Sharla's Log

[Sharla]

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.

Ouch busted! I plann cook ups etc and healthy main meals but I really don't plan enough for the times I'm stuck late at uni or travelling. I was reading a bit about amounts of recommended protein and calcium for women. I probably need a little more protein than I get and DEFINATELY need more calcium!

The last week has been good!

I have a whole week to think about here so I'll try to break it down into doc points:

• Recovered from long run within 2 days which was good. - took Sunday and Monday off exercise and since it was raining and wet sheep are not shorn there was no work then either. Complete recovery - did me good I think.
• Tuesday I worked as a rousabout. We were a little understaffed so it was a long day. Stayed out in a little town called Moulamein and had to travel about 60 km out to work each day.

This country has big properties and the guy were working for has no less than 120,000 ha! he's a private land owner too - it's completely a family business no big investors so obviously i don't want to embarass my bro by being incompetant working there!

Let's just say it's been a while since i did this kinda work and my intial reaction was to want to dry reach when i was faced with a particularly festy bit of wool i had to sort on that first day. Soooooo glad i took work gloves! Anyway my point it I didn't want to embarass my bro so i dealt with it and it gradually got easier. it was much easier with the radio on to dissociate, wearing gloves and thinking about how good it must be for the sheep to have that wool off. it also became easier as I learnt to work faster and feel like i knew what i was doing.

It made me think of the sports psychology equivalent - if i feel like I'm progressing and improving and getting somewhere i'll be able to put myself through so much more. Perhaps also explains how you can fall into the trap of taking a hard punch to land one sometimes - a little success is a huge pain killer!

The equivalent of the work gloves would be my mouthguard - something familiar that subconsciously tells you you're ready. Music - well i think i underestimate it's effect for training - don't usually care much what's on the radio in the gym but now i'm sure it has a big effect!

Anyway left at 6:15 am and didn't get back until after dark that day so no run but lots of physical work - i never stand still for moer than 15 seconds doing this work!

Wednesday - a full day again but not quite so long - my bro is shearing to make up numbers though and he's fast so i'm flat out trying to keep up with my work. At the end of the day I'm stuffed but they have to pack up the trailer (portable shearing set up) so my bro lets me set off running while they do that and they picked me up on the way back. I get in a 30 min tempo run.

Thursday - it rained - oh no - that means a day off and I'm sooooo dissappointed ! I got in a monaghetti fartleck that day when it eased off a bit and it felt good - really felt like i was blowing off the cob webs!

Friday - another really long day since we have to shear at 2 different locations and help round up sheep in between. only running is after sheep and it's pretty dark by the time we get back. Not to mention i'm stuffed!

Saturday - no work - got in my long run. 31.9 km in the following intervals:

10.5 km, 13 km, 5 km, 1.5 km, 500m, 500m, 400 m, 500m.

I did the 500 and 400 m intervals as fast as i could pump out since i read in a womans health magazine (great rainy day amusement ) that burst of intense cardio in between weights sets can reduce muscle soreness by boosting circulation etc.

I was really hurting by the end of the run but was really suprised to wake up Sunday with no soreness! Had Sunday off anyway since it's about 4 hours to get back to Melbourne and then an overnight bus trip back to Adelaide so spent all day travelling.

I'm very pleased with how much my rate of recovery has imporved though! Next weekend's long run with decide whether or not I register for the full or half marathon in September now - fingers crossed!

[Sharla]

Ok so I haven't posted here for a while and I'm about to get back into it since I should have the internet connected at home! Yes that''s pretty monumental for me since it actually meant getting a home phone aswell!

One day I might even have to get a TV that I can hook up to a VCR or one of those modern DVD player thingies!

So to update - i didn't do the marathon - I became stupidly busy the final couple of weeks before i had to leave for my trip to the UK since uni did pay for it and I had to prepare a lot plus finish off a heap of experiments i had growing - which unfortunately you really can't pause with plants growing!

I ran a 20 km training run earlier in the week of the marathon and it just didn't feel right so i decided I had lost some condition in those insane 2 weeks and wasn't quite fit enough. I could have finished but I would have been so sore the run would have put me back in conditioning and probably reaggrivated old knee and back issues wheras when fitter and well prepared I still like to think I can do it.

Instead of running the marathon I spent the weekend learning a few things from Scrap and got to see Donny in action training plus met Mrs Scrap and Adam GB and saw the Plonks fight his pro debut. One day everyone will be talking about him and I'll be able to say I saw his debut bout and I trained with Donny (also bound to be a big thing) and Scrap for a weekend!

It was a really worthwhile weekend and I learnt a lot. I then enjoyed the rest of my trip visiting labs etc and learnt the true meaning of relaxing whilst seeing Scotland with Bilbo (evolution is a banned conversation ).

Now I'm back and have just recovered from a cold I caught on the plane back I am getting organized to have a structured training program again. Fingers crossed I might be starting a new job soon and I have my PhD to finish over the next few months too so I'm budgeting 2 hrs of exercise a day plus transport cycling since we're coming into summer and the days are brighter for longer and the weather good for it.

So basically that's 2 hrs exercise plus 1 hr 40 mins cycling a day except on weekends which will have Saturdays off and not much cycling.

I've decided this is a good time to have a kind of reset which I think I'll do every year for about 1 or 2 months. I'm planning one hour of stretching first thing every morning with wobble board work throw in. I'll do 5 mins of wobble board balancing blindfolded, 15 mins of stretching X 3.

I am going wobble board nuts. The reason being I don't believe my hips stabilize me very well and I think that's the main source of any aches and pains I tend to get. I'm doing it blindfolded because I find that pracitcally impossible right now so need to develop it and i can understand that I am too right eye dominant.

In the evenings I am doing three nights a week cardio (half running including intervals - speed work, half swimming - mixed intensity) and three nights a week resistance work. Again with the resistance work I'm going wobble board nuts incorporating it wherever possible eg ander my toes while doing pushups with push up bars, under my feet for dumbbell squats etc.

I'm throwing in some ideas I got from Scrap provided I get organized with equipment which I won't describe. He can put those up when he's ready. I'll also be doing some shadow work and perhaps simple judo moves these nights at home. The things i'm relatively confident I can practice unsupervised although I will get my bro to spot me sometimes when possible.

I seem to have had great luck with people lately and it turns out that my flatmate used to be an elite swimmer. While i've known this for a while I've always had my own trainings at nights and never been to the pool with her until recently.

Damn it she KILLED me! But in a good way - stretched everything out and worked muscles I didn't know how to use without someone elite like her to make me do it correctly.I didn't even realise how tired she was making me until afterwards. It was such different exercise it really crept up on me!

I'll be using what she taught me and trying to get her to check my form every few weeks since she found things which I think also combat key weaknesses I have holding me back from enjoying other more high impact things as much as I'd like - such as running, judo and boxing etc.

I'll describe the sessions a little more as I do them.

I haven't worked out if and when I'll be getting back into the clubs yet. I suspect I'm better off leaving it until i have my PhD mostly wrapped up since juggling everything has been a bit too challenging for me at times.

Organization has never been my strong suit so to deal with this I've had my flatmate's help reorganizing my room. I mean a COMPLETE do over! So far it's working well - things are easier to find, get out and put away and trip me over less. Howwever, managing my time is the real challene as always.

I've bought an A3 size whiteboard which is my version of a poor man's personal organizer except I've decided it's better because I can layout everything on it ans see it all at once rather than just looking at one part of my life at once. I'm hoping that i'll be less likely to forget things in areas of my life I'm not thinking of in the moment. I've split the board up into parts - career/uni, Sport & Health, Domestic Chores and Finances.

I kinda wish I'd bought a bigger board but perhaps the limited space makes me keep things simple and I have managed to fit everything on there. It's magnetic so I can use fridge magnets to pin up specific stretching routines on a slip of paper too. I have 4 different coloured pens I use for heading like goals, To Do lists, Rosters etc for each section which make it clearer to read and less likely to just be a mass of black and white scribbles when I look at it. Fingers Crossed it works!!!

So I start my program officially tomorrow - just going to the pool tonight for a half social swim with my little sis and have done a bit of stretching today. I've been doing some cardio, resistance work and stretching over the past couple of weeks but not really had a structure to keep track of so now I'm organized hopefully I can make more use of my annual 1 or 2 month "reset" phase!

[pikey dave]

Sharla thank you for your kind words,if you need help with any thing give me a call, no strings no cost' Dave from the Cove Boxing Club.

[Sharla]

Thanks Dave! I attempted - big emphasis on attempted since I didn't really mange - to keep up with the program Scrap was posting of your training and it damn near killed me!

The dedication, hard work, brains and balls required to keep up with all that and what Scrap has you learning (i won't say teach since i think he likes to encourage people to work things out for themselves a bit and he doesn't strike me as a babysitting coach) really justifies respect.

I'll take you up on your offer of advice when I've worked out what Qs are important for me and I'll consider it a privelidge!

[wesrman]

Dont worry about being nosey, i dont mind.

A wrist roller is a thick bar (or pipe in my case) with a rope attached to it and you roll it up and down using your wrists. A couple of these links have a demonstration (the best i could find, although they arent great imo), but i prefer to do it one way and then turn the roller around and do it the other way too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxN-AemiW4k

Wrist Roller Forearm Exercise

Wrist roller - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hopefully that helps.

[Sharla]

Interesting thanks Wes.

Have you noticed an improvement in something(s) in your training since starting the exercise?

I'm trying to picture how it might improve boxing function and I'm sure it would since rolling up and down does both directions evenly plus it sounds like a compound exercise according to the Wiki link.

Also wondering what these kinds of exercises mean for people prone to carpel tunnel syndrome - would it be overworking those muscles or preventing the problem?

[wesrman]

I love the wrist roller, but ive also done lots of palms up and palms down wrist curls, behind back wrist curls, leverage bar curls and twists etc. I have weak wrists so i have to work extra hard to strengthen them.

Forearm Training

Bodybuilding.com - Forearms Articles!

Im sure a strong forearm would help a boxer greatly by reducing the amout of injuries to the wrist.

If you're prone to carpal tunnel you will have to be cautious, but id image that it could help if you dont over do it. Im not a doctor though so this is only speculation.

If you are going to train your forearms, use high reps (15-100 per set), use a variety of exercises to make sure you dont cause an imbalance and make sure you use a full range of motion and never cheat. You dont want to injure your wrist (this is especially true for a boxer).

Bruce Lee trained his forearms all the time and used all kinds of equipment and exercises includingthe wrist roller, and he had the best forearms ever imo.