A New Chapter; or Back To Basics?

I'm going back to where I started in 2009; weight training.  Back then, it was because I was worried I'd lost a lot of muscle when I lost weight and that I was weak on the outside and the inside.  Last time, after around 2 years of doing it, it gave me a phenomenally good base to do sport from.  I realised that after the event.  This time around it's with a purpose, to support sport in a specific way as well as get back to feeling strong again (I miss it!).

I honestly believe that one of the major reasons I managed to bash through so many triathlons, up to and including Ironman and multiple half Ironmans and then 5 ultra marathons, was because I had a really good strength base (on top of which I did a moderate amount of endurance work and a microgram of speed work).  And one of the two main reasons the wheels started falling off (from a physical point of view) the triathlon wagon in 2013 was because I'd done no appreciable strength work for a year at that point, and it only got worse from there.  OK, so my endurance training consistency also got very patchy due to new jobs etc., but half the story I'm sure was the missing strength piece.

Two proper sessions in now, and I'm loving the work that The Athletic Edge do.  I have two "supervised" sessions with them per week and that's perfect for me because it means I go and I do the right things for me, encouraged and tailored as I'm doing it.  I don't have to rely on getting myself to a gym at a relatively arbitrary time, which usually leads to doing it at a sub-optimal time, cutting the session short or simply not doing it at all.  I decided to work with them after seeing the great work they've done with Mr TOTKat and the fact that they really do focus on specific work for your sport and goals, and are very experienced in doing that.  And I've just now engaged with an ultra running coach at Centurion Running to pay more attention to doing something I've been enjoying for a year, with a bit more focus and specific training rather than just bashing at it.  It feels like there is a lower barrier to getting out and running than riding a bike or swimming enough to get good enjoyment from triathlon.  And that is something that will only get easier for me later in the year as it gets colder and wetter, as I actually enjoy running in those conditions!

It's a bit surprising that I've ended up focusing on the discipline within triathlon that I started out weakest at, and in fact really disliking.  But for now, it's fun, satisfying and sort of keeps me out of trouble.  Yes, I know it's fashionable to do ultras now and in many ways "easier" than marathons, for example, but it's making me happy, fit, healthy and strong to do it the way I'm doing it.

Building blocks

I feel great.

Like really great.

This morning was my first session with Athletic Edge.  These guys specialise in functional, relevant strength and conditioning work for athletes; from rugby players through triathletes to sprinters etc.

Having seen the work they've done with Mr TOTKat over the last year, how much stronger and more resilient he's got, I decided they were the solution to my feeling weak and soft.  It's hard getting to the gym on your own schedule; if you've committed to a session with someone who's going to really pick over exactly what you need to be doing to move forward then it's far more likely to happen.  Even when that means getting up at 05:45 to do that.

So.  Initial thoughts are that my lower back is a bit over-enthusiastic and, under certain conditions, tries to take the load that my glutes and hamstrings should be taking.  My hamstrings and calves are a bit tight and that's limiting some exercises before we can load them up at all.  And I have good control in the main, which is a good platform to start working on good technique and then progressing the exercises.

Ben put me through some fairly gentle, easy exercises this morning but I know I will have some DOMS tomorrow and Sunday mainly because I was using muscles in ways I've not done in a while.  I look forward to it!  Hello endorphins, I've missed you :o)

Fat to Fit to Ironman

My weight chart from June 2008 to November 2012

I was never a skinny child, apart from a 2 week period around the age of 11 or so.  And though I managed to not get too overweight at university; finishing my undergraduate course (in 1995) at the same weight I started it at around 67kg; I started to slowly gain weight during my post graduate years.  I dabbled with losing weight during my undergraduate years when I got a little chubbier and that's the only real "diet" I had been on in my lifetime.

Probably around 2004 - at Clarecraft Discworld event

By 2006 I'd really gained quite a lot until one day I went to the doctor with a rotten cough, tiredness, an aching chest and feeling really rough, to be diagnosed as having a quite nasty chest infection.  And then the doctor put a sting in the tail, by saying "you're rather overweight aren't you?".  She plopped me on the scales and I was horrified to see it saying 94kg, then took my blood pressure and said I needed to be monitored as it was quite high.

That was May 8th 2006.  Packed off with a prescription for anti-biotics and an appointment for a follow-up blood pressure appointment in a month with the nurse, I left feeling shocked, depressed but also with a switch in my head flipped.  I didn't know it at the time, but this was a huge turning point in my life and instrumental in completely changing my life.  I was also in a very unhappy relationship at the time, which gave me an extra bit of ammunition which would help me on the way for the coming months.

2006 at my peak weight of 94kg

 The day after seeing the doctor, I decided to lose weight.  And I started by examining food packaging, working out calories for the day and trying to keep it under control on a day-to-day basis.  What was tricky to get info on was the values of raw ingredients rather than prepared foods, i.e. stuff like bananas, carrots, beef mince, lettuce, peppers etc. didn't have info on the packaging for me to use to work out what I was eating.  As I did (and still do) cook and prepare almost all of my food from raw ingredients rather than prepared food, this made things difficult and I increasingly found that the nutritional data I needed was available on one particular web site - Weight Loss Resources (WLR).  So after around a month of trying to lose weight (and succeeding, losing 7kg off the bat!), I decided to join the site as a member so I could make the task of counting calories, checking fruit and veg portions etc. a lot easier.

The handy thing about WLR is that it will do all of the difficult stuff for you - you input weight, height, rate of loss desired (and it won't let you specify more than 1kg a week) and it'll calculate your daily allowances for weight loss (or gain if that's what you need/want to be doing) and weight maintenance as well as having a massive database of foods, calculating the macro-nutrient splits, counting fruit and veg portions etc.  And as I stuck to my allowances religiously, week on week I lost 1kg a week like clockwork.

What also helped me be quite so focused on weight loss was that, although I didn't realise it at the time, I was very unhappy in the relationship I was in.  The process of weight loss gave me a level of control over a part of my life that was clearly missing elsewhere and, like people who self-harm by cutting themselves, I gained a sense of ownership over myself that I clearly needed.  Yes, I was mentally ready to lose weight when I did, but I also was desperate for an outlet for the feeling of having no control over my emotional well-being.

62kg the first time around

After 3 months, I hit my first weight target of "healthy BMI" (for me that was 72kg).  OK there were a few tantrums and tears along the way, but compared with a lot of people I had a pretty easy ride with no real plateaus.  But just skimming a healthy BMI, especially being very inactive (OK I walked a lot, but that's it), didn't mean I felt (or in my opinion) looked great.  So I set a new goal of 67kg which was right in the middle of the "healthy BMI" range and reached that a couple of months later.

Over the next year, my weight stayed pretty stable and then towards the end of 2007 it started to drop again.  Sadly, at that time my relationship was falling apart and despite having reached a weight I was happy with, it still kept going down.  By January of 2008, with my relationship over and having hit rock bottom emotionally, my weight bottomed out at just under 62kg.  I looked thin (to me) and not exactly happy, despite the face showing to the world.  What did make me happy was being able to go into a normal high street shop and buy clothes without being scared there would be nothing in the shop I could get into.  And I could buy clothes because I liked them and they looked good rather than them being simply big enough for me to get into them.

Shortly after that I met a man.  And we liked each other quite a bit.  He was loving, supportive and more than a little bit sporty - cycling lots and having done a triathlon once a few years ago.  So I bought a bike to cycle to his house to see him and there was sown the seed which would later grow into something really quite incredible.

Coast to coast (in Cornwall)

We cycled a bit together and after a while I got up the courage to cycle from London to Brighton with him; which filled me with a huge sense of achievement.  And we went on holiday and hired bikes together and cycled about having fun.

So, at that point I was cycling once or twice a week, doing about 10km each return trip but exercise really didn't feature on my mental radar as something I was that interested in.  Yet.

The lovely man (MrTOTKat) and I got married early in 2009.  And secretly, shortly after the wedding, I joined a gym to see about getting some strength back (having lost a lot of muscle when I lost all that weight).  A lot of ladies on the forums of WLR did weight training and the more I read and saw about it, the more I thought it was something I wanted to do.  So I did.  I discovered when we got back from honeymoon that the bathroom scales I'd been using were broken and I was, in fact, a good 5kg heavier than I thought!  So I had a bit of an effort to get that 5kg off over the following 6 months with the help of weight training as well as my new healthy eating lifestyle.

MrTOTKat and me on honeymoon

Happy with weight training and wanting to be able to eat with a bit less calorie restriction, I decided to start walking more.  Getting off the tube on the way home a stop early, then two stops, then three.  I wanted to go further but it was starting to make my commute longer than I was happy with, so I decided to try running.

My first parkrun (after my first 10K race)

Running hurt quite a bit.  So I found the Couch-2-5K (C25K) programme to follow and picked up at week 4 as I felt I could run a bit longer than the early weeks of the programme.  Running was horrible, but it meant I got home quicker and with the confidence that weight loss and my husband gave me, I felt fine about sitting on the tube in my running gear half way home before getting off to run the rest of the way.  3 months later, in October 2009, I ran my first 10K race - one of the Clapham Common 10K race series - smashed my 1 hour target, coming in at 00:57:37 (despite light stomach upset and naff all sleep the night before) and got my first sports medal of my adult life.

In 2010, after going skiing in January, not liking it much breaking my coccyx, I re-discovered swimming and signed up to do Swimathon - a 5km swim for charity in my local swimming pool.  Although it was mind-bendingly boring and I had a chest infection (again!) at the time, I managed it in under 2 hours.

Shiny!

I have no idea why, but I decided that I wanted to do a triathlon.  So, after having researched ones that were near us, involved a swim in a pool (I'd read enough horror stories about open water swims and how brutal they are), I signed up to do all four Thames Turbo Triathlon Club sprint triathlons in that year.  With a busted bum, I missed the first one, but cheered MrTOTKat on on that freezing cold Easter Monday morning and looked forward (sort of) to my first one on the next bank holiday Monday of the year.

Over the next year, we did the other sprints, and then a swim in the Thames - a first wetsuit swim for me.  Thoroughly enjoying the races, getting faster and learning at each one, we had a race signing up frenzy one drunken evening at the end of 2010.  All four Thames Turbos again, plus some of the British Triathlon Super Series, joined British Triathlon, then an Olympic distance race too - the Virgin London Triathlon.

British Olympic Ball Oct 2011

I got hit by a car while cycling to work one day in March 2011 and thereafter had an iffy knee which resulted in a number of DNFs at races.  The first was a shock, but I stopped about 1km into the run with shooting pains in my knee and stopping was the right thing to do.  It was useful to learn about DNFing as I had a good few of them over the next few months.

Working with a physio my knee got better - it turned out I just couldn't run properly and I learned to run with a mid-to-forefoot strike rather than the really quite harsh heel striking I'd been doing and that resulted in a 10km running race that I completed, then the Virgin London Triathlon (which really hurt), and the last Thames Turbo in the series.  Leaving me hungry for more races I entered the HSBC Olympic triathlon and had a horrible experience.  But by then I was already bitten by the idea that I wanted to do an Ironman.

I was looking and feeling fit, slim and confident and even having trouble with the corset I got married in being a bit too big now, though it didn't stop me from using it to glam up a night out at the British Olympic Ball!

The 2011 wall of medals and race bibs

Volunteering at a race is a great way to get a feel for it.  So, as suggested in one of the books on Ironman I'd read, I volunteered to crew at Ironman Wales.  The thinking behind Wales was that it's in the UK, so costs aren't too high, and I fear heat more than hills so Wales in September was a safe bet.  And the day we got back, we signed up for Ironman Wales in 2012, plus the UK 70.3 at Exmoor as a pre-amble earlier in the year.

From November of 2011 we were planning and training for UK 70.3 and IM Wales and everything was exciting and a bit scary, but not all that scary.  Even in March of 2012 I could visualise a 70.3 distance, maybe not with monster hills, but the distance itself didn't hold any real fear already.

 Then Mr TOTKat came across this...

"Dan James, Operations Director for IRONMAN UK, explains: “After launching the Ironman Ireland and Ironman Wales events last year some people started to talk about the ultimate test of completing our four races in one season. We thought this was incredibly hard but knew we had to recognise the achievement if someone could succeed in finishing all four in the same year.”

This is no easy feat as it will require an exceptional effort to complete over 420 miles of racing inside three months. A number of athletes, like Charlie, have already put their names forward for the challenge and Ironman have responded to the idea enthusiastically. The UK organising team have agreed to provide some extra reward for athletes who are attempting the extremely difficult task." 

My first reaction was "you're crazy!".  We've not even done a 70.3 yet, have no idea about recovery times or even how we'll cope with a 70.3, never mind a full distance.  Plus, the last two are two weeks apart!  So, I suggested that coachJoe (Mr TOTKat's coach) be consulted to see just how crazy it was. The response came back pretty much as "do it!" (with a bit more about the practical and sensible bits).  So I thought about it and...

There we were; signed up for 4x Ironman events in one year, in fact in a 13 week period:-

"As a result athletes embarking upon the ‘ultimate’ will receive special race numbers and a commemorative package including t-shirt, jacket and a unique medal as part of a special awards ceremony. A ‘Wall of Fame’ will also be created online to honour the success of those who can overcome the odds to finish all four races in the same season. "

Now I was excited.  It got to its logical conclusion; there was no more we could realistically do in 2012.  It was not going to be easy, but then it never was doing "just" the two.

As I trained, the weight dropped off even more without actually trying.  Even fuelling for the training effort and slap up meals after long sessions didn't seem to stop the downwards trend that you can see in my weight chart from November 2011 to June 2012.  

With the help of new coach Rich Jones, I had a great few races at UK 70.3 and IM UK...

IM 70.3 UK 2012

Ironman UK 2012

I was an IRONMAN!  But no time to stop and smell the roses as there were two more races to get through.

And then Ireland 70.3...

IM 70.3 Ireland 2012

And this is how it ended.  I had a bad bike crash at IM 70.3 Ireland, broke my collar bone, finished the race in a respectable time (an hour quicker than UK 70.3) and got patched up.

With less than 2 weeks to IM Wales there was no way I'd be able to swim or cycle at Wales, so that was the end of the challenge for me.  4 days before IM Wales I had a titanium plate put in to pull the two ends of my collar bone and the bits in the middle back together again and straight so it will heal properly for the future.

And at IM Wales I volunteered at the finish line and handed out all 4 race medals to my husband when he crossed the line.

MrTOTKat and his full set of Ultimate Challenge finishers medals in 2012

With a haul of medals in 2012 that anyone should be proud of, I was at peace with not finishing the Ultimate challenge.  Now, I'm looking forward to 2013 and a season of shorter races...

Stowe, Blenheim, UK 70.3, UK IM and Ireland 70.3 all in 2012

6 and a half years after I decided to drop a load of weight and I'm the fittest, healthiest, lightest, slimmest and happiest I've ever been in my adult life.  Oh and I'm an Ironman.

Shortly after the end of my 2012 season, I decided that an Ultra marathon might be interesting... so I did one in February 2013 and then ended up doing 5 in 12 months around the other races.

After Country to Capital

I have a programme

Finally, I have a programme from my coach, coachJez.  It feels funny calling him a coach because he feels more like just a trainer to me.  We've been working together for 6 months on my swimming with a little bit of gym work here and there so I don't feel coached, only trained.

Anyhoo.  Over the winter he was talking about 'next year' this and 'next year' that and when January came and no programme was forthcoming, I started to get worried.  I have some pretty big goals this year and I do not want to screw this up.  So I pushed and I finally got a programme.

At the moment, it's 21 sessions to fit in over a month and I'll get the next set after that's done and the results assessed (no idea how that will happen as there's really only one measurement point and that's a 1500m swimming time trial).  Thing is, I've already been doing a higher training volume of 10-11 hours a week and this, even with fitting in 7 sessions in 1 week, only sums up to 7 hours with almost no running to speak of - one 30 minute hill reps session!  I'd been doing days with 2 sessions in a day, e.g. one gym or swim then a run in the evening, or a gym or bike then a swim in the evening.  Now, it's one session per day and the Training Peaks widgets agree that my fitness is dropping off!

See the blue line above, it usually drops off a bit during the week and picks up at the longer sessions at the weekend, but the last 7 days has been a downwards trickle with almost no pickup at the weekend.  So, I'm going to supplement next week's training schedule:-

Barbican running track

...with a long, slow run during the week at some point.  I also have a bit of a problem with doing mid-week multi-brick sessions - see Thursday for: bike 15 minutes, run 2k, repeat 4 times - in that I can't use a treadmill, so I can't do it in the gym so I can't do it other than at the weekend and even then it's a bit sucky.  If it were a shorter session, I could do it at the Barbican Virgin Active as it has a running track.  So, I talked to coachJez about that and he had forgotten about my inability to use treadmills and said he took it on board for the next section of the programme.  In the mean time, what I may do is try that 90 minute brick session at Barbican after work; but it depends on work as to whether that will happen or not.

We'll see.  And so next week probably looks like this:-

Back in the gym

Finally!  A week where I went to the gym three times!  And I already feel loads better for it.  My core supporting bits and bobs are feeling so much more -there- and useful.  OK, so I didn't get my planned swim in (as wasn't well early in the week) and due to busyness at work I didn't get to get a run in either (though I'm planning to get out tomorrow), but THREE gym sessions!  Woooo!

It's now that I need to get the base levels of strength and endurance on the increase; start to get some longer and longer bikes and runs in.  And that's where I run into some difficulties...

The "easiest" way to get a long run in, given time constraints, is to get on the treadmill at the gym in a lunch break at work.  But I can't use treadmills.  I can't run on them at any decent speed and feel seasick when I get off the damned things.  So.  Sod that.  It will have to be the old trick of using my commute to get a run in.  Start off by getting on the tube and going part way home before getting out and running the rest of the way.  Gradually making the tube journey shorter and shorter until I'm not using it at all and just running all the way home.  I can make that a 15km run if I start from the door of the office and finish at the front door at home, which is good enough for me for now.

Thankfully, cycling on a turbo trainer is actually not difficult (in terms of getting used to the sensation).  Plus, it gives the chance to get long, constant power output stints in.  That's something you can't do on the roads around here as there are so many interruptions (remember, 75 traffic lights from home to office... that's a lot of stop start if even only 15% of those lights require a full stop).  So, when we get back from holiday later on in the year, I'll be cutting back the bushes in the garden and erecting a gazebo (kindly lent to us by my parents), so the turbo trainer can be set up in the garden (we don't have anywhere in the house with a large enough expanse of concrete floor to put it on to absorb the anti-socially loud vibrations which make it sound like a jet turbine) underneath it for lots of sitting and grinding through turbo sessions and not getting too cold or wet.

I've not got a plan laid out yet as I've not sat down and thought it through and done all of the research around building a base level of fitness just yet.  I'm thinking November, December and part of January should be a good start to that before the real training plan begins 16 weeks out from Wimbleball.  Some re-reading and thinking to be done, then I can lay out a plan that's achievable rather than too difficult to fit in and resulting in huge amounts of stress.

Makey-uppy

I ran out of routine again so had to cobble something together.  I can't really afford to have two trainers at the moment and while I'm trying out a swimming coach I can't therefore have a gym trainer too.

• warm up on the cross-trainer
• weighted Bulgarian split squats
• kettlebell swings - superset A
• pressups - superset A
• jerks - superset B
• leg raises and lowers - superset B
• assisted pull-ups - 3 grips; wide over, narrow under, ring
• squats

My arms and shoulders are pretty knackered, so I'm expecting some  good ol' DOMS tomorrow.

I really wanted to do one of those Bodyrock.tv routines, but they look rather like I would want to try them somewhere private once or twice before prancing about in public...

Gym wilderness

Since I got my latest personal trainer (Geoff the Awesome), I've been in a bit of a resistence training wilderness.  When we do training sessions, he gets me doing stuff that I can sometimes do by myself, but quite often not; either because I don't have the equipment available (like the Bulgarian Bags) or because I need a spotter or more learning of the technique (like the handstands I did the other week - yes, me, handstands!  I've never done one in my life until recently.)  That, along with the need to work on my inner quads and glutes at the moment means I'm, for want of a better phrase, "making it up" somewhat in the gym.

Today's fun was:-

• 5 minutes on the x-trainer to warm up
• bulgarian split-squats: 3x10x2 (with 2x 14kg dumbbells
• kettlebell swings - 3x15 (with a 20kg kettlebell)
• standing side-crunches - 3x10x2 (with a 20kg kettlebell)
• jerks - 3x10 (with the Olympic Bar with 2x 5kg)
• standing on an upturned bosu (squishy side down) - 3x10 squats, 3x10 alternate toe-touches
• assisted pull-ups - 2x8 wide overhand, 2x8 narrow underhand, 2x8 ring-style, 2x8 dips (no rest between grip changes, 35kg assist)
• swiss-ball bridges and hamstring curls - 3x15 curls with 30s hold at the start of each set
• plyometric cleans - 20 with a bare Olympic Bar
• cool-down and stretch

Now, I have no idea if that's well-balanced enough or not.  What do people think?

Also, today I commuted to work on my fixed-up commuter bike for the first time since I got knocked off.  Tell you what, I've improved in power/cadence/other technical stuff while I've been away from bicycle commuting.

Fun with Geoff

Injured and not really feeling up for it, I pootled gently to the gym on my bike and had a little, gentle warm up on the cross-trainer until my session was due to start. And Geoff was keen to make sure my knee was OK with everything we did today so asked straight off the bat if rowing was going to be fine, then he did this to me...

• 4x500m row; 02:10, 02:05, 02:00 and 01:55
• 3x10 pull ups (no rest); wide over, narrow under, side (45kg assist)
• 3x5 pull ups (no rest); wide over, narrow under, side (40kg assist)
• 2x10 dips (40kg assist)
• 1x5 dips (35kg assist)
• 3x20 bar-bell core rotations*- bare bar, bar with 2.5kg, bar with 5kg
• 2x20 bar-bell core rotations* - elbow locked in and bar with 5kg
• 2x20 one-arm presses with bar-bell*- bar with 5kg
• 3x10 cleans; bare Olympic bar, bar with 5kg, bar with 10kg
• 3x10 jerks; bare Olympic bar, bar with 5kg, bar with 10kg
• 3x10 quick drops; bare Olympic bar, bar with 5kg, bar with 10kg#
• 1x20 fast presses; bare Olympic bar

* - one end of the bar on the floor, pivoting on that.
# - I didn't manage the 10kg ones as I had a mental block on jumping about with a bar with weights on it behind my neck

And it was good and I felt great. It wasn't the routine Geoff had originally planned, but it was fun nonetheless and kept the impact and stress off my duff knee. A nice little pootle home in the sun to watch some cycling and then the boat race.

Red Nose Day?

Blimey, I hope I get to go home at a reasonable hour today. I've successfuly managed to avoid going to the gym despite temptation, but mostly due to the fact that it's still mentally busy at work. (I just had to explain to a supplier on the phone that we're not doing anything for Red Nose Day because we have utterly no sense of humour at the moment).  Really excited about Sunday's race now... first one of the year.

Oh, and don't forget to get your entries in for my Weight Watchers Vitality Show competition to win tickets and a goody bag!

Brave or silly

My calves are in paaaaaaaain still!  From Saturday's session with Geoff!  I can't work out what exactly killed them, but Oh Boy!  So the really clever thing to do, quite clearly, was to cycle to work and back yesterday and have a fun session in the gym today doing some of the things from Saturday's session (with no harness, no Bulgarian bags and a much smaller gym during the week, it cramps the style somewhat with some of the more flamboyant things Geoff gets me doing).

Tell you what, my shoulders look silly in the mirror when I'm doing those kettlebell squats.  And I managed to do 10, 8, 7 nose-to-floor pressups on my feet rather than knees :o)  I'm pretty sure those "Perfect Pushup" handle things are why I couldn't do them on Saturday.

GREAT workout - RAAAAAAR!!*^£%@!*!YSF(*!!

Geoff did it again and I feel fabulous!

• Stretches and warm-up on the TRX
• 10 x3 narrow, under-hand grip pull-ups (with resistance band) - superset
• 10 x3 wider, over-hand grip pull-ups (with resistance band) - superset
• 10 x3, deep, nose-to-floor press-ups (had to do these on my knees 'cause I'm a girly wuss!) using "Perfect Pushup" handles which are wobbly and horrible to use
• 2x attempted rollouts with a rollout wheel wheel (fail due to back pain)
• 15s x3 with 15s rest in between, high-knee sprints against a harness
• 10 x3 jumping squats against a harness
• 10 x3 bear crawls against a harness
• 10 x3 x2 Bulgarian bag rotating swings - superset
• 20 x3 Single-arm kettlebell swings (alternating arms - 16kg kettlebell) - superset
• 10 x3 Kettlebell squats (2x16kg kettlebells) 
• 10 x3 x2 kettlebell rows in the plank position (8kg 12kg 12kg)
• 4x kettlebell crawls (8kg 12kg 12kg 12kg - 3 forwards, 1 backwards)
• stretching and complaining

 Apart from feeling pretty down about the rubbish pressups (I knew mine weren't anywhere deep enough before, but it's another thing being faced with the reality of it) it was a good workout and I utterly loved the bear and kettlebell crawls.  My Bulgarian bag swings are -much- better than they were first time, but I still can't get my hips in to it.  I think it'd be easier if I went a bit heavier.

*sigh*

Well, I got to the gym once so far this week.

Once.

Not impressed.

Still, I have a session with Geoff tomorrow, which will make it twice this week and I know Geoff will push me hard.

Delicious DOMS

I has them :o)

My cobbled together routine from my first real session with Geoff does the business:-

• Warm up (500m on the rower at L7, aim for under 02:00)
• Squats - 3x10
• Kettlebells - Dual arm swings, 3x15
• Kettlebells - Single arm swings, 3x10x2
• Cable lat pulls - dual arms, 3x10
• Cable push down rows - single arms, 3x10x2
• Kettlebells - walking lunges, 3x12
• Straight leg raises with twists - 3x20
• Weighted plyometric squats - 3x8
• Arnold presses - 3x10

 Shoulders, back and thighs are acheing really nicely from doing that on Wednesday and Friday.  I didn't want to go any earlier in the week due to being exhausted and more than a bit broken.  Gymming in that state would have been a very bad idea.

Amusingly or not, we went to bed at 2am after me being on a work call until 11.30pm and got woken up early by the bedroom being stiflingly hot.  I opened the windows a bit and turned off the radiator.  Then the shopping came.  Then I had to be on another call at 9.30am.  The short of it was that the thermostat button got stuck on "+" and was reading "30C", which explained the insane heat.  And then we had a nap at 3pm.

The chicken is roasting and the veggies are about to go on.  It all smells incredible in the kitchen and we're going to watch a film and I'm not doing any more work this weekend.

Plyometric squats

They're all the rage, or so it seems.  My new trainer had me doing them with a Bulgarian Sack in our first full session and this afternoon, in the gym where I used to train with my old trainer, I found two trainers doing them with 2x28kg dumbbells.  Despite neither of them being my old trainer, they persuaded me to have a go and with 2x16kg dumbbells.  I managed 6, 8, 8 without huge strain and I reckon I could have done better by myself.  Oddly, I find that I need to try something by myself a couple of times, without an audience, before I can really get stuck in to it.  This does not seem to apply with my new trainer though, which is good.  He manages to really push me without me having the oddness I usually have.

Tiring and long day coming up tomorrow

The busyness of work is reaching a localised peak this weekend.  Tomorrow, I'll be at work from 3pm to 6am the following morning.  This will thoroughly break my weekend, but I knew that would happen and I accept it as part of work that's been in-progress for the last 18 months.  What the huge peak this week has meant is that I've made it to the gym once so far (Tuesday) and run home from work (also on Tuesday).  However, I'm going to have quite a bit of fun cycling in to the office at around midday, then nipping to the gym at work, rather than at the morning peak and then back home again in the very early morning on Saturday.  OK, teeny tiny detail of 15 hours in the office in between.  And if things over-run, perhaps longer.

Still, it'll be very interesting to cycle well away from normal peak hours.

I just wish I was able to have a bit of fun with my new racing bike.  *cough*

FUN!

My second session with my new trainer was a total doozey again!  I feel GREAT!

Little warm up on the TRX straps and then into some real explosive training with some Bulgarian Sacks (I used the 12kg ones after getting to grips with the technique with the 8kg one).  Which I had to look up when I got home as I've not come across those before.  Some more kettlebell work and interval training with a harness (sprinting on the spot against the resistance of it and doing burpees against it) and bungee rope and a skipping rope.  Utterly thrashed and burned a gazillion kcals and I really really enjoyed myself!  Next session in 4 weeks and in the mean time there are some things I can play with in the gym by myself.

I found some time

Or rather, I made some time today.  I've not been to the gym during the week for a few weeks due to illness, injury and phenomenal busyness but today I made the time to take a break in the day (my nominal "lunch break" which oh so often doesn't happen) and went to the nice gym near work.  And I had a go with the kettlebells.  On the way in I bought a pair of gym gloves.  I'm just fed up with picking off the callouses that form and flake away almost immediately every time I go to the gym and do anything with anything heavy.  But, of course, gloves don't protect your arms even a centimetre above the wrist.  The squat and snatch with kettlebells results in the kettlebell swinging into my arm just above the wrist and -oh- -boy- are they bruised and the bruises came up in under an hour after my gym session. 

So.  I'm clearly Not Doing It Right.

And I've Googled it and to be honest I've not come up with anything helpful.  So I'm grateful that I'm back to the trainer pretty soon so hopefully he can help me get it right.

That aside, I felt a lot better this time going through some of the exercises today.   No sign of dizziness or nausea so I'm clearly better than I was on Sunday and better fuelled as well.  Hoorah!

*blarf*

Well, it was a hard session for a few reasons I think.

We had a bit of a chat about where I'm at, what I've done and what I want out of my gym sessions and then set off into some warm ups on the TRX.  I did mention I won't usually want to use those as my gym local to work doesn't have them but this was a getting-to-know-you session so it didn't matter so much.  That wasn't so bad, and there was some nice stuff to get the core going with bodyweight exercises on the TRX straps.  Then we launched into... kettlebells!  Yay!

And, gosh, either I was really not physically up to this session (tail-end of a nasty cold, plus perhaps not well fuelled enough either) or they really are a bugger the first (few) time(s).  Each set made me feel light-headed and vomitous (no idea what my heart rate was but given the feeling I had, I'm guessing well over 180) but I pushed on through.  I think I get it a lot better now that I've had Geoff explain how to do the various swings and snatches and it's very different.  More practice required.  A few bits and bobs with some cables and we were done.

Warm up on TRX -

• incline pull ups - 2x10
• incline W pull ups - 2x10
• incline push ups - 2x10
• jackknifes - 2x10
• cycling legs - 2x2x10
• rotating jackknifes - 2x10
• pikes - 2x10

Kettlebells -

• 2 arm swings - 2x10 (16kg)
• 1 arm swings - 2x2x10 (12kg)
• 1 arm squat and snatch - 2x2x10 (12kg)
• 1 arm swing and snatch - 2x2x10 (12kg)
• Military press - 2x10 (2x8kg)

Cable machine -

• 2 arm row - 2x10 (??kg)
• 1 arm row - 2x2x10 (??kg)
• Squat with row - 2x10 (??kg)
• Incline row - 2x10 (??kg)
• 2 arm lat pull-down - 2x10 (??kg)
• 1 arm lat pull-down - 2x10 (??kg)

My HRM really isn't playing ball at all these days.  I've replaced the battery in the transmitter, washed the strap umpteen times, made sure it's really sopping wet each time I use it and there's no low battery warning on the watch itself so that's fine.  But it still craps out and registers stupid heart rates like 221 randomly and the heart symbol flashes erratically instead of with my heart beat.  Very tempted to throw in the towel and get a new watch.  It'd be a shame as I've got 176,6xx kcals of exercise on the totaliser on this watch and it'd've been nice to break 200,000 with it, but... it's just getting too frustrating now to keep plugging away with it at the moment.

Anyhoo... first proper session booked now with Geoff (silly moving work deadline permitting) and I'll have a few more goes with the kettlebells this week beforehand (if I get to go to the gym during the week this week).

Tiny bit nervous

I've not been to the gym for a week (mostly work related but slightly illness related).  I've not had a session with a personal trainer since October.  I have a session with my new trainer at 13:30 today and I'm nervous about it.

I have loads of confidence in my new trainer; I've seen him around in the local gym lots and read his bio and he gives off quite an aura of quiet competence.  Will let youse all know how it goes when I get back.  Wish me luck!

Slightly frustrating, but...

If there was a good time to be injured, it's actually now.  With the massive work milestone/deadline this coming weekend, not being able to run or gym or cycle is actually a good thing.  I get the frustration of being injured and unable to exercise all over and done with at a time when, although a healthy break away from work to do something physically hard would be a healthy thing for mind and body, it's just something that has to be dropped and I'd be frustrated by that too.  Two birds with one stone.

Sadly, it has also meant that I've posted back my timing chip for the rescheduled Grim this Saturday.

In  other news, I have a new trainer.  First session scheduled for 23rd and I'm so excited about it.  I can't wait to get stuck in to a new routine and not have to get stressy about constant rescheduling at the last second due to being far too busy at work.