Sharla's Log

[Sharla]

Thanks Sourpuss

Honestly i have been pretty wossy about things recently i think but i'm feeling a bit more positive lately and I'm really looking forward to training in a club again.

Even having a new training program is good - i've learnt about another kind of workout I didn't know about before - compound sets. Probably is nothing new to most other people here but i think a bit of a change is refreshing.

Sorry to bore you Scrap - perhaps i should have video taped my 400 m repeat mediocrity so you could be entertained laughing at my pathetic attempts!

[Scrap]

Sharla you dont make me laugth. I find you insperational, Good Girl

[Sharla]

Thanks Scrap I'm just fumbling along trying to get my groove back at the moment though - nothing inspirational about that but the encouragement is nice.

Today a 2 hr stretch. I have a few more of these sessions in my new program. The program I based mine on worked in 2 week block. So every 2 weeks it is changed. I have 2 days of these 2 hr stretch sessions before going onto each new 2 week block, plus one or two a week. Two runs each week are substituted with swims so i only do 2 or 3 runs a week - hard track intervals or compound sets.

Basic reasoning behind this is because i think tight muscles here and there are my most limiting factor. Not that I couldn't improve pretty much everything. My morning stretch is ok but it is not really enough time by itself i think. Plus there is a lot in my PNF stretching book I want to learn more about and a 2 hour session gives me time to get into them.

I'm deliberately not putting a routine to paper for the stretching session. I'm just going to stretch where i feel i need it most and hold stretces as long as I need to and repeat them if I need to. I know my tightest points and favourite stretches now.

Today most notable apart from my lower back (always the first thing i stretch) - right psoas, right abductor and right piriformis.

I got sun burnt the other week on my neck. Was wearing a loose top and the neck line fell more to my left side. I can see clearly that my right shoulder is higher than my left and in the front of my right hip i have a little tendon which sticks out a bit more on the right than the left.

All connect i think - from my hips up. I sometime get a click from my neck when i'm trying to do a retarded looking wiggle to release tension in my right hip.

Also my left hamstring which i knew about but still can't picture how it connects to or is influenced by the tight points in my right side.

I have a basic strength training program in mind - still very much wobble board etc based for better posture. I'm going to get into a routine with the other stuff before I start it though because if I start it but can't manage my time well anough to handle it all at once I'll just get pissed off at myself and not stick it out. Taking insurance measures to deal with my wossy side!

[Sharla]

Did my medley swimming sprints today.

Medley order = butterfly, backstroke, breastroke, freestyle - 4 different sprints to each set.

25 m with 30 seconds break.

6 sets of the above with only 30 secs break between sets, wearing fins.

Then recovery breastroke and backstroke without fins until I felt fully recovered (or as much as I was going to get).

Then I did two more sets of the medley order sprints with fins and a cool down swim without fins again to finish off.

Felt more explosive today than last time and I could up the volume significantly too. I think the stretch yesterday did me good!

I want to up this workout by a set per fortnight until i am doing 2 blocks of 6 sets and then I'll shorten the recovery time between sets.

An ex coach (in Japan) used to say you can train your second wind. He made me do something similar with hard bag rounds separated by some recovery speed ball work.

I'm thinking it might be another type of lactate threshold workout as long as I don't up the sets or decrease the recovery time too quickly and turn it into a long swim.

Also noticed parts of my stretching book have tips on how to check for muscle tightnesses.

I checked my quads and they are both tight!

You check for quads by sitting on a table and straightening your legs out. You should be able to straighten them all the way out and I'm a little off.

Having said that post swim checking again it's not so obvious! Maybe I've got it wrong .........

Nope it hasn't changed - don't do it on a soft chair - table is best i think.

[Scrap]

It could be the upper hamstring whats stopping the movement.

[Sharla]

Oh Right - yeah i did look at the section for hamstrings and they were a little limited definately. I really wouldn't be suprised if that's a big part of it. Thanks for reminding me Scrap.

The test they had in this book for the hamstrings was lying down flat and you're supposed to get your leg to be able to rise to a 90 degree angle - I can almost do it but not quite.

I don't really understand how they use the seated leg extension one as a test for the quads because i think they're contracting in that movement but that is what the book clearly states. I guess they say functional assessment not quadricep length - but they recommend stretching the quads.

Interestingly they link tight quads to lower back and knee pain so whether they're the cause of this limitation or not i might get into stretching them as a preventative thing since I know i'll be prone to both of those problems.

Still you're ight and it doesn't completely make sense so I googled it to see what tests were online for the Quads and I found a different looking one for quadricep length in the diagrams of this article:

BioMed Central | Full text | Reliability of measures of impairments associated with patellofemoral pain syndrome

There are all sorts of tests i haven't heard of in here - I'll have to read this one now!

[Sharla]

Ran this morning - 2 X 1600 m repeats with 4 min break between them.

Felt sluggish - was sluggish!

I had a 15 min warm up but maybe it was too gentle, also choose the wrong terrain i think.

I ran on a really sandy track around a horse paddock which is on a hill - half the time it's up hill.

Even with all that taken into account I think it was a bit sloppy - perhaps I haven't fully recovered from my swim sprints yesterday.

Next time I'm going to pick a nice oval or flat running track and warm up with a bit more energy!

[Salty]

Sharla you dont make me laugth. I find you insperational, Good Girl

I think she's an inspiration to most people on here, I generally read through here and others to help with the motivation/ideas and it is a great help.

So thankyou Sharla, a lot of people appreciate and benefit greatly from what you write down here

PS. 400m intervals are no joking matter, I nearly died yesterday

[Sharla]

Sharla you dont make me laugth. I find you insperational, Good Girl

I think she's an inspiration to most people on here, I generally read through here and others to help with the motivation/ideas and it is a great help.

So thankyou Sharla, a lot of people appreciate and benefit greatly from what you write down here

PS. 400m intervals are no joking matter, I nearly died yesterday

Aww shucks thanks Salty that's a really nice thing to say coming from the tabatas god!

400s are mean! I'm considering taking myself down to 200s to build some speed up to the 400s since I feel they are not really sprints the way they should be but perhaps just sticking to a program for a while and overcoming my training program ADD is a priority!

I trained at my new gym tonight! It was originally going to be last Friday but they had time off over the new year. Just got back and I'm UTTERLY KNACKERED!

However I had soooooooo much fun!

I am unlikely to compete this year I think but that is fine with me. I'm actually relishing the chance just to remember how much I enjoy it! Sure competing can be rewarding but i think the base where the rewarding part really comes from is in the gym.

When I was competing but not feeling like I was progressing in any way it was always a struggle. I knew I was not getting fitter because trainings I did in pairs often did not work my fitness and I was taught according to the stage and benefits of my training partner so i didn't feel myself progressing either.

I could have won almost anything and not felt as good as I do tonight having felt like I moved forward a tiny bit.

I will definately get some fitness out of these sessions too since we start the session with a fairly intense warm up of sprints and pushups etc on the grass outside of the gym. The warm up is arranged with a sense of humour as well and I can see why the young kids enjoy their time here!

At one stage we do pushups and have to hold ourselves up on command and then roll on command. We have to look at him while we hold ourselves up but I forgot that the first time and rolled the wrong way - luckily I was on the right end of the row and while they went left I went right so I just managed to avoid squashing anyone!

Other things in the warm up include burpies, situps, relay sprint races etc and bunny hops. My legs were already a little knackered and felt heavy the whole way through but it is satisfying knowing even at the end of the warm up if nothing else I would get some fitness work out of it!

Over the last week I saw something on TV about how people who stay within a healthy weight walk 10,000 steps a day. According to the cadence readings on my heart rate monitor that's a LOT of walking. So along with my other fitness training for the previous 2 consecutive days I've been doing 110 mins of walking on my flatmate's treadmill.

I'm up to walking at 6.9 km per hour since that is the fastest possible pace I can do and it is work since i think if i was walking outside I might not maintain it. That has increased my walking cadence from 67 to 71 already! I'm hoping that increase in cadence might translate a little to my running.

I know that my legs really feel it because of the different muscles used - less quads and more of everything else I think. Doing swim sprints last night both of my calves cramped up which i think is a reaction to the walking because that is fairly rare for me.

I also find it satisfying since one walk has me doing more than 12 km and I get a sense of satisfaction I used to get from longer distance running without the impact and i think it has been actually good for my back.

Anyway now I've blabbed on about how jelly legged I am I'll continue with my summary of my boxing training.

It's a very casual atmosphere but the coach is really helpful. No one has been able to or bothered to help me with my uppercuts before enough for me to feel I'm doing it correctly. He has me doing it! He even shows me how to lead into it by moving in with a sort of long left hook / overhand thing which acts as a bluff while getting my weight in the right place to throw a nice uppercut.

We also move around and do something called toe tapping where he tries to step on my toes and then says four and I have to throw 4 punches at his gloves. It means when my weight is on my back foot I should naturally throw my right hand first (as an orthodox) and when it's on my front foot my left.

I'm not supposed to think about the punches but keep on balance and watch my distance and sometimes his gloves are positioned for uppercuts or hooks so they're not all straights. My flow feels better than usual doing this fairly quickly! To be honest with coaches in gyms before my last one I enjoyed pad work but in my last gym it just didn't feel right. I think working with someone without upsetting their natural rhythm is a great skill for a coach to have.

I get three rounds of sparring which i really didn't expect! Not the first session back! It's light sparring and fun except for the distinct feeling of impending death by heart failure i can feel coming on! I sparred a southpaw and i'm happy to have been able to tag him a few times since I am crap with southpaws!

Most of the guys there are in their teens with about three or four adults and one really young boy. The young boy has a LOT of fun! The coach gets into the ring and moves around on his knees (on a concrete floor ) and lets the boy hit him.

To be honest I think he's a little bit crazy since this little kid can actually hit, but the coach is extremely generous to personally donate his brain cells to developing them! Older boys there watch smiling and tell me they did that when they were younger. It's nice to see they enjoy it enough to stay and still enjoy it!

This gym is an hour's drive from my house and trainings are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It's not easy to get there but I'm going to aim to come back whenever I'm able. It's just fun which is what I think I need right now!

[Sharla]

Pilates today. I get cheap classes as a student at the local WEA centre.

It was a 1 hour class and I enjoyed it.

I hurt everywhere after last night so i like that I had something relatively easy to do.

The ideas are interesting and I'm looking forward to the next class - the one which sticks out the most istrying to keep the scapula relaxed and not raising them to breathe but concentrating on allowing the rib cage to expand sideways.

This is something I want to focus on a bit because the point where I tend to feel the most pain in my back feels like it is around where muscles between the scapula and the spine muscles join the spine.

I KNOW the lower back and psoas is involved in causing pain but perhaps the scapula being raised could be part of the problem or just inhibit things loosening up the way they should.

[ICB]

Just dropping in saying good work im gonna be on the Trainer Section much more now. Dropping in on you Guys/Girls make sure you drop in my log aswell, i could do with a bit of advice here and there cheers.

[Sharla]

Just dropping in saying good work im gonna be on the Trainer Section much more now. Dropping in on you Guys/Girls make sure you drop in my log aswell, i could do with a bit of advice here and there cheers.

Will do thanks Hope the elbows are beginning to feel better