Sharla's Log

[Sharla]

Thanks Scrap

So by middle distance you might mean say a 10 km runner?

I'll look into that.

I've been reading articles on the Ross Boxing site and one relating to patience hit a nerve.

I guess that's what part of this is about - having the patience to trust that a few quality workouts a week is better than a heap of shitty ones, not to mention the patience to stick with a training program for a decent amount of time rather than changing it more often than your underwear.

[Scrap]

1500 metres is middle distance in my Book . Look at a Training program for the event its a mixture of distance and intensity. Use to work at the same Time on the same track as Seb Coe, use to talk at length to Peter Coe, learned a lot. Sebs spent a lot of time in the gym to compliment the Track.

[Youngblood]

That's good to know, Scrap. For track I like to do the 800 m and this year will maybe be moving up slightly in distance and do a couple of events.

Yea...I have a hard time buying into the irreversible slow twitch fiber. I can't see a person having done some longer distance running, to now be stuck in sloth muscle twitch mode without the ability to change and or compliment it. I think it would be beneficial to have both that sort of long term endurance for long rounds required in pros, as well as explosiveness needed.

This is something I too want to look into more, and try to understand better.

[Sharla]

1500 hundred is long! Damn!

Thanks Scrap

I'm sure it is beneficial - I think I might take some time adjusting to it and learning to train for it so I get the same endorphin kick out of it as I do longer runs but I will give it a go over Christmas.

I concur Youngblood - I'll have to read up on it more too but it wouldn't suprise me if there is a lot of natural variation which makes it difficult to find conclusive statistically significant differences.

Check out the huge SD (standard deviations) in the table in the second paper I posted - HUGE - bigger than the differences found!

My supervisor would have me throw that away completely! Granted he's a wanker though.

I'd rep you both but i have to spread it apparently!

[Scrap]

YB, interestingly I work with an 800 metre runner 17 now. When 16 in a year He improved his times by 16 secs in a year His pb for the event is 1 . 49 He is now in the Elite squad. All done by non impact work repairing not destroying, be kind to the muscle and joints they love the memory you give them. They repay you in kind.

[Sharla]

Ok it's late here and I promised myself an early morning tomorrow so i'll try not to blab on too much!

1) Latest thoughts on slow and fast twitch muscle fibres is that slow twitch muscle fibres become better at using oxygen - they can actually do more biological processes I think but I'll have to double check those articles.

Plus they did say that fast twitch fibre area could increase even if they didn't think the concentration of fast twitch muscle fibres increased.

Makes me wonder if there is some local cell signalling involved whereby slow twitch muscle fibres can be recruited to function as fast twitch muscle fibres temporarily.

Perhaps this could be more likely in extreme situations - hence stories of people having super human strength and speed when they are most threatened. Perhaps adrenalin functions to make these slow twitch muscle fibres more receptive to local cell signalling? Just a thought!

2) I've written up a training program which will last me through to mid April. I based it on a training program i found on the net for 1500 m runners. Then i substituted some runs for swims and made a few more changes ..... and a few more but now i'm happy with it.

It is my goal for 2009 is to get over the serious case of training program ADD I have! I am actually going to stick to this one! It will be difficult because i love nothing more than to procrastinate with my various training books making up new programs but i think it becomes a problem when you almost as much time doing that as training while winging about being busy!

3) I have finally de-wossed myself enough to commit to turning up to a new gym on Friday. Got permission from the coach already. Fingers crossed!

I'm a bit nervous about maybe having ruffled too many feathers changing gyms etc. I think i have to give it a shot though! Feeling untrained in my last gym is a wossy reason to quit. if I quit permanently I want to know it's because it's just not for me rather than any external factors.

[Sharla]

9 X 400 m repeats with 2 min walk recovery between each repeat.

It hurt! Looking at the pace etc from my heart rate monitor data I can see exactly why i need to train this!

My heart rate does drop enough with the 2 min recovery but the pace is not exactly explosive.

I think i'm ok with my recovery rate for this workout - although i'll aim to recover to the same extent within 30 seconds. Right now I desperately need to get the pace up though!

[sourpuss]

It's not wussy at all! You have to do what is right for you and your goals. If you're not getting what you need at the gym you are at and there are other options, by all means go.

good luck and let us know how it goes!

[Scrap]

interesting is it not.

[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!