The Core
Why We Are Here => Water Cooler => Topic started by: littleman on May 24, 2014, 10:52:48 PM
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Who is in for round three? Its the perfect time to commit to exercise. We have the Summer right around the corner, the perfect time to showoff all your hard work!
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Err yup... just realised my first week was in the med, so 4/5 swims.
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Absolutely!
Just had a great week:
5/4
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I'd like to get back on the wagon.
Could someone please fix the typo in the title?
I swam for half an hour today. The pool is finally open!
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Damn, 10 weeks in the previous thread with the same misspelling and nobody said anything :-\. Fixed.
Welcome back on-board Buckworks!
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Week 1 - 4/4
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Week 2 - 4/4
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Week 2 - 6/5
1 swim/3 bikes/1 racquetball/ 1 run
getting desperate, next tri getting closer... 29th june.
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Week 2 - 2/4
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5/5
gym x3
vball x1
trail riding x1
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What about last week Dras?
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hmmm, I don't think I kept up with that week, 2 maybe (1x vball, 1xgym I think)?
Almost all of my spare time went to getting the boat ready for the season that week.
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I'm going to sit this one out, but I'll be in for the next one. Been too busy these days to keep up with all the foura.
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2 swims 1500m and 2000m outdoors.
2 cycles 23m and 11.5m
1 run.
Really pleased with that.
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Week 3 - 4/4
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Week 3 - 2/4
New job is taking it's toll on my time.
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4/5
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I'm not really good at keeping weekly counts anymore, plus now that it's summer, some of my exercise sessions are 10 hours (like a 27-mile walk or a longish rock climb). Probably should start, because I'm slipping a bit. That said, in the last two weeks I
- took over 5mins off my time on my "reference" bike ride (from almost 51 mins to 45:02 and finally knocked off the course record... though only me and my friend really compete on it).
- took 3 mins off my best ever time (Sept 2013) on one of my reference runs (1:27 to 1:24)
- been rock climbing a fair bit, which I haven't been doing much the last few years.
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Week 4 - 4/4
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week 4 7/5 chuffed with that.
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Week 4 - 3/4
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2/5 but those were in the hotel gym at the beach, so counts for more, ya.
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Half way through!
Week 5 - 4/4
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week 5. Thes 10 week blocks fly by!
5/5.
Taper this week.
Event on sunday, and overdid it last week!
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Week 5 - 1/4
Bah.
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4/5
1 x vball
2 x gym
1 x 4 hour "strenuous" hike
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2 swims last week. did a triathalon on Sunday... podium place. ;D
how the hell I dont know. Chuff to bits.
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Congrats Rupert, that's great!
Week 6 - 4/4
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Thx Littleman, my wife Sue has got me into it recently.
I particularly enjoyed the cycle on my tatty old bike.
loved
overtaking expensive kit, and dont mind being overtaken by it either :)
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Week 6 - 2/4
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Congrats Rupert! Sounds fun.
1/5 last week, sickness. Irritating I'm best shape of my life, or close, but still get sick. pffft
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Thx ! Sounds dreadful!
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>>still get sick
Overtraining? Do you track your morning rest pulse at all? Once over the sickness and back to baseline, take a couple days off and take your pulse each morning to establish a baseline waking rest pulse. Then resume your normal schedule. If the waking rest pulse starts to rise, you're likely overtraining as it should normally stay the same or drop as you exercise more.
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I get sick a lot less than I use to, but I believe it is because of cumulative germ exposure from having four kids rather than my state of fitness. Along the lines of what Ergophobe said, I recall reading somewhere that top athletes are on the verge of colds all the time because they over-stress their body.
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Not overtraining this time, I've been on vacation for roughly 2 weeks, but that may have contributed with the small amount of drinking, gluttony and whatnot.
I need to get a heart rate monitor, I don't have one and the cardio equipment I like doesn't have it either.
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Honestly, I have a heart rate monitor (maybe two in fact) and I pretty much never use it. It's not that generally useful in my opinion.
Of course some elite athletes use them a lot, but as a non-elite athlete, I don't feel like there's a lot of benefit.
You can, for example, use a heart rate monitor to try to figure out what your max heart rate is for a given activity which can only really be determined empirically (The "225 minus your age" formulae were developed to keep recovering heart attack patients from getting into trouble and don't really mean all that much, not to mention that max heart rate varies with activity so, for example, max HR tends to be higher running than biking and higher biking than swimming).
You can then use max HR to estimate your lactate threshold without paying for a VO2max/lactate threshold lab test. In trained runners (say college athletes and above), lactate threshold usually is at 92% of max HR, but who knows where it is for guys like us? For us perceived exertion is probably pretty good lactate threshold training. If you're breathing hard, your legs have minor burn and you couldn't carry on a conversation, you're probably pretty much there.
Also all that stuff about "fat burning zone" they used to say back in the 1980s is mostly garbage. Not entirely garbage, but it does not take into account EPOC, which often accounts for most calories burned as a result of exercise. So though in theory it is the zone in which your body is burning fat *during* exercise, it's not the zone that burns the most fat as a result of exercise. The main reason to stay in the fat burning zone is because you will be exercising for more than 2-3 hours, at which point glycogen stores will be completely gone if you haven't been tapping into your fat reserves consistently. This, by the way, is why elite marathoners don't hit the famous 18-mile wall: they're going so fast they get there before glycogen stores are gone (among other reasons).
But do take your pulse in the morning for a full minute before you get out of bed. For me this is pretty a good indicator of health and fitness. Haven't done it in a while myself, but I know four things that drive up my waking pulse: lack of exercise, lack of sleep, abundance of stress and my wife waking up during and earthquake and jumping on top of me yelling. The contrary tends to drive it down.
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>cumulative germ exposure from having four kids rather than my state of fitness
I agree. I've never been as sick as when our 3rd one started in in kindergarden recently. It's absolutely amazing the sh## she brings home to the rest of us. Ugh.
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Yeah heartrate monitor is more a luxury than a necessity. I wanted one primarily when I was getting back in the gym, being older and often pushing myself too hard.
I've found I can judge fairly well where I am by distance and calories burned when on the elliptical for the same time frame. Playing sports, with regular rest intervals, I often get mentally fatigued before physically tiring out.
oh and 3/5 last week, getting back to normal.
gym, vball, motox 1x each.
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getting back to normal.
glad to hear it.
Managed to veg out. 1/5 too knackered. Got beaten hollow in my 1 game of squash.
Not counting a 500m swim with daughter, as we pretty much floated round. It was fun.
Starting again, but no big goal yet, except a 1.5 miler with said daughter in sept. Need to book another event.
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Week 7 - 4/4
And managed to celebrate the 4th and go to a wedding and still eat sensibly -- which is victory for me.
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Week 7 - 2/4
>still eat sensibly -- which is victory for me
Would be for me too. Well done.
Taking 3 weeks off from Friday, 1 week in Greec, Crete with the in-laws, 2 weeks in our summer house afterwards. Phew, will need to control myself a bit.
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Phew, will need to control myself a bit.
I have a picture in my head of a cold beer, the hot sun and you licking you lips.... I need to get it out of my head :)
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>Taking 3 weeks off ... Greec, Crete ... summer house ... will need to control myself a bit.
ha.
haha
HAHAHA.
Good luck with that. :-D
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Thanks buddy :)
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Did a couple days of rock climbing during the week and hiked 50 miles last weekend with an overnight pack and lots of vertical. Saw what may be the prettiest section of trail in Yosemite.
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pics?
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last week 4/5.
2 x gym
2 x vball
Looking to finish strong this week, weather permitting.
Committing to 10 this week, assuming no rain in evenings.
5x gym
5x sports
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Week 8 - 4/4
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week 8 was not good so good.
2 games of squash....
oh and a sail on a windy day, bit of core work leaning out, and I cycled there, forgot that. Good thread this, helps me remember some of the positives of the previous week.
soooo 3/5 I guess.
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A couple days rock climbing, a bike ride with a friend... today I did a run that I've been trying to run in under two hours for a few years... I was almost there and then the last couple miles my legs were just dead... end result: 2:03:51. The truth is that I'm happy it was 2:00:07 or something like that.
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Week 9 - 4/4
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Well so much for finishing strong. Worked on a buddy's bike 2 nights last week until about midnight, blew my schedule up.
4/5
at least there was variety:
1 x gym
1 x vball (6 games)
1 x pedal biking
1 x dirt biking
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A pat on the back to all entrants. bloody Marvelous.
I love the variety of Exercise taken. I have always hated Exercise for its own sake, so please keep inspiring me with ideas :)
My next goal is a week in Turkey on one of these activity holidays. My family have said it is fine for me to be taking part in everything. So waterskiing, diving, swimming, sailing, tennis.
the one thast worries me is the waterskiing. without practice I will die after the first day. Any one any experience of how to build the key muscle groups?
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>waterskiing, diving, swimming, sailing, tennis
wow, sounds like fun. Don't forget to leave time for beer.
>Any one any experience of how to build the key muscle groups?
2 main areas - legs, and upper back/shoulders
legs primarily to get up, but you do use them a lot after getting up. I would recommend hack squats (or smith machine squats) if machine available. If not, do weighted lunges.
upper back, mainly the lats, and arms secondary. (You should primarily be using your back to hang on, but arms do get a lot of work too.) Pull ups or any kind of lat machine (rowing machine or lat pull down/pull back). Some bicep curls to help the arms. Something to strengthen your hands if you need it, too.
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Thanks Drastic, I knew you would have some ideas :)
Beer, yes there will be some. Not too much I cannot play early in the morning though. Sports massages every day too :)
OK so no machines in the house, but I do have a few weights.
The pull up bar every day
bicep curls to help the arms.
Hands, yes forgot that forearm burn for holding on.
I needed to google these:
hack squats... yup, never tried those, I can see that working. note to self, borrow neighbours bar weights.
weighted lunges ... Ok do those occasionally, on one of Sues video workouts.
Off to the sea tomorrow for a dash overnighter... given a sunny day, so planning a day in the water. Oh boy I love summer!
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RE: hack squats, I only do these on a machine:
http://bodybuilding24x7.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/hack_squat.jpg
If you do any kind of free weight squat, you need to be sure your form is PERFECT. Otherwise there is a lot of potential for injury. If you have never done them or haven't done them for years you need someone experienced to judge your form and correct you. That machine mostly resolves this issue.
Everything else sounds great, you'll be ready.
For forearms, reverse curl is a good one:
http://www.nicros.com/wp-content/gallery/training-articles/injury-reverse-curl.jpg
We rolling another round? I'm 2/2 so far this week.
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I am basically giving up on squats, I seem to have something in my lower back that dates from my wrestling days in high school that gets irritated from weighted squatting. I've worked on my form a lot, but the problem persists and lasts for days after squatting. I've switched to weighted lunges and my back has been happy since. I do a type of walking lung holding dumbbells, it seems to get the job done judging from the soreness the next day. Interesting, I could do deadlifts without any problems.
Another good upper-back exercise is bent-over rows, works the lats in a different direction. You could do them with a dumbbell or barbell.
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Otherwise there is a lot of potential for injury
eeek, i hate the sound of that. I am up for another round.. I need ispiration, too much work recently.
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I'm in for another round.
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Littleman - have you read any of Mike Boyle's stuff? He's the godfather of "functional strength training" and preps elite athletes for the NFL Combine, Olympic athletes and so on. He basically says he the only people he will train using traditional back squats are athletes who need it for the NFL Combine. Otherwise he thinks the risk of wrecking a mult-million dollar athlete is too high.
Instead he has people do Bulgarian split squats, front squats single-leg squats, etc. Dan Jon (Olympic shotputter and age-group world champion in Highland Games) has a strong preference for split squats over walking lunges. I like walking lunges myself..
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Just in from a 15.2 mile (24.4km) run with over 3300 feet (1000m) of elevation gain. Typically I start low and run high. This time I reversed it and so I had to do the climb on tired legs. Feeling a little sick.... but good.
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Ergophobe, I haven't read any of Boyle's stuff, but that is very good information and makes me think I am doing the right thing.
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$1 for 3 days to access to lots of his articles and a bunch of other stuff
http://www.strengthcoach.com/
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Ergophobe yes thanks for the tip.