Sorting myself out!

Desire to Aspire

How long did you spend on the treadmill and at what pace?

Insect Overlord

Desire to Aspire wrote: »

How long did you spend on the treadmill and at what pace?

6 minutes, twice. Once as part of the warm-up and then again at the end. First minute walking, second minute 7mph, third minute 7.5mph, last 3 minutes at 8.5mph. Last week I stuck to five minutes at a max speed of 8mph.

What I really want to do is a few tabata sessions of sprints, but I don't have a stop-watch to time the intervals.

Insect Overlord

Spent over an hour and a half in the gym today! :eek:

Did what is now my regular warm-up. Mile and a half on the bike, 5 minutes on the cross-trainer, 1 km row and half-mile run. Just under 20 minutes cardio work between the lot.

10 x 20kg and 2 x 5 x 30 kg bench.

3 x 10 x 30kg bar-bell rows.

2 x 25 stomach-crunches.
30 elevated leg sit-ups with a 10kg weight.
60 seconds "side-to-side" twist with the 10 kgs as well.

Squats: 3 x 5 x 5kg
2 x 5 x 60 kg
2 x 5 x 70 kg
2 x 5 x 85 kg
1 x 5 x 80 kg
1 x 5 x 90kg.

60 seconds shadow-boxing with a pair of 5kg weights. This one wiped me out altogether.
I mixed the various exercises around between the squats. Tried to make sure my whole body was in order as I moved up along the heavier weights.

I should really find out how heavy the bar is on the cage...

Insect Overlord

Only got an hour in the weights room this morning. Could easily have done another 30 minutes but my sister needed a lift home! >_< I walked for an hour yesterday though, and I felt the effects more than I expected to.

Regular warm-up. Bike, cross-trainer, rowing machine, tread-mill, roughly 20 minutes of action between the four.

Went straight into dead-lifting. 3 sets of 5 at 30 kg.

Stretched my back and did a minute of bridging, followed by a minute of the plank.

Combined the power-clean and the military press and found it pretty interesting. Started with 2 x 5 x 25kg, up to 2 x 5 x 27.5 and finished with one set of 5 x 30kg. I think I'll work in this one again.

Did 15 reverse-curls (at this stage I should admit I stole half my work-out ideas today from one of Transform's videos in the Fitness Forum :pac: ) to work the core a bit more before I had to leave. Happy out.

Insect Overlord

Work-out this morning:

Warm-up:

1.2 miles on the bike in 5 minutes.
5:30 on the cross-trainer.
1km on the rowing machine in 3:59.
4 minutes at an average of 7.5 miles per hour on the treadmill.
Bicep curls: 1 x 10 x 8kg
Reverse bicep curls: 1 x 10 x 5kg
Weighted tricep stretch: 1 x 8 x 4kg in each arm.

Dead-lifts: 3 x 5 x 30kg.

Squats: 3 x 5 x 50kg
3 x 5 x 60kg
2 x 5 x 70kg
2 x 5 x 80kg
1 x 5 x 90kg.

My form was atrocious for the last ten though. >_<

Chin-ups: 3 sets of 3. I could only do 2 at a time last week, so I'm delighted with this!

Core stuff:
Ab-cruncher machine thingy: 30 crunches.
Stomach crunches: 10 w. 10kg
Twists: 8 (on each side) w. 10kg
Plank: 1 minute.
Reverse-curls: 1 x 10 x 1/2, 1 x 10, 1 x 20.

Did another 4 minutes on the cross-trainer to warm-down. Drank a pint of milk straight from the bottle then!

Need to focus more on my chest and arms tomorrow.

Insect Overlord

After coming down with flu last weekend I conceded that my original fitness plan wasn't going to work as intended within an 8 week limit. I'm going to start again today and push myself hard for the next 4 weeks. The plan is to get back into the 100 push-ups, 200 squats and 200 sit-ups programmes again. I'll jump back in at Workout 1 for Week 3 for each of them. That gives me targets today as follows:

Push-ups: 14, 18, 14, 14, minimum 20 - maximum effort. 60 seconds between sets.
Squats: 19, 24, 19, 19, minimum 27 - maximum effort. 60 seconds between sets.
Sit-ups: 21, 27, 21, 21, minimum 30 - maximum effort. 60 seconds between sets.

I'll be playing an hour of indoor soccer this evening as well.

Insect Overlord

Well, that didn't go according to plan! I haven't been in the gym since I last posted here. Got a worse dose of a virus than I'd anticipated, was effectively exhausted for about 5 weeks.

Was back down to 13 stone two weeks ago, but had a few nights out and put a few pounds back on.

To fix that, I trained three nights in a row for ju-jitsu last week, followed by a light-ish GAA session on Friday. Played the first half of a match on Saturday, but didn't have to expend too much energy there.

Had my toughest GAA training session since summer '09 tonight. A lot of running, including many long sprints. Probably playing a 90 minute soccer match tomorrow. Another monster GAA session lined up for Wednesday, followed by a Junior B football match on Thursday (60 minutes). More GAA training Friday, before a relaxing weekend.

Will hopefully be looking in much better shape by this night next week, when we have our first Gaelic Football Championship match of the season.

Insect Overlord

Warm-up: 5 minute run, 50 star-jumps, dynamic stretches.
Push-ups: 14, 18, 14, 14, minimum 20 - maximum effort. 60 seconds between sets.
Squats: 19, 24, 19, 19, minimum 27 - maximum effort. 60 seconds between sets.
Core: 60 seconds front, left and right. As many Russian twists with 10kg weights as possible. 15-20 curls.
Cool-down: 20 minutes cycling, stretches.

Meant to get to the gym today. Will go on Wednesday instead, and do this plan for today.

Insect Overlord

Weight as of today, Wednesday 25th of May 2011: 13 st 5 lbs/187 lbs/~85 kg.

Target weight (for end of June) : 12 st 7 lbs/175 lbs/79.5 kg.

How?

Cutting out alcohol again.
Cutting out all fast food (pizzas, kebabs, cheap burgers, Chinese take-away, chips)
Cutting out junk/sweets/chocolate/cakes.
Cutting back on breads, pastas, pastries and potatoes.

Eating more lean meat, fresh fruit, vegetables, salads, nuts and seeds.
Drinking more water.

Training: Ju Jitsu on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, Saturday mornings.
Gaelic Football on Monday, Wednesday, Friday evenings, and either Saturday or Sunday mornings.
More walking and cycling.

I can see myself maintaining this absolutely for the next two weeks, at which point I'll probably have to make a few changes to avoid burn-out.

Insect Overlord

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Weight as of today, Wednesday 25th of May 2011: 13 st 5 lbs/187 lbs/~85 kg.

Weight as of today, Sunday 11th of December 2011: 12 st 11 lbs/179 lbs/81.2 kg

4 pounds to go. Chances of doing that coming up to Christmas? Who cares?! I'm doing pretty well already!

Insect Overlord

Epic thread-bump.
Weight: 12 stone 5 lbs.

Ran 10 miles in less than 1:26:00 on Wednesday.
Did a 10 mile hike in pure agony on Thursday.

Should probably have done some proper training for that...

New goals:
-to run a Half Marathon in less than 2 hours on the May Bank Holiday weekend.
-to get back into core body exercises (aiming for 75 press-ups, 10 chin-ups and a 4 minute plank)

Insect Overlord

Just did my first proper run since the St.Stephen's Day 10 miler.

7.7km in 38:16. Just worked it out at fractionally less than 04:58 per km.

I'd put on a few pounds over the last 6 weeks, so keeping that kind of pace is enough to make me a very happy boy tonight!

I'll do a core body-weight exercise session tomorrow.

Insect Overlord

8.05 km in 00:38:49. Works out at just over 04:49 per km.

Pretty much the same route as a fortnight ago, but I ran from the front door of my house out to the main road instead of just walking out of the estate.

Haven't checked my weight in 2 weeks, but I reckon I'm up around the 180lbs mark. A little heavier, but also getting faster. Not bad, I suppose!

Insect Overlord

Played an hour of astro-turf soccer this evening.

Few minutes of a mini game of passing and moving in a small section of the pitch, then a few minutes of 2-v-3 defending/attacking one set of goals.

Played 7-v-7 for the last half hour, mostly in goals but with a few sprints every so often when the other lads were getting tired.

Looks like I'm at a better level of aerobic fitness than most of the group, but I'll need to start doing some HIIT sprinting if I want to get my speed up. Happy enough though.

Insect Overlord

First run in a month.

Distance: 13.2 km
Time: 1:13:20.

Average per km: 05:33.

Had a very slow start. Felt awful for the first 5 kilometres. Should be able to knock 03:20 off that time if I run it again later this week.

Might do a cycle now to see what's left in my legs.

butthatsjustme

Insect Overlord wrote: »

First run in a month.

Distance: 13.2 km
Time: 1:13:20.

Average per km: 05:33.

Had a very slow start. Felt awful for the first 5 kilometres. Should be able to knock 03:20 off that time if I run it again later this week.

Might do a cycle now to see what's left in my legs.

Saw your post in the Daily Achievement Thread then this one! Fair play for setting a goal and then hitting it

Insect Overlord

butthatsjustme wrote: »

Saw your post in the Daily Achievement Thread then this one! Fair play for setting a goal and then hitting it

Thanks! My ideal target for that distance would be 66 minutes, but I'm happy to have made an improvement anyway.

I'm aiming for a sub 50 minute 10 k tomorrow afternoon. Will report back here when I've finished that.

Insect Overlord

Insect Overlord wrote: »

I'm aiming for a sub 50 minute 10 k tomorrow afternoon. Will report back here when I've finished that.

Did the run on Monday. 10.2 km, 53:30. Slower than I would have liked, but with more hills than I'm used to. Good fun.

Today?
16.2 km, 1:33:00. Not a great time, but even an 8 km spin on the bike afterwards didn't empty the tank. I think I'm actually getting fit!

I'll run this 10 mile route twice a week for the next fortnight, maybe 5 times altogether, and try to bring that time down closer to 80 minutes. I should have done well under 90 minutes today. Time to start pushing myself.

Insect Overlord

Back down to earth with a bang today.

Tried my 8 km route again. 43:20. Felt awful doing it, but got it done anyway. 4:30 slower than last time. Ouch.

I think I needed another day to recover from the 10 mile run on Sunday. Soccer training this evening could be painful.

Insect Overlord

One of the lads asked me last week if I was still doing my body-weight exercises. I had to admit that I've been a bit lazy the last 6 months. I've been doing lots of running in the spring, but no core or upper body work.

Last October I was approaching three minutes for the plank after making rapid improvements on that over the month of September. I could do about 40 press-ups in one go as well after spending the summer working with a free app on my phone.

I set myself a target of a 4 minute plank and 75 press-ups for this summer, but I'd made no effort to work on those until today. I'm hoping to finish the routine with the app in about 7 weeks time.

Managed 63 seconds on the plank anyway. Not too bad. I would have been extremely upset if I'd failed to do a full minute!

The press-ups were a different story. The sets were divided up into 9, 9, 10, 9 and 9, with 90 second breaks between sets. The first three sets were grand. I struggled with the fourth. Most of the last set I had to do on my knees. I'll probably do the same sets again on Wednesday, hopefully with less difficulty, but it was still a bit of a disappointment to miss so many of them this evening.

On the bright side, it's a first step towards a summer beach body!