Sharla's New Log - Attempting to Avoid Becoming A Slovenly Pig

[Sharla]

I looked for your training log but didn't see one. Don't have one anymore? Don't want to give out your secrets to the opposition?

lol. to be frank...training before nationals last year I got all Trainer Monkey paranoid and was near convinced "those people" were following me around spying trying to get an edge.

So I axed it.

Am really glad to see you and Salty back posting and will likely start up another one soon. I am doing a half-assed one elsewhere, not even a boxing forum...that I started back when I was still crazy-paranoid and made sure not to use terms, names, places easily googled.


congrats on the run, btw.

Understandable - i myself have always been drawn to the tin foil fashion trend Pity it doesn't breathe so well!

Seriously though i can understand why you would do that - googling is sooo easy - at least you don't use your real name on here which helps.

So this morning got to the gym at 7 and had to leave by 8 - really should try to get there when it opens at 6:30 but no one woke me up this morning - I guess that's what happens when you suddenly have the bed to yourself again!

10 mins on rower
2 min skipping rounds alternating with the following (mostly in 2 min rounds)
-upper body warm up - arm circles, punches, holding arms out straight etc etc - about 4 mins
-footwork 1 min orthodox, 1 min southpaw - twice
-shadow boxing 1 min orthodox, 1 min southpaw - twice

Last few rounds of skipping involved 5 sec sprints with high knees and then 10 secs normal to get the heart rate up and did one round of skipping to finish. Won't go to the bag until i feel a bit more balanced in southpaw and want to give my body a chance to get used to it gradually again so that was enough boxing for a start.

Then did 3 sets, 15 reps of counterweight chin-ups and tricep dips
followed by 2 sets of shoulder press (15 reps) and seated row (10 reps)

finished with some pilates 100s, a plank and stretch band chest stretch but wish i'd allowed myself more time.

[Sharla]

Friday Morning

9.6 kms with a running group. There are longer run options on leaving at the same time and place but 9.6 km seems to be enough for me at the moment.

Felt a little sore but not too bad from the past couple of days. Felt a bit heavy on my legs and randomly remembered watching some elite runners in the recent commonwealth game run with their heels flicking up so high they looked like they were going to kick their own buts.

Decided to give it a go. No where near flexible enough to kick my own bum while running but i did find it felt easier and lighter running this way to bring my leg forward. It makes sense that it's easier to swing a more compact semi folded leg through than a longer leg.

The other benefit i didn't expect was that it made it easier for me to run down hill in the vibrams. I've never been able to run as fast down hill with the vibrams as with shoes because you feel it more even if the actual impact reverberating through your body tend to be less with bare feet due to landing on your forefoot more (this has been researched - will get the Nature paper reference for anyone who is interested). Oddly no problems with the vibrams. Not sure why yet, need to think it over but regardless I'm going to keep working on kicking my heels up more when i run from now on.

I'm also at the stage where i think i should learn to periodise my training program. I was tossing up with the idea of gradually increasing a weekend run for a long - long run. I think though with North Face in mind and trail running I want to be stronger and more confident on hills and tricky tracks. Will increase hills and balance work and trail running over the next couple of months.

[Youngblood]

Periodising, doing stuff in isolated stages has been something I have just recently come to grips with. Another thing I noticed beyond the physical strength stuff was...that I was only a distance fighter, with no inside, or finishing game. So for about 3 months all skill drills were inside stuff, on pads, the bags, in sparring, the works. Nothing but body shots, uppercuts, tight hooks in close...and ofc variations of. Next thing I knew, had all these other elements going on! (and all of a sudden was getting hit a lot more too...A real LOT)

And...realized, well now my best attribute just sucks! lol And was getting countered like crazy trying to be aggressive and such. So it is an adaptive process. Now going back to the outside, relearning what I once knew, the angles, distance, range work and countering...with the goal to have it all come together and be more ready for whatever is put in front of.

As you say, there are only so many hours in a day, days in a week. And with the loads of work we do we often neglect that very important other aspect, recovery.

p.s. I've read about the Vibrams being great for those types of things. In particular mud races or something? That other shoes just fall off and get lost in the muck. lol

[Scrap]

Brilliant to see you posting young Lady, youve been missed

[Sharla]

Brilliant to see you posting young Lady, youve been missed

Thankyou Scrap

The first thing i did when i logged back in after not being on the site for ages was check that you were still here - So happy to see the legend of the board is still here offering his infinite wisdom to the rest of us novices!

I see you have the same profile pic - i bet she's grown a bit though! Say Hi to Mrs Scrap for me too. I'm about to become an auntie hopefully around my birthday (i want my bros boy to be just like me - my little (but probably tall enough to tower over me at six if he's anything like his parents) nephew (not so) mini me!

[Youngblood]

my god...I accidentally erased your response post...and posted mine as yours. lol I'm really sorry...let me see if I can fix it.

[Youngblood]

well I can't restore your original post, just what I meant to quote and my response. So acc. erased a bunch of your text. I had it looking like you were quoting and talking to yourself. LOL I'm really sorry. anyway...this is what I tried to say.

As for whether or not i'm going to be the 'unfit' one when Adam gets back i think he's winning so far! If anyone wants to check out what i'm competing with here's the link:

crazyguyonabike.com: Bicycle Touring: World Jamboree Trike Expedition, by Adam Kilpatrick and Stephen Warren-Smith

He gets to eat whatever he wants with the kms they're doing whereas i'll need to develop some food discipline that's a bit uncharacteristic for me! There are some good photos there of what the South Australian countryside can look like too. I grew up in some of the remote area he's passed and i forget how beautiful it is!

Sharla that's an awesome read. Love the pics and all the links, updates. Thanks for sharing it!

[Sharla]

my god...I accidentally erased your response post...and posted mine as yours. lol I'm really sorry...let me see if I can fix it.

I didn't know that was possible Don't worry a lot of it was dribble anyway I hope Saddo didn't mind me putting a link to a blog elsewhere - i only put it there because it has a connection to me sort-of.

Glad you enjoyed his blog - I think they're doing well but they're going across the Nullabor where they won't evan have mobile phone coverage (which makes me nervous ) so it won't be updated for another 9 days or so now.

Well I had planned stretching on Saturday and something on Sunday but it ended up being a complete rest weekend. Unfortunately I had an appointment with the realestate agent on Friday going over things and spent the weekend obsessively planning how i might fit stuff in our mini apartment. So silly considering we won't move in until Feb 2012 at the earliest!

I also think i was generally run down from our busy October with two weddings, moving house (so i can live cheaply while Adam's away), a farewell and the weekend Adam rode off into the sunset. We're still getting packages with bike parts etc and i guess i just had to rebel against all the hecticness. Plus Adam had Saturday off so i gasbagged to him on the phone for half the day.

Back to normal today though - was a bit late to the gym again but stayed a half hour later. Still could've used more time so i think i'll up gym morning to a 2 hour session.

10 mins on the rower,
1 min skipping intervals with core exercises between. Decided to do that 1st this time as it's of fairly high priority. First two skipping intervals were normal pace, all the rest were hard for 5 secs, easy for 5 secs.

B/W the intervals -
pilates 100s,
pilates scissors (very slow, controlled) with 5 complete slow roll ups & downs,
controlled leg circles - approx 10 each side
side plank - one each side - untimed (weak at this about 30 secs only),
Medicine ball side to side held with both hands, arms out straight not moving body,
Medicine ball roll ups and downs - slowly 5 reps.

Then attempted a new exercise aimed at stabilizing my core while stepping up and down.

Set up a high step approx 60 cm high and put a wobble board in front of it. Put my feet close together in the middle of the board and tried to step up and down. After a few minutes of trying it was obvious i couldn't take my feet off the board to step up - would really need 2 small wobble boards - one for each foot.

Changed it over for one of those disk things with air in it just to do step ups on a surface that requires some stabilization. Was ok with the step up but the step down (backwards) was not as controlled as i'd intended. Will do it with a lower height next time until i can work up to it.

Then two one minute intervals balancing on a normal wobble board.

Then the skipping rope I was using broke mid skip - most of the others oddly are too short so will bring my own next time.

Then put my towel on the wobble board to pad it and knelt on it while i used the ab wheel to push out with both hands. Found it tiring to stabilize this and did about 5 reps one at a time with a very short break between each one. Went as far out as i could stabilize the board - not the whole way but approx 3/4s.
Then repeated the side plank on both sides and decided it was time to start stretching.

Need extra time to get in some boxing as i think this much core is pretty important for me at this stage.

Did approx 25 mins of stretching. Most emphasis on hamstring fit ball stretching. Let a little air out of the fitball (no one was watching ) so i could do it properly, twice on each leg.
Then did some stretch back chest stretching, gluts, calf stretching PNF style with a stretch band and brief abductor stretch.

I think i need to periodize my stretching also to get it all in. This week i'll do a hamstring stretch each night before bed, might move onto a psoas stretch the week after etc etc.

[Sharla]

Shite typed a heap up but it timed out!

Gym - pilates, less skipping, more pilates

Cycled to gym 12kms - tired now

Did upper body stuff same as last week with more focus on the negatives as suggested by Salty.

Adam busing home - rear hub siezed up, needs to get new parts then will catch up with his mate Steven again. He's upset but i'm glad it happened here and not overseas as he can still get the parts wheras trike parts are too rare to get in Africa and now they know they need something much more hardy. Steven's going on alone through the Nullabor - hopefully nothing bad will happen to him otherwise Adam will feel terrible even though it wouldn't be his fault.

[Youngblood]

Shite typed a heap up but it timed out!

save me the trouble of erasing it. lol

Adam busing home - rear hub siezed up, needs to get new parts then will catch up with his mate Steven again. He's upset but i'm glad it happened here and not overseas as he can still get the parts wheras trike parts are too rare to get in Africa and now they know they need something much more hardy. Steven's going on alone through the Nullabor - hopefully nothing bad will happen to him otherwise Adam will feel terrible even though it wouldn't be his fault.

that didn't take long. he prob.sabotaged it cuz he missed ya.

ya ya, will start my own log soon and stop cluttering up yours. just have to get a few things sorted first.