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

[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.

[Sharla]

No worries Youngblood - i'm only into talking to myself a little so I don't mind some replies to my posts

Was given some free movie tickets yesterday so won't go to the group run. Didn't gym this morning because had a late night picking Adam up from the bus station etc. Some crazy dude had to be dragged off the bus at Port Wakefield by the cops and it held the bus up.

So will do a lunch run today - the area i work is flat so it's hard to get my dose of hills etc but i'll try to improvise!

Looks like it will take about a week to get the specialized trike hub they need from interstate so Adam will catch up with Steven on the other side of the Nullabor. I think he may have missed me but at the same time in his head it's a bit of a failure so i doubt he'll sabotage his trike again!

[deminmartin9]

I am considering attempting it again this year but probably next year. I think i want to do it well and it's not realistic to think i can get that much stronger between now and May.
------------
Day Light Savings

[Sharla]

So i haven't updated this for a while. Basically just got too busy with work to do it and was tired when i got home. Things have gone well - up to a point - thatpoint being the bitumen at about 10 to 9 Wednesday morning.

My sister has lost 5 kg already which is great. I found kickboxing again made me really sore and was worried for a while that i might be too defected to do it until i was fitter from other activites again. However, i found each week i was able to do another session with less soreness. I think being a little older my recovery/ adjustment time was slower than when i first got into kickboxing. I struggled coming back into it without understanding why being able to remember how easily i jumped straight into it originally.

I can see the positive side of it now since i guess if it takes longer after a workout to see a training effect then it's longer before i detrain also. Plus it means a little difficulty to begin with is less likely to mean i can't become competant at an activity.

My physio exercises have been added to and i'm less lopsided already. I have begun to feel the difference between the right and wrong movements during my physio routine although i'm way off being able to maintain it for a run.

But after all that Wednesday morning i piked on the gym and decided to cycle in for work at peak hour. Karma then introduced me to the bitumen by way of a car door suddenly opening in front of me from a vehicle lined up at traffic lights.

It happened so quickly i thought i'd been aimed for and screamed "you idiot" as i fell. Both passenger and driver were extremely apologetic and the passenger was actually a cancer patient in a dazed rush to get to his chemo treatment. Now i've yelled at a cancer patient i am definately doomed to hell!

So i fell on my left arm and after 2 days when my range of motion didn't improve the doc sent me to get x-rays. I wasn't expecting anything serious because it wasn't as painful as people said it should be. Alas i have an undisplaced fracture through the radial head & neck.

I'm now in plaster which I'm told will smell like somethings decomposing after a while. I am not allowed to get it wet at all. Obviously no kickboxing, no swimming, no running, no side plank (physio exercise), no work and NOOOOoooo cycling for 6 weeks.

I think it's a threat from the universe - move it and stick to your morning gym sessions or loose it badly! It's also an order to hurry up and write my thesis while i don't have work. Luckily for me Adam is on his way home so i have a carer! Meet him at the airport on Sunday - very excited about that. Cairo is not safe for him to travel through so he's had to cancel that part of his trip. So i won't have anything exciting to write re training - just walks really - for six weeks.

Will check in again after that to winge about how measly & puny my left arm has become .......