NO LOVE HANDLES ALLOWED!

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' Theodore Roosevelt 23 April 1910

Thursday 28 April 2011

Penance




The day after a race I would normally rest, maybe some stretch and flex to ease off sore muscles, but nothing too strenuous. But today was different. Today I was reflecting on a very poor race even by my general MOP standards. So I could mope about and say to myself 'What do you expect, you're not getting any younger you know' or I could take the first step to improving. I chose the latter.


At lunchtime I headed to the gym, did a 10 minute warm up on the rower, 20 minutes stretch and flex and finished off with 10 minutes of high cadence work on the bike. Excellent.


This evening, though, it was back to the CrossFit gym because (as they said in 'Fame'), 'this is where you start paying ... in sweat'. But not even that was enough, oh no! I decided to cycle to the CrossFit gym; it's about 15 miles away and, if you know Fort Purbrook, you will know it's at the top of a chuffin' big hill. And there was a significant headwind as well. An excellent 55 min effort before the session started. And then we did the Filthy Fifty session. This is a very simple session; 50 reps of 10 exercises, as follows:

Box jumps

Jump pull-ups

Kettlebell swings

Walk lunges

Knees to elbows (or Hanging Baskets)

Push press

Back extensions

Wall ball

Burpees

Double unders (or 150 of normal skipping)

It took me a little over 27 minutes to complete that; it was very hard work.

And then I had to cycle home; predominantly downhill with the wind behind me and I was home in 42 minutes. A quick shower and something to eat and I feel really good now, although no doubt I will feel it all over tomorrow morning.



So there you have it; Turbo Man is going to redeem himself at the Odiham Sprint Tri (where a road bike without tri bars will not be such a disadvantage). You have been warned!


Train smart folks (unlike me!).

2 comments:

Cavegirl said...

You clearly haven't gone and listened to that thread yet ... in fact the 1:38 it takes would have been time well spent rather than mashing your body the day after, masing your body!

Unless, and until, you start allowing for recovery and adaptation to stimulus you will not improve and in fact you will go backwards!

Sorry to be a party pooper! I'm glad you enjoyed it all though, and that in itself is worthwhile, however don't begin to kid yourself that this approach will realise improved performance goals because it will not!

Today you could put your feet up and watch TV, seems to be something big on by all accounts, although I have no idea what it might be LOL!

And it you posted this especially for me to bite I haven't disappointed :-)

Turbo Man said...

No I haven't, unfortunately 1:38 is longer than my attention span. You know that I know about rest and recovery (hence the last line of my post) but it felt good to have a hard day, I really enjoyed it. The cycling was good and I enjoyed the spectacular views from the top of the hill. My CrossFit buddies are a good crowd, very motivating, and then cycling back with a nice tailwind all provided reaaly positive vibes. Today is indeed a rest day; we have a 'patch party' planned for this afternoon and there will be the odd beer or 2 consumed.

Saturday will hopefully be another cycle to CrossFit day, so another good session planned.