Turbo Man's Fitness Blog: Another Week of Progress

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

Saturday, 10 September 2011

Another Week of Progress

3 weeks ago, when I started my 8 week course at Shrivenham, I set myself the target of running a mile before the end of the course. After a couple of weeks of good progress I decided that this week I would see whether my knee was up to running. So on Monday I went out and did 25 minutes of gentle jogging, with no ill effects. I backed this up on Thursday with a 6km run in a little over 30 minutes and whilst I had no ill effects at the time the knee was very stiff on Friday morning. Today I was back at the CrossFit gym for a session of 4 minutes of squats tabata (!) followed by a one mile run. Coach Michelle thought I should use the rings to assist with my squats, taking a bit of weight off the knee whilst maintaining proper form; it was a good call as my squat form was (I am told) much improved. After the squats I started the run very easy, waiting for the legs to loosen up after the squats, and fell to last place in the group of 4. After a quarter of a mile or so I felt good and relaxed into my running and worked my way to the front of the group. I could hear one of the runners just behind me (my eldest lad, a mere 30 years younger than me!). About a quarter of a mile from the end there is a sharp left turn before an uphill run to the finish, and I worked hard up the hill and was surprised as I made the last turn to see I had opened out a gap of some 30 seconds or so. My one mile time was 7:17, so still some way off the 6 minutes I was recording before the injury, but proof that I am returning to fitness.

We followed this up with an 8 minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) of 4 handstand push-ups, 8 kettlebell swings and 12 sit-ups. All in all a very enjoyable session.

Train smart folks.

1 comment:

Daz Sharpe said...: Sounds like things are heading in the right direction. Don't get impatient and allow plenty of rest between any running work.; 13 September 2011 at 11:32