Raining, Training and Sun - What the Coach got up to this week
- Active Living Active Living
- Aug 4, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Sep 29, 2024
HELOOO and Welcome to my weekly chit chat about what I keep myself busy with.
After last week I had a couple of questions,
1. Why do you train so much?
2. I don't have the time. Do I have to do the same?
Let's Start with question number 2, I don't have the time, Do I have to do the same?
The short answer is NO, you do not have to do the same as me, because our journey's are all different.
BUT if you have a specific goal in mind, there are minimum standards that has to be held and minimum training hours that has to be done, for you to achieve the goal, do it injury free and in a place where you will be able to do it well, so that you enjoy it and NOT feel like you are dying.
Remember that if something is a priority...YOU will have the time for it.
We as coaches juggle this question every time we do a program especially when it is aimed at a certain endurance event.
REMEMBER, the athletes we coach and how they get through the event, is also a mirror for our business and coaching skills. IF we do it wrong and get it wrong...it hurts the athlete and the name of our business.
Question 2 - why do you train so much?
I love moving my body, I am able to move my body and after my journey, of being close to not being with you all a couple of times since 2017, I see it as a privilege.
Then I sit behind a screen, like now, a big portion of my day, and we all know that there are minimum amount of movement required to keep our bodies healthy.
Also - Some of my goals going into 2025 now - requires me to be a bit more pro-active in my training as I know that my body cannot handle a " fast and furious" training load. Slow and steady wins the race.
My aims, minimum standards and non negotiables for the week.
Do 8000 - 10 000 steps a day - average for the week
Do at least 30 minutes of exercise a day where I get my heart and blood pumping - my heart is a muscle too, it needs to be helped to keep going.
Do strength training at least 3 times a week for body muscle preservation - as we age we loose 1% of our muscle mass each year.
Vary my training load and impact so I have a balanced body and reduce injuries when I do what I love.
Apply the 80/20 rule with my nutrition and make sure I am not overly obsessed but stay inline with my goals overall.
Have you set your minimum standards for yourself?
What is your non negotiables when it comes to looking after your body?
NUTRITION -
This is a topic I will share more about as we go along. Mine by far is not perfect, in fact, I am human!
But all in all a better week in the sense of better water intake, more protein and generally better choices,
small wins is what we are after! That is what we celebrate
SESSIONS ACHIEVED THIS WEEK.
Run 3
Strength 3
Mobility 1
Swim 1
Bike 1
NEVER SKIP A MONDAY!!!
I did A quick 30 minute Strength workout - A Machine circuit and I am happy with the strength increases I am seeing.
Monday is run day and saw me doing a pyramid run of around 53 minutes of which 32 minutes was at threshold to maximum load and speed. Combo of hills and speed.
Honestly after my weekend of eating whatever, my body struggled and I sweated a Lot!
SO I saw it as a detox and conditioning session LOL.
There will be more of these in future as this session is incredibly versatile and gives you the varying speed and program to not get bored on that hamster wheel.
The average speed for the intervals was around 6:15 min per km - then I made sure I do the recovery and cooldown well to stop muscle stiffness.
Tuesday - Today was a conditioning and strength workout -
exercise/Swiss Balls are an incredible tool to use. it works on balance, stability and you get a full body workout with every move you do.
incorporating a Swiss ball allows not only variation in your workouts but also helps that small muscle activation that is hard to do, you don't know how to target on their own.
The idea of adding variation is something, some people frown upon, but if you cannot do the same workout every week for weeks on end....its ok.
As long as you apply the progressive overload principle by making sure you increase the load as you go along - you will still get results/
WEDNESDAY - Run day - and we did a track workout.
Speed and speed endurance is such an important part of your running and running conditioning.
This not only enables muscle activation that helps make us strong, it builds and stresses our cardiovascular system so it can work at an higher rate without fatiguing.
I am not going to go into too much details.
I have some track training tips on My Tips page - click the link to read more,
Back to what We did - it was 600m threshold and higher speed intervals with 300m walking rest - THESE ARE BRUTAL - and trust me when I say halfway through you want to give up.
But like anything in life - results does not come from giving up. Results come from doing the hard things.
Below is my 600m intervals - you will see that HR wise I was well into my Threshold and maximum zones ( Garmin users - Yellow and Red Zones) speed wise you will see I did loose it a bit on the second to last one , but managed to pick it up again.
PB's ARE made on the track - Let's do this!
Thursday looks more impressive than it is LOL.
I had a slow Resistance band workout with the girls complete with lots of laughs and military planks/Push ups, inchworms.
Having training partners makes days that can be boring fun!
I did Tuesday's planned cycle today, and it was awesome.
Really felt strong and my leg was happy with a bit of higher cadence intervals too.
How is that for doing what 's suppose to LOL. Perfect HR reaction to my interval intensity.
At the end I had Some SMR ( Aka Heat recovery) I try and get into the sauna at least 2-3 times a week for about 15 minutes.
Some people do Ice baths...I do Sauna's.
Some of the benefits of using a sauna.
1. Improved Circulation and Blood pressure - improved heart health
2. Increased recovery after exercise
3. Helps ease aches and pains and stiff joints
4. Better Breathing for Asthma and COPD Sufferers
5. Clearer skin
6. Detoxification and heavy metal excretion
7. Fever colds and fevers
8. improved sleep.
Friday is swim day and I actually made it to the pool this morning - a nice 1 km swim - nothing serious or fast but its 1km
Had a coach look at my strokes and breathing and fixed a couple of things.
Now I just need to stop overthinking the breathing when I turn around and get swim fit.
This is the year for doing hard things!
HAPPY FRIDAY!
SATURDAY WAS A GLORIOUS DAY!!!
All Though the day started out at FREEZING temperatures - the day turned out nice and warm. I decided to go run a bit later and what a perfect decision that was!!!!
I started in Winter kit and lost all the layers within the first km! we have beautiful trails in our area and the aim once again was 90mins or 10km whichever comes first and hit the Hills hard. That is exactly what I did, you can see that in my face on the one picture! I was around 320m of climbing in the 90min
Legs felt it, lungs still has to play catch up BUT I enjoyed it thoroughly and my heart is happy in nature! My well used and muddy shoes tells the whole story!
Trail running in general takes on a bit of different way of training, where road running is mostly based on mileage and pace, trail running is about elevation and time on your legs.
Terrain, weather and elevation differs on every run so you cannot match one run to the next.
Road running the surface and conditions are normally very much the same, so comparing one run to the next is much easier
Sunday - its a wet day again and the weather man got it wrong all the way.
Contrary to popular belief this job actually has quite a bit of admin and I used the weather to get some things done.
I wanted to go for a run but the weather was just not playing ball, My brain couldn't face the gym, so I ended up doing a stretch session at home.
That's a wrap for this week! See you all next week!
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