggles thoroughly tested I headed home after two hours at the gym. I am planning on going again tonight as I again don’t seem to be aching at all despite all of that effort.
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
a few things
I have a few things to talk about today and will leap from subject to subject, I trust you can keep up. :)
First off. Just to point you in the direction of the poll on the right hand side of this blog. I have added the Parkinson Foundation to the list. This is a charity that I would like to champion for a moment as Parkinson’s disease afflicted my late granddad and ruined his quality of life in his last years, the collection at his funeral was for this organisation.
Next. I didn’t go to the gym last night as it was a rest day, and I was off to the doctors again. This shoulder injury is still not 100% healed. I still get twinges of pain if I extend my reach forward or rotate my arm backwards. These aren’t movements that I carry out in my usual day to day, but there shouldn’t be pain there.
My GP is pretty confident that it is a trauma injury (i.e. I did it in the gym) but just to be certain that it isn’t something else manifesting in a dodgy joint, I am off for some blood tests next week to sieve out anything that may be underlying this. He has suggested that I should start taking anti inflammatory drugs to aid the recovery and to knock the pain on the head as well.
My choices are pretty simple though. Stop training completely for three plus months and the injury may heal. Or keep training and put up with the niggly joint. My Doctor did say that we haven’t got a lot if time to get ready for this race as 17 months isn’t all that long in real terms.
It’s a no-brainer really, I’m going to continue to train and be sensible with what strains I put on the shoulder.
Then lets take a look at the continued observational experiment that is monitoring my transformation into a sleek super fit athlete. I weighed in last night. I am now 69.75kgs, or pretty much smack bang on 11 stone. I’ve never been 11 stone in my life. I thought I was destined to be 10 stone forever. My BMI is creeping up and is at 22.79 which is currently still in the normal bracket.
The Body Mass Index is an unreliable gauge of weight though as it doesn’t take into account muscle mass versus other tissue mass. With a BMI rating of 25 or over you are classed as overweight, if I keep on gaining muscle mass at this rate I will be overweight by approximately July next year.
And then finally I want to talk about swimming. I love swimming, given the choice I would like to be some kind of dolphin and in the future I would like to have a go at swimming the channel. But I can’t enjoy the swimming pool so much as I wear contact lenses. If I don’t wear lenses I can’t see anything except coloured blurs but if I do wear lenses I can’t go underwater. For some reason contact lenses adhere to my eyeballs as if they had been coated in a layer of glue if they get wet.
Upon hearing my plaintiff cry about not being able to splash about like flipper, my lovely wife went shopping for a set of goggles. These are quite possibly the coolest goggles I have seen for a while, they are mirrored and make me look like a cross between Mad Max and a Bee. Tonight I am at the gym and I intend to be pool side for a few hours.
First off. Just to point you in the direction of the poll on the right hand side of this blog. I have added the Parkinson Foundation to the list. This is a charity that I would like to champion for a moment as Parkinson’s disease afflicted my late granddad and ruined his quality of life in his last years, the collection at his funeral was for this organisation.
Next. I didn’t go to the gym last night as it was a rest day, and I was off to the doctors again. This shoulder injury is still not 100% healed. I still get twinges of pain if I extend my reach forward or rotate my arm backwards. These aren’t movements that I carry out in my usual day to day, but there shouldn’t be pain there.
My GP is pretty confident that it is a trauma injury (i.e. I did it in the gym) but just to be certain that it isn’t something else manifesting in a dodgy joint, I am off for some blood tests next week to sieve out anything that may be underlying this. He has suggested that I should start taking anti inflammatory drugs to aid the recovery and to knock the pain on the head as well.
My choices are pretty simple though. Stop training completely for three plus months and the injury may heal. Or keep training and put up with the niggly joint. My Doctor did say that we haven’t got a lot if time to get ready for this race as 17 months isn’t all that long in real terms.
It’s a no-brainer really, I’m going to continue to train and be sensible with what strains I put on the shoulder.
Then lets take a look at the continued observational experiment that is monitoring my transformation into a sleek super fit athlete. I weighed in last night. I am now 69.75kgs, or pretty much smack bang on 11 stone. I’ve never been 11 stone in my life. I thought I was destined to be 10 stone forever. My BMI is creeping up and is at 22.79 which is currently still in the normal bracket.
The Body Mass Index is an unreliable gauge of weight though as it doesn’t take into account muscle mass versus other tissue mass. With a BMI rating of 25 or over you are classed as overweight, if I keep on gaining muscle mass at this rate I will be overweight by approximately July next year.
And then finally I want to talk about swimming. I love swimming, given the choice I would like to be some kind of dolphin and in the future I would like to have a go at swimming the channel. But I can’t enjoy the swimming pool so much as I wear contact lenses. If I don’t wear lenses I can’t see anything except coloured blurs but if I do wear lenses I can’t go underwater. For some reason contact lenses adhere to my eyeballs as if they had been coated in a layer of glue if they get wet.
Upon hearing my plaintiff cry about not being able to splash about like flipper, my lovely wife went shopping for a set of goggles. These are quite possibly the coolest goggles I have seen for a while, they are mirrored and make me look like a cross between Mad Max and a Bee. Tonight I am at the gym and I intend to be pool side for a few hours.
Monday, 17 November 2008
Mountain Training
So what are you going to do this weekend?
Well, I was thinking about going up a mountain.
In this weather? Why?
Kayak training.
Up a mountain?
Friday, I was bemoaning the fact that was having a rest day but didn’t really feel the need for rest as my body had long since given up protesting about going to the gym. What to do about this? A weekend of exertion, that’s what!
Saturday I went to the gym with Nigel finishing work and joining me a bit later. 15 minutes on the rowing machine set to a pretty easy level as a warm up.
I then moved to the weights. I was lifting the 7.5kgs but I kind of struggle with these and am not able to do many repetitions, so I set my ego to one side and dropped it down to the 5kgs, and got a much better arm workout than trying and failing to lift the heavier weight. This was followed by the back lifts. 3 sets of 15 reps at 59kgs. And then the last of the resistance equipment with the triceps push downs, 3 sets of 15 reps at 7kgs.
Then onto the treadmill, 7mph, level 5 interval training, 20 minutes. This kills me, and after about 10 minutes in my head I am making reasons for slowing the pace down or lowering the difficulty. I didn’t though and persevered and felt pretty chuffed with myself for sticking with it.
Then after the stomach crunching hand to knee exercises to failure and the plank to failure I hit the cross trainer on intervals, level 8, 20 minutes. Nigel’s trip around the gym coincided with joining me on the cross trainer so we both did the same set.
Then after all that I swam at a good solid pace for 20 minutes before finally relaxing. About 2 hours of muscle bashing. Quite knackered.
But that wasn’t enough. Oh no. I had managed to convince the good wife that we should pay mount Snowdon, the higest mountain in England and Wales, a visit on Sunday morning.
Packing my rucksack with survival gear, water proofs, lunch and all manner of navigation aids I was to be carrying 10 kilos of additional weight up the 1085 metres of Welsh geology.
We arrived at the Pen-Y-Pass car park at about 7:30ish, and after spending half an hour or so donning all manner of waterproof layers, we set off into the rain, mist, and the fog.
Head down we just slogged along the Pyg track in the drizzle. I know it’s not a mountaineers route but it is good cardio stuff. We have walked this route a few times and know it well enough, usually I am pretty exhausted by the time the Pyg track meets the Miners track (about halfway up) but this time out I was still fighting fit, much to the wife’s dismay as she was well and truly tired. Like a trooper though, when I asked if she wanted to head back, she pointed up into the mist and said “On!”
We reached the top eventually, soaked, and well and truly chilled to the bone. We had a bite to eat and a couple of cups of morale boosting coffee using the wall of the café/train station as protection from the excesses of the elements. (the café and train station was closed for the winter as most mountain tourists stay away in the middle of November)
Heading down was much better, we returned along the Miners track which is a well constructed walkers path, we were no longer fighting against gravity, and once we got off the ridge the weather improved significantly. We took great delight in telling people we were passing that the summit was still several miles away and when they got there they were going to get soaked. Watching their tired faces drop in dismay was so much fun.
I was going to get the sat nav to give me some stats that I could quote today, but sadly the weather was so grim it could not find a single satellite through the cloud cover but I do know that we took exactly 4 hours and 20 minutes from car, to summit, and back to the car again.
But that wasn’t all, I was not going to stop because I had blitzed a mountain, I headed off to join Nigel at the gym again.
I hit the rowing machine and managed a grand total of 6 minutes before fatigue finally set in. This was pretty much my last effort at doing cardio vascular work this Sunday. I got some light 5kg weights and worked my way through various resistance exercises with my arms, before I ended the day with 15 minutes of swimming before really relaxing in the sauna and Jacuzzi.
I am a wee bit tired today, my thighs are a bit achey when I try to walk down stairs and my back and shoulder muscles feel as though they have had a good workout but I still feel capable of taking on Snowdon again today. It wasn’t that long ago that I would be hobbling around like some kind of zombie for days after exercise.
(Due to the fact that this is a true, bare faced, no lies, blog where I honestly admit all of my sucesses and failures. I have to point out that any photos that seem to sugest that I might have been doing various exercises, pressups mainly, have been staged)
Friday, 14 November 2008
Week 7
Week 7 has gone pretty well. I started it with a good session in that kayak, and although the river has gone back into flood I am pretty set to get back out on the water with both crewmates next time. Following up the boat session were a couple of stints in the gym.
I am starting to feel that I have reached a bit of a plateau, and a workout that would have killed me a month ago is now seemingly not having much of an impact anymore.
My shoulder is now mostly fine. It doesn’t hurt generally anymore but I get a tugging pain when I lift my shoulder up and reach forward. This isn’t an activity that I ever do except when I am testing the joint, but there shouldn’t still be pain there, so I am going back to the doctor on Monday.
Sunday. A miserably cold and wet trip on the river which was the most fun I’ve had in a while. Followed by an afternoon session in the gym. Very pleased with the effort.
Monday was a rest day.
Tuesday, a lack lustre session in the gym. Didn’t really make any progress and aborted early.
Wednesday was a day off.
Thursday. A really good session in the gym that wore me out at the time. Nigel was also able to make a showing but this morning I don’t seem to be half as worn out as I planned.
Friday is going to be a rest day. The weekend will be activity filled but I haven’t worked out the plan yet. I will fill the blog in on Monday.
I am starting to feel that I have reached a bit of a plateau, and a workout that would have killed me a month ago is now seemingly not having much of an impact anymore.
My shoulder is now mostly fine. It doesn’t hurt generally anymore but I get a tugging pain when I lift my shoulder up and reach forward. This isn’t an activity that I ever do except when I am testing the joint, but there shouldn’t still be pain there, so I am going back to the doctor on Monday.
Sunday. A miserably cold and wet trip on the river which was the most fun I’ve had in a while. Followed by an afternoon session in the gym. Very pleased with the effort.
Monday was a rest day.
Tuesday, a lack lustre session in the gym. Didn’t really make any progress and aborted early.
Wednesday was a day off.
Thursday. A really good session in the gym that wore me out at the time. Nigel was also able to make a showing but this morning I don’t seem to be half as worn out as I planned.
Friday is going to be a rest day. The weekend will be activity filled but I haven’t worked out the plan yet. I will fill the blog in on Monday.
Not very knackered
I had planned the Thursday night gym session to be a killer, I wanted to be aching at this moment and to really know that I deserved this rest day. However, despite my best efforts, I feel no activity aches.
I arrived at the gym at the usual time of about ten past five. Met up with Nigel (he had a rare day off) and set to the machines. I joined Nigel on the rowing machines first to work that group of muscles, it also seems a decent way to warm up for other higher impact machines. I set the resistance level to 3 because although my shoulder is feeling okay, I didn’t want to aggravate it, and rowed on for 15 minutes. Nigel was set to level 7 and pressed on for a further five minutes.
Nigel ended the 20 minutes rowing with a bit of a surge, and as long as he has that amount of effort left spare at the end of the DW, I’ll be able to sit there and sleep for the final few miles.
Feeling pretty knackered by now I then headed off to the cross trainer. 20 minutes, interval work, level 8. It was hard work, especially on my iPod as it started to play the opening bar of each track before skipping onto the next. I think sweat was starting to get into the inners of that seemingly impregnable case.
Meanwhile Nigel worked his way around the various resistance machines and by the time I was done, he was as good as finished. Now I was really tired at this point but I elbowed the usual muscle men off the weights benches and pumped some iron.
I am hoisting the massive 7.5kg weights, and I’m fairly certain I didn’t look weedy in any way as I sat next to Mr. 30kgs on the other bench. I curled 7.5kg weights to failure before moving onto the triceps push down at 7kgs, which I again did to failure.
By now Nigel had finished his routine and had gone for a jog on the treadmill. His machine was broken as it was claiming that he was doing 10.5mph, yet he seemed to be only just jogging, to prove the point I wound up the machine next to him to 10.5mph and was at a full blown run.
Despite this mucking about I was finished, I was really tired and I think Nigel had had enough too. So we headed to the swimming pool. I had a bit of a second wind and swam for 20 minutes before relaxing in the Jacuzzi and sauna.
All told, the workout and swim (not including the sauna and Jacuzzi bit) took about an hour and a quarter. I thought that would be enough to give me that workout ache but it wasn’t. I sit here on my rest day feeling that I don’t have to rest for much. I think for the weekend session I am going to have to try and go for two hours of activity to earn the glow of exercise.
I arrived at the gym at the usual time of about ten past five. Met up with Nigel (he had a rare day off) and set to the machines. I joined Nigel on the rowing machines first to work that group of muscles, it also seems a decent way to warm up for other higher impact machines. I set the resistance level to 3 because although my shoulder is feeling okay, I didn’t want to aggravate it, and rowed on for 15 minutes. Nigel was set to level 7 and pressed on for a further five minutes.
Nigel ended the 20 minutes rowing with a bit of a surge, and as long as he has that amount of effort left spare at the end of the DW, I’ll be able to sit there and sleep for the final few miles.
Feeling pretty knackered by now I then headed off to the cross trainer. 20 minutes, interval work, level 8. It was hard work, especially on my iPod as it started to play the opening bar of each track before skipping onto the next. I think sweat was starting to get into the inners of that seemingly impregnable case.
Meanwhile Nigel worked his way around the various resistance machines and by the time I was done, he was as good as finished. Now I was really tired at this point but I elbowed the usual muscle men off the weights benches and pumped some iron.
I am hoisting the massive 7.5kg weights, and I’m fairly certain I didn’t look weedy in any way as I sat next to Mr. 30kgs on the other bench. I curled 7.5kg weights to failure before moving onto the triceps push down at 7kgs, which I again did to failure.
By now Nigel had finished his routine and had gone for a jog on the treadmill. His machine was broken as it was claiming that he was doing 10.5mph, yet he seemed to be only just jogging, to prove the point I wound up the machine next to him to 10.5mph and was at a full blown run.
Despite this mucking about I was finished, I was really tired and I think Nigel had had enough too. So we headed to the swimming pool. I had a bit of a second wind and swam for 20 minutes before relaxing in the Jacuzzi and sauna.
All told, the workout and swim (not including the sauna and Jacuzzi bit) took about an hour and a quarter. I thought that would be enough to give me that workout ache but it wasn’t. I sit here on my rest day feeling that I don’t have to rest for much. I think for the weekend session I am going to have to try and go for two hours of activity to earn the glow of exercise.
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Oranges
A couple of days away from the keyboard, so I will try to remember what I did in the gym on Tuesday.
Tuesday was a solo gym session for me, Nigel was working as per. I wasn’t really in the mood for it but I did learn a good lesson. Warm Up first.
I hopped onto the treadmill cold and just set to, I did a bit of a walk for a minute or two before pushing the speed up to 7mph. almost immediately my right calf muscle locked up with cramp. It was the first time I had to hit the emergency stop button and the treadmill really did come to a halt.
I hobbled around the back of the gym for a while, stretched the cramp out of the muscle, and then decided that today I would use the cross trainer. 20 minutes, level 6, interval setting. That did the job of warming the rest of me up nicely.
I did the lifts with my back, in three sets of fifteen, at 63kgs, 62kgs and then finally at 59kgs. I kept having to drop the weight as each set was getting the muscles at the base of my spine really burning (in a good way) and I just couldn’t repeat the set at the same weight.
There were a couple of blokes hogging the weights bench so I headed back to the treadmill. My leg was feeling fine now that I was active, 20 minutes, 7mph, interval mode. My ipod batteries then died. I really wasn’t in the mood and using Nigel’s appearance to say Hi as an excuse, I stopped. It was also about this time that the leisure manager came round with half time oranges. I appreciate that he had an excess of oranges for whatever reason, but it was a jolly nice gesture and one of the reasons why I love this gym.
I went and steamed and sauna’d for a bit before heading home.
The next session is going to be Thursday night. Nigel has the day off, and I am planning on working out big time. Running, rowing, lifting like never before, I haven’t had that ache for a few days now and am keen for the exercise high that accompanies it again.
Tuesday was a solo gym session for me, Nigel was working as per. I wasn’t really in the mood for it but I did learn a good lesson. Warm Up first.
I hopped onto the treadmill cold and just set to, I did a bit of a walk for a minute or two before pushing the speed up to 7mph. almost immediately my right calf muscle locked up with cramp. It was the first time I had to hit the emergency stop button and the treadmill really did come to a halt.
I hobbled around the back of the gym for a while, stretched the cramp out of the muscle, and then decided that today I would use the cross trainer. 20 minutes, level 6, interval setting. That did the job of warming the rest of me up nicely.
I did the lifts with my back, in three sets of fifteen, at 63kgs, 62kgs and then finally at 59kgs. I kept having to drop the weight as each set was getting the muscles at the base of my spine really burning (in a good way) and I just couldn’t repeat the set at the same weight.
There were a couple of blokes hogging the weights bench so I headed back to the treadmill. My leg was feeling fine now that I was active, 20 minutes, 7mph, interval mode. My ipod batteries then died. I really wasn’t in the mood and using Nigel’s appearance to say Hi as an excuse, I stopped. It was also about this time that the leisure manager came round with half time oranges. I appreciate that he had an excess of oranges for whatever reason, but it was a jolly nice gesture and one of the reasons why I love this gym.
I went and steamed and sauna’d for a bit before heading home.
The next session is going to be Thursday night. Nigel has the day off, and I am planning on working out big time. Running, rowing, lifting like never before, I haven’t had that ache for a few days now and am keen for the exercise high that accompanies it again.
Monday, 10 November 2008
Cold Wet River.
Severe weather warnings are out and about at the moment. Last night were some of the worst driving conditions I have ever experienced, standing water, high winds and heavy rain. It was cold, it was grim, and for some reason Sunday morning I strapped the boat onto the roof of the car, donned some neoprene and waterproofs and went for a paddle.
Actually, I sort of know the reason why I left a nice warm bed for a cold wet river. I had publicly written down that I was going to do this fool thing, and I then kind of had to go through with it.
Just as I was putting the boat on the water it started to rain that cold grim heavy rain that comes in at about 45 degrees. The river was already in high flow, and a weekend of rain in Wales was causing the river to rise, in the time I was out there a couple of fishing stands became submerged, and this morning the Severn looks set to burst its banks again.
The reason I was bankside was because last week I worked out with a calculator how fast we needed to paddle to get a decent time in the DW race. Only trouble was I didn’t know how fast kayaks went. To get an idea of boat speeds I decided to take out my kayak and using GPS I would work out exactly how fast average me can go in an average boat.
I turned on the GPS, acquired a few satellites, and set off. To negate the river speed from my boat speed, I had to paddle upstream before returning with the flow. Paddling upstream was really hard, I just got my head down and hauled myself along, the rain was cold and the wind kept catching my paddle, very quickly I regretting not having a hat or gloves and was starting to feel really cold and miserable.
There is a bend on the river when it narrows and the flow really picks up, I was paddling so hard and fast to power through when this 8 man coxed rowing boat went past me as if I was stationary. The cox, swaddled in waterproofs and a hat even game me a cheery wave… The git.
I got round that bend and found some shelter in an eddy near the showground. I checked the GPS, I had been paddling for about 12 minutes. It seemed like longer. I called it a day and headed back home.
The return journey was much swifter, and I was back to the car in about 5 minutes.
Once I got warm and dry I was as happy as anything, and I wanted to go back out again. Its one thing that I have missed from long expeditions (hiking or sea trips and the like), not so much the grim bit where you get cold and wet, but being able to appreciate being warm and dry so much more once you’re done. You can’t enjoy a hot cup of tea and warm clothes as much as I did once I was dry. In a perverse way, I am looking forward to winter training so much more now.
The data acquired from this little expedition.
I was on the water for 18 minutes and 8 seconds. For 2 minutes 13 seconds I was stationary. I had covered 1.1miles with a moving average of 4.2mph. (when I stopped in that eddy I noted the average speed I had maintained upstream and that was 3.3mph.) and I had managed to achieve a maximum speed of 6.5mph at one point.
As I was only on the water for 18 minutes I don’t think the data gives a good picture of what can be maintained over long distances but it shows that my little boat is good for about 4mph, which kind of proves my Dads formula for ship speed.
But wait, that’s not all.
After a Sunday morning spent getting cold and wet on the river, in the afternoon I met Nigel at the gym.
I pounded the treadmill for 30 minutes on intervals. Though not all of it was flat out pounding. 20 minutes I ran at 6.8mph, but I was running myself a bit sick so I walked the last ten minutes.
I then did 3 sets of 15 erector spinæ lifts, 3 sets of 15 leg press, 2 sets of 15 triceps push down, and about 3 sets of 15 arm curls with the 7.5kg dumbbells.
Nigel put in 20 minutes on the rowing machine and clocked up 518 strokes, he then worked around some of the weights, but he had been pulling some long shifts so was happy to call it a day when I did.
I have a good ache today. The usual gym muscles ache but those twenty minutes in the boat has given me a more holistic workout.
Actually, I sort of know the reason why I left a nice warm bed for a cold wet river. I had publicly written down that I was going to do this fool thing, and I then kind of had to go through with it.
Just as I was putting the boat on the water it started to rain that cold grim heavy rain that comes in at about 45 degrees. The river was already in high flow, and a weekend of rain in Wales was causing the river to rise, in the time I was out there a couple of fishing stands became submerged, and this morning the Severn looks set to burst its banks again.
The reason I was bankside was because last week I worked out with a calculator how fast we needed to paddle to get a decent time in the DW race. Only trouble was I didn’t know how fast kayaks went. To get an idea of boat speeds I decided to take out my kayak and using GPS I would work out exactly how fast average me can go in an average boat.
I turned on the GPS, acquired a few satellites, and set off. To negate the river speed from my boat speed, I had to paddle upstream before returning with the flow. Paddling upstream was really hard, I just got my head down and hauled myself along, the rain was cold and the wind kept catching my paddle, very quickly I regretting not having a hat or gloves and was starting to feel really cold and miserable.
There is a bend on the river when it narrows and the flow really picks up, I was paddling so hard and fast to power through when this 8 man coxed rowing boat went past me as if I was stationary. The cox, swaddled in waterproofs and a hat even game me a cheery wave… The git.
I got round that bend and found some shelter in an eddy near the showground. I checked the GPS, I had been paddling for about 12 minutes. It seemed like longer. I called it a day and headed back home.
The return journey was much swifter, and I was back to the car in about 5 minutes.
Once I got warm and dry I was as happy as anything, and I wanted to go back out again. Its one thing that I have missed from long expeditions (hiking or sea trips and the like), not so much the grim bit where you get cold and wet, but being able to appreciate being warm and dry so much more once you’re done. You can’t enjoy a hot cup of tea and warm clothes as much as I did once I was dry. In a perverse way, I am looking forward to winter training so much more now.
The data acquired from this little expedition.
I was on the water for 18 minutes and 8 seconds. For 2 minutes 13 seconds I was stationary. I had covered 1.1miles with a moving average of 4.2mph. (when I stopped in that eddy I noted the average speed I had maintained upstream and that was 3.3mph.) and I had managed to achieve a maximum speed of 6.5mph at one point.
As I was only on the water for 18 minutes I don’t think the data gives a good picture of what can be maintained over long distances but it shows that my little boat is good for about 4mph, which kind of proves my Dads formula for ship speed.
But wait, that’s not all.
After a Sunday morning spent getting cold and wet on the river, in the afternoon I met Nigel at the gym.
I pounded the treadmill for 30 minutes on intervals. Though not all of it was flat out pounding. 20 minutes I ran at 6.8mph, but I was running myself a bit sick so I walked the last ten minutes.
I then did 3 sets of 15 erector spinæ lifts, 3 sets of 15 leg press, 2 sets of 15 triceps push down, and about 3 sets of 15 arm curls with the 7.5kg dumbbells.
Nigel put in 20 minutes on the rowing machine and clocked up 518 strokes, he then worked around some of the weights, but he had been pulling some long shifts so was happy to call it a day when I did.
I have a good ache today. The usual gym muscles ache but those twenty minutes in the boat has given me a more holistic workout.
Friday, 7 November 2008
Week 6
End of week report.
A pretty good week this week. The shoulder injury is getting better and better and I am starting to feel confident about using it again. The collar bone is all out of place but the doctor suggested that this may never fully return to its proper shape. I have added a new injury to the list with my right calf but I am 99% sure that this is a passing muscle ache rather than any real problem.
Good strong sessions in the gym on Sunday and Tuesday from Nigel and myself. A month and a bit into this and I am starting to think that we can really get into decent physical shape for this race.
Thursday, I had a lone session as Nigel was working. I seem to have a rolling program of injuries and as one area starts to get better, another area starts to play up but despite that I am feeling that I am progressing.
If Nigel was a better paddler and we had a racing kayak ready for April I would be considering the 2009 race. Physically we are well on course and I would suggest that in 5 months time we would be in the right condition to compete. The thing that we lack is racing experience and a boat. These are things that we need to work on now.
Friday and Saturday are going to be rest days but Sunday is going to be a full day. I am going to hit the water in the morning, partly so that I can find out how fast I can paddle and partly to get into the swing of winter paddling as I haven’t been in the boat since September. And then following that session I am going to join Nigel for an afternoon in the gym.
A pretty good week this week. The shoulder injury is getting better and better and I am starting to feel confident about using it again. The collar bone is all out of place but the doctor suggested that this may never fully return to its proper shape. I have added a new injury to the list with my right calf but I am 99% sure that this is a passing muscle ache rather than any real problem.
Good strong sessions in the gym on Sunday and Tuesday from Nigel and myself. A month and a bit into this and I am starting to think that we can really get into decent physical shape for this race.
Thursday, I had a lone session as Nigel was working. I seem to have a rolling program of injuries and as one area starts to get better, another area starts to play up but despite that I am feeling that I am progressing.
If Nigel was a better paddler and we had a racing kayak ready for April I would be considering the 2009 race. Physically we are well on course and I would suggest that in 5 months time we would be in the right condition to compete. The thing that we lack is racing experience and a boat. These are things that we need to work on now.
Friday and Saturday are going to be rest days but Sunday is going to be a full day. I am going to hit the water in the morning, partly so that I can find out how fast I can paddle and partly to get into the swing of winter paddling as I haven’t been in the boat since September. And then following that session I am going to join Nigel for an afternoon in the gym.
Injured Fetlock
What day are we at?… Friday. Okay, Tuesday I had a good session at the gym. I pounded the treadmill and was pleased with myself. Legs ached on Wednesday but this was fine, they were supposed to. What they weren’t supposed to do was ache even more on Thursday. Actually, it isn’t both legs, it is only the right calf muscle, it ached so much I was forced to limp around. I was still going to the gym on Thursday limp or not though.
I had a bit of a warm up, and stepped onto the treadmill. I did a minute or so walking and it was alright, I had stretched the limp away but my calf muscle still ached a little. I pressed the walk up to a run and was okay, bit of an ache but I could run on it. When the treadmill got up to a 3 degree elevation though the pain kicked in, at ten minutes I was forced to pull up sharpish. The treadmill was at 7.5mph and I suddenly reduced my leg count by 50% which resulted in the worlds fastest hop.
The gym was busy, I scanned around to see what else I could do that wasn’t leg based and the only thing free was the rowing machine. My shoulder was feeling fine, and I wasn’t going to leave the gym ten minutes after I had got there so it was decided. I took it pretty easy Level 7 15 minutes. 410 strokes. I worked up a bit of a sweat and felt pretty good with the effort.
I then tried the cross trainer. The elliptical motion generally doesn’t strain my legs in the same way so I gave it a go. 20 minutes level8 interval training was just fine, though I was now sweating quite a lot and the iPod crackled as some liquid got into its inners before turning itself off, I think a little puff of smoke came out of the headphone jack.
Stomach crunching out the way I followed those up with the erector spinæ exercises. I forgot what weight I was supposed to be doing it at and I think I put it to 68kgs. I was more than able to lift the weight with my back muscles however 68kgs is pretty much what I weigh, and while I was fully laid back preparing to lower the weight in a controlled manner I was gently lifted off the seat as the pile of weights returned to their stack this meant I was slowly lifted into the standing position. Weights adjusted to a more sensible 56kgs and 3 sets of 15 ensued.
I have managed to get over the fact that there are bigger weight pushers in the gym and didn’t mind sitting there with my puny arms while they hoisted slabs above their heads. Triceps push down. 3sets of 15 with the 6kg weight. No bother. Hotly followed by the dumb-bell arm curls. 3 sets of 15 with 7.5kg weights.
And that was my effort for Thursday. Right calf is still giving me a limp despite lashings of Deep Freeze, however I can report that the iPod made a full recovery.
I had a bit of a warm up, and stepped onto the treadmill. I did a minute or so walking and it was alright, I had stretched the limp away but my calf muscle still ached a little. I pressed the walk up to a run and was okay, bit of an ache but I could run on it. When the treadmill got up to a 3 degree elevation though the pain kicked in, at ten minutes I was forced to pull up sharpish. The treadmill was at 7.5mph and I suddenly reduced my leg count by 50% which resulted in the worlds fastest hop.
The gym was busy, I scanned around to see what else I could do that wasn’t leg based and the only thing free was the rowing machine. My shoulder was feeling fine, and I wasn’t going to leave the gym ten minutes after I had got there so it was decided. I took it pretty easy Level 7 15 minutes. 410 strokes. I worked up a bit of a sweat and felt pretty good with the effort.
I then tried the cross trainer. The elliptical motion generally doesn’t strain my legs in the same way so I gave it a go. 20 minutes level8 interval training was just fine, though I was now sweating quite a lot and the iPod crackled as some liquid got into its inners before turning itself off, I think a little puff of smoke came out of the headphone jack.
Stomach crunching out the way I followed those up with the erector spinæ exercises. I forgot what weight I was supposed to be doing it at and I think I put it to 68kgs. I was more than able to lift the weight with my back muscles however 68kgs is pretty much what I weigh, and while I was fully laid back preparing to lower the weight in a controlled manner I was gently lifted off the seat as the pile of weights returned to their stack this meant I was slowly lifted into the standing position. Weights adjusted to a more sensible 56kgs and 3 sets of 15 ensued.
I have managed to get over the fact that there are bigger weight pushers in the gym and didn’t mind sitting there with my puny arms while they hoisted slabs above their heads. Triceps push down. 3sets of 15 with the 6kg weight. No bother. Hotly followed by the dumb-bell arm curls. 3 sets of 15 with 7.5kg weights.
And that was my effort for Thursday. Right calf is still giving me a limp despite lashings of Deep Freeze, however I can report that the iPod made a full recovery.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Dodgy maths
Today I seem to have been left in charge of a calculator so have decided that I will try and work out some bits and pieces for the DW race. My maths is usually pretty appalling with the odd smattering of lucky brilliance, and I am going to have to make some educated guesses based solely in areas outside proven experience so I don’t really know if this exercise is going to be worthwhile or not. Ah well, it’s a no news day today anyway as I rested yesterday.
The main question is: - How fast will we need to paddle to finish the race in my target of 24 hours?
Well, the race is 125 miles (give or take) and I think I am right in saying that we will need to maintain 5.21 mile an hour. There that was pretty easy.
But wait. This race isn’t just about the paddling. There are the portages too. Stop, get out, run around obstacles get back in and crack on paddling again.
Slowing the boat down, stopping, getting out, umm that will probably take maybe 3 minutes. Getting back in, and starting again will probably be the same. To make the maths easy for me lets call it 5 minutes delay in slowing, stopping and starting up again. We have to do this 77 times.
On top of that I need to add the running around with a boat on the shoulder time too. Now I don’t know how many metres each portage requires as each one is different but generally it is a case of running around a lock and putting in a bit further up. Lets call it 20 metres a pop (except for one portage that is a mile all by itself). There are 77 of these portages to complete so basically we are looking at about two miles (including the mile long stretch) in total of running.
We’re going to be knackered, wearing clothing unsuitable for running and carrying a boat and our equipment on our shoulders so I think a jog of about 4mph average is reasonable. That adds 30 minutes of running about on the banks to the overall non paddling time. Added to the stopping and starting time we are looking at about 7 hours (I think. That seems like a lot but I am trusting my calculator)
But that’s not all the time we will be haemorrhaging. Because we are going to have to eat at some of these portages too, sure we won’t hang around to cook and then tuck into a 3 course meal but at a few of these stops we will have to pause for five minutes or so to eat. And I am also envisioning a longer stop as we get near to the night time section to change clothes for dry warm ones and to get something hot eaten. All in that’s probably another hour of paddling time lost.
So where are we up to? Ummm.... 16 hours of paddling time to finish the race within the 24 hours. That now means we will have to sustain something like 7.8mph.
Is that fast? I don’t know. I couldn’t run at 7.8mph for 16 hours, I know that much for toffee but in a kayak you keep moving after you have effected your stroke.
I have spent some time on Google looking for an answer on how fast a kayak can go, unfortunately there is no easy answer. It depends on varying factors such as beam length and hull drag and weight and how good the engine (me and Nigel) is, and all manner of other contributing factors.
Well that’s no use.
Okay, I plan to get my boat out on the river on the weekend. I’ll get my GPS set and go for a long run. From that I can work out how fast I can go solo in a slow boat and get a better idea about what is and isn’t achievable in a kayak.
The main question is: - How fast will we need to paddle to finish the race in my target of 24 hours?
Well, the race is 125 miles (give or take) and I think I am right in saying that we will need to maintain 5.21 mile an hour. There that was pretty easy.
But wait. This race isn’t just about the paddling. There are the portages too. Stop, get out, run around obstacles get back in and crack on paddling again.
Slowing the boat down, stopping, getting out, umm that will probably take maybe 3 minutes. Getting back in, and starting again will probably be the same. To make the maths easy for me lets call it 5 minutes delay in slowing, stopping and starting up again. We have to do this 77 times.
On top of that I need to add the running around with a boat on the shoulder time too. Now I don’t know how many metres each portage requires as each one is different but generally it is a case of running around a lock and putting in a bit further up. Lets call it 20 metres a pop (except for one portage that is a mile all by itself). There are 77 of these portages to complete so basically we are looking at about two miles (including the mile long stretch) in total of running.
We’re going to be knackered, wearing clothing unsuitable for running and carrying a boat and our equipment on our shoulders so I think a jog of about 4mph average is reasonable. That adds 30 minutes of running about on the banks to the overall non paddling time. Added to the stopping and starting time we are looking at about 7 hours (I think. That seems like a lot but I am trusting my calculator)
But that’s not all the time we will be haemorrhaging. Because we are going to have to eat at some of these portages too, sure we won’t hang around to cook and then tuck into a 3 course meal but at a few of these stops we will have to pause for five minutes or so to eat. And I am also envisioning a longer stop as we get near to the night time section to change clothes for dry warm ones and to get something hot eaten. All in that’s probably another hour of paddling time lost.
So where are we up to? Ummm.... 16 hours of paddling time to finish the race within the 24 hours. That now means we will have to sustain something like 7.8mph.
Is that fast? I don’t know. I couldn’t run at 7.8mph for 16 hours, I know that much for toffee but in a kayak you keep moving after you have effected your stroke.
I have spent some time on Google looking for an answer on how fast a kayak can go, unfortunately there is no easy answer. It depends on varying factors such as beam length and hull drag and weight and how good the engine (me and Nigel) is, and all manner of other contributing factors.
Well that’s no use.
Okay, I plan to get my boat out on the river on the weekend. I’ll get my GPS set and go for a long run. From that I can work out how fast I can go solo in a slow boat and get a better idea about what is and isn’t achievable in a kayak.
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
WD40 for Humans
I smell of menthol today. To enable the use of my arms again, as it is embarrassing not being able to use my arms for day to day activities like drinking from a mug and answering the phone, I have had to use lashings of Deep Freeze, (my new favourite analgesic from the makers of Deep Heat) Honestly, its brilliant, it’s like WD40 for humans.
Yesterday was a good session in the gym. Nigel had a day off so we both blitzed the machines. Though I opted to avoid the arm exercises to give a bit more rest.
Leg push 3 sets of 15 reps at 59kgs. That got the burn going in my thighs.
Leg extensions. 2 sets of 15 reps at about 32kgs (I forget what weight but I think that was it)
Leg curl 1 set of about 10 reps before aborting. I couldn’t get this machine set up so that it didn’t hurt my Achilles and I was starting to look like a bit of a wolly as I fiddled and adjusted with all the fittings. I will work out how to set this up for my comfort when there are less people to watch me dismantle the machine.
I then hit the treadmill 20 minutes. 7.5mph interval training. It was hard. There were times when I contemplated hitting the all stop button, or even just toning down the speed for a bit but I prevailed to the bitter end and felt pretty chuffed with myself once I had finished having not wimped out.
For a bit of a breather I headed over to see how Nigel was getting on. He had notched up the rowing machine up another minute and managed something over 500 strokes in 17 minutes on difficulty level 7 and was currently working through his weights in 3 sets of 15.
We both settled down for the stomach crunching plank. I was not going to let Nigel beat me, I think Nigel wanted to complete the plank longer than me too as he kept looking across to see how well I was getting on. I had to focus, zen like, as my stomach was well and truly crunched. Nigel gave in, and I was well and truly thankful as I collapsed too. I did feel the need to remark about how easy it was for me and mentioned that I often sleep in that position because it is so comfortable and doesn’t hurt at all.
Then we headed off to the cross trainer. Nigel hasn’t cross trained before so he did the same routine as me. 20 minutes, interval work, level 6. I am pleased to report that Nigel finally got a sweat on in the gym, he didn’t find it easy and actually looked pretty knackered. I might have to text him later to find out if he is feeling the aches that only I seem to be enduring.
After that there was time for a quick swim, a quick spell in the Jacuzzi and a few minutes enduring the heat of the sauna.
Yesterday was a good session in the gym. Nigel had a day off so we both blitzed the machines. Though I opted to avoid the arm exercises to give a bit more rest.
Leg push 3 sets of 15 reps at 59kgs. That got the burn going in my thighs.
Leg extensions. 2 sets of 15 reps at about 32kgs (I forget what weight but I think that was it)
Leg curl 1 set of about 10 reps before aborting. I couldn’t get this machine set up so that it didn’t hurt my Achilles and I was starting to look like a bit of a wolly as I fiddled and adjusted with all the fittings. I will work out how to set this up for my comfort when there are less people to watch me dismantle the machine.
I then hit the treadmill 20 minutes. 7.5mph interval training. It was hard. There were times when I contemplated hitting the all stop button, or even just toning down the speed for a bit but I prevailed to the bitter end and felt pretty chuffed with myself once I had finished having not wimped out.
For a bit of a breather I headed over to see how Nigel was getting on. He had notched up the rowing machine up another minute and managed something over 500 strokes in 17 minutes on difficulty level 7 and was currently working through his weights in 3 sets of 15.
We both settled down for the stomach crunching plank. I was not going to let Nigel beat me, I think Nigel wanted to complete the plank longer than me too as he kept looking across to see how well I was getting on. I had to focus, zen like, as my stomach was well and truly crunched. Nigel gave in, and I was well and truly thankful as I collapsed too. I did feel the need to remark about how easy it was for me and mentioned that I often sleep in that position because it is so comfortable and doesn’t hurt at all.
Then we headed off to the cross trainer. Nigel hasn’t cross trained before so he did the same routine as me. 20 minutes, interval work, level 6. I am pleased to report that Nigel finally got a sweat on in the gym, he didn’t find it easy and actually looked pretty knackered. I might have to text him later to find out if he is feeling the aches that only I seem to be enduring.
After that there was time for a quick swim, a quick spell in the Jacuzzi and a few minutes enduring the heat of the sauna.
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Play Hard
I am still in pain today from Sunday’s exertions. My biceps are the bits which aren’t playing ball still (the rest of the muscle groups seem to be pretty much back in order), I can’t fully extend my arms without vicious gouts of pain flaring from the muscles and even picking up the phone requires me to lean closer to it.
I wasn’t going to post anything today as I had a rest day yesterday and there is nothing to report. Then Nigel posted something about how he is a bit worried that I am pushing myself too hard and that got me thinking. Am I?
I want to get somewhere physically. For too long I have just assumed that I was a fit human being because I was quite a fit lad when I was at school. I then rested on my laurels and slowly and quietly got a bit wimpy.
I discovered almost as soon as we started training for this 2010 Devizes to Westminster race that I was not actually at my prime and it is going to take a lot of effort to get to where I want to be. So I am pushing myself hard. No pain, no gain, eye of the tiger, and all that.
But is it too much? I’m not so worried about the pain in my arms as this is a good pain, the pain of exertion. This is the pain of muscles being forced to grow bigger and stronger. But what about my shoulder injury? What would have happened if I had done more damage, maybe if I had tried a bigger weight, could it have ruined kayaking for me forever?
I read something a while ago, it was from a kayaking instructor and for some reason it managed to stick in my mind. To paraphrase the article it boiled down to this. - You only get one body, this is your vehicle through life. Would you rather drive a Ferrari or a beat up Lada?
(Actually, I know why this stuck in my mind. I liked this article, as it used cars as an analogy)
Are my excesses in the gym the equivalent of thrashing the engine before wrapping it around a tree?
And then as I contemplated all of that I remembered an advert from a few months ago that made me laugh. It was for a new Deep Heat product (Which reminds me, I really need to find out who makes Deep Heat and let them know about how much I love their product nudge, nudge, wink, wink, please could you sponsor us a K2 kayak please) where blokes were getting injured while playing sports. The tag line was Play hard – you can always get patched up.
So it’s decided. I’m going to play hard. Medical science can always rebuild me.
I wasn’t going to post anything today as I had a rest day yesterday and there is nothing to report. Then Nigel posted something about how he is a bit worried that I am pushing myself too hard and that got me thinking. Am I?
I want to get somewhere physically. For too long I have just assumed that I was a fit human being because I was quite a fit lad when I was at school. I then rested on my laurels and slowly and quietly got a bit wimpy.
I discovered almost as soon as we started training for this 2010 Devizes to Westminster race that I was not actually at my prime and it is going to take a lot of effort to get to where I want to be. So I am pushing myself hard. No pain, no gain, eye of the tiger, and all that.
But is it too much? I’m not so worried about the pain in my arms as this is a good pain, the pain of exertion. This is the pain of muscles being forced to grow bigger and stronger. But what about my shoulder injury? What would have happened if I had done more damage, maybe if I had tried a bigger weight, could it have ruined kayaking for me forever?
I read something a while ago, it was from a kayaking instructor and for some reason it managed to stick in my mind. To paraphrase the article it boiled down to this. - You only get one body, this is your vehicle through life. Would you rather drive a Ferrari or a beat up Lada?
(Actually, I know why this stuck in my mind. I liked this article, as it used cars as an analogy)
Are my excesses in the gym the equivalent of thrashing the engine before wrapping it around a tree?
And then as I contemplated all of that I remembered an advert from a few months ago that made me laugh. It was for a new Deep Heat product (Which reminds me, I really need to find out who makes Deep Heat and let them know about how much I love their product nudge, nudge, wink, wink, please could you sponsor us a K2 kayak please) where blokes were getting injured while playing sports. The tag line was Play hard – you can always get patched up.
So it’s decided. I’m going to play hard. Medical science can always rebuild me.
Monday, 3 November 2008
Silent ridicule
After a week of doing very little I had some ground to make up. Friday night I met up with Nigel at the gym and cracked on with my new regime.
Some stretches. The stomach crunching. 20 minutes on the cross trainer doing interval work at level 10. I was then planning to head across and do the weights, only trouble was the two massive blokes who were lifting heavier and heavier weights.
I psyched myself up to head over to the weights section despite these iron pumpers, we all could see that I wasn’t as well built as them, 5kgs is a start after all… then this older woman headed over as well and started hoisting 5kgs into the air. For shame, I was supposed to be using that weight. That was it, no way on this earth I was going over there, the silent ridicule would have been too much.
So instead I headed across to the treadmill. In my head I was consoling myself that I might not be able to pump as much iron but I was good at running. 20 minutes, interval work, gas mark 7.5mph. 100% knackered.
Nigel is pounding away through his routine as always, maintaining good stroke rate on the rowing machine (four hundred and thirty something) and having learned of my revised and tougher plan, Nigel has also upped his reps to 15 in 3 sets on all of his routine.
That was Friday, and I felt pretty good. Saturday was a day of rest.
Sunday, met Nigel again for a session in the gym. Sunday seems to be pretty quite in the gym (if not the swimming pool) and I got a chance to pump some iron. I picked up the 7.5kg weights (having decided that only girls use the 5kgs) and started to do some curls. 2 sets of 15 with each arm.
Following that was 20 minutes on the cross trainer doing intervals at level 10. This day, for whatever reason I found this really, really hard with my legs protesting (as they always do) and for the first time my chest was really screaming a protest as well. I did the rest of the routine weights wise but there was to be no more cardio work from me this day.
Nigel made me chuckle a little bit. He strolls over from the rowing machine claiming to have pushed the boundaries today by doing 16 minutes on the rowing machine at level 7 instead of the usual 15 minutes at level 6. I laugh, but I know that if I stuck one extra minute on the rowing machine it would probably break me.
Apparently he was knackered but annoyingly looked as fresh as a daisy without a bead of sweat or anything. When I look knackered I am all red and blotchy with sweat running as free as a river.
And that was this weekends training. Sunday night I am sitting there on the sofa watching Hamilton win the world championship telling the good lady that I don’t feel any worse for wear. I pack my bag ready to go back to the gym on Monday.
Monday morning I wake up and lie there watching the telly felling absolutely fine. But as soon as I get up to get dressed, agony. Having investigated anatomy here I discovered taht my long head biceps, my brachioradialis, my soleus, and my semimimbranosus (basically the upper arms and backs of my calves) are currently unable to work without being painful.
Exercise damages tissue and tears muscles. This pain I am feeling today is a result of these muscle fibres currently being repaired. It is the repair process that makes muscles bigger and stronger so although I have brought my kit bag with me, today will be a day of rest after all.
The other bit of me that has suffered at the hand of exercise, my shoulder and collar bone, seems to be feeling okay today. I’m not going to start to celebrate too soon though as its nagging ache might just be masked by the other areas of more intense pain but hopefully I am on the mend.
Some stretches. The stomach crunching. 20 minutes on the cross trainer doing interval work at level 10. I was then planning to head across and do the weights, only trouble was the two massive blokes who were lifting heavier and heavier weights.
I psyched myself up to head over to the weights section despite these iron pumpers, we all could see that I wasn’t as well built as them, 5kgs is a start after all… then this older woman headed over as well and started hoisting 5kgs into the air. For shame, I was supposed to be using that weight. That was it, no way on this earth I was going over there, the silent ridicule would have been too much.
So instead I headed across to the treadmill. In my head I was consoling myself that I might not be able to pump as much iron but I was good at running. 20 minutes, interval work, gas mark 7.5mph. 100% knackered.
Nigel is pounding away through his routine as always, maintaining good stroke rate on the rowing machine (four hundred and thirty something) and having learned of my revised and tougher plan, Nigel has also upped his reps to 15 in 3 sets on all of his routine.
That was Friday, and I felt pretty good. Saturday was a day of rest.
Sunday, met Nigel again for a session in the gym. Sunday seems to be pretty quite in the gym (if not the swimming pool) and I got a chance to pump some iron. I picked up the 7.5kg weights (having decided that only girls use the 5kgs) and started to do some curls. 2 sets of 15 with each arm.
Following that was 20 minutes on the cross trainer doing intervals at level 10. This day, for whatever reason I found this really, really hard with my legs protesting (as they always do) and for the first time my chest was really screaming a protest as well. I did the rest of the routine weights wise but there was to be no more cardio work from me this day.
Nigel made me chuckle a little bit. He strolls over from the rowing machine claiming to have pushed the boundaries today by doing 16 minutes on the rowing machine at level 7 instead of the usual 15 minutes at level 6. I laugh, but I know that if I stuck one extra minute on the rowing machine it would probably break me.
Apparently he was knackered but annoyingly looked as fresh as a daisy without a bead of sweat or anything. When I look knackered I am all red and blotchy with sweat running as free as a river.
And that was this weekends training. Sunday night I am sitting there on the sofa watching Hamilton win the world championship telling the good lady that I don’t feel any worse for wear. I pack my bag ready to go back to the gym on Monday.
Monday morning I wake up and lie there watching the telly felling absolutely fine. But as soon as I get up to get dressed, agony. Having investigated anatomy here I discovered taht my long head biceps, my brachioradialis, my soleus, and my semimimbranosus (basically the upper arms and backs of my calves) are currently unable to work without being painful.
Exercise damages tissue and tears muscles. This pain I am feeling today is a result of these muscle fibres currently being repaired. It is the repair process that makes muscles bigger and stronger so although I have brought my kit bag with me, today will be a day of rest after all.
The other bit of me that has suffered at the hand of exercise, my shoulder and collar bone, seems to be feeling okay today. I’m not going to start to celebrate too soon though as its nagging ache might just be masked by the other areas of more intense pain but hopefully I am on the mend.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
