Week 3

17/01/11 - 23/01/11


This was one of those weeks where my juggling skills had to be sharp, it was going to be a crazy week at work and I was also not running this week and that meant trying to change the plan to maintain the hours without the running. I succeeded and ended up doing a little more. I am beginning to feel like I am getting into shape and that the exercise is paying off, I am still struggling with trying to fit in all the sessions with work and home life and my main concern is for when the hours start to increase even more...


Monday I substituted the planned run for a cycling session and did this on my turbo trainer in the evening, I was also meant to be swimming however as I had a crazy early start at work I had to shift the swim to the following day. The bike session went well but one of the things I have begun to realise is that as I slowly start to get fitter so it requires more effort to get my heart rate to 155bpm. This bike session was not that great a success as I really struggled to get my heart rate above 130 and this was linkied to the slight pain in my leg still... I did manage to do 45 minutes at about 125-130bpm and in the end I felt that it was best for the leg. I managed to get through the boredom of indoor training by watching episodes of 'The Big Bang Theory' on DVD.


Tuesday was meant to be a brick session but my leg was still aching a little bit so I skipped that and only did the swimming as originally planned. Work ran late and it ended up being a 12 and a half hour day and so I raced home, grabbed my swim stuff and shot off for the pool. I had a fantastic swim, which was just a straight 2.5kms, and managed to knock it on the head in 58 minutes. That was so amazing, considering that my first 2.5 had taken me 25 minutes. I was exhausted, a little nauseous but so ecstatic. I am really trying to concentrate on my stroke and I have noticed that when I get tired it all goes out the window and I even start to struggle with my breathing. Something to work on.


Wednesday, ah the rest day, didn't feel I needed it so much as the weekend hadn't been very trying at all but it had been a couple of heavy days at work so decided to relax anyway.


Thursday I got to go into work late and so I thought I would try a strength training session in the gym at work... Now I am still trying to figure out if this was a good idea as even today (Sunday) some parts of my arms hurt. I followed a plan in my Iron Bible which saw me do Leg Presses, Lat Pull Downs, Leg Extensions, Chest Presses, Bicep Curls, Calf Raises, Shoulder Presses and Seated Rows. I did a 15 minute warm up on the crosstrainer and again as a cool down. Its been easily 4 years since I did any weights and I am just glad that everyone else was at work while I tried to figure all the machines out. 


In the evening I then managed an hour on the turbo trainer and this time I watched Lance Armstrongs 7th tour de france win on DVD and I quite easily managed to get my heart rate into the 155's, however I did get really drawn into the movie and at one point I did realise that I was trying to cycle fast enough to keep up with all the cyclists... not clever or even possible... I felt knackered at the end of this session and the vibrations through my saddle left me feeling a little tender and uncomfortable for a little while after I got off the bike...


Friday was supposed to be my first swim session with the club and I had packed all my stuff, made sure I had the right money and had even arranged to leave work a little early to make sure I would make the 6pm start... well, that didnt happen. I ended up having to stay at work till 6:15 which was a little annoying yet wasn't the end of the world as the Leisure Centre swim session started at 9 and I would just go to that. I got into my car and as I turned out of the well lit car park at work and onto a very dark unlit road I noticed that my lights weren't performing very well and what I really mean is that i had no lights...AT ALL. I managed to get myself back to work and eventually a friend, Matt, arrived at work with a new main fuse for the headlights, however when I removed the old one it was still intact...what to do? So I managed through some wierd contortions to remove a bulb and that bulb was dead. It turned out that both bulbs had in fact blown and needed replacing luckily I had a bulb as did Matt and eventually after a little bit of swearing and grazed hands I had 2 headlights again... only it was 9:20 and that meant no swimming for me...


Saturday I was determined to make up for the lost workouts during the week and headed off on my bike into a very cold Oxford day. I made my way through town, managed to avoid being ploughed down by 2 cars in the centre of town and headed into the country. The country is great in that its quite, very few cars and so very peaceful, the one thing it does have is very muddy roads. I will upload a photo of my poor bike after its county road expedition. It was fantastic to get out after mainly riding inside and the ride felt fantastic, although I did notice myself getting tired in the lat 10kms, which means work is needed on the bike. One thing I did realise is the perils of having a white bike in the english winter...

 




In the evening I realised that I had a swim session to make up and upon consultation of the timetable for the leisure centre I saw that a session was due to start in 5 minutes time, so after a quick hunt around for my swim stuff, then the realisation that it was all in my bag still from Friday, I was off to the pool. It was nice and quite except for the whale bobbing in the fast lane for a little while until she realised that it really was the fast lane and not for her. I managed to finish my session just as the rather pudgy 'lifeguard' told me that the pool was now closing. I was feeling a little tired by the time I got home and this time didn't attract the attention of the police...


Sunday was cold and slightly windy and I was feeling knackered. It was a real struggle to get out today and my legs just werent there at all during the ride to such a point that I cut my route short and just headed home. I started to feel slightly dozy and really cold and I think that I might have started getting slightly hypothermic. I wished that I had brought my windproof jacket as the cold was mainly due to the wind. When I got home I realised that I had packed it, like I do on every ride, yet for some reason just didn't remember. I did end up with same average speed as Saturday which means that either I took it too easy on Saturday or I just managed to keep the speed up on Sunday... I was really glad to get home and after washing my bike for the second time in one weekend I guzzled down a cup of coffee and a large bowl of left-over rissotto and then headed for the bath.


Another week done and dusted and even with no running I still managed to do my 8 hours as required.


So week 3 in numbers
122.3kms covered
8:50:00 time spent exercising
... and I survived, so bring on week 4


W