Well, after being 10secs slower than my PB last night, I logged the same time tonight which was pretty disappointing. Don't really know what happened, but was messing around with pace a bit and think I got a little too tired in the middle section of the run. I also done a lot better on the hill section tonight, but fear that may also have taken a lot out of me!
I'm going to start doing the Couch to 5k Running Plan over the next few weeks. I think I'll start off at week 5 and see how that goes. I've found a podcast that accompanies the plan, basically giving a musical accompaniment and also plan directions.
I'm also going to aim to get at least one session on the treadmill like before, so as to keep track of progress. Got the Regents Park 10k on Saturday, so probably going to mainly focus on road running over the next few days.
Monday, 30 July 2007
Sunday, 29 July 2007
Last few days + protein shakes
Was thinking tonight that I'd actually taken it handy enough over the last few days, but turns out that I was forgetting stuff. Done a weights session on Wednesday night, followed by a "BodyPump" class in the gym the following morning. Basically, its a weights class, with low-resistance but high intensity, which meant I was absolutely wrecked on Friday morning.
I took Friday off (mainly cause I could hardly walk), although I did do a bit in the pool going over some drills. Finished up with a run around the block tonight, at a relatively easy pace, finishing up 10secs slower than my PB for the route. Think I might do it again tomorrow and see what happens.
Diet\weight wise, its not been a great week. The first half of it went well, up to Wednesday. We'd a release party at work on Thursday, so been spending the last two days recovering from that. I still have to get the front wheel of the bike fixed, which I'll hopefully do tomorrow or early next week.
Had an email conversation with Scoob last week about protein shakes and stuff like that. I've been very skeptical about them, thinking that for the level of exercise that I'm doing, I can get enough protein from my diet. One or two good points later, and I'm now considering giving them a go for a while, mainly as a diet supplement. I'll do a bit more reading up first about it but I reckon its worth a shot.
I took Friday off (mainly cause I could hardly walk), although I did do a bit in the pool going over some drills. Finished up with a run around the block tonight, at a relatively easy pace, finishing up 10secs slower than my PB for the route. Think I might do it again tomorrow and see what happens.
Diet\weight wise, its not been a great week. The first half of it went well, up to Wednesday. We'd a release party at work on Thursday, so been spending the last two days recovering from that. I still have to get the front wheel of the bike fixed, which I'll hopefully do tomorrow or early next week.
Had an email conversation with Scoob last week about protein shakes and stuff like that. I've been very skeptical about them, thinking that for the level of exercise that I'm doing, I can get enough protein from my diet. One or two good points later, and I'm now considering giving them a go for a while, mainly as a diet supplement. I'll do a bit more reading up first about it but I reckon its worth a shot.
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Upcoming events
Thinking of doing the following events over the next few months...
- Regents Park 10k, Saturday 4th August, http://www.regentsparkraces.org/
- London Duathlon 10k/20k/5k (rbr), Sunday 9th September, http://www.thelondontriathlon.com/LDhome.html
- Rowers Revenge, 4k/25k/7.5k (row|bike|run), Sunday 7th October, http://www.rowersrevenge.co.uk/
Weekly Update: 23/07/07
STARTING WEIGHT: 119.32kg
ENDING WEIGHT: 118.98kg
WEEKLY LOSS: 0.34kg
Well, thankfully I'm not reporting two consecutive weeks where I've gained weight. I managed to undo the damage of the previous week, though I'm definitely not setting any records!
I was helped this week by one rather dubious weight reading on Friday morning...I discovered something under the scales the next morning that may have distorted the readings slightly. I'd had a good workout in the gym the night before, so I decided to keep the reading.
Anyways, here's the graphs...
ENDING WEIGHT: 118.98kg
WEEKLY LOSS: 0.34kg
Well, thankfully I'm not reporting two consecutive weeks where I've gained weight. I managed to undo the damage of the previous week, though I'm definitely not setting any records!
I was helped this week by one rather dubious weight reading on Friday morning...I discovered something under the scales the next morning that may have distorted the readings slightly. I'd had a good workout in the gym the night before, so I decided to keep the reading.
Anyways, here's the graphs...
Monday, 23 July 2007
London -> Cambridge Bike Ride Report
Unfortunately I had to retire from this event after completing 30 miles. I had started to notice my front wheel was wobbling quite a bit (thought I was imagining it at first) and when I stopped to look at it, I noticed that there were 2-3 spokes gone and the remainder were quite loose. I continued on to the next stop (fortunately it was only about 1 mile away), where the mechanic on-site advised ending the cycle there.
Apparently its quite rare for the front spokes to go, as the rear normally takes a lot more load (especially in my case). I hit a pot-hole pretty hard earlier in the race, so I reckon that may have done the damage.
Up to that point, I was going well. It was a hilly enough route, and the first few hills really took a lot out of me. I seemed to get used to them though, knowing what gear to attack the hills with, so I wasn't going too slow up them at any stage.
I met up with one of the Cambridge GAA lads early on and we more or less stayed together until my mechanical difficulties struck. No other difficulties besides, was a little stiff this morning, but had a great sleep last night. Had a bit of grundle chaffing, which is annoying, but didn't stop me going for a jog in the gym tonight.
Hope to head back and finish of those 20 miles sometime. Seemed like a nice enough ride in to Cambridge from there.
Apparently its quite rare for the front spokes to go, as the rear normally takes a lot more load (especially in my case). I hit a pot-hole pretty hard earlier in the race, so I reckon that may have done the damage.
Up to that point, I was going well. It was a hilly enough route, and the first few hills really took a lot out of me. I seemed to get used to them though, knowing what gear to attack the hills with, so I wasn't going too slow up them at any stage.
I met up with one of the Cambridge GAA lads early on and we more or less stayed together until my mechanical difficulties struck. No other difficulties besides, was a little stiff this morning, but had a great sleep last night. Had a bit of grundle chaffing, which is annoying, but didn't stop me going for a jog in the gym tonight.
Hope to head back and finish of those 20 miles sometime. Seemed like a nice enough ride in to Cambridge from there.
Friday, 20 July 2007
BodyStat improvements
Just done a BodyStat analysis in the gym earlier and generally good results compared to what I was expecting. Last time I done the test was 12/7/07, just after getting up and feeling a bit rough. Here are the results:
Date: 12/6/07 20/7/07
Weight: 121.7 120.8
Body Fat %: 12-18% 29.9 26.5
Body Fat (kg): 13-19kg 36.4 32.0
Lean Mass %: 82-88% 70.1 73.5
Lean Mass (kg): 86-92kg 85.3 88.8
Total Body Weight: 101-108kg 121.7 120.8
Water: 55-65% 48.9 52.5
Water (ltrs): 66-79ltrs 59.5 63.4
As we can see, all figures there are going in the right direction. Good to see that, although I'm approximately the same weight, that I've lost 4.4kg of body fat and gained 3.5kg of lean mass.
Date: 12/6/07 20/7/07
Weight: 121.7 120.8
Body Fat %: 12-18% 29.9 26.5
Body Fat (kg): 13-19kg 36.4 32.0
Lean Mass %: 82-88% 70.1 73.5
Lean Mass (kg): 86-92kg 85.3 88.8
Total Body Weight: 101-108kg 121.7 120.8
Water: 55-65% 48.9 52.5
Water (ltrs): 66-79ltrs 59.5 63.4
As we can see, all figures there are going in the right direction. Good to see that, although I'm approximately the same weight, that I've lost 4.4kg of body fat and gained 3.5kg of lean mass.
Thursday, 19 July 2007
Today I did..,
10km on the bike (first 10km out of the 100km I set myself for the month), followed by a relatively easy jog at 9kmph\5.5kmph pace, for 45mins. Covered 5.94km in the time.
I'm a little bit confused as to what to do regarding my heart rate training now. I've been sticking to the 150-166bpm zone for the last month or so, varying the pace in different runs. However, when I go back to doing a slower run like tonight, after the initial run to get to the upper limit (6 mins today, but after a pretty fast bike ride where resting HR was 120bpm as I got onto the treadmill), later runs generally go for about 1m 45s before topping out. Surely I should be able to go for longer than that at this stage.
This leads me to think that I'm under-estimating my HR-zones. For the last few week I was actually leaving my upper limit open-ended, stopping when I was tired or felt the burn. What I seemed to notice happening was that my HR would continue to increase until I topped out around 175bpm. I'm thinking of setting that as my upper level for future sessions and see how that goes.
Now I appreciate that some of that zone probably includes some anerobic training, but as the intensity is the same, hopefully it'll help push increase my efficiency in the aerobic training zone. Who knows, but I'm going to give it a go for a while and see what happens.
I'm a little bit confused as to what to do regarding my heart rate training now. I've been sticking to the 150-166bpm zone for the last month or so, varying the pace in different runs. However, when I go back to doing a slower run like tonight, after the initial run to get to the upper limit (6 mins today, but after a pretty fast bike ride where resting HR was 120bpm as I got onto the treadmill), later runs generally go for about 1m 45s before topping out. Surely I should be able to go for longer than that at this stage.
This leads me to think that I'm under-estimating my HR-zones. For the last few week I was actually leaving my upper limit open-ended, stopping when I was tired or felt the burn. What I seemed to notice happening was that my HR would continue to increase until I topped out around 175bpm. I'm thinking of setting that as my upper level for future sessions and see how that goes.
Now I appreciate that some of that zone probably includes some anerobic training, but as the intensity is the same, hopefully it'll help push increase my efficiency in the aerobic training zone. Who knows, but I'm going to give it a go for a while and see what happens.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
