Rest week :-)

Well here it is - my first rest week...been a while since I had one of these and I am looking forward to the lie in on Saturday :-))))

Today was a fairly leisurely swim set focusing on technique


200m w/u 75m f/c, 25m fly
2 x 150m (1L catch-up, 1L single arm, 1L single arm, 1L catch-up, 1L finger trail)
4 x 100m bilateral breathing (breathing every 3 strokes)
4 x 50m breathing every 5 strokes
2 x 100 (1L fists, 1L catch up, 1L finger trail, 1L normal swimming (AIM for low stroke count)
200m c/d

Went really well - unfortunately the knee is still sore from the bike on Saturday (think I pulled a couple of muscles in the area behind the knee at the top of my calf....but atleast pushing off the wall was not too bad (Mike told me to take it a bit easier)

Tomorrow is either a turbo session or a run...probably a turbo looking at the weather...then Wednesday is a strength and torture session, Thursday a swim (not sure how that will work with work.....) and Friday/Saturday off before a 2hr endurance bike on Sunday...

Looks like a good week
Later
I.

Update from the past few days....

What can I say - I try and keep things up to date and then life gets in the way!!

Yesterday was a loooong ride - I was intending to do about 3hrs but the weather was horrific (think Perfect Storm....) and by 2:30 I was ready to sack it, unfortunately I got a puncture so as it was I took over 3hrs (of which I rode 2:45ish). When I got home I was shattered and spent most of the day trying not to fall asleep - had a couple of glasses of wine and watched the Scotland/Australia rugby - awesome game 9-8 to Scotland, first time in 27 years Scotland have beaten them :-)



Today was a great day of running - nice pace, good tempo felt great bar the pain in my right leg from the muscle I tweaked yesterday....

WU 10mins easy jog (include 5 x 30 seconds @ HRZ4 efforts in the after 5mins easy jog in b/t)

MS 20min @ upper HRZ 2 - 15min @ lower HRZ 3 - 10min Upper HRZ 3 - 5min @ lower HRZ 4

Used these HR zones for the training

HRZ 1     125-144 (Recovery (Run/bike/swim))

HRZ 2     144-154 (Long)

HRZ 3     154-164 (Race Pace)

HRZ 4     164-173 (Threshold)

HRZ 5     173-183 (Intervals)

HRZ 6     183+ (Intervals)

Weekend training

Hopefully I will get a chance to update this tomorrow as I ran out of time today....needless to say busy weekend - 50min run on Saturday and a 2hr bike + 10min run today....will update tomorrow!

I.

Swimming yesterday

Today is a rest day  so I only had to measure my Resting HR - 55 (big improvement over a couple of weeks ago!!!)

Yesterday was a swim set - same as the previous week and just as hard but for different reasons! I had to contend with a reaction to my H1N1 jab and also aching triceps from the gym session. Anyway the set looked like this

400m. (3 lengths front 1 length back repeat x 4)
5 x 100m (1L catch-up, 1L single arm, 1L single arm, 1L count strokes)
6 x 100m @ RPE 12-14, maintain stroke count off 2:00mins.
1 x 100 (1L count strokes, 1L catch up, 1 1/2 lengths finger trail into normal swimming for remaining 1/2 length)

2 x 200 @ (1L easy long stroke "best stroke count", 1L strong effort "maintain stroke count" repeat for 200m)
200m c/d.
TOTAL 2.2km

Focusing on executing the drills as well as possible.



I maintaned 18/19 stroke/length on the RPE12 set and on the 200m set I was holding 16 strokes/length

Turbo set from last night

Possibly the hardest set I have done on a turbo ever......thank God tomorrow is a rest....


WU: 10minutes easy - INTO 5 x 30s @ spin ups (90-100RPM), 30s easy in b/t

MS: 4 x 10mins @ 80-85% MHR
5mins very easy in between.

CD: 10 min easy spin and stretch

the 10mins efforts were v v hard.....

Strengthening and Conditioning Torture

Well today was my first "Strengthening and Conditioning set" and OMG how hard was it.....especially the planks - I admit it I am a weakling in my core muscle dept.... completed it though :-)

1. Warm-up 10 minutes cycling

2. Squat

Explosive UPWARD phase

Slow controlled DOWNWARD phase

Maximal knee angle should reflect maximal knee angle when cycling (~100 degrees)

3. Sissors

Contract your lower abdominals

Maintain your spinal alignment as you alternately lift one leg up to table top (90 degrees) and back down.

2 x 15 reps.

4. Dips

Elbows never higher than shoulders

Control the downward movement

Push up fast squeezing through your triceps

2 sets to fatigue.

5. Lunges

Explosive UPWARD phase

Slow controlled DOWNWARD phase

Maximal knee angle should reflect maximal knee angle when cycling (~100 degrees)

6. Step up

Step large enough to create desired knee angle

Place foot on step

Add dumbbells or barbell as able

As above - slow down fast up.

7. Front and side plank

Engage your core muscles and hold each position for 30 seconds x 3

8. Press-ups

2 x to fatigue.

Set 1 Narrow

Set 2 Wide

9. Cycling

10mins cycling 75% HRmax at 100-110 RPM


Squats - easy with no weight - will add a barbell next time
Scissors - OW! really hard at top of the quads but completed
Dips - set 1 30 dips and set 2 20 dips
Lunges - hard but good (assuming I did them right)
Step up - used 2x 17.5kg dumbbells found it hard in last 5 (I counted one step as a step up with right then left leg leading)
Planks - the single most difficult thing....I was shaking by 30 sec but I completed them (I put 30sec rest between efforts)
Press Ups - narrow 20 completed/wide 16 completed
Cycling - I ran out of time so had to reduce it to 10mins (from 15mins)

Target HR

These are the HR Zones (from http://www.sportscoach.netmx.co.uk) I used at the weekend - I am waiting for Mike to confirm these are the correct ones to use!

This is a standard heart rate zone calculator.  It calculates your pulse rates for a variety of standard runs.   The calculator uses both the Karhonen heart rate reserve as well as straight percentages.  I have avoided going further and varying the zone based on the distance run as it all gets a bit academic without more information about a runners response to training. (eg lactate threshold)  Entry of information is easy.  Just fill in the fields you can then click 'Zones' and your zone data will appear below.  The minimum entry to be useful would be your age and sex.

Age:         Sex: Male Female

Resting Pulse:        Maximum Pulse: Tested: not tested this year last year 2-3 years ago 4-5 years ago a long time ago

Years Training: 0 1 2 3 4 5 many

More Details
Easy runs are for recovery and should be quite slow.  The danger is going too fast.  Set your HRM upper alarm at the top end of the zone and slow down every time it goes off.  Long runs are for aerobic conditioning and endurance.  They are little harder than easy runs but should be below you anaerobic threshold (AT).  Your AT percentage increases with as you get more trained so only use the HR zone as a guide.  You will probably need to be near the easy/long crossover if you are untrained and near the long/threshold crossover if you have been training for a few years. Threshold runs are designed to be around your anaerobic threshold.  This value (and even its existence) is debated by exersize physiologists but a good guide is where conversation becomes difficult and your breathing pattern changes somewhat.  Your AT percent increases with training so you should move to the upper end of the zone over time.  Intervals are run quite hard.  Don't do the whole session in the zone!  Intervals consist of a series of work/rest periods.  During the work period you should be in the zone and during the rest period you should recover.  Make sure you do an 'easy' zone warmup before and after the intervals.

Monday a swim and a turbo set

A drill oriented session today focussing on bilat breathing

200m w/u
4 x 150m (1L catch-up, 1L single arm, 1L single arm, 1L finger trail, 2L f/s)
5 x 100m bilateral breathing (breathing every 3 strokes)
5 x 50m breathing every 5 strokes
3 x 100 (1L fists, 1L catch up, 1L finger trail, 1L normal swimming (AIM for low stroke count)
200m c/d


Oh how I love bilat breathing! I tend to breathe to my left so I always find this hard but a really good session today.

On the low stroke count is was 15 strokes/length

I had to shorten the w/u by 200m to fit the swim in before the session ended! (Anja and Jules took forever to get to school this morning...)

Hopefully will fit the turbo session in between work and putting the girls to bed!

Later
I.

Sunday's Aerobic Run

Excellent work out. I used the Karhonen HR Zones - not sure if this is right (Z2 156-169 & Z3 169-182)

I found the first few hundred metres tight on the hamstrings but this eased up after they had warmed up. I really struggled to get my HR into Z3 let alone Z4 in the 30s efforts.

During the building main set I concentrated on keeping tall when running and foot strike under the body (I mid/fore foot run). I found Z2 work a good easy LD pace Z3 was uncomfortable to maintain esp at the high end....

Rest day

A day off :-)

RHR 65 this morning - not feeling 100% - Lizzie feels a bit off too maybe it was the curry last night...hmmm

Good news though I had my lipids checked and the statins seem to have worked - TC 5.2 (LDL 2.8mmol/L HDL 1.7mmol/L) :-)