Sharla's Log

[Sharla]

Well my training log is going to be extra boring to most people for a while now!

I had my last boxing session at my gym today - I quit.

Basically it was liked the coaches were retiring me without asking me because they couldn't be bothered coaching me or finding me opportunities to compete.

This year the female nationals were separate from the mens since the mens is being held in Sydney NSW where it's still illegal to box. Because of that the they were a few months early without the usual state squad organization etc.

So left to my coaches alone they really can't be bothered preparing me or organizing for me to go over. In reality I haven't had any consistant training or sparring organized by them for more than a year or two anyway. They know i'm fit and rely on that to avoid looking silly when they throw me in but they don't teach me anything.

The Judo club is a different story. Everyone is included and coached in every session. There is plenty of feedback and a lot of enthusiasm from all involved. There is a LOT more opportunity to compete or even just participate and a lot more people in the club as a consequence. Our little university Judo club is sending three people to the olympics this year!

So while boxing is my first love - I love the fluidity of the movement and the explosiveness etc - I'll probably stick to Judo while I'm in Adelaide.

There are not many boxing clubs around within a distance I could travel to regularly enough to train properly at. Some of them are a bit dodgy and unlikely to be any better- especially technically - than where I've been training.

Plus I have been told many times by my coaches that if you leave our gym and go to another gym you are a despised traitor type person and most coaches will not take you in anyway. Many gyms in Adelaide might not even let me walk in there for fear of ruffling feathers of my now ex coaches.

I am planning on running the Nottingham marathon though when i am in the UK in September. I really don't expect to run a good time because I found out about it after arranging to attend the conference with not enough time to really train up for a decent time. I just want to prove to myself that I can do it though and I think it'll be fun. It's the Robin Hood marathon and I've promised friends photos of me running dressed up as Robin Hood

It will confirmation to me that my knee is ok now and perhaps if I do another one in 2009 that'll be a bit faster. I have always promised myself that i'd go into running competitively when I wasn't competing in boxing anymore.

Distance runners seem to peak much later that athletes in more explosive sport - many world class runners are aged from their mid thirties to mid fourties. Looks like unless I move for work - which is not unlikely in the next few months - my running plans are going to be brought forward a little.

I spoke to kristine about it. I didn't actually need to bring the topic up myself because I think she sensed my disatisfaction a while ago and has been feeling the same way. She understood. In reality as screwed as it is she will get better training there now without me.

They will be forced to include her more rather than letting her and I baby sit each other. They'll need to let her spar a few of the guys so she has some variety and even if the coaches don't give her feedback Kristine and I are well into the habit of talking through out theories and where we might be going wrong or need to to improve with sparring partners.

In other words she'll get coached by the guys and will have multiple sparring partners which should make it less likely for her to form bad habits that seemed to multiply when we were mostly only working together.

Other times I've considered quiting and felt like a cop out. Like people have to stay in it for it to have an opportunity to improve and grow. I realise now that i could never really do it completely alone because apart from everything else you need a chance to compete.

Our gym wasn't even registered until May. We missed so many show we couod have been competing in. Apparently i won Boxing SA senior female fighter of the year award but never got to accept it because the gym was not conferring with Boxing SA and I didn't get to hear about it. There were rumours up until a month or so ago that the gym might actually close but now the guys (total of 2) are fighting again.

That's just ridiculous but if there was a match here now they'd give me one or two weeks notice and still no training or sparring with people other than Kristine and they'd throw me in. I want opportunites to compete but it's more than that - i want to chance to do it properly with some preparation and build up and coaching.

So anyway that's my little rant over. People not interested in running or Judo might want to stop reading my log for a few months. After that I might move and try again elsewhere but for now my boxing days are over!

[Youngblood]

Am sorry to hear your gym problems Sharla. I hope it doesn't keep you from doing something you enjoy. I can empathize some in the lack of sparring that I experienced with my first club. It really was no fun, but your situation sounds even worse in that they would have you fight in an unprepared manner. Plus why be in an environment you do not feel good about.

You sound like you'll still be more then busy. I wouldn't believe them with the "you'll be called a traitor if you go elsewhere" blah blah huff huff. If you still have the desire and other clubs are out there, I'd go for it. But judo and running seem to also be a passion for you. Not sure how you find the time for it all with school as well.

Good luck in whatever you do and hope you'll still add to the training section. I enjoy reading your posts. And I'll still read your training log.

[Sharla]

Am sorry to hear your gym problems Sharla. I hope it doesn't keep you from doing something you enjoy. I can empathize some in the lack of sparring that I experienced with my first club. It really was no fun, but your situation sounds even worse in that they would have you fight in an unprepared manner. Plus why be in an environment you do not feel good about.

You sound like you'll still be more then busy. I wouldn't believe them with the "you'll be called a traitor if you go elsewhere" blah blah huff huff. If you still have the desire and other clubs are out there, I'd go for it. But judo and running seem to also be a passion for you. Not sure how you find the time for it all with school as well.

Good luck in whatever you do and hope you'll still add to the training section. I enjoy reading your posts. And I'll still read your training log.

Thanks Youngblood

You actually put a really positive spin on it and you're right - even without boxing I'll always have an uncanny ability to over-fill my time!

I re-wrote my training program up this weekend and still felt like I wasn't really fitting in everything i think i should - without factoring in busy study times or a day off! Still nutting it out!

I'm gonna take some time to see who's around here for boxing but I think I know most people and most clubs unless we have some newcommers.

The best are a bit far away for me to travel to and boxing in SA is very political so i think what my coach said is only half BS.

I did kickboxing before boxing and when my gym closed down for nearly a year I couldn't go into any other gyms for training because they didn't want to PO my closed gym!

I think boxing in SA would be better if it could be more integrated but i think it'll be a generation or two before that happens.

Overall I think I've done the right thing for now though.

If I don't move for work I think Judo will be the way to go because of the club atmosphere and great coaching. I always leave feeling positive even if I'm still very much a clumsy beginner!

Glad you'll still find my training blog interesting

[Bomp]

Hope you keep posting, they';re fun to read.

From the tone of your posts you seem dissatisfied with the trainers for a while, and it sounds like they've taken you as far as they can. The break may be good for you, and a fresh start in a new place in a few months may be exactly what you need.

[Scrap]

When you come over bring your gear

[Sharla]

Hope you keep posting, they';re fun to read.

From the tone of your posts you seem dissatisfied with the trainers for a while, and it sounds like they've taken you as far as they can. The break may be good for you, and a fresh start in a new place in a few months may be exactly what you need.

Thanks Bomp I think it was time for a change and I've probably known it for a while but just not faced up to it.

In reality being honest with myself about it finally can only be a good thing!

When you come over bring your gear

Will do thanks Scrap! I'm really looking farward to it actually -

At the very least i had planned a lot of quality time with my wobble board, light weights for my back, stretching and some resistance band work over the next couple of months -

I wanted to turn up with half decent posture after all the free advice you've donated me over the last couple of years!

[Scrap]

Seeing whats happening is and showing are a little bit diffirent I think you will enjoy.

[sourpuss]

That sounds incredibly frustrating. Best of luck to you.

[Sharla]

Seeing whats happening is and showing are a little bit diffirent I think you will enjoy.

I think i will - i just hope i'm intelligent and/or observant enough to see and understand what you show me!

I can shock myself with how easily I can't see the forest for the trees sometimes!

I'll try not to embarass myself or frustrate you though!

That sounds incredibly frustrating. Best of luck to you.

Thanks sourpuss

I think things will work themselves out one way or another eventually though and after chucking my initial sooky la la I'm really happy to be moving on now!


Still in the midst of trying to write up my new training program. I'm a bit nervous that I might be biting off moer than I can chew choosing to do the full marathon at relatively short notice.

My intial attempts to build the kms relatively quickly had me hobbling for a couple of days 2 weeks ago. I had to ease off.

Not I'm thinking I might have to train the long run with a long cross training session - say about 4 hours - and just gradually up the proportion of time that I spend running.

I'd like to run the marathon in under 4 hours but I think if I'm cross training for half the session with cycling and/or swimming then it's less specific with less shock to the joints and going a little over time might pay off.

It also means I have an excuse to eat 2 of those little energy gel thingies and I LOVE the chocolate ones.

Plans for the rest of the week are not set in cement. Monday morning I did a long warm up followed by 5 X 600 m intervals with a 300 m walk break between them.

My warm up is now a 5 stage warm up as discussed in the conditioning thread:

1) walk - about 20 mins
2) static stretching
3) dynamic stretching
4) sport specific exercises (in my case long strides, but kicks, knee highs, sidestepping)
5) another short walk or light jog

This is a little time consuming but I have to admit I don't think I've been getting as much muscles soreness since I've started including it.

Monday night I cycled to Judo but it had been called off because the University had to redo the floor in the gymnasium so i went home to nut out my training program instead and I'm still struggling with it!

I am considering putting a session with treadmill/track intervals, weights and plyometrics into one workout like I used to and doing that twice a week to cover a lot of key conditioning work in one session.

I'm hoping that won't reduce what i want to get out of it since it's not like I'm trying to mix up endurance and strength or things which are totally different?!? I did this for a while earlier in the year and it was hard work - probably too hard to do more than twice a week - but I think it was good.

[Sharla]

Right well I've been crap at maintaining this - probably because my training has not been as good as I'd hoped lately but I'll try to remember the main points.

Judo is great but I haven't managed to get there very much lately .

Trainings for people at my level (utterly clueless ) are combined with the whole group on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Last Monday as I mentioned training was called off because the floor needed fixing.

Wednesday I planned to go but miscalculated how long a lab job was going to take and started it in the afternoon. I thought it would only take an hour but took 3 hours and was not the sort of thing I could get away with pausing halfway. My bad time management is just ridiculous!

Friday i went and it was good. Only thing I have to admit to is that while I've always hated breast guards and thought they were crap and unneccessary I take it all back now!

Since going on the pill I haven't gained a lot of weight but what I have gained has pretty much gone straight to boobs that previously didn't actually exist.

I used to be able to get hit in the chest without even noticing - no I'm wishing we had a Judo equivalent since depsite the fact that I was only working with a fairly small girl practicing hold downs when they got us to do a drill changing over from one hold down to another in a clockwise direction it was just pure nipple cripple hell!

So Ok I admit it - breast guards do actually serve a purpose for women who actually have some amount of cleavage - unlike myself when i'm not on the pill!

I can't really remember my cardio sessions for early in the week now - damn - need to log more often. Did a ten km run on Friday morning.

Basically I haven't been able to train as hard as I wanted to because i was getting knee pain again despite running on soft surfaces with new shoes. I actually put it down to my back.

Saturday was a physical day but not really training wise. I intended to train but left it for the afternoon partly because I wanted to let my knee calm down from the day before. Then I ran out of time because I had to attend to grocery shopping, bridesmaid duties (for my bros wedding since I ran with his fiance) and cleaning someone else's house for some extra cash. It was only meant to take 3 hours but took 6 because it was so dirty - they paid me double time though.

On Sunday I did a fun run with an old running buddy and her new apprentice. It's funny - i started my friend running and originally she just didn't even think she could ever run more than 20 mins.

When her personal trainer tried to get her to do it she threatened to throw her in the river. She said I would ask her too nicely so she couldn't get that angry with me otherwise I'd be in the river too! Now she's passing on the sickness to others.

Her apprentice didn't really enjoy the 8km run though. It was cold and despite us doing a warm up hre calves cramped up plus she had a stitch for the first half. She finished but not in the best spirits and she had to walk jog some parts. Me and my friends have always had a theory of not leaving anyone behind - especially on their first run of a certain distance so we all ran at her pace and by the time we finished I was just really really frozen and I could feel it in my hips.

I cycled home after that which made me even colder and after warming up spent the rest of the day doing my fortnightly cook up. I cooked a Pad Thai which i'm pretty happy with although it doesn't quite taste like my local Thai restuarant Pad Thai. Plus a risotto with vegies (leek, broccoli, peas, zuccini) and ham which also turned out well.

I've been soooo hungry since uping my running I also made an Anzac slice to serve as sort of home made musili bars which help fill me up.

I'm cooking my own breakfast cereal these days too - third each of brown rice, rolled oats and pearl barley all cooked separately, mixed in with some saltanas and a little golden syrup (just enough to take the edge off) and refrigerated. I cook a weeks worth at a time so I just add soy milk, nuke it and add some tinned apricots, glucosamine powder and flaxseed oil in the morning.

I decided to try my endurance session on Monday instead (the one I had planned for sunday but got too cold to go on with whent he 8 km was so slow). The plan was to include my transport cycling and Judo and just go to the aquatic centre gym afterwards to make the longer session.

Then I got a flat tyre and didn't have my tube repair kit with me! I didn't see the flat until I was about to cycle to Judo and then it was too late to make it by bus. So I ended up busing home instead and going to the aquatic centre but with buses being as shitty as they are in Adelaide i didn't get to the aquatic centre until 8 and it closes at 10!

So i just did 2 hours. I alternated 20 min treadmill running sessions with 10 min stepper session continuously. The sessions on the stepper seemed to stop me from cramping up totally and allowed me to keep going I guess because I worked in a different range of motion. I was pretty happy with how I felt energy and strength wise. Of course I'd struggle with a longer session but not enough to fail based on that type of conditioning. I did feel my hips and lower back just getting tighter and my stride more restricted as I went on though.

Tuesday morning I had a chiro appointment:

• She needed to adjust my lower back and hips
• My lower back was really tied up apparently - the right side worse than the left
• She found a trigger point in my shoulder which really really Fing hurt!
• She thinks I might be over-stretching that left shoulder forward when I sleep.
• I also have tight muscles on my sides and until she showed me an exercise and i tried to do it both sides I didn't realize how much more limited my movement was leaning to the left than the right!

So basically i need to stretch my right side more. i don't know why it would be tighter. I had a theory that part of it might be that my right foot being bigger (half a size) than my left is heavier and therefore the right side of my body tires more quickly.

I've since discarded that theory though. i think it must have been strained at some stage? I also fell heavily on my right hip at one point when I was knocked off my bike by a car - twice actually.

The reason i have gotten past that idea is that theoretically it wouldn't be a problem to swim.

Tuesday I had off as per chiro instructions.

This morning I tried to swim for 2 hours but only did 1 hour 20 mins since I could already feel my lower back locking up again. Swimming having a bigger foot is actually and advantage so that shouldn't aggravate the problem!?!?

Oh and another thing - my great idea of sitting on a fit ball is not so great after all. Apparently you have to be careful doing this because while it's good in some ways with no back support at all you are more likely to slouch forward! - Which along with practically everything apparently - even sitting with good form - can mess up your lower back!

[Bomp]

As you knnow, the knee pain could be from anything. Just a suggestion of what it could be from experience, if you run on the same side of the road all the time it's possible that some added strain is imposed on the leg which is higher up on the slope (most roads are sloped outwards for drainage purposes). Even though this slope is tiny it still can have an effect, running on the other side of the road when you start feeling the soreness MIGHT help.

Anyway, have fun swimming in circles with your giant right foot .

[sourpuss]

Sharla, you crack me up.

[Sharla]

As you knnow, the knee pain could be from anything. Just a suggestion of what it could be from experience, if you run on the same side of the road all the time it's possible that some added strain is imposed on the leg which is higher up on the slope (most roads are sloped outwards for drainage purposes). Even though this slope is tiny it still can have an effect, running on the other side of the road when you start feeling the soreness MIGHT help.

Anyway, have fun swimming in circles with your giant right foot .

hi bomp, thanks for your input. I'm actually 99.999999 % sure the knee pain is from my back. It's old and only flares up now when my back is bad - not at any other time.

Plus I do deliberately try to varying my running surfaces so hopefully I don't still subconsciously favour one cambour - fingers crossed anyway!

Sharla, you crack me up.

Thanks - i try


So to update:

Still crap at getting to Judo - had my best friends birthday dinner Wednesday night and while I'd skip most birthday dos for training I wasn't prepared to skip hers and getting there late wouldn't have really worked.

Friday night - disorganized with time again - took too long to finish a job in the afternoon that I couldn't just drop. Really need to get my arse into gear with that.

I actually ended up doing nothing at all on Firday since I left my workouts to the arvo and ran out of time. I had promised to meet my sister to see the new Batman movie later that night so I couldn't even do a late session at the aquatic centre.

Saturday was a similar story - trying to get my cleanining, shopping, washing and cooking done aswell as someone else's (for money of course ) and train on the same day has proven difficult. I'll have to get organized to do more of my stuff during the week again.

Still on the home made cereal but decided to add crushed almonds - I could have save time by buying them already crushed but it was cheaper to buy them whole and i figure the husk is probably what contains most of the good stuff so I chopped them myself. Note to anyone who tries this at thome they will become projectile objects so beware!

Forgot to add a while I ago I'm buying lemons and squeezing one whole into a mug and then filling it half way full with hot water to have with my breakfast every morning. Apparently one lemon supplies 1.5 X of your daily Vitamin C requirements. I'm also finding it's good to ward off cold symptoms and to help clean out the sinuses.

OK so my weeks efforts were so crap I had been feeling guilty which motivated em to make up for it on Sunday. I went to the aquatic centre at 5 pm forgetting they closed the gym area at 5 on Sundays.

Hotty gym instructor/ manager dude expressed his regret and I was tempted to hang around and discuss alternative ways he could make it up to me but I felt too guilty to put off training and returned my bag of gear home again and decided to attempt a long run.

I put my bum bag on with drink bottle, jelly beans (for long run fuel), keys and epipen in it. I always carry a bum bag because I need something that will hold my epipen. I have it in case i get stung by a bee since i'm fatally allergic and have to stab myself in the leg and hot tail it to emergency if I get stung. I like the waterbelts you can get with small bottles spread around the belt but they don't come with pockets big enough for my epipen unfortunately.

So I was doing my walk warm up with my bum bag as standard - over my bum and came up with a new theory. Perhaps all these years of running with a bum bag with weight on my ass was developing muscles which would tip my pelvis forward to counter balance it?!?! Along with some stuff I've discussed via PM with Andre it's my best theory so far.

I moved the bum bag around the front and consciously used my muscles to resist the weight. No significant back pain! I ran intervals of 5 km with a 500 m walk between them plus a walk warm up and coold down. I'm pretty stoaked with how it went - and relieved considering the marathon isn't far away. I got through 30 km of running and 35 km on my feet.

Then i went home, tried at very wossy attempt at stretching, drank some water, a protein shake with L-carnitine in it and another sports drink for electrolyte replacement and went to bed.

This morning my legs hate me but not as much as I expected them too and I have no knee pain so I'm really really happy!

I also have a little soreness in my lower stomach muscles which I had to tense to hold my pelvis back against the weight of the bum bag which I'm taking as a good sign.

[Sharla]

Well I was very, very sore for the next couple of days after my 30 km run on Sunday. Didn't recover as quickly as I would have liked.

I think when I had a more regular long run it never took more than one day to recover from it but this week my legs have utterly HATED me!

Unfortunately I had a heap of uni work to do which i could not put off because I made last minute plans to visit my bro interstate for the next week.

He's under the weather since he's just had an operation but he refuses to take time off and he's short of workers so i'll be working out bush with him. He's a shearing contractor and I'm going to be a rousabout on the crutching trailer for a week.

Had so much uni work this week i didn't get to train at all Monday through Friday and stayed overnight at uni Monday and Wednesday night. I may not have recovered as well as normal partially through lack of sleep i guess.

Took overnight bus from Adelaide to Melbourne last night (Friday night) and am taking another bus out to a place called Deniliquin and getting a ride from there out to a small riverside town that will be our base for the next week.

Luckily Melbourne bus / train station has decent facilities. I was able to leave all my stuff in a locker and go for a long run and then come back and pay for a shower.

At least I have tomorrow to get over my long run before I start rousabout work which I'm expecting to be really tiring. Did walk warm up then the following intervals running with 500 m walk between: 5 km, 7 km, 7 km, 4 km, 7 km and then a walk warm down. So as last Sunday I did 30 km running and something like 36 km on my feet including the walking.

I was considering uping the distance to 35 or 40 km this week but considering how long it took to recover from last weeks long run and how much pain I was in as it was i decided that was suicidal!

Was able to make the running intervals an okish pace but I'm still a little worried about how much it hurts. Ideally I'd like to be able to run 30 km relatively pain free before attempting the 42 km marathon.

[wesrman]

Im curious what your diet is like Sharla. What you eat, especially pre and post workout can have a big effect on your bodies ability to recover.