Planning

As I sat on the turbo earlier today I realised that I was only doing a recovery exercise (today was 30mins turbo, easy pace, keeping HR less than 130bpm) because I had planned my workout schedule. I'm doing it monthly now, as I have a few things pretty much fixed in the diary.

On advice from Zephr (who's done a Gym Jones foundation course) I do 3 hard days, 2 recovery and 2 rest days per week. Now I'm training at Strength & Performance Gym (in Stockport) where I also provide sports massage for their clients I am training under the expert guidance of Sean and Zoran on Mondays and Thursdays. That's 2 of my hard days training. The final hard day is a long run at the weekend. That leaves me 2 recovery days and 2 rest days to slot in. This month I'm going with a short recovery run on Tuesday's, rest on Wed, recovery on Fridays, and rest on the final day at the weekend. Friday recover is either turbo, swim or pilates. I'd like to do more swimming and pilates but with such a heavy schedule I am not going to risk burning out. I'll review this as my fitness increases and see if I can slot in an extra session somewhere.

I'm 2 weeks into the foundation month at S&P. This month is all about getting my body and mind used to working in a functional way, which will get me to my targets. My targets are:

• lose some weight (number not all that important, for me it's about body shape and lean-ness)
• be able to run a 10km fell race in a reasonable time
• get my name on the S&P records board - most likely seems the dead hang, but we'll see!
• do 5 chin-ups
• body weight press-ups

To get leaner and lose weight I am getting help with my nutrition - essentially less carbs, more protein. I've not yet got to grips with when to eat what, though I do know I have to earn carbs, and that I'm not supposed to have cereal (carbs) for breakfast. Sean is fully aware I'm still eating my chosen cereal, though I'm pleased to report I had omlette one day and bacon/eggs another for breakfast this week. I felt quite pleased with myself! I'll be picking Sean's brains more about this aspect of my training. He know's his stuff.

For me, if something isn't planned it probably won't happen. Not to say I can't be spontaneous, I can. But if you take today as an example in relation to training. I woke tired. Yesterday was a long day - at S&P for 7.15am to train, working (doing sports massage treatments), talking to potential clients, over to Rock Over Climbing wall - more work, more talking, on my feet most of the time - back home for about 9.30pm, then some admin to do for work, reviewing the forthcoming days etc and bed about midnight. That's a long explanation, and you can see it was a long day - so I woke tired. I had more paperwork to do, research, housework, needed to pop into town to the post office to collect supplies for work, back home, lunch....still no sign of wanting to do any form of exercise - and a client at 5pm. But, I checked my schedule - saw it was a recovery day on the turbo and got on with it.

Had I not planned in my recovery session I would have just passed the day doing "stuff". Now I've done my recovery I'm in a better physical state (having pumped fresh blood to the muscles I've been working) to do my long run tomorrow (or Sunday - that depends on when family are going to visit).

At S&P my sessions are planned. If they weren't I would do less. I wouldn't turn up. I'd be like a whole heap of gym users who have membership but rarely go down there to workout - you know who you are!! I've been guilty of that in the past. I think it is a great testiment to the guys at S&P that they have such a good ethos about their clients. You're not on your own. You get personal attention everytime you're in there. OK some of it is shouting at you not to stop or slack off but it's all encouragement. They listen to your goals, get to know you so they know what buttons they can push, and then work out how you're going to get from the start to your target. What I do like about their training programmes, apart from them being Totally Unique to each person, is that you have to record your sessions - weights used, reps, and you're encouraged to make notes about what worked, what was difficult, if you had any issues or things were just easy. Then the guys adjust what you do next time. There is no hiding. There is no cheating. If you write something down you've not done you're only cheating yourself, and will just get embarrassed later on. It will bite back.

I guess the way they work there suits me. I'm not lazy by any means, but I work best when what I need to do is written down - that way, however I feel on the day I will get on with it. If I feel tired or lethargic I feel heaps better afterwards. And I feel proud that I've got out there and done stuff to make me reach my goals.

So, setting targets, planning, and being determined all get me moving forwards. I'm also hugely inspired by others around me - Tim is top of the list without a doubt, and also the folk at S&P, fell runners I know (and some I don't), a guy who's running across America right now (due to finish in a couple of days... his blog is here if you're interested - he's an inspiration and a half).

If your interested in stats my HR graph in Garmin Connect is below....otherwise it's just a very pretty wazy line I quite like....
Recovery turbo HR <130bpm at Garmin Connect