I’ve now spent two days away from the gym due to seeing the doctor and going to choose a photo album, and it already feels like I have let this whole thing slip a little bit. So tonight I am going to work quite hard to make amends.
As I can’t work this dodgy shoulder for a couple of months, I will blitz the other machines. My back, core muscles and legs won’t know what hit them. After working my way around the gym I am planning on ending up at the treadmill.
I now have a man in Oz (G’day btw) who has been pointed in the direction of this blog. He made a comment about the secret to marathons is to just put in the km’s.
Well this got me thinking about what I would need to achieve on the treadmill to be in with a chance with the Great North. I can sustain 6.4 mph for 20 minutes with ease. 6.4mph just breaks my gait and 20 minutes is just enough to break a sweat. Well if I was to complete a half marathon I would need to keep that pace up for a little over two hours… That’s doable. Maybe not as of today but a couple of months of progress at this rate (injury in all) and I think I could manage that.
But then I got wondering what it would take to come in with a race winning time. Tsegay Kebede seems to be the man who won the 2008 race managed a time a few seconds longer than 59 minutes. The course is 13.1miles. He sustained a pace of 13mph for an hour!
When I got up to 13mph on the treadmill, I nearly flew off the back because my legs where whirling around faster than I could keep up.
I’ll save the maths for the DW race for another quiet blog day but quickly working them out in my head, the speeds we would need to sustain seem a little more palatable.
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Quite a Serious Injury
I went to my GP last night. Told him what I was doing, why I was doing it, and how at some point during doing it, I hurt my arm.
He prodded and twirled and in once instance I’m sure he thumped my left shoulder before telling me to put my shirt back on and take a seat. He then did that sucking air through the teeth thing. Not quite the “That’ll cost you” sort that you get from workmen just after you ask them to quote you. More a short “How do I tell you that you are a very silly boy” sort of air suck.
He then proceeded to tell me about the shoulder joint and how complex and clever it is. He wasn’t really telling me anything I didn’t know about the shoulder joint, I read human biology at Uni, don’t you know. And what I didn’t learn there, I discovered over the last few days while researching my malady on wikipedia. He then also went on to tell me about how the body grows and changes with trauma. Muscles need to tear before they repair bigger and stronger, and bones when subjected to injury can swell and deform.
After the brief and informative biology lesson he told me that I had at some point during the last three weeks at the gym, inflicted quite a serious injury on my arm. His words, I’m not being melodramatic. The damage has caused my collar bone to swell and deform a little bit (which is quite noticeable when you look for it) and that external manifestation of my injury may never wholly go away. It should take about two weeks of rest for the pain to stop (if it doesn’t I am to return to the docs) and then it can take up to three months for it to heal up.
I need to stop agitating the arm, I rightly assumed that the weights were now well and truly off the exercise rota for a while. But the Doctor then crossed off the rowing machine and worst of all, swimming, from my list of activities. Though strangely he didn’t think kayaking was too bad an activity due to the type of movement my arm would go through while paddling.
I was pretty gutted actually. Mentally casting my mind around the gym, I think all I can do is the treadmill, the cross trainer and the bikes. I’ll have to get used to the sauna and Jacuzzi as well.
I think I’m going to have to speak to fitness Stu and get him to completely re-design my fitness plan. I wonder how differing programmes will affect Nigel and my preparedness for the DW.
He prodded and twirled and in once instance I’m sure he thumped my left shoulder before telling me to put my shirt back on and take a seat. He then did that sucking air through the teeth thing. Not quite the “That’ll cost you” sort that you get from workmen just after you ask them to quote you. More a short “How do I tell you that you are a very silly boy” sort of air suck.
He then proceeded to tell me about the shoulder joint and how complex and clever it is. He wasn’t really telling me anything I didn’t know about the shoulder joint, I read human biology at Uni, don’t you know. And what I didn’t learn there, I discovered over the last few days while researching my malady on wikipedia. He then also went on to tell me about how the body grows and changes with trauma. Muscles need to tear before they repair bigger and stronger, and bones when subjected to injury can swell and deform.
After the brief and informative biology lesson he told me that I had at some point during the last three weeks at the gym, inflicted quite a serious injury on my arm. His words, I’m not being melodramatic. The damage has caused my collar bone to swell and deform a little bit (which is quite noticeable when you look for it) and that external manifestation of my injury may never wholly go away. It should take about two weeks of rest for the pain to stop (if it doesn’t I am to return to the docs) and then it can take up to three months for it to heal up.
I need to stop agitating the arm, I rightly assumed that the weights were now well and truly off the exercise rota for a while. But the Doctor then crossed off the rowing machine and worst of all, swimming, from my list of activities. Though strangely he didn’t think kayaking was too bad an activity due to the type of movement my arm would go through while paddling.
I was pretty gutted actually. Mentally casting my mind around the gym, I think all I can do is the treadmill, the cross trainer and the bikes. I’ll have to get used to the sauna and Jacuzzi as well.
I think I’m going to have to speak to fitness Stu and get him to completely re-design my fitness plan. I wonder how differing programmes will affect Nigel and my preparedness for the DW.
Monday, 20 October 2008
Hard as Nails
A jolly good mate of mine ran the Great North Run a couple of years ago, it's a half marathon held in October, up north. I was watching this years race on the big tellies while I was on the rowing machine and thought that a half marathon in October would be absolutely ideal to get a measure of my metal before the DW race that will be held 6 months later.
I have been emailing him for the last week or so on the hows and the wherefores on entering into marathon running. It isn’t easy and seems that you either get gifted one of the few free places, or run for a charity place, and you have to raise money for the given charity (usually £300 - £800 or so). Now I don’t mind raising money for charity, far from it but I do wonder if my friends, family and colleagues will get a bit charity fatigued with a couple of fundraising efforts so close together.
Anyway, both Nigel and I are pre-registered with the Great North event through this site www.greatrun.org and then when they are allocating places for this race at some point next year, we will get emailed and I’m hoping they will give further instructions from there.
During the course of these emails with my marathon running friend, I said something along the lines of That Great North Jog thing will be a nice little training run for the real endurance stuff next year, or words to that effect. I didn’t mean it to sound as flippant as it may have come across but I received a grim reply warning me not to underestimate the exertion required for a marathon, and that this kayak thing is a mere trifle.
I actually suspect that this probably wasn’t how it was meant to come across, but it doesn’t matter, I got a spluttery and indignant and replied telling him that this race was tougher than the hardest of nails.
And then a bit later in the day I read this article from the Telegraph.
“It is a race so punishing and physically tough that entrants can experience sleep-deprived hallucinations, exhaustion and hypothermia, not to mention the aches, pains, cramps and sores that come from sitting in a confined wet space for more than 24 hours.”
The article was almost enough to make me change my mind about this whole thing… Only almost though. I’m going to link it for future reference when I plan on having a day off from the gym.
I have been emailing him for the last week or so on the hows and the wherefores on entering into marathon running. It isn’t easy and seems that you either get gifted one of the few free places, or run for a charity place, and you have to raise money for the given charity (usually £300 - £800 or so). Now I don’t mind raising money for charity, far from it but I do wonder if my friends, family and colleagues will get a bit charity fatigued with a couple of fundraising efforts so close together.
Anyway, both Nigel and I are pre-registered with the Great North event through this site www.greatrun.org and then when they are allocating places for this race at some point next year, we will get emailed and I’m hoping they will give further instructions from there.
During the course of these emails with my marathon running friend, I said something along the lines of That Great North Jog thing will be a nice little training run for the real endurance stuff next year, or words to that effect. I didn’t mean it to sound as flippant as it may have come across but I received a grim reply warning me not to underestimate the exertion required for a marathon, and that this kayak thing is a mere trifle.
I actually suspect that this probably wasn’t how it was meant to come across, but it doesn’t matter, I got a spluttery and indignant and replied telling him that this race was tougher than the hardest of nails.
And then a bit later in the day I read this article from the Telegraph.
“It is a race so punishing and physically tough that entrants can experience sleep-deprived hallucinations, exhaustion and hypothermia, not to mention the aches, pains, cramps and sores that come from sitting in a confined wet space for more than 24 hours.”
The article was almost enough to make me change my mind about this whole thing… Only almost though. I’m going to link it for future reference when I plan on having a day off from the gym.
Sunday dinner
Nigel and his lovely missus offered to play host on Sunday for me and the wife. “Both of you come to the gym, and then after we’ll cook you a nice roast” was the offer I couldn’t refuse so we both came down for some gym work this week.
While my better half set about the treadmill, Nigel and I hit the rowing machine, we both cranked up the difficulty level to 6. Set the timer for 15 minutes and set off at a fast 34 strokes a minute pace. We kept this up for about 7 or 8 minutes when I started to feel the burn of an exhausted muscle in my forearm. (I have just google searched and it was my wrist flexors that were giving up. I could no longer grip with my hand.) I had a few moments rest before plugging on matching Nigel’s pace once again. I dropped 10 strokes from Nigel over the 15 minutes becuase of that rest, I need to work on that group of muscles.
I also bought some super fast mega running sports trainers over the weekend which are specifically designed for running at near hypersonic speeds, as opposed to my previous trainers which I suspect were more designed for fashion. I hit the treadmill and I felt my performance instantly improve by probably about 5%. 20 minutes at a constant and steady 7mph. Nigel joined me on the treadmill for a bit but 5 minutes later he was feeling short of breath. He might have a strength advantage over me at the moment but that will be for nothing if he can't sustain it.
I might not be ready for hypersonic super fast sports running trainers yet though. I discovered a blister in a really bizarre place on the sole of my foot later on in the day, I fear that I might have become so sedentary in my lifestyle prior to this training that I was getting flat feet.
Day was topped out by a roast dinner of epic proportions (thanks guys).
I’m not going back to the gym now until Wednesday as Monday (today) I am going to my GP after work to see if he can shed light on this shoulder injury. And then Tuesday night we have an appointment with the wedding photographer to get the photos sorted. I intend to work doubly hard at the end of the week to catch back up with the fitness plan.
While my better half set about the treadmill, Nigel and I hit the rowing machine, we both cranked up the difficulty level to 6. Set the timer for 15 minutes and set off at a fast 34 strokes a minute pace. We kept this up for about 7 or 8 minutes when I started to feel the burn of an exhausted muscle in my forearm. (I have just google searched and it was my wrist flexors that were giving up. I could no longer grip with my hand.) I had a few moments rest before plugging on matching Nigel’s pace once again. I dropped 10 strokes from Nigel over the 15 minutes becuase of that rest, I need to work on that group of muscles.
I also bought some super fast mega running sports trainers over the weekend which are specifically designed for running at near hypersonic speeds, as opposed to my previous trainers which I suspect were more designed for fashion. I hit the treadmill and I felt my performance instantly improve by probably about 5%. 20 minutes at a constant and steady 7mph. Nigel joined me on the treadmill for a bit but 5 minutes later he was feeling short of breath. He might have a strength advantage over me at the moment but that will be for nothing if he can't sustain it.
I might not be ready for hypersonic super fast sports running trainers yet though. I discovered a blister in a really bizarre place on the sole of my foot later on in the day, I fear that I might have become so sedentary in my lifestyle prior to this training that I was getting flat feet.
Day was topped out by a roast dinner of epic proportions (thanks guys).
I’m not going back to the gym now until Wednesday as Monday (today) I am going to my GP after work to see if he can shed light on this shoulder injury. And then Tuesday night we have an appointment with the wedding photographer to get the photos sorted. I intend to work doubly hard at the end of the week to catch back up with the fitness plan.
Week 3
End of week report.
Week 3.
Three full weeks in and I was starting to fall apart at the seams. The arm pain was getting me down and I was feeling a bit under the weather and by Monday/Tuesday I ended up having a couple of days away from work and the gym.
I got back to life by Wednesday and I did go to the gym that evening, but if truth be told I didn’t really want to. I ended up telling myself that I couldn’t let Nigel get fitter than me and my ego is the only thing that stopped me going home to play the playstation instead.
Thursday was a day of rest.
Friday I was in quite a lot of pain from the arm at work, and after getting my shoulder groped by the first aider at work, she sent me to A&E. The trip to A&E wasted three hours of my life, eventually seen by an impatient doctor who sent me home telling me to have a hot bath and take some ibuprofen (I'm sure I heard him muttering that I was a big hairy wuss girl as he left the cubical).
I did then go to the gym that evening but I left off the weights and rowing machine completely, Instead I did the stomach crunching exercises and the treadmill. I am starting to enjoy pounding the treadmill, and once I plugged in the iPod I got into a zone and built up a sweat made from 20 minutes at 7mph at various inclines (due to the “Fat Burn” setting). By the time I was finished on Friday I was enjoying myself again. Roll on week 4.
Week 3.
Three full weeks in and I was starting to fall apart at the seams. The arm pain was getting me down and I was feeling a bit under the weather and by Monday/Tuesday I ended up having a couple of days away from work and the gym.
I got back to life by Wednesday and I did go to the gym that evening, but if truth be told I didn’t really want to. I ended up telling myself that I couldn’t let Nigel get fitter than me and my ego is the only thing that stopped me going home to play the playstation instead.
Thursday was a day of rest.
Friday I was in quite a lot of pain from the arm at work, and after getting my shoulder groped by the first aider at work, she sent me to A&E. The trip to A&E wasted three hours of my life, eventually seen by an impatient doctor who sent me home telling me to have a hot bath and take some ibuprofen (I'm sure I heard him muttering that I was a big hairy wuss girl as he left the cubical).
I did then go to the gym that evening but I left off the weights and rowing machine completely, Instead I did the stomach crunching exercises and the treadmill. I am starting to enjoy pounding the treadmill, and once I plugged in the iPod I got into a zone and built up a sweat made from 20 minutes at 7mph at various inclines (due to the “Fat Burn” setting). By the time I was finished on Friday I was enjoying myself again. Roll on week 4.
Friday, 17 October 2008
Fundraising
We’re starting to think about raising funds both for charity and as a way to get hold of the boat (which currently is way out of our financial reach).
Devizes Westminster is an excellent opportunity to get sponsorship and raise funds for charities and special causes, and even though you aren’t required to get sponsorship to take part, it seems only right that we do.
There are many good and great charities out there, and we have a few which we have thought about collecting for but we can’t quite decide. But I have discovered a widget on blogger which allows me to poll my vast and numerous readership. So consider yourselves polled. Even if you have stumbled here by mistake, click your chosen charity for me.
In fact, if you have a charity that is close to your heart that you would like us to consider, leave a comment in the comments section of this post and I will add it to the list.
I think we would need to make a decision who will be our named charity by early summer next year. So on the first of June 2009 whichever charity has the most votes on the poll (even if there have only been two or three votes overall) will be the one.
And then the other thing we might have to consider is getting corporate sponsorship to pay for the boat.
The boat we need is a two man kayak, preferably of marathon type, and preferably at the more stable end of the racing boat spectrum. Finding a boat that fits the bill on ebay is a very hit and miss thing. And although our feelers are out there looking to borrow a suitable boat, so far we haven’t had any luck. The third way is to buy the boat. I have spotted the one that I would love to demo, the Marsport Condor looks pretty much ideal for this race… Only at over £1200 for the cheepest, we are not in any kind of position to fund this ourselves. However Nigel suggested that we could petition local businesses to sponsor us on this front.
More thought needs to be put into this, but it might be a way to do this race.
Devizes Westminster is an excellent opportunity to get sponsorship and raise funds for charities and special causes, and even though you aren’t required to get sponsorship to take part, it seems only right that we do.
There are many good and great charities out there, and we have a few which we have thought about collecting for but we can’t quite decide. But I have discovered a widget on blogger which allows me to poll my vast and numerous readership. So consider yourselves polled. Even if you have stumbled here by mistake, click your chosen charity for me.
In fact, if you have a charity that is close to your heart that you would like us to consider, leave a comment in the comments section of this post and I will add it to the list.
I think we would need to make a decision who will be our named charity by early summer next year. So on the first of June 2009 whichever charity has the most votes on the poll (even if there have only been two or three votes overall) will be the one.
And then the other thing we might have to consider is getting corporate sponsorship to pay for the boat.
The boat we need is a two man kayak, preferably of marathon type, and preferably at the more stable end of the racing boat spectrum. Finding a boat that fits the bill on ebay is a very hit and miss thing. And although our feelers are out there looking to borrow a suitable boat, so far we haven’t had any luck. The third way is to buy the boat. I have spotted the one that I would love to demo, the Marsport Condor looks pretty much ideal for this race… Only at over £1200 for the cheepest, we are not in any kind of position to fund this ourselves. However Nigel suggested that we could petition local businesses to sponsor us on this front.
More thought needs to be put into this, but it might be a way to do this race.
Thursday, 16 October 2008
A touch of apathy.
A complete lack of motivation struck me yesterday. I had a hard day at work, a proper brain grinder and come 5pm I was finished. It was getting dark outside, and it had been a wet and grim day all day. I just wanted to head home and crash out with the playstation and a bottle of wine. Unfortunately for my apathetic side, my ego had kicked into gear, and it wouldn’t let Nigel go to the gym and get fitter than me, so off I went.
I have nothing really new to report. Exercises were done as per our instructions. I didn’t record the rowing machine reps this time but my forearms really were hurting by the end of the fifteen minutes. My shoulder twinged again so I didn’t push too hard on the arm based bits of the routine. Swum loads, sauna’d a little, and headed home.
Upon reading my post so far it sounds as though I didn't enjoy the workout, I actually did and felt much better for it, heading home re-energised and ready for anything.
I have tried to self diagnose this nagging injury on the internet and it is either really serious and I might have to amputate or it is nothing at all and I am being a bit of a girl. So I have made an appointment with the doctor on Monday so that a professional can tell me what the prognosis is.
I have nothing really new to report. Exercises were done as per our instructions. I didn’t record the rowing machine reps this time but my forearms really were hurting by the end of the fifteen minutes. My shoulder twinged again so I didn’t push too hard on the arm based bits of the routine. Swum loads, sauna’d a little, and headed home.
Upon reading my post so far it sounds as though I didn't enjoy the workout, I actually did and felt much better for it, heading home re-energised and ready for anything.
I have tried to self diagnose this nagging injury on the internet and it is either really serious and I might have to amputate or it is nothing at all and I am being a bit of a girl. So I have made an appointment with the doctor on Monday so that a professional can tell me what the prognosis is.
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