Sunday, February 28, 2010

Mental Attitude

Another 25km Bike TT today and like last week I decided that I would do this on my windtrainer - the difference this week was my mindset

I remembered how awful last week was but this time I was prepared, I expected that the windtrainer would probably change resistance at will, I expected it would be hard, I expected it would be hot, I expected it to take me over 50mins - so I had plans in place for how I would tackle this session:

1) the resistance changing would be like going uphill outside
2) it needs to be hard for me to improve
3) more water available, drink more often, re-adjust the fan direction
4) I was prepared for the duration of the session

What a difference this makes, and it adds weight to visualisation and preparing for different scenarios in racing.

I felt that I rode really well, and the windtrainer still played up but I just got on with it - we seemed to make peace towards the end when I was able to ride at 90+ cadence for a good 5 mins - something went wrong with the distance so I just rode for time 55mins.

About 5hrs later I did the second WOD of the day 20:10 tabatha of 8 each PressUps / Squats / Situps / Burpees - press ups were the hardest, did these on my toes, happy with the squats, & the situps improved from last time and the burpees were pretty good - considering they are burpees :)

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Stronger & Stronger

Today only one session which I am really happy about as it is soooo hot here and is due to stay hot all weekend!

5 x 5 Back Squats - I last did this on 18 January & managed 40/45/45/50/55kg

Today I managed to do 45/50/52.5/55/57.5kg - I managed to keep pretty good form for the 57.5kg I just lost a little bit of depth, but this is so much better than the session in Jan where my notes show that I was a bit "ragged" with my form I didn't feel that today at all

Friday, February 26, 2010

More Trigger Point Therapy Stuff

Ok seeing as more information was requested from my post on TPT - here are 2 x websites

This one is the US based one that I bought my stuff from (cheaper than buying from the Oz distributor with shipping & exchange rate) but I did get the crossfit discount.

http://networkfitness.com/

This is the Oz based website as it has some interesting articles etc on it that you may find useful

www.tptherapy.com.au

If anyone has any more questions happy to help with my limited experience of these products

Trigger Point Therapy

Thursday evening I was off to a Trigger Point Therapy workshop - I bought this stuff after I did the CFE Pose running workshop and have used it quite regularly but only from the instructions.

The workshop was fab - we worked on one side of the body so that we could feel the difference that the treatment made - and it definitely made a difference.

The guy who presented the workshop is a triathlete (married to a very good long distance triathlete) and it was really interesting listening to him speak about what he does to maintain his body. He does no stretching at all, all he does is the trigger point stuff and he trains & runs in racing flats and has no injuries.

I have to say that the treatment I gave myself last night made a huge difference to how I felt at the end of the evening and this morning. I am definitely going to work on this over the weekend and will incorporate this into my daily routine.

If you have a chance to look up the trigger point stuff you should investigate it - in my opinion its money well spent!

Programming error??

So Thursday I got up to do bike intervals 2/4/6/8/8/6/4/2km with same amount of rest, I was trying to work out what Max was thinking programming this in the day after my 1/2 marathon - then when I checked my schedule I was the one who changed the session round so I could swim on Friday morning - doh!!

Anyway I felt surprisingly good averaged around 1.50 per km which is what I had done in another cycle session and considering this was after the run thought that I pulled up pretty well.

Half way through the set I realised that I had not taken the rest time into my calculation and had to drop the 2nd 8km as I would have been cutting it very tight for time.

In the evening had to do AMRAP 20mins of 5 burpees / 10 press ups / 500m - row was not looking forward to this as I was definitely feeling the effect of the run and bike sessions, managed 6 rounds 5 burpees 10 press ups

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

1/2 Marathon - Over & Out!

Realised that I forgot to post my Fran time from yesterday - 11mins dead!

This morning was the 1/2 marathon run, last time I did this was in my last 1/2 ironman early May 2008 (& I walked a lot of that as I had really bad cramp) and I have only ever run 4 x 1/2 marathon distances in my life (too many injuries reduced the distance I could safely run) 2 x 1/2 ironman races in 2008 & 2009 and 1 x trg run for each 1/2 ironman - that's it! So you can see why I was very apprehensive about this run.

My plan was to try and not be too focused on my time (very hard), but to just get the distance under my belt. To help me with this I switched my watch to show distance with the time at the top in tiny writing - I'm getting older so its hard to read the small stuff :)

Managed the first 10km in 49.24 & then turned round to run back and got a second wind, managed the next 10km in 47.54 which took me home then I just needed to run the last 1km round the block - managed this in 4.35 - so total time was 1hr 41mins 53secs - very happy with this as I felt really comfortable for most of the run.

At about 17km things got really tough and I had to dig deep to keep the pace up but I saw the time at about 18.5km and realised that I could make under 1.45 if I didn't give up so I didn't give up :)

Tonight my legs got a rest and I had 100 x press ups for time - decided that I would do this in sets of 10 on my toes - managed to complete this in 4 mins 33 secs.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Fran!

Am feeling much better again today, did squad swim - like last week I'm finding this boring with the drills and long slow intervals (Tuesday swims are designed this way) but my arms are still a little tired from the wall balls and press ups etc

Tonight I had Fran round! decided that I would do this with 30kg (66lbs) which is more than I've done with Fran before - I did do 50x Thrusters in January with 30kg but looking at my notes from the session I struggled a lot with my form - today I didn't and it was only 5 short of 50 & I had pull ups too - so am definitely getting stronger - its a great feeling when you realise that you are improving in strength - as Dan has noted too :)

Now I only have to worry about running a half marathon tomorrow!!! I was not happy when I read this on my program at the beginning of Feb but I've had time to come round to the idea of running this far.

Monday, February 22, 2010

It's a new day

So after my weekend of feeling pretty smashed I was not looking forward to getting up this morning and running 4 x 1km TT with 3mins recovery.

The first thing I noticed when I got up was that I actually felt much better than I did over the weekend and that the muscle soreness seemed to be gone.

I remeasured the 1km mark (via the car, based on my remeasure on the bike on Saturday) and I was right, my 1km marker that I was using for my 5km/10km run was slightly short.

Did a short pose warmup then off for the 1km sets, I have a slight decline on the way out and a slight incline on the way back but other than that this is a relatively flat 1km run.

Very happy with my times which were 4.01 / 4.05 / 3.54 / 4.05 - my legs were definitely tired and they were complaining before I had run 500m but I dug deep and put in a lot of effort and it paid off - now I have the rest of the day to recover - so will be aiming for an early night tonight!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

I'm feeling pretty smashed!

So in a show of solidarity I thought I would do my 25km Bike TT on my windtrainer as most of "Max's Army" are not able to get out due to the weather - big mistake - how you guys & girls manage to do 40km TT's on a stationary bike I have no idea.

My legs are feeling pretty tired but after yesterdays 4 x 5km bike intervals where I felt that I rode really well despite my legs being tired I was expecting good things - I was so wrong!

I clocked the times for each 5km and they were slower than the 5km intervals I did on the road yesterday with the wind and undulations on the road - then it got worse at 16km my windtrainer decided to throw a hissy fit and it was like riding with the back brake on!!! I was having to change up and down gears as my windtrainer put the resistance up and down at will - I was having to ride in the baby gears and dropped from 28-29km/hr to 21/22km/hr - this was a definite test of mental strength I so wanted to stop & get off.

When I finished - in an appalling 59mins 48secs I did not know how I would get the 2nd WOD done - I was feeling pretty smashed and consider this the toughest WOD I've done for how I felt during and after.

So 4hrs later I was feeling a lot more recovered and slightly hungry so time to get the 2nd WOD completed - this was 2 x 50 stepups / 40 box jumps / 30 situps / 20 pushups / 10 burpees - got all my equipment ready was planning on stepups on 18" box and box jumps on 24" box (my normal height for box jumps) - this changed as soon as I started the WOD - there was no way I could jump 24" I tripped a couple of times just doing the step ups and the way my legs were feeling once I had started this I doubted my ability to actually make the top of the 24" box - so box jumped on 18" - this proved to be the right decision although I feel like a failure - I should have dug a bit deeper and at least tried the 24" box - total time for WOD was 13mins 36secs.

So its towards the end of the day and I am feeling pretty smashed which I suppose is a good thing as that means that the training is demanding and I'm not crusing along - it's just so different to how I've trained for a 1/2 ironman before that I wouldn't normally feel like this, I'd just feel tired from all the longer distance stuff.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Wall Balls & My Arms!

2 x WODs today

Early AM 4 x 5km bike TT with 3mins rest, pretty happy with this session as legs still a little sore & tired, felt that I rode strongly and I was definitely in harder gears.

Later AM 150 wall balls for time, walked to the community hall at the end of my road so that I could throw the ball higher than I have access to at home. Decided to break this into 50's, very happy with the depth of my squats but my arms - woah! they were really struggling and the height of the wall was a bit hit and miss but I put in the right amount of effort to try and maintain the height.

Was pleased with the time 5mins 38secs, managed each 50 in 1.40 / 1.38 / 1.38 with about 20 secs rest inbetween - (which I needed for my poor arms)

More Squats!!!

I was right, Max has more plans to smash my thighs - after ocean swimming yesterday and a squad swim this morning I should have been pretty fresh for my run & squat session tonight, but legs were still sore and I'm still feeling slightly "flat" - I just can't put my finger on what it is.

Anyway - WOD today was 400m run + 50squats / 800m run + 50squats / 1600m run + 50squats, completed this in 16mins 21secs.

Overall legs felt ok'ish I do have some muscle soreness and they were a little tired I was though fairly happy with my run times and my legs definitely did not hurt as much as the run / squat / burpee session the other week.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Eating Fat Article

Came across this through my CF gym - thought it may be of interest?

http://www.gymjones.com/knowledge.php?id=17

Easy day today

Just one session today which was ocean swimming with my swim squad - water was fantastic, calm, clear and warm - but I still wore my wetsuit!

I have my thighs back today - I think the walk, stretch and rolling that I did last night after the lunges really helped and they feel like new today - although I haven't really had to use them for anything, will be interesting to see how they perform when I need to run & squat (AGAIN!!!!) tomorrow :)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Has anyone seen my thighs?

If so, please return them to me - these thighs I'm walking around with surely can't be mine??

2 x WOD's today,

AM was run 10mins 1 way and turn round and run back try to maintain distance. I didn't really run as hard as I should have and had downhill and tail wind on the way out, so on the way back had uphill and into the wind (although a light wind) managed to get within about 30mtrs of my start point, so was happy with this considering that I had the harder part of the run on the way back - but a bit unhappy with myself for not trying harder - ran around 2.2km each way

PM - 250 lunges for time!! Wasn't sure how to do these, static lunges or walking lunges - saw Erica's post about this WOD and she did walking lunges - so I thought that this is what I would do too so decided to do this while walking the dogs with Phil at the cricket oval - omg this was so hard, I did the whole thing without stopping as I think if I had stopped I wouldn't have been able to start again - completed these in 6mins 21secs - it was good that I had 15mins to walk home as I managed to get some normal feeling back into my thighs

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Jumping Jacks

Only 1 WOD today which was 10 to 1 reps of box jumps / burpees (again) / situps managed this in 10mins 28secs

I am also thinking that I will go to bikram yoga tonight as I haven't been all year and when I was going regularly it really did help the way my body felt - not looking forward to the class though after such a long time away!

Run & Thrust!

I forgot to post this yesterday!!! so here is yesterdays WOD's:

AM did 12 x 200m with 2min recovery - these were pretty consistent with my slowest reps being the first - I did find that I couldn't keep up with my legs - I just couldn't run any faster without feeling like I was going to fall over - I've never been a sprinter so generally struggle with the short sprinty stuff but today was very strange

PM was 20kg (44lbs) thrusters + burpees for 21/18/15/12/9/6/3 did this in 11mins 58secs

I have realised that Max hasn't quite finished with my thighs yet and they are feeling it (although thankfully not as bad as the other week) and looking at some of the other stuff he has planned they will be getting another hammering this week!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

40km Bike TT - PB on this course

So today was 40km Bike TT - again I get to ride the really bad route that I chose! It was windy but not as strong as the last two times that I rode this course - felt yesterday's run & squats in my legs, but this did not seem to affect me too badly.

Felt that I rode really well and felt much stronger really happy with my time which was a PB on this course of 1hr 19mins 57secs.

Stood in the spa for 5mins to cool my legs off and am now off to take the dogs to the beach - its going to be a scorcher today!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Catching up on training posting

Had a lot of personal stuff to sort out last couple of days (nothing bad - just lots to sort out, taking up most of my time and emotional energy - even missed a training session & that is unheard of!!!)

Anyway back to the training sessions

Thursday - missed ocean swimming was out Weds eve late and too tired to get up - 2nd session of the day was 4 x 21 KB swings 12kg + 21 KTE - KB swings were easy but the KTE woah! was really happy with my form for most of these - spent the time resting to be able to do the KTE as well as possible - total time 16mins 2secs

Friday - Bike session 1/2/3/4/5/4/3/2/1 min on standing - don't think I did this session properly - I picked a tough gear for the standing and just went down a couple of gears for the rest which wasn't really a rest I still worked hard sitting too - forgot to look at the distance so no idea how far I went - did this on the windtrainer.

Had a second session today but didn't get this done due to sorting out the personal stuff - planned to do this Sat instead!

Saturday - was supposed to do ocean swim race, but had to go to work so only had time to do the missed session from Friday which was 6 x 400m run + 50 squats - I actually quite liked this session - yes I know how mad is that? but my legs felt pretty good and didn't really start to hurt until set 5 & 6, also clocked my split times and each 400m was just fractionally faster than the last so happy with this - total time was 16mins 3secs.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Chasing times

So today was 10km Run TT - wanted to run faster than the 10km I did in the tri race a couple of weeks ago which was 46.30 - my km times seem to be all over the place found it hard to run an even pace, I need to go and measure the course as I know my foot pod measures long and as I run along a road for 2km and then turn round and run back I think maybe I've got the distance a bit wrong.

Anyway was very happy with the run, the wind was very kind today and was very light, and it was overcast but still warm - managed to run 45mins 35secs so very happy with the result its definitely going in the right direction.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Darkness & Light

Ok so the darkness first - since training with Max I haven't had to get up as early as I normally would as the sessions are much shorter than I am used to - this is a good thing I get more sleep :)

But today I had to get up at 5am for my swim squad which I haven't been to for a while - mainly been doing ocean swims at 6am and it was darker than I remember!!!! Now I now that summer is coming to an end and the dark mornings will start I even noticed that the cyclists out needed to have lights on - so I will need to put my lights back on my bike too!

Anyway swim session this morning was hard work - only in the fact that it was a technique session and I was having to hold back swimming faster which was difficult as I am now used to putting in lots of EFFORT and found this session didn't require that - but it was good to be back in the pool.

Tonight I had to do AMRAP in 20mins of 4 x burpees / 8 x press ups / 12 x situps - was really not feeling the love tonight - not sure exactly what is up but had to dig deep to do this WOD - managed 17 rounds + 4 + 8.

The situps were the toughest thing which really surprised me, managed all press ups on my toes and all reps unbroken

Oh and the light - my legs are feeling soooo much better :)

Monday, February 8, 2010

ditto - legs are still sore!!!

Ok I'm beginning to sound like a broken record but my legs are still sore - I'm so over this feeling in my legs its still hard to bend down and I think Max has an evil plan to run my thighs into the ground - if so - its working!

Anyway today I had 2 x workouts chose to do the 100 pull ups for time in the morning to give my arms time to recover for my swim session on Tuesday morning, had already seen Dan's post about this workout and knew that there was no way I was going to do this WOD unassisted, I needed to get to work for one thing (no idea how long it would have taken me) and I wanted to be able to use my arms too - so decided to break the 100 into sets of 5 - this worked really well using a small orange powerband - I was pleased with how I coped with this - managed to complete it in 14mins 37secs and so far my arms are feeling ok.

So why then do my legs feel so bad, the way I was feeling today, you would have thought that I worked my legs this morning and not my upper body!!!

So tonight I had to run for 10mins with very sore legs - slightly disappointed with the distance - approx 2.3km but I definitely put the right amount of EFFORT into the session.

P.S. spent the evening down at Oxford St in Leederville watching criterium racing - good fun and very enjoyable watching the pros race their bikes :)

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Legs still tired!

So after my unplanned rest day yesterday (which was ok with Max - thankfully) I had two workouts today and both hard on the legs which are still suffering with muscle soreness.

We were out for a late lunch so had to get both workouts in before we went out and I'm not a fan of back to back workouts and I didn't want to get up too early either.

Chose the longer workout first which was 4 x 5mins run 2mins recover, I ran round the block and ran the 1st set as the lowest distance, the 2nd as the furthest distance and 3rd & 4th just under the distance of the 2nd so fairly consistent - but oh they hurt and my legs were complaining the whole time.

Ate breakfast and spent the next hour or so preparing my food for the week ahead and sorting out the ironing etc. Then it was time to do the 2nd workout - this I was really not looking forward to - my legs still hurt and bending down was painful and I had to row and squat!!!!

45kg Back Squat 21 - 15 - 9 with 500m rows inbetween - managed all the squat reps unbroken although some of the squats towards the end were a bit ragged - was happy with the way my rowing is progressing this seems to be improving - total wod time was 10mins 55secs - really happy to have this finished and spent some time stretching my legs and butt before getting ready to go out for a late lunch.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

An unplanned day off!

OK so today I was supposed to swim in a 2.2km ocean swim from Cottesloe Beach to Swanbourne Beach - was sort of looking forward to this and it was an enter on the day event so I didn't need to pre-register

BUT

We went out last night and was much, much later to bed than planned - slept with my eye patch on and as it was still dark in my world I didn't wake up until after 8.30am - the race started at 8am!

Then I got out of bed and yesterday's workout was all over me - this is the first muscle soreness that I have had since training with Max from 1 January - oh I had forgotten how this feels and I don't like it.

So I decided to have today off - hope that's ok with Max???

Friday, February 5, 2010

Oh my poor thighs!

So today was 4 x 400m run + 50 squats + 10 burpees

Oh my thighs did not like the running after the squats / burpees, it probably took me a good 50m before I told myself to try and run faster - which I think I did - the legs did respond eventually - I would have liked to have got my split times to see how much I slowed over the 4 rounds

total time 13mins 49secs

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Another PB - (PR)

So today I had my ocean swimming session with my swim squad and the water was great, warm and pretty calm - I still swam with the wetsuit as I will be swimming in it at both the half & full ironman - we did longer swims today and it gave me a chance to try and draft off a couple of stronger swimmers (Max told me off for not doing this in my race!!!) it was good when I was in the right position, but as I only had 1 or 2 guys I could keep up with I found if I didn't follow their line and missed their feet I was off on my own and then I couldn't keep up with them. So overall a good swim session with lots of EFFORT by me :)

Straight home and onto the 2nd workout of the day (having my hair cut tonight so no time to train) 7 x 1 back squat. Knowing that I did a PB for 5 reps the other week I was up for pushing the limit, I did a couple of warm up sets to start and then did the following:

50kg
52.5kg
55kg
57.5kg
60kg
62.5kg
65kg (about 143 lbs)

My best ever is I think 57.5kg for 1 rep - the 65kg was quite ragged but I got it up - I'm stoked to think that I have back squatted 6kg more than I weigh :)

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Rowing & Swinging

OK so I'm all fired up from yesterdays run and Max's praise of my effort - apparently he had a cunning plan to make the most of my taper week last week - and it paid off, so today I wanted another improvement, I last did this workout on 6th January which is:

500m row
50 x 12kg KB swing
500m row
40 x 12kg KB swing
500m row
30 x 12kg KB swing
500m row

Felt good and rowed really well for me - I think I did 1.58 / 1.59 / 2.01 / 2.04 overall time was 12.45 and I last did this in 13.24 so a big improvement - I managed to go straight to the KB swings rather than having a rest which is what I think I did last time.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Never let your head talk you out of a good workout!

So yesterday I had a recovery WOD to do following the race on Sunday and as Ariel says "if Max says to do it - you do it" - I did not want to do this WOD at all but I did it and was glad that I did when I had finished.

Today I had 5km Run TT - what is Max thinking? I've just done my first Olympic Distance Tri for nearly 2 years and 2 days later he's giving me a 5km TT!!!

So it was with some reluctance that I got up to do this session (remember Max says to do it) - I took a gel while still in bed and drank some water about 1/2hr or so before doing this session - I want to get into the habit of having something before and during run sessions to help me adjust to taking food when running.

I chose the same route that I last did this 5km TT on and again the wind was kind to me - it was pretty light - did a warm up and some pose drills then could put the start off no longer.

I checked my km splits (something I tend not to do as it puts me off) and I was hugely disappointed with the 1st km way slower than I thought I was running (even into the wind) and the 2nd km was no better - now this is where my head came into play - I knew that my previous 5km time in January was around 22.20 and I was hoping to be near this time but with the pace I was running this was way beyond reach - I very nearly gave up trying to run faster as my head was saying what's the point in trying you've blown any chance you had of getting near that time - then I remembered my affirmation "Every race/training session is an opportunity to excel and learn from" so I thought sod it I'll just run the best I can for the last 3km and see how I do.

This was so the right decision - my last 5km run on 20th Jan was 22mins 18secs today I ran 21mins 52secs - woo hoo - I am really pleased.

So lesson learnt - never think you have "failed" mid-way training or racing - you don't know what you are capable of until you have finished and a poor start does not necessarily mean a poor finish!