Thursday, February 26, 2009

wow, being  ill totally floored me. My stomach muscles and diaphram were killing me for two days and I was getting pounding headaches too.

Graham and I went out last night to see what type of exercise circuit we could come up with considering the lack of equipment we had. We have:

  • a football
  • a 4k medicine ball
  • a truck tyre (not sure of weight but its a big 'un)
  • two 3kg hand weights
  • a space where there is a hill which gradually gets higher and steeper with a flat piece of land beside it.

We managed to come up with a few different exercises.

We bench pressed the tyre, which is bloody tough and possibly stupid.

Sprints along the park were good as it is grass rather than concrete.

Sprinting up the hill with the medicine ball or hand weights is also good and tough. We done these alternating between ourselves which worked out at around 30 seconds each so we done 3 each - 3 mins.

Tyre flipping is always good. Also tried flipping it up the hill which is twice as hard as just flipping it on flat land.

We threw the medicine ball at each other as hard as we could in a few different ways to see which muscles each throw worked. Over head and the shot putt type throw seemed to be the best for shoulder and triceps.

Finally, we also done medicine ball slams which are a really tough way to end any session. We plan on teaming up medicine ball slams with hill sprints - sprint up the hill with the ball and do a minute of slams then run back down the path.

We only used the football for a fun warm up, running the length of the park chasing passes that we made for each other.

Needless to say, my stomach muscles didn't thank me for this afterwards!

Plan on doing a circuit once a week with Graham and running my regular twice weekly.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Gig went well I think and I'm pretty sure the sociology assessment was fine too. Unfortunately I seem to have a bug and I've been up since half 4 this morning being sick :(

I plan on cycling to Dundee soon. Just to see how hard/easy it is and how long it takes.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

no sprints this week

I'm not going to do sprints this week as I'm playing in Perth with Vulsellum tomorrow night and should also be studying for a sociology exam on Friday.  The drumming workout is a beast as I play Death Metal of the fast and thrashy variety so I'm using all 4 limbs in quick succession for most/all of a song!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Untitled

Ran 4.2km today in 20 mins and 26.67 seconds. My average speed was 7.7 which is fine. I need to keep a eye on my speed because I'm using this as an indicator of my aerobic/anaerobic limit. I'm only aerobic at below 8.0 mph while running this distance so I'll be looking to keep it below 8 really when I'm jogging and above 8/8.5 when I'm doing my sprints.

The running  today was really nice because the tide was out so I took a slightly different route to run beside the sea. I forgot however, that the beach at Arbroath stinks like shit when the tide is out! I was attacked by loads of flies too.

Thai training tonight so hopefully I can get some sparring in.  Been watching  DREAM 5 & 6 over the last two days so I'm bursting to spar. Since I can't batter a heavy bag every day just now I'm gonna start conditioning my shins again with a long pad. Need to go to the doctor to see why my toe is still painful. I'm certain I broke it before my fight and it is still giving me bother. I can move, run, dodge, jump etc fine but it won't bend.

Kieran
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Interval training showed me how unfit I am

I couldn't do what I had planned so I had to cut it down so I could finish.  I wanted to run hard for 1 min and 30 secs and jogged slower for 1 min and do this 5 times.  This was in order to simulate the anaerobic conditions of a fight.  After the first minute of the first "round" I realised that I was not going to be able to do another 30 seconds or do 4 more 1 min 30 seconds so decided to just start at 1 min anaerobic and 1 min aerobic.  I completed 5x1min rounds but it was harder than I anticipated, despite expecting a tough session!  I will be gradually increasing the speed as well, but I'll stick to a speed of about 70% of my top speed at the moment until I can complete a full round of hard running.

I have decided that on Wednesdays I will be doing this training and on Mondays and Fridays I will do my normal 4k run, gradually increasing this again in a cyclical manner.  For the next three Wednesdays I will increase my round by ten seconds so that by March 4th I will be doing the full round of 1 minute and 30 seconds.  My contingency plan, should I fail to be able to do this is that I will simply increase by five seconds instead of ten.  It may take longer to reach my goal but at least I know I will get there.

By the way, to explain what I've been doing with all this running -  I don't have the time nor money to train properly so I'm just doing what I can at the moment with what I have.  I'm starting with running for two reasons. Firstly I need to have better stamina, as this is one of the reasons I had to retire in my fight. Secondly, I want to get into the habit of running every morning and going on previous attempts, starting is half the battle. If I can keep it up for a few months I will most probably keep it up and be able to gradually increase it to running every day rather than every other day.  Anaerobic stamina is the thing I hate training the most and as a result, I've got really shit anaerobic stamina.  Once I have an established routine where I am running at least 4k twice a week and doing interval training which is representative of fight conditioning I will be moving onto increasing my all over power/strength. I know the two works have different meanings in terms of what reps/weights you do but I'll be researching that in the coming weeks so that I'm not wasting my time and potentially doing damage to my body.

Finally - If anyone is actually reading this and knows anything about breathing when running then comment or get in touch.  I don't know if I should be trying to regulate my breathing or breathing faster as I run faster.  If you have any advice then let me know.  Neither seems to feel any different as I've tried both while running but I'm certain I should really be doing one, the problem is I can't remember which one!

Cheers. x
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

I can't stop thinking about fighting again! There are unmatched fighters on New Breed 5 in March but I really don't have the time to train for it! I've got to have my research project handed in by Aprilso rally it has to be completed this month and written up next month - Plus I've been accepted into a 3 year honours course at Dundee provided I get a B in this research and a B in my exam so I can't just do any old shit cos it needs to be good.

About to go out for another run - I've mostly been keeping to my schedule but Graham fancied a run tonight and its a nice night. I'll try running with my hand weights to see how that feels. I ran 3.9km yesterday at an average speed of around 8.4 mph so I'll need to slow down slightly but its fine otherwise. Tomorrow I'll be doing interval training - running hard for 1 min 30 then jogging slower for 1 min. I'll do that 5 times and see how I get on.

Class tonight too so hopefully I can get more sparring in :)

Kieran

Monday, February 02, 2009

Graham didnt come out running tonight so I had to go on my own. In the rain.

It was horrible! Tried to run the smaller distance but at a slightly faster rate. Average speed was around 8.4mph and I ran 3.5km.  It was easy in the sense that I'm sured to running further but also very hard as all the way back I had the wind and rain in my face.