Past the half way point

I'm over half way towards my 20 week deadline. This whole exercise thing has become a bit of a habit now, and without it I get a bit sad. The same thing happened when I started riding to work each day. After doing it for a few years now, I tend to be a grumpy sod if I drive to the office, even if it's raining. I'd much rather ride my bike on a cold, dark, cold, wet, windy morning than drive with all the other angry commuters. Luckily, I get to use the cycle paths and park for a majority of my daily commute, so I don't tend to mingle with the traffic much, and as the weather gets wetter and colder, the number of other cyclists, runners, walkers and school kids reduces dramatically. In about 4 weeks time it will be rare to even see another person not in a car.

Over the last 2 weekends I have done some more hills. We went up Bowenvale Ave to Victoria Park, then further up the Harry Ell track to the Sign of the Kiwi, then behind Sugarloaf to then come down the Bowenvale track again. The number of people out walking on the Harry Ell track was enormous, more than I have ever seen before. Pity it is almost flat and requires no effort to walk at all. Never mind, at least they are out getting some fresh air. Last weekend we went to the dawn service in the square, then headed off to Taylors Mistake and climbed up Godley Head and down to the tunnel and gun emplacements on the other side. Landmarks like these tend to get forgotten about for the rest of the year, so it's nice to get out there now and then and reconnect with our past. And sweat a bit while we're at it.

My knees have been getting quite bad over the last couple of weeks. I have swapped my singlespeed commuter for my mountain bike so I can drop to lower gears when stopping/starting, and I'm restricting the jumping and lunging I'm doing, which hopefully will help. Some non-professional (anecdotal) advice is that it's my muscles growing faster than the connections, and to just keep going, but gently. It's not a pain I've had before, so I'm paying particular attention to it. If it gets worse I'll rest it completely for a week (no bikes, no squats) but I'm hoping a reduced impact week will help, as I have a race this weekend! Two races in fact. I'll need my knees for them, so fingers crossed for a pain-free weekend!

Sessions in the park have continued, and maintain the madness and chaos that I enjoy. Today, in the drizzle, we did a game of fetch, last week we had circuits and an awful (painful) prone hold test. Man I suck at those. Core strength? Yea, give me a big jar of that please cause I'm almost out! There's a few of us who attend these sessions 3 times a week now. It's nice to share the pain, and the blame.

Results? Over half way now, so should be seeing them right? Well, sore knees aren't helping, but I know I'm fitter, or at least faster. Yesterday I got a txt from Tracey making me stop, drop, and give her 20 pushups. Now! So I did, 20 pushups in about 30ish seconds under my desk. 10 weeks ago I could only manage 7 in a minute. Way better! While I still have a tummy that sticks out further than I am happy with, my pants are getting looser. I intentionally purchased some shorts before the challenge that were a bit too tight to wear, especially when sitting down, and now I can wear them comfortably. In the mirror I see the same person as always, so won't notice any physical changes until I see the before & after shots at the end of the challenge. There's another eight and a half weeks to go, so time to improve even further! I'm getting happier with my upper body strength, but I'm sure I can double the improvements so far. I'd love to be able to do 40 pushups in a minute, that over twice my previous max, and almost 6x my initial test. Not impossible I know, so something to work towards for sure.

It's funny that 10 weeks ago, I'd have been happy to be able to do 20 pushups in a minute, now I want to do more than that. I have always set my goals too high and been a bit sad that I don't achieve them, but this time I may have set them too low! Roll on the next fistful of weeks!!

Pains and plans

It's was a (now) typical weekend and early week.

We climbed up Castle Rock on Sunday from the track that starts half way up Bridle Path, ascends hundreds of meters skywards, then loops around Castle Rock for magnificent views. And then we came down again. And then we went to the French Bakery again. So long as Tracey goes with me, it's part of the training OK!

This week I have been suffering on my bike. Sore knees. It could be a mix of cycling and exercises (too many squats and lunges) or my bike setup (had to alter location of the seat when I broke a rail and awaited new seat's arrival) or just the fact I've started using more muscles than previous.

Tuesdays session in the park was leg focussed - lots of squats and jogging, and yesterday we (only two) were subjected to the circuit from hell, attracting comments from passing joggers. A mix of circuit, blood shunting and cathartic ketonic short hard restless activity left us gasping and tired with 90 seconds to spare. We opted to rest rather than jog it out.

So today, I rode gently to work, have no lunchtime activity planned, and will ride gently home again. If my knees are not better by the weekend, I will spend a week resting them, as I need all my leg power for the Singletrack Fiesta in less than 2 weeks time. I have entered 2 of the races, so will need all my leg power and none of the knee pain! Hey, do you have a sombrero, poncho and bandoliers I could borrow (and possibly destroy)?

DOMS and magical numbers

Tracey has always been annoyed that she can put me through my paces and exhaust me physically (and often mentally too) and yet the next day I am fine. No sore muscles, not aches, no pains. Her other victims clients all seem to be in some lesser of greater stage of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness but I have been getting away scot free. Well, not this week. I'm not sure which exercises did it, but after the Tuesday session I was a bit sore in the calves, and after Wednesdays session it got worse. Yesterday and today they have been seizing  up whenever I'm idle, like sleeping, or sitting at my desk, and causes much hilarity when I stand up again, like going for a coffee. So it was with a small amount of happiness when I saw Tracey in the park at lunchtime and she informed the ragged group (5 of us today) that she had a treat for us, and my sore legs wouldn't be tortured.

So, a quick warmup jog, then 12 pushups, then 12 squats, then 12 pushups, then 12 lunges, then 12 pushups... Hmmm... spotting a trend here. Sure enough, over the next 20 minutes we squatted, lunged, jumped and jogged, and between each of them, dropped and did 12 pushups. At the end of the 20 minutes I was shattered. My shoulders were screaming, I could barley hold my weight in the pushup position any longer, but we had made a pretty big achievement - 120 pushups! Crikey. That's a lot. So, I'm thinking tomorrow morning I'll be suffering DOMS in my legs and arms. Cheers for that.

A semi-midway goal update. In the first week I did the fitness test and managed to do 7 pushups in a minute (7! pah!) and on Tuesday I managed to do 23 in a minute. That's a pretty good improvement. I wonder how many I'll be able to do at the end of the 20 weeks? While my tummy isn't shrinking, my strength does seem to be improving. I don't really notice it though because I always work to 90% of my max anyhow, and I've never done the same workout twice so have no comparison between then and now. But that's a good improvement in my pushups, so something is defiantly going right. Roll on the next 10 weeks!

An April fool

Welcome to a new month. One filled with challenges and hurdles.

This month is the half-way month - where we'll cross the 10 week mid-point, and maybe do a retest on our week 1 fitness test and see if we're improving.

Daylight savings is over, but that's not so bad. Logan is keen to do a lot more riding, which is great news! Easter (or zombie jesus day, you pick) has passed, and I ate way too many eggs and buns. Way too many. Less than previous years where nothing else but chocolate was consumed for the entire weekend, but still a lot more than I should have eaten. Just as well there's none left now. Well, some crème eggs in the fridge, half a block of chocolate in the pantry and a pack of buns in the freezer, but it's still way less than I had on offer on Sunday!

The weekend was mostly sedentary, despite planning on a hill climb twice, neither happened (Tracey was unwell, then it was too wet/cold) but I did get a tandem ride with Logan, so some movement at least. The rest of the weekend was spent on the couch watching Penn & Tellers Bullshit. Funny stuff. Sometimes I almost choked on my butter laden hot cross bun as I lounged on the couch contemplating dinner.

So, short week this week, but 3 x sessions in the park planned, and fully intend to get some more km's under the wheels too as Tekapo is looming!