Wednesday 1 February 2012

Impetus

It's a new month and as promised I'm reviewing my Aspirations for the year.



Weekly - final week of Jan only as goals in my Excellence blog were only set on 25th Jan.

3 runs: complete: 7.21km on 24th, 19.25km on 28th and 5.5km on 31st. The week was slightly skewed from my usual routine because of the Kinder Trial on 28th.

2 low-carb eating days: this was a tough one to fit in because of the Kinder Trial, no way was I going to be lacking energy from carbohydrates for that one. I did manage one really clean eating day - Monday - where I pretty much devoured a whole chicken and drank lots of water (I ate other stuff too). 

1 new recipe: I didn't exactly do a new recipe but I did vary what went in a beef stew the other day. Not very exciting I know, but it was a rather tasty sweet potato and beef stew seasoned with paprika and cayenne.

Monthly

2 Glossopdale Harriers club runs: complete - 11km on 10th and 11.63km on 17th. Both were night runs out of Glossop. I didn't run with the club on 24th as I wanted an easier run prior to Kinder Trial and on 31st I was just too tired to run at all....the KT has dominated the last few weeks of the month for me. Something to bear in mind for the time around future races.

2 full days on the hill: on 13th we did a night nav walk Into the Darkness lasting about 5.5hrs. I didn't manage another full day.

2 half days on the hill: did 4 short nav walks plus one at nearly 4hrs around Kinder's western flanks.

1 weekend away: not managed, goals only set on 25th and was racing on 28th.

1 bivvy night on the hill: this was almost managed, with goals set on 25th the only date we could have managed was Sunday 29th...the coldest night of the winter pretty much with snow laying on the ground and a weather warning out for siberian temperatures....we gave it a miss unsurprisingly. I'd like our first bivvy to be one we complete, rather than bailing at 2am because we're getting hypothermic.

Progress on 2012 Aspirations
#1 - 24 GDH runs: 2 complete, on target.
#2 - run 3 fell races: 1 complete, on target.
#3 - cover 25km in one go: max distance 19.25km. Very pleased I could run that far, in fact beyond happy so easily on target for this one in a few months I think.
#4 - 10 body weight chin ups: on Monday I did 12 chin ups over 4 sets: 3, 3, 2+1, 2+1. Good progress. Would like to be doing 4 sets of 4 by the end of this 4 week training programme which I started on Monday.

Overall I've had a really good month. I pushed myself in the race, got a really decent night on the hill, been out with the club twice (at night) and feel really positive. This quote has been popping up on the status of a few of my friend's social network "Obsessed is a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated". I like it.

6 comments:

  1. nice one, keep at it!
    i like the sound of the chicken 'diet' i might to try it ;)

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    1. those pre-cooked chickens in supermarkets are a lifesaver for cutting out carbs!!

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  2. Cool! I like the quote 'it doesn't have to be fun , to be fun'

    Have fun!

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  3. How are you planning going about cutting down on carbs? It's something I want (need) to do before getting into the racing season proper as they just sit in me, but I'm afraid of loosing too much energy for all the training I want to squeeze in, and also I don't know what I'd eat half the time without pasta/rice/noodles as a base for my evening meals.

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  4. The basic premise of what I do is to earn my carbs...so if I don't train I don't eat any carbs. On training days I can eat carbs, but should eat the bulk in the morning/lunch meals. Cutting down unfortunately does mean cutting out the pasta/rice/noodles....and potatoes, bread, cake, etc. Menus need to be planned in advance so you don't end up just choosing carbs to fill up. There's lots of soups, salads and meat to eat...it is actually really surprising how filling a tuna fish or chicken salad can be. Keeping the interest up and variety is important so plan menus, keep lots of fruit to hand and get a good protein powder for mixing in shakes for after training. Eggs become a key ingredient too....lots of ommlettes and scrambled eggs feature massively!!

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    Replies
    1. Cheers, some stuff to think about and try and work in there! Not being a big fan of eggs may be a bit of a hurdle, but it's about time I grew up and started eating them!

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