On My Bike

After pretty much having the winter off from any type of fitness activity, this month I have started cycling again in order to start picking up my fitness levels ahead of a hoped for return to running in the spring.

Here are some pictures of my 'wheels'.

I ride my stationary bike at least twice a week in the evenings for 45 minutes. I've started riding in the evenings as I'm really not that good at getting up early unless I have to, IE to make and early start for work good or when I was running to fit in an early run. Also if I'm not up and about early then I can't be blamed for waking the kids too early.

After I'm finished on the bike I generally stretch for a half hour or so as well as doing some calf raises and some self massage on my calves to try and keep them from getting too stiff while I'm not running.

Here's my 'road bike'.

I take this baby out for a ride in the weekends. The last ride was only about 45 minutes but I will build that up to an hour in the coming weeks. She might not look as sleek and pacey as some other racing bikes out there, but I can still get a good work out done on her. I like having the option of doing some off road mountain biking also, though this isn't that frequent either.

I'm also fitting in a small amount of strength training on my weights bench.

At the moment its just leg extensions to work on strengthening the muscles around the knee so that when I start running these will hopefully be up to the job.

Last weekend was Jack's 7th birthday and we celebrated by taking both boys plus three of his mates to the local wave pool. There was also a hydro slide there which they all loved. Here's a pic of Jack and Sam exiting the slide.

Am I Ready to Race?

Another week has passed and here's this weeks numbers;

Monday - Run 25 minutes
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - Run 30 minutes
Thursday - Swim 1000 m (30 minutes)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Run 35 minutes
Sunday - Rest

Am I having too many rest days? I should really try and do at least one more day of cross training of either biking or weights. I have both an exercycle and some weights at home but neither have been getting much use of late. The difficulty is fitting in one of these workouts into the weekly schedule. They would involve an early start to get the workout done before work as evenings are pretty much taken up by getting home from work in time to spend usually not much more than an hour with the boys before they are in bed then relaxing with M and then maybe some computer time before I hit the sack.

While I can handle rising early if it that's what needs to be done to get a run in, I'm not so keen when it comes to other forms of training for some reason. I guess the other reason is that other than aiming to get back to a reasonable state of "running" fitness, I have no other goal at present to aim for and thus motivate me to make time for an extra weekly workout.

One thing I have been contemplating is the Rotorua Half Marathon on March 16 next year. This is about thirteen weeks away and if I'm going to give it a shot I really need to start a build up for this now. Am I ready?

I've been back running now for two months and (touch wood) the shin splints have not got any worse. I still have some minor soreness but nothing so bad that it hinders my running and so far I have been able to control it with icing.

So with two months successfully behind me, what I have got to lose by aiming for March 16 as my comeback race? I have dug around online and found a twelve week half marathon programme which I will use as a guide. The programme does call for back to back runs on two days a week, something which I have not normally done due to my shin problems.

Maybe with the race in mind I will have the motivation to substitute one of those runs for some cross training?

Have a good week.





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Training this week

Here's what i have done this week;

Thursday - Bodypump
Friday - Swim 1100 meters
Saturday - Rest
Sunday - Stationary bike 50 minutes
Monday - Elliptical trainer 40 minutes
Tuesday - Swim 500 meters (goggles must be getting old and could not fit them so they wouldn't leak).
Tuesday PM - Bodybalance

Two more weeks of 'rest' before i contemplate running again. When/if I do it will be short and slow to start with probably with some walking breaks also just to ease back into it.

As i said last post my shin still doesn't 'feel' 100% right so i might even end up extending this rest period until I'm totally satisfied that it's okay. No point coming back too soon is there!

The knee pain i mentioned last post has gone. I'm thinking i must if hurt the knee when doing one of the exercises aimed at strengthening my shin/ankle muscles which involved rapid jumping. I stopped that last week and within a few days the knee came right.

Later.




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Kayaking the Puhoi River

This weekend I enjoyed a leisurely Kayak up the Puhoi River. Puhoi is a small settlement about 40 minutes north of Auckland city, famous for it's cheese and it's historic Pub. I was with a group of about 20 work colleagues enjoying an afternoon of team building.

The people at Puhoi River Canoe Hire sorted us out with some fantastic kayaks. The paddle started at the Wenderholm, a gorgeous Regional Park complete with beach, inner harbour, parkland and bush walks. We set out from the inner harbour and paddled up river with the incoming tide. It was a slightly overcast day and we we paddling into a breeze which was almost strong enough to negate the helpful push of the tide, at least until we reached the calmer sections up river and away form the openness of the harbour.

I'm a pretty inexperienced paddler having only done it about three times previously and this would have been my longest paddle yet. I eventually found what I would call an easy paced and economical technique which I was able to keep going for reasonable periods before either slowing to take in the scenery and bird life or to chat to workmates. All up the paddle took about two hours.

In total by the time I explored a small tributary and the upper reaches of the river before turning back to finish point in Puhoi, I estimate (with the help of Mapmyrun), I'd covered about 7 miles (11 K). Here's a map of the river.

After the paddle we jumped into the cars we had left in Puhoi earlier and headed back to the Wenderholm reserve for a barbeque and a few quiet beers.

Weekly wrap

Not much training this week. One swim of 40 minutes about 1300 meters. One aqua run session of 30 minutes. The aqua running was the longest session I've done yet and I put a lot more effort in this time.

Back into the running this week. Have a good one.

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Missing Running and a meeting with Dean Karnazes

I suppose I'm going through what every runner has at some point. That is experiencing the frustration of not being able to run through injury or illness. It's ten days now since my Podiatrist said to take a two week break to rest my Shin Splints and while I'm not the sort of person to let those frustrations show outwardly, it's just a feeling on the inside that a part of you wants to get out and run. I know though that if I'm to improve longer term this is something I have to work through.

I'm also a little concerned that two weeks might not be enough rest. We had practice last night for Jack's Soccer team. The practice went for about 45 minutes or so and afterwards my shin was almost as sore as it would have been after a run, and that was just after running a kids Soccer practice!

I went to the pool on Tuesday intending on a 1500 meter swim, but only managed about half that before I called it quits. The motivation just wasn't there on the day and I used the excuse of leaking goggles to call it a day. Is that weak or what!

I was back at the pool today and tried some Aqua Jogging as suggested by Ewen last week. I went in the deep water and used a vest unlike my last dabble with this activity which I found to be a bit of a waste of time. Today whilst I certainly felt in a bit more in the legs it still wasn't the cardio workout that I feel I need. I ended up doing about 15 minutes of Aqua Jogging before I reverted to the lanes and swam a good 700 meters. The swim felt good and no problems with leaking goggles today.

Tomorrow moring I'll get up early and jump on the exercyle for 40 minutes or so.

Mike raised a good point about not repeating mistakes of my past. I can't help wondering if I'm being a bit optimistic by wanting to build up to a half marathon in just eight weeks of training (that's if I can start up next week). May be I should flag the half and just go for a more gradual increase in mileage building the to Auckland Half Marathon in October.

This weekend ultra runner Dean Karnazes, the man who famously ran 50 marathons in 50 days, is in Auckland as part of his down-under tour. I thought I would pop along to hear him speak. I don't know too much about Dean, other than his 50 marathons in 50 days thing, so I would be interested to hear any stories or comments from other RBF members who may have had the chance to meet and/or run with him.




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Thank God it's Friday

The end of the week is here and what a busy week it's been. I wasn't able to get to the pool on Monday or Wednesday due to being too busy at work, but I had no intention of missing out on my weekly swim workout and headed down to the pool at lunch time today.

- Distance - 1200 m
- Time - 37 minutes.

I know that's pretty slow and I'm still keen for any comments or tips on improving my speed. Today I experimented a little bit.

- I usually breath every second stroke to the right side. Today I tried breathing every third stroke on alternate sides and also breathing every four strokes to the right. It's probably something I just need to persevere with a bit more but I could probably find a bit more speed if I went with one of these methods.

- I think I've got quite a slow arm turnover so I tried concentrating on pulling through the water faster. I'm sure that helped with my speed a bit but I would definitely tire quicker and my form/technique would probably suffer after too long.

- Kicking is another area which I could probably work on. I seem to have quite a slow kick compared to the faster swimmers.

The Physio is happy with the progress of the Calf. I've had no ill effects from the two lite runs this week. Will go for 6-7 K tomorrow.


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The Weekends Bike Ride

Did my usual ride this afternoon. I like to do one bike ride a week if I can. Main reason is that I have found if I run too much or on consecutive days I am injury prone, shin splints in particular has been my main problem. Biking offers a great cross training option though and with my present calf strain still keeping me from running, biking and swimming are my only options for maintaining fitness at present. I've only got a mountain bike as I like to get off road when I can also(which isn't much) but it still allows me a good workout on the roads.

Today's ride is a mixture of some good hill climbs and faster sections. Good conditions, an average run with the traffic lights and only a few idiots on the roads.

- Distance - 20Km (12.4 miles)
- Time - 56:30
- Ave speed - 21.2 KPH (13.2 MPH)
- Max HR 163
- Ave HR 143

Calf is coming along slowly but surely. Hope to get out for light run on Thursday this week.


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A Thursday Swim

Today's Swim.

- Distance - 1300 metres
- Time - 39 minutes

The swim felt pretty good. I got into a nice rhythm after about 500 metres or so and was able to keep that going for the duration.

I'm a pretty slow swimmer and I guess this probably comes down to technique. Other swimmers often seem to just cruise by me with ease. I've never had any formal swimming lessens so if I'm going to increase my speed I would say I'm probably going to need a few lessons from a swimming coach at some stage.

I have concentrated on increasing the power in my kicking and making a nice smooth stroke. My stroke and pull through the water is perhaps a little slow and I guess I could try to pick this up as I swim more often.

When I'm running again though I'll only be swimming once a week so there won't be much opportunity to work on this.

I welcome any tips /comments on improving my swimming and speed.


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Aqua jogging

Did 30 minutes of aqua jogging today.

Apparently it's supposed to be a good method of maintaining fitness when injured while using the same muscles you do when you're running.

Maybe I wasn't doing it properly but it didn't seem that hard and certainly wasn't an aerobic workout.

Will stick to swimming and biking for the next week I think. Hopefully the calf will be alright by the end of next week.


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A Swim then Physio

After the Sunday's run which ended with a strained calf muscle, I am off running for the next week or so and will be spending a bit of time in the pool for the next wee while.

Today's Swim;

- Distance - 1200 metres
- Time - 34 Minutes

Reasonably happy with that effort. It's the longest I've swam for several months as I have been limiting my swims recently to 1000 meters. Given I'm not going to be running for the next week or so I felt I should up my distance in the pool to try and compensate.

On 1 April I am wanting to enter a short Triathlon. It's a 400m swim, 10K Bike and 4K Run. I can only hope my calf will be okay by then. I won't really risk it before that. I will stick to biking, swimming and jogging in the pool for the next week. Depending on how that goes I might test the calf on a short run around the middle of next week.

I'm a little unsure about whether the Pose Method has contributed to the calf strain or not. There's no question that the method does place more load on your calfs and maybe I just haven't done enough of the suggested strengthening in that area before I took up the new method.

I went to a Physiotherapist this afternoon to get the calf checked out. He confirmed that it's a minor strain and that I should be okay again in about two weeks. It's clear though that I remain generally pretty stiff through both calfs which is likely also to be the cause of the ongoing shin troubles. I have another appointment on Friday and hopefully we can work on that some more. No doubt further stretching exercises to come!


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Saturday Morning Bike Ride

I like to mix my training up a bit with swimming and biking, on top of the running, to add a bit of variety plus with my history of shin splints I'm a bit gun shy of running more than three times a week or on consecutive days. So today I went for a bike ride.

Distance - 20KM
Time - 56:20
Max HR - 162
Ave HR - 140

The ride is one 20K loop around my neighborhood on Auckland's North Shore. It's challenging enough with several hills which test me and some longish flatter sections where you can get some reasonable speed up. I pushed myself all the way today and ended with a PB for this ride, even though I was stopped by a few sets of lights.

Don't you just hate it when you're on a ride and you see some traffic lights in the distance and you push that little bit harder trying to make it in time only for them to go red just before you get there. That seems to happen to me a few time today.


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Todays training

No running again today, still have sore calfs after last Fridays run!! Hopefully I will get out tomorrow.

Went for a swim instead. Swam 1,000 meters in about 28 minutes.

I use swimming as a means of cross training as I have been susceptible to shin splints if I run too often. For that reason I only run at the most three times a week body permitting. I will swim once or twice a week as well as at least one bike ride (stationary bike in need).

My one or two swim sessions a week give me a great all round and particularly upper body workout, it ensures I don't become burnt out from too much running and helps to maintain my overall fitness plus adding variety to my exercise programme.

I only really got into swimming regularly around the middle of last year as a means of maintaining my fitness (or more accurately improving fitness) while I took a break from running due to my shins. I wanted to enter the Auckland Half Marathon, which is in October each year, and I needed a way to maintain and improve my fitness while I was not able to run.

I have never been one for swimming and would have to be one of the slowest in the pool. When I started I could hardly put two lengths together. However I found that with just two swims a week I was very quickly able to increase the number of lengths I was doing and within a few weeks I was swimming 20 lengths in a session. I'm still not that fast, however when you're swimming for fitness it's not your speed that matters so much, it's all about time in the pool.

I kept up two swim sessions a week for about two months while I was resting my shins and when it came time to get back into some serious training on the road again, I found that I had lost no speed or stamina for running at all. The fitness I had built up from swimming enabled my to pick up my running as if I had never stopped. I would even say that I was probably stronger and fitter than I had been in years largely due to the swimming I had been doing.

To this day I still swim once a week for at least 20 lengths which takes me about 30 minutes. Being susceptible to ongoing problems with my shins if I run too much, I'm currently limiting my runs to three a week.


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