Hiatus due to illness

Have not been feeling great over the last week.

2009-11-3 - had slight headache
2009-11-4 - developed bad sinus with mild heache

As such took the whole week off to recover.

2009-11-8 - out for a very short, light jog (1km) with no ill affects.

2009-11-9
Lunch - went for intervals on Concept II rower 10 sec - to 90 sec.

Food
Breakfast - back on shredded wheat
Lunch - finally back on salads. Rocket, feta, almonds, pine nuts, cucumber, tuna and generous helping of garlic-infused olive oil.
Bad - eat to many sweets and had 4 coffees and no green tea.

Week 4 - PHA workout 2 + 3

2009-10-28 - Wednesday
Morning: PHA Workout as usual. No change with no issues
Lunch: Spin class - different instuctor from usual. pushed quite hard

Week 3 weigh in:

Weight: 12st 7lb / 79.4 kg
Body fat 23.9 %
Body fat mass 18.9 kg

Very slight improvement on weight but good improvement in body fat.
Am noticing change in belly - has reduced a lot but need to control my binging at the weekends to see serious improvement

2009-10-29 - Thursday
Morning: PHA Workout as usual. For shoulder press used the 9kg weights twice.
Lunch: Interval session on the rower. 10 - 90 secs work/active rest 10 - 70 sec work to half that at active rest
3 pints of cider plus glass of wine after work

Week 4 - PHA workout 1

2009-10-27

Morning: First PHA workout of the week. Got to bed at 11:00 so was well rested. No shoulder or knee issues.
Lunch: Spin class

Food:
- Have been eating two shredded wheat in the mornings. Not too bad, a piece of fruit mid-mornings and then a roll with ham and chese after spinning.

Week 3 - PHA workout 4 + Spin

2009-10-22
Morning: last PHA Workout of the week. Right shoulder only slightly complaining.

2009-10-23
Lunch: Last workout of the week. Super spin at lunchtime.

Weekend eating (not a good weekend for food):
Friday - Several pints on the Friday night
Saturday - Big feed of mexican food
Sunday - bottle of wine with a very large plate of chicken pesto penne
Monday - several sausage sandwiches

Week 3 - PHA workout 1 - 3

PHA workouts in the CS gym.

2009-10-19
Morning: PHA Workout as usual. Left knee complained a bit on the step-jog but very mild. Right shoulder ached a bit on during the reverse flyes.
Lunch: Interval session on the rower. 10 - 90 secs work/active rest (increase by 10 secs each time) 10 - 50 sec work to half that at active rest (increase by 10 secs each time; by half for active rest).

2009-10-20
Morning: PHA Workout as usual. No knee issues. Right shoulder still felt ached but less then the previous day.
Evening: Slow 2.2k run
- Glass and a half of white wine
- Felt very tired after morning workout so did not do lunch time spin. Went to bed at 10:30 to get some rest.

2009-10-21
Morning: PHA Workout as usual. Right shoulder same as previous day.
Lunch: Interval session on the rower. 10 - 90 secs work/active rest 10 - 70 sec work to half that at active rest
- Two pints of cider

Week 3 weigh in:

Weight: 12st 7lb / 79.7 kg
Body fat 26.0 %

Though little weight has come off and starting to feel a difference though there is plenty of work to be done.

Maintenance week

2009-10-12 to 2009-10-16

Was away so tried simply to maintian using the hotel gym:
2009-10-12 - PHA workout. Did not get all of the exerciese done.
2009-10-13 - PHA workout 2. Not all exerices done but got further then previous day
2009-10-14 - Interval workout on rower 10 sec up to 90 sec with equal active rest.

Diet:
- did well Monday and Tuesday.
- Wednesday as had large pasta plate on Wednesday
- Thursday had burger and chips
- Weeekend was quite unhealthy though next for an easy 2.2k run on Sunday

Week 2 - PHA workout 3 + Super Spin Class

2009-10-09 Friday

Location: CS gym
Time: Morning before work

Started my third of PHA workouts.

Location CS gym
Time: During lunch

Super spin. After the spin class discussed my running with one of the trainers. They tested my hamstring flexibility by getting me to lie on the ground and lifted my legs by the ankle making sure I didn't contract any leg muscles.

Then the trainer applied serious pressure to my jaw muscles (thought my jaw was going to snap) and got me to open my mouth while he was doing it. He then retested my hamstrings and they showed an improvement! He said this was due to connections in the myofascial tendons/muscles (?).

He also told me to get a lower body structural balance test.

Questions:
- How does myofascial release work?
- What are myofascial trigger points?
- What is a lower body structural balance test?

Week 2 - PHA workout 2 + interval on rower

2009-10-08 Thursday

Location: CS gym
Time: Morning before work

Second PHA workout of week 2. For the shulder press am using 8kg for the 1st set and 9kg for the 2nd set.

Location CS gym
Time: During lunch

Intervals on the rowing machine (set to highest resistence). Warm up for 5 minutes at 35 rpm (revolutions per minute) then
- 10 seconds at 44 rpm with 10 seconds at 35 rpm (active rest)
- 20 seconds at 44 rpm with 20 seconds at 35 rpm
- 30 seconds at 44 rpm with 30 seconds at 35 rpm
- 40 seconds at 44 rpm with 40 seconds at 35 rpm
- up 90 seconds.

Week 2 - PHA workout 1 + Interval on Treadmill

2009-10-07 Wednesday

Location: CS gym
Time: Morning before work

Started my second of PHA workouts. As routine except now I added weights to the lunges.
I use 5kg for the first set and 6kg for the 2nd. The sets of 20 push-ups at the start of the workout are tough.

Location CS gym
Time: During lunch

Intervals on the treadmill. Warm up for 5 minutes at 9 kph. Then 800 metres at 12 kph followed by 400 at 8.5 kph. Repeated 4 times. Cool down doing:
- 1 minute at 7.2 kph
- 1 minute at 6.4 kph
- 1 minute at 5.6 kph
- 1 minute at 4.8 kph
- 1 minute at 4.0 kph

Week 2 weigh in:

Weight: 12st 8lb / 79.9 kg
Body fat 38.0 %

Weight is down but somehow my body fat is up 8.9%!

Question:
What the difference between intervals and HIIT? What makes an interval high intensity?

Super spin

Since I was away for the weekend until yesterday I did not start my training as planned. I went to a super spin in the CS gym. Really pushed it during the hour long class. Hoped to get up early to start week two of PHA workout.

Weekly Schedule

Now that I've got into the PHA workout I need to sort out my cardio with it. Here's what I'd like to do for next week to see if it can be done:

HIIT sessions per week: 3
Cardio sessions per week: 3

Monday:
Morning: PHA workout
Lunch: HIIT session

Tuesday:
Lunch: PHA workout

Wednesday:
Morning: PHA workout
Lunch: Spinning Class
Evening: 5k run

Thursday:
Morning: PHA workout
Lunch: HIIT session

Friday:
Morning: HIIT session
Lunch: Spinning Class

Saturday (Optional): 5k to 10k run

The HIIT sessions should last no more then 20 minutes.
The cardio sessions will be including Spinning classes and runs.

I'll review this after three weeks and revise the number of sessions upwards if am not dropping body fat.

Week 1 - PHA workout 4

2009-10-01

4th, and last, PHA workout done for the week. Completed all exercises.
For the squats did 7kg for 1st set, then 8kg for 2nd set.

When squatting need to remember to turn feet slightly out according to:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drsquat12.htm
(author was a power lifter and article written from bodybuilding perspective)

Another article that looks good (but doesn't always quote it's references grrr) states that people should only start deep squatting after gaining strengthen and co-ordination (makes sense):
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0827.htm

Need to Research:
1. General squatting technique

Week 1 - PHA workout 3

2009-09-30

Did a full PHA workout before work. Grabbed an orange on the way to be bus.

Contraindication
- Let knee felt off during the step up but only for one rep. This may have been caused by me going too low in a squat as encouraged by a bystanding gym instructor.
- Low back is usually the first body part of feel tired during this workout. I know I have a lower back so it may be time to work on strengthen it.

Week 1 - PHA workout 2

2009-09-29

Did a lunch time PHA session in Coral. Due to the time constraints I only did up to the first shoulder press.

As a weekly check I'll be doing a weekly weigh in using one of the machines at the gym. While it is very hard to messure body fat accurate the hope is that measuring it under the same conditions will show a downward trend! And the results are:

Weight: 12st 11lb / 81.5 kg
Body fat 29.1 %

This was taken after exercise, at lunch time, well hydrated.

After work I went for a 2.2k run, slow pace.

The workout

I've decided to follow a Peripheral Heart Action (PHA) exercise programme for the next couple of months. It's worked for me before with a different programme but the principles are the same - move the blood from upper to lower body to make the workout hard and more of a cardio-vascular (CV) challenge.

I will be doing this working for the next 6 weeks, 4 times a week before moving onto the next phase of training.

The work out consists of:

- warm up for 5 minutes - usual do this on a rowing machine at 36 RPM and at the highest setting (10) on the drum of rower

- Press-up x 20
- Squat with dumb bells (db) (7 kg)
- Step up x 1 minute per leg

step up and down on steps leading into gym area; stepping up two steps at a time leading with each leg for 1 minute before switching

- Press-up x 20
- Squat with dumb bells (db) 20 reps/8 kg db
- Lunge x 30 secs per leg

currently holding no weights, hands on hips. 30 seconds per leg then switch

- Lateral raise x 15 reps/8 kg db
- Leg raise x 20 sec per leg

using steps, step up one step and raise leg behind, step down

- step-jog x 30 sec per leg

again using steps, step up one step and back down at fast pace

- Reverse flye x 15 reps/6 kg db
- Ball Squat x 20 reps

Placing gym ball between wall and back, lean back inot ball when squating.

- Step-ups x 1 minute per leg
- Reverse flye x 15 reps/7 kg db
- Ball Squat x 20 reps
- Lunge
- Shoulder Press x 20 reps/8 kg
- Ball hamstring curl
- Side-leg lift x 30 sec per leg

again using steps,, with left or right side to the steps, step up and raise leg as high as possible

- Shoulder Press x 20 reps/8 kg
- Ball hamstring curl x 20 reps
- step-jog x 30 sec per leg
- Basic crunch x 30 reps
- Reverse curl x 20 reps

- Cool down
- Stretch

The Rules

I've created this blog in an attempt to get fit after a rather bad year of mistakes training for my 2nd marathon. My goals are:

a) complete the workouts I've set for myself over the next few months
b) get to 12% body fat
c) gain back my fitness that I've lost by concentrating only on running
d) re-taining for a marathon at a pace I feel comfortable with and enjoy

I will change the above into SMART goals sound but these are the broad goals. And now for the rules. Instead of writing up each day what I've done as it should be the same I'm writing down the rules that I first used to loose all the weight, tone up and get fit. When I break these rules I'll write it up.

The rules:
1. Drink 2 litres of water a day
2. Add at least one cup of green tea a day
3. Eat 6 to 8 times day - small and oftern
4. Breakfast should be wheatbix or All bran or porridge.
5. Stick with it at the weekends
6. Have a mid-moring and mid-afternoon snack of either yoghurt and fruit or handful of mixed nuts or combo of all 3.
7. Go for a salad with some meat for lunch (avoid dressing and only use a tbsp of olive oil and lemon juice)
8. For dinner have a steak/fish or chicken
9. Stop eating after 8:00 or if not at least 2 hours before bed
10. If hungry after 8:00 go for low fat yogurt (those Irish yogurts - the Diet ones are great).
11. Never go hungry.
12. Use a stopwatch to time hungry pangs. After eating, kick it off. If after 20 minuts and still hungry eat something.
13. Avoid starchy carbs like breads or pasta.