This week I decided to take up something for lent. I have never taken or given anything up before but for the next 40 days once a week I am going to commute to work by bike. This week was my first week and it was a great experience, on my ride home i decided to step up the pace and increase my miles, making use of the lighter evenings. The next morning the weather was ideal for cycling I was greeted by big blue skies and a warming sunrise as I pedalled the 33KM route to work.
I arrived at work feeling exhilarated and ready to face the day! Happy to have not sat in a single jam not had to wait for a single light (my route is all back roads) I had had a stress free journey to work, burnt some calories and released endorphin’s.
Training to gain strength and increase my endurance.
Today was week three at the gym, I started off warming up on the cross-trainer before heading over to the mats for my circuit workout planned by Steve my Personal Trainer.
My first exercise in the circuit was a kettlebell sumo squat, we started with 12kg just to warm up and to get my technique correct before moving to 20kg.
The sumo squat develops strength in all of the major muscles in the lower body. Including the kettlebell sumo squat exercise into my training is more beneficial than training each lower body muscle group independently. During the sumo squat, your glutes, quads, calves and other muscles have to work together to coordinate the movement. Squats are great because as well as strengthening a large number of muscles they help build your coordination and balance. Remember to keep your legs wide and feet at a 45degree angle, open your chest and breathe on the up.
After this squat I moved to hip thrusts (kettle bell swings) with the kettle bells, these are initiated with a powerful hip thrust using your glutes and hamstrings. This powerful movement develops the entire posterior chain of muscles while providing a great platform for building endurance and athletic conditioning. Right up my street. 🙂
So that I could focus on getting the movement correct we stuck at a weight of 12kg for these reps. it’s important to make this a hip and glute exercise and not use the momentum from your arms swinging.
After these two leg strengthening exercises I moved to work on my core using the dead bug! The dead bug exercise works your deep core muscles and pelvic floor whilst stabilising your lower spine. Building a strong core is really important as an endurance athlete as it helps me maintain good form during long distance events. As a cyclist I use my core when cycling to keep my other muscles firing correctly however you don’t build core strength on a bike which is why Pilates or core exercise in the gym/home is important.
Next it was time to work my upper body, the kettle bell row is a simple yet effective exercise for building back, arm and core muscle. To start with I used 8kg kettle bell working on sweeping my arm back in a slow sweeping action this was actually harder than using a heavier weight and doing it quickly.
After 6 sets of timed activity on each exercise it was time to move back to more core strength with jack knives and pikes using the rowing machine seat as the platform for my feet, again this makes your whole body work instead of isolating one muscle group. These were super hard and I had to do each one for one minute with a 90 second rest in between.
I am thoroughly enjoying working with a personal trainer he pushes me to lift more weight than I would on my own and also keeps the motivation going when I feel like I want to give up.
For the last three weeks I have been working on my strength in the gym with my personal trainer Steve. After a long time off the bike I needed a way to build up my power and endurance and weight training is great for this.
In most of us today our glutes are not being fired up on a regular basis due to the fact we spend a long time sitting! Even though this is a big muscle group it gets lazy when it’s not used and weight training with exercises like squats, lunges and hip thrusts are a good way to build glute strength.
What’s a glute? The gluteal muscles are a group of three muscles which make up the buttocks: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. The three muscles originate from the ilium and sacrum and insert on the femur. The functions of the muscles include extension, abduction, external rotation and internal rotation of the hip joint. So there pretty important!
Bulgarian split squats work the glute muscles as well as the upper leg muscles. The target muscle is the quadriceps with the gluteus maximus, soleus and adductor magnus working to assist. The hamstring, gastrocnemius, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus all act as stabilizers.
The glute bridge and the hip thrust are very effective, targeted and versatile exercises designed to activate the gluteal muscles. Being that the glutes are the largest muscle in the body (by surface area), they play an important role in hip movement and stabilization.
The first week of February signalled a change in my training, after a few weeks of building my cardio back up I made the commitment to get stronger by taking on a personal trainer once a week, to help build muscle. I felt getting the help of a PT would mean I would be pushed out of my comfort zone. I have also in the past found the free weights section in gyms rather daunting with the amount of testosterone being pumped around, I have often found myself gravitating to the machines, or lifting small weights where I feel at more at home. So picking a personal trainer who could help guide me to the exercises I should be doing to gain strength quickly, without injury and also having them there to spot me were important considerations in making this decision. One that seems to be paying off (now two weeks into my gym plan).
Last Monday the alarm rang at 5:45am and I rolled out of bed made my eggs and Matcha tea whilst feeding Luna (who was not impressed about being up so early), before heading to the gym.
I met Steve the PT at the gym and for the next hour we went through resistance exercises that would make my whole body stronger. As I have mainly concentrated on building my leg strength for years my upper body and back have become weaker so I was keen to work on this area and improve my strength. Steve took me through exercises like tricep dips, press ups and squats with kettle bells to help build my all round strength.
Most of the exercises I am doing use free weights and resistance I think resistance training works especially well for me as I get bored sitting on machines. Resistance training tends to be more dynamic and interesting.
After my PT session there was time for a protein shake, shower and quick change before driving to the office.
I had said to Lauren we would run at lunch, expecting my body to cope with strength training after weeks and weeks off was rather silly on my behalf!
None the less Lauren and I went for a walk/run and I actually felt okay once I was moving, once we had stopped and I was back at my desk it was clear that the running gym combo was maybe too much too soon and three days later I was still suffering with DOMS!
DOMS can occur anywhere in the body that has recently been exposed to unfamiliar or intense physical activity.
After working my whole body in an unfamiliar way there was not a part of me that didn’t ache in some way.
Top DOMS alleviation tips:
Drinking plenty of water
Eating the correct food, protein shake after my workout and then a meal of good carbs, protein and vegetables.
Resting in front of the tele watching Scandal with your legs in the air (insert favourite TV program)
So much for a big training week… This really highlighted to me the importance of resting and eating for recovery. I have been keen to start building up my miles on the bike again in preparation for racing but having decided to also focus on building strength by using the gym I need to work on a better plan of how my training week will be brought together.
I spoke with Steve and we have adjusted my PT sessions slightly as it’s no good going to the gym if it means I can’t do any bike work during the week.
To make sure I recover well from my PT session I have changed my cardio sessions around and will try a short run on Tuesdays, walking Wednesdays and sprint sessions, a long tempo ride Thursday a rest Friday and then long low intensity weekend ride.
The last two weeks have been really busy work has been full on. I have been working hard to also get some new coaching courses off the ground and tie down dates for my first ever series of women’s ‘back on your bike’ sessions. As well as having to arrange plasterers and plumbers for our house renovation! All of this has led to not a great deal of training time. I know ‘not enough time’ is an excuse that I personally don’t believe in, I think if your committed to becoming better at something whether that is a sport or something else in your life then you have to look at your time and how you can use it better. That being said the last two weeks it has been important to focus on sorting out Pedal 2 Pedal and so training has been shifted down my priority list.
With this in mind I decided to try and go running, I knew it would challenge me but also you can fit a 30/40 minute run (this is about all I can manage) into your day quite easily where a 2/3 hour training ride is a little more challenging.
I am not a runner, I used to run a lot at school and I have done the Race for Life with my Mum a few times when I was a teenager but I haven’t run for ages!
My plan was to run every day for the two busy weeks, I soon found out my body was not so keen on this idea! The impact from running on joints etc is far greater than cycling and even with a good stretch I had to adapt my running plan to every other day and so far (with the odd training ride) I have fit it in!
I really have enjoyed running! I went running with friends Lauren and Stu and our dogs Lola and Luna along the sea front which was fun, I did feel like I was cheating slightly as Luna pulled me along!
Lauren and I have been running in our lunch break as well and I have found that this is a great way to spend a lunch time as you get outside away from your computer and switch off, we always come back to the office feeling full of endorphin’s’ and ready for the afternoon after food of course! I highly recommend this all you need is your running gear a packet of baby wipes and a deodorant.
As I am aiming towards some quite big cycling goals this year it is important that I keep training on my bike but I think these two weeks have been good and I will continue to run as it builds bone strength and other muscles that I’m not using as a cyclist.
Sometimes life gets busy but don’t let life get in the way of what you want to do. Remember to make time for yourself even if it is just a 30 minute run your mind and body will thank you for it.
January is an odd month, after the high from Christmas it can be quite a low month. Low on funds, low on effort and low on dedication to stick to those New year’s resolutions you made one the first. Myself included in this!
This makes it an odd month to decide to set your yearly goals. Talking to a friend recently I asked what were her new year resolutions she said “oh I don’t set them in January, I know what I want to achieve in the big picture and then every other month I re-assess” I can see the benefit in this, it adds in an important part to goal setting, which most people don’t think of and that is the analysis of those goals on a frequent basis. It makes your goals/New year resolutions more tangible by setting mile stones you can celebrate and know you’re on/off track.
This is why I like to have a plan of how I am going to get from A to B and then on to C. It’s sensible really you wouldn’t start driving your car without planning the journey. The same comes for setting fitness goals you need to plan and assess that plan as you go. So I have been thinking of ways in which I can help you with your fitness goals and make sure my own go to plan at the same time!
Your goals need to be SMART. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed. It is alright setting out to ‘get fitter’ for the New Year but what does that look like? How is it going to feel when you get there? How will you know, what stepping stones will you go through on the way to your goal of ‘fitter’.
One thing I have found over my years of training is if you don’t know if your improving you tend to ‘flat line’ going out thinking you’re working hard only to find out when it actually matters that you probably could of pushed harder in training. So it is important to set yourself markers so you will know if it’s going well or if you need to sit yourself down and have a chat! This can also work the other way of course sometimes your pushing so hard towards your goal you forget that rest is the valuable time when your body recovers, re-energises and gets stronger. As a woman I think it’s sometimes harder to properly rest. Or at least that how it seems in my house, my rest days involve house work and a number of other things which mean I don’t always properly rest. A way to test how well you’re recovering is with your heart rate (HR) measuring your resting HR in the mornings will give an indication over training. The best way is to measure when you’re lying down 5 mins after waking, record for 5 days if you see an increase over 2 beats per min you could be heading towards over training. Give yourself a day off.
Heart rate is a great, cost effective way to measure your fitness and create controlled training sessions. By measuring your heart rate you can work out your HR zones and from there you can develop your training in these specific zones.
So my top tips for your 2017 goals are:
Set SMART goals
Measure your progress whether that is in a diary or using Garmin/Strava
Take time to properly rest
Spend time running/riding/walking with friends
Create milestones to work towards
Drink plenty of water
I’d love to hear your goals for 2017 please comment below.
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