Usual five station routine including the 5k row at the end. I set a new best time for the row on the maximum resistance level – 21mins 33.3secs. Very pleased with that.
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Iain
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Iain
Friday – Badmington session for 75 minutes or so.
Saturday morning – Two and a bit mile run on an empty stomach.
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Iain
I was disappointed with yesterday’s efforts and i didn’t get in the gym at all during last Monday-Friday (but did manage around 50-60 minutes walking every day).
I was back to some sort of form though today with a really pleasing cardio session that I felt great after. I’ve also eaten 75% healthily today which could be improved upon but is pretty good.
0-10 mins: Running @ 13kmph
10-15:30: Bike @ resistance level 8/25
15:30-20: Bike @ resistance level 10/25
20-30: Arm-bike @ 5/12 resistance (average)
30-40: Cross trainer at various resistance levels 10-15/25, backwards and forward
40-61:58:50: 5 km row at maximum resistance 10/10I was so pleased mainly because of the last leg. Previously my best (not that I often time stuff) was 22 minutes for the distance at that resistance. Today i didn’t intend to go flat out and even experimented with a palm-upwards grip. However I found that I was actually making quite good time. Half-way through I decided to try and beat this time and I went flat out to do it with a second and half to spare. The last four minutes were at around 80-90% maximum and I was delighted when I saw the stroke counter hit zero at the last moment – like an episode of 24 or something.
The next five days are quite important and I want to get at least one workout in every day as Sat/Sun I am going away and won’t get a chance. This past Friday i said I wanted to do ten workouts in the seven days and I don’t think that’s going to happen for one reason or another, mainly Euro 2008.
However my body clock this weekend has been pretty good and I was up at 5.30am this morning. I’ll go to sleep after the football around ten. This means I should be up around the same time or just after tomorrow (crucially after a good night’s sleep) and so could get down there for an early morning cardio session. That also leaves me the whole day to revise and practice shorthand and then go to the gym for a weights session in the afternoon. That’s two, and I hope to play Badminton again on Friday and hopefully a workout too. That would be four overall. Plus the two I’ve done equals six. That would only leave four over the middle three days which, including kickboxing on Thursday, isn’t too bad. It just basically means I have to do it every morning which I am confident I can achieve if my body is on the right timezone.
Hopefully this little calendar at the side will be full until Saturday 21st. I’m back in the mood.
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Iain
So after months of deliberation I played badminton this morning~!
It was the first time I have played in around two years and so to say I was rusty would be an understatement. However by the end of the hour it was coming back to me and I look forward to next week. At it best, the sport is a real workout but yesterday it was a case of serve, return, point won so that wasn’t too strenuous. I must remember to warm up though as I can really feel my neck now it’s finished.
If that was all I did then I wouldn’t even mention it but I also got the gym in the afternoon and did a bit of a half-assed session. Only fifteen minutes on a bike and then 30-45 minutes of not overly strenuous weights / ab work. The two combined equal a work out I suppose and so I feel justified posting this.
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Iain
Ok, for the sake of the calendar I did a good workout on Sunday and have been pretty poor ever since. I ran @ 13kph for ten mins, cycled for ten, arm-cycled (I don’t know the name of the machine) for ten and then rowed 5k. Anything less than 45 minutes cardio doesn’t seem worth it now unless I do weights afterwards.
I have been on work experience and that has been quite demanding but Euro 2008 has been as much of a distraction. I haven’t been eating too bad but y’know, I’ve not been very good.
I was keen for kickboxing last night but couldn’t get a lift which was most annoying.
I have been walking around half an hour two times a day to-and-from work experience so that is better than nothing.
Today – Friday – I will be going to the gym so will update this later with Fridays date and what I did. Quite fancy doing some weights but I might leave those and get a good cardio workout in.
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Iain
So I just wanted to get a quick update in so that the calendar updates on the right day.
Had a great cardio session this evening. Over an hour and all of it quite intensive. I did 5k on the rower in exactly 22 minutes on the highest resistance session which I am quite pleased with. Certainly gives me a benchmark to not fall below now.
I have also not smoked since Saturday night, so technically I am smoke-free in june so far. Feeling good for it too.
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Iain
I’ve been revising for an exam but circumstances worked out quite well meaing i was offered a lift to and from the gym which I couldn’t really say no to. I inteneded to do weights but changed my mind when I was on the phone earlier trying to get rid of someone from a recruitment agency.
I was sitting down and scratched my side and found an alarming amount of cushioning there. I mentioned that the weekend was very poor nutrionally and the revenge of the Carte D’or was truly making itself know. So I hit the cardio room again and did a similar workout to yesterday.
Six stations, five minutes each. Then repeat the circuit but each one on an increased intensity than the initial round. It was tiring but switching stations definitely takes the boredom factor out of it. I wonder how it affects the actual workout but it shouldn’t have too much difference because you’re not allowing yourself to cool down between stages. Needless to say I was drenched in sweat at the end, moreso than I have been for a good while so it felt worthwhile.
Not sure I’ll make it in there tomorrow as I have an important exam on Wednesday which I am in no way prepared for. May pop in briefly after college for a break (with headphones feeding me revision notes) and then do a serious bit of cramming until the early hours.
Nutritionally today was ok. Nothing too bad but more bread than was srtrictly necessary. That is partl because there wasn’t any salad in the house though. I haven’t had a cigarette this month either!
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Iain
I said in the first place that I would get around to adding some links to the side of the page and I have 45 mins to kill before live WEC then I shall put some up now.
It has been my intention since I stopped training BJJ to go back, but that hasn’t happened in like four years since I stopped. I kickbox but it’s not the same. I still like to read about training though. Once I start earning full time again in a couple of months then I intend to train BJJ and Muay Thai regularly and get in the best shape I’ve ever been in. That’s when this blog will become awesome. Until then it is a little superficial so read the below in the meantime.
I read a few MMA / BJJ training blogs and this is one of the best. I think the guy is only a blue belt but he clearly has a passion for training and writes a humourous way which always helps to make things easier to read. He lives in Japan which adds another level of interest too and provides a little insight to the culture for an ignorant Westerner such as myself. He’s also responsible for this clothing line.
This is another training blog and another written by a English-speaking native living in Japan – which I found through the above site. This is a more straight-faced training blog but enjoyable at the same time. He does frequent training journal posts and also does random stuff I don’t often find elsewhere but find interesting such as talk about instructional DVDs.
Similar to the above two, a guy who talks about the process of learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and watches MMA at other times. I wish people would take those really annoying snapshot previews of their sites but that is my only gripe with this blog.
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Iain
I mentioned on Thursday night after kickboxing that I had a a big portion of Shepherd’s pie and felt slightly guilty as bad nutrition simply negates the positives you get from a good workout. Well, these last 48 hours I fell off a cliff!
I went out of town for work on Friday and didn’t plan on eating a big amount during the day. A healthy breakfast of weetabix / bran flakes was expected to get me through until the evening when I would go to the gym and follow that with a decent meal.
In reality my plans got changed and a switch was effectively triggered that sent me into self-destruct mode. I treated myself to a pizza for lunch and followed it with a a flapjack and a cereal bar. All three of those are very fatty and carby. I sort of justified it though as by that point I knew that I was going out in the evening and so likely wouldn’t eat.
On the walk to the station I picked up a milkshake and a Bueno chocolate bar. I also picked up a sandwich and a muffin for the train. Obviously all hugely full of fats / carbs / sugars. I don’t even know why I bought them as I was slightly peckish but not that extent. Sitting here now I can’t fathom my behaviour from the other day. I didn’t eat properly any more that day though and only had one pint when going out and largely kept it to Vokda&Soda drinks. My worst day in a while. Oh, and I smoked a lot throughout the day too.
Yesterday I woke up late and that always throws out my schedule. When I was going to go to the gym, people arrived at the house and I did the polite thing and stayed to chat. This then further threw off my schedule by the time they left and for one reason or another I didn’t make it down to the gym all day. My eating was not great but not awful throughout the day. if I hadn’t had such a terrible day before hand then I wouldn’t have really thought twice about it.
Then after dinner, when briefly thinking about the past two days I kind of got into the mindset that I’d been so bad that I may as well go for it. There was some ice cream in the freezer and i went on the rampage and devoured a massive chuck out of it. Like, a serious amount of ice cream. It was almost a kind of “If I’m going down, I’m going down in style” type attitude. I skipped a little near midnight when I had some time to kill but it was a token effort and not the sort of workout that would justify an entry on this calendar.
SUNDAY
This morning, fuelled by guilt from the past two days, I immediately went to the gym on waking up. I needed a good cardio circuit to get me back in the swing of things. I started with twenty minutes of incline walking which broke a sweat and then followed with a series of five minute stations at various cardio machines to round it out to an hour. I then did some half-decent but limited ab work as I know I’ll do a more intense core workout tomorrow.
I felt so much better after leaving the gym but it’s slightly demoralising knowing that you’ll need a few more equally good sessions to cancel out the bad work. Especially at a time when I really wanted to up my game before Glastonbury. That is still the target though and it’s achievable. I plan on a few more morning workouts this week as working out on an empty stomach is meant to raise the metabolism significantly for the rest of the day.
