Training too hard?

Check In From – Simon Key

Well I have to say that today’s training was very interesting I managed my normal training session but somehow completed it in just over 30 shaving nearly 15 mins off the time. This begs a question. Am I going to fast or is the training routine that I am following not difficult enough? Someone needs to tell me because I really am not sure if I should step up to the next one.

Anyway, I should say that the one thing that was bothering me was my knee I though this was supposed to be a low impact alternative to getting out on the bike to help to ease me in. As I have already had problems with my knee in the past. I don’t want that to blight this ride too.

So going to see how it feels in the morning and try to decide if I want to step up to the next level next week.

It should also be pointed out that Tee (the person I train with) really stepped up her game this week and made some major improvements to her swimming technique. So well done Tee. Keep it up 🙂

I will put the swim session that I used today up on the blog later today, or tomorrow.

Training early again. With my sandwich bag.

Check In From – Simon Key

So it’s back to training again at stupid o’clock in the morning with may sandwich bag tucked under my arm! Going to do the same session that I have done for the past few weeks as it seems to be at the right level but then the following week I might try the next level up. I decided I am going to post on here each post where I have been in the pool just in case anyone is interested. Then next week, I might change of up depending on how I get on in the morning. I guess we will have to see if I manage my goal that I have set.

Wish me luck 🙂

Its been a bad week!

Check In From – Roger Key

The eagle eyed among you may have noticed that all the blogging about getting fit has been done by Simon recently. There is a good reason for that – ‘fit’ is the last word one could use to descrbe me over the last week!!!

It started with a bit of a sniffle and then went into full blown man-flu with complications. Helena says that its only a cold with a cough but she’s a woman and doesn’t understand how man flu (or the M4N1 virus as I like to call it) can affect a gent like me! I have been coughing, sneezing, using vast quantities of Blackcurrant Lemsip (the lemon flavour is foul!) and coughing for England; Victoria Pendleton could not have done better. I did brave the freezing weather on Friday to fulfill my commitments at the Watercress Line – well a man can’t let an engine down can he? – but I got into serious grief afterwards because I felt rotten again on Saturday. “serves you right” and “I told you so” were regularly used comments; I retired to the lower side of the duvet and waited until things cooled off.

What has all this to do with my training you may well ask? Well its one thing to stand on a cold platform smiling, warming your hands on a hot steam engine and generally being nice to the public – its quite another standing in the freezing cold garage that Mark calls his gym, coughing and wheezing and pretending to enjoy myself! The down side, or the even downer side, though is that I appear to have increased my target considerably and the consequence appears to be that I have put on an additional five pounds feeding my cold. Well, that is unless the scales are not working and that, according to Helena, is about as likely as the temperature reaching 20 degrees tomorrow!

So what that means is that from next week I have to redouble my efforts. The bike will have to come out of storage, I’ll have to force myself over to Mark’s gym so that he can’t call me a chicken – even though that’s his favourite word at the moment – and I’ll have to say no to that extra donut every day. I may starve, I may look like a twig with muscles, but I will finish the Night Rider in front of Mark and Simon (but maybe not Mary!)

If that thought brings a little smile to your face, and you haven’t already done so, please go to our web page and add a few more pence – pretty please?

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/thebrotherhood

Roger

Sandwich bags are brilliant!!!

Check In From – Simon Key

Well getting up this morning was hard work but at the same time well worth it managed 44 lengths again today.

But I bet that your wondering what I’m talking about when I say sandwich bags are brilliant? It a bit of a long story but basically I wanted to take my training plan with me to the pool, but last time I tried that, the ink on the paper ran in the first five mins. So my theory was to laminate the sheets that I wanted to take with me. I didn’t have time to do that this week with everything else that I had to do so I put the training plan into a sandwich bag. I didn’t think it would work to well but you know what? It was perfect!! I even put the training plan totally in the water and it was just fine.

So my tip for this week is that if you want to take a training plan in to the pool with you don’t bother with laminating. Just pop in in a sandwich bag.

Anyway, for the training this week I managed another 44 laps In 45 mins and stuck with the plan that I used last time round. Did really well although I have to say I was finding it a little harder in the middle of the swim maybe I was pushing a bit too hard but non the less, looking forward to next time out. Maybe after a few weeks might be able to look at upping my game.

Back to the gym again

I missed the gym last week. Well when I say missed, I don’t mean it was a great loss to me because it wasn’t. No it was more that I didn’t actually go. Mark convinced me that we needed to keep going or we would never make it round London.

WhenI got round there today though Mark did not look the most enthusiastic of Gym Partners. I was ready to make a quick dash for the door but a smidgen of bravery caught hold and we went off to the gym.

Not too bad in the end, we managed a good 12.5 minutes on both the treadmill AND the crosstrainer. You may laugh but this is a 25% increase on what we have done in the past. It helped having QVC on the tellyt in the gym as the DIY programmes was on!! We followed this up with our ususal seven exercises on the multi-gym. I must say we did very well in the end and I actually felt a bit better.

So, with a bit more working out with Mark and after half term, I think I’ll have to break out my steed, dust it off and face the open road. Just a few miles to begin with – don’t want to appear enthusiastic – but then I’ll have to rack it up a bit

If you fancy joining me, there’s plenty of room on the road in front of me.

An interesting training tool.

Ok so this week has been interesting and difficult all in one. Over the weekend I was ill so I was not able to go swimming on Sunday morning. To be honest I was not able to move out of my bed for the whole day. I was disappointed to say the least because to be honest, I have actually really started to enjoy getting out and being able to focus on some goals.

So, with that in mind, as you will know if you have been following me I have been looking for a way to train and keep track of my progress while swimming. I found this great site which allows me to keep track and set targets for my swims and it also gives me some fitness routines to follow. It’s from Zoggs. The people who make the swimming equipment and bits like that. You can find the site to try for yourself at;

swim4fitness

It really works for me because you can quite quickly find the level at which you want to swim. You could be swimming to tone, for fitness, for performance they even have ones for pregnant women and those training for triathlons!!!

It also helps because you can set achievable goals based on your swim sessions which means that you can clearly see how much you have achieved.

So I have started to use that this week and will be able to update you with progress as we go.

So now for this weeks stats;

Lengths – 46

Time – 45 min

Total distance to date – 5000 meters or 3.1 miles

Off we go again

It was very cold in Mark’s gym tonight – he has no heating. I tried to persuade him to obtain a jet space heater, but he was too mean and said we needed to exercise to keep warm.

Well with four layers of clothing Istarted my workout. 10 minutes on the treadmill and 10 minutes on the cross-trainer – I hate the cross-trainer – is our warm up routine. Thank God Mark was feeling unwell – it made me look quite healthy!!! I managed a full 3.3 Km on the cross trainer and1 Km on the treadmill. Couldn’t measure my heart rate as my phone had refused to move out of the kitchen!!!

Then on to the weights. We have moved the weights up a notch – don’t know what that means but its flipping hard!! Why does it have to be painfuil to be good for you?!!! Anyway an hour and a half later we emerged from the gym, Mark looking muc h as he did when he went in and me crawling to the door, I hate being old!!!

Next week we have promised that we will up our game a bit – lets hope Mark forgets this and that the temperature increases so that I can get on with some REAL training on the bike!!!!!