Monday 23 January 2012

Consistent training... early results

Consistent training.  That's the key.  And the last 3 weeks have been really quite good (I was ill 4 weeks ago, so missed a few sessions).  If you look at the sessions success, you'll see a few red ones in there, but trust me it's a lot more consistent than it used to be and I don't really have a proper training plan so I'm just trying to get more base stuff in there than I had before.


And the results are really starting to show in my performance charts (the blue line is overall fitness, pink is fatigue levels, yellow is "freshness").  You can see clearly an improvement in fitness, though the significance of the scale eludes me at the moment, upwards seems good to me.


What really caught my interest was the small dip in fitness where I didn't do much while I was sick - the big drop in the pink line - really was quite small in the grand scheme of things.  My fatigue level dropped significantly, which helped me recover from being ill and conversely the freshness level goes up and I'm back on my feet again not much lost over that 2.5 week period of two illnesses back to back (one chest infection and a gastric thing).  Onwards and upwards now and I'm looking forward to see how things shape over the coming weeks and months.

5 comments:

  1. Hi - just found your blog and loving it... will be reading in installments over the next few days!

    One question (and sorry if you have answered this before - like I said not read all your posts yet) is what site/package is showing in the screen shots above?

    Thanks

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  2. Hi!

    I've not answered that question before, so it a good one to tackle.

    I've tried a number of products for various aspects of training, tracking performance, planning, nutrition, exercise etc. and the one that seems to work out best for planning and tracking training and performance for me is Training Peaks (http://home.trainingpeaks.com/). For nutrition logging and planning, I use Weight Loss Resources (http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/"

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  3. Brilliant - thank you!

    Have been a member of weight Loss Resources for over 7 years (sometimes used every day sometimes not for months) and I cancelled in New Year to save money. However, think I am going to rejoin as I love it so much!

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  4. Great work on improving your fitness and also for being consistent with the workouts.

    Would love to get some tips on how you stay motivated because that seems the main issue that I am having with being consistent in my workouts.

    http://weightlossthesearchfortheskinnierme.blogspot.com/

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  5. Hi @thethinseeker!

    Staying motivated is all about having goals. If you don't have a goal in mind, it's all too easy to sack off a workout; "what's the point?". Last year, I had no specific goals - I had "get faster at sprint triathlons". But that's not a goal, it's too nebulous. How much faster? At which discipline? How? So I did very very very little training - all I really did was cycle to work a few times and run a few 5km runs. Nothing structured, nothing planned.

    This year I have proper goals:-
    (in chronological order)

    A. complete Hell of the Ashdown without getting off and walking
    B. complete UK IM 70.3 within the time limit
    C. be seeded in the top 10 for swim starts for Thames Turbo sprint series by race 4
    D. i. complete IM Wales within the time limit
    D. ii. complete IM Wales in 15 hours

    These goals help me to focus on the key workouts I plan a week ahead. There are other workouts which are nice-to-have, but not essential to achieving my goals so if I miss those, that's fine.

    So, I'd say have a think about what is it you want to achieve, think about how you could write that down in very specific terms, e.g. "be able to deadlift 55kg for 3 sets of 10 reps", or "lose 1 inch off my waist" and then realistically when you might be able to get to that point. Write it (or them) down and there's your goal, now work for it!

    Hope that helps.

    ReplyDelete