TVMM Training Week 5

Woah! This week I was ON!

On Monday, I did a 20 minute stairwell workout followed by some upper body strength training. Normally you would hear trainers tell you to do weights first and then finish up with cardio - the idea being to deplete all the carbs (glycogen) stored in the muscles first so that when you then finish up with cardio, your body will turn to burning your fat stores for energy. But I find that when I try to do cardio after weights, I'm just not able to get through it... 

Tuesday morning, I got up well in time and had hit the roads by 5:00 am. I was to do the 18k lsd that I had missed over the weekend. When I started it was strange to see a bright big moon shining down through the trees - it felt very surreal. For the first 45 minutes or so the weather was considerably cooler than last week and the run felt good. My app showed a pace of 5'40" and I was pretty shocked since it didn't feel like I was going that fast. Then I figured that the app had somehow reset itself and wasn't tracking the distance correctly and so it was calculating the pace wrong. By the time I was at 800 meters it was showing that I had done 1 km. But since I was running on my most frequented route, I was familiar with the kilometer marks and stopped when I got to the point I knew to be 18k (though the app said 22.5k). It did not even track my route - which was a nice long one from home all the way to Napiers bridge at one end of Marina beach and back. Going by the more accurate distance of 18k in 02:06:45 put my pace at 7'03" - definitely not as fast as 5'38" but still pretty good.

Wednesday, I spent a good one hour weight training for my lower body. Of late, I have been trying to pay more attention to this part of my training. Strength training is probably my least favourite thing to do. But it is so important for all the long term benefits - stronger bones, stronger muscles, better muscle definition & toning not to mention better stamina and endurance. Thats how I found myself doing a long session of weighted squats, lunges & calf raises, deadlifts & leg extensions ending up absolutely drained.

On Thursday, I wanted to do a tempo run so I joined the Nitros but 300 meters or so into the run, I just wasn't feeling it. Even before I had reached Haddows park (at about 1.5k) I was feeling like I normally would towards the end of a 10k run. Just to keep me intrested in the run, I decided to make it a fartlek run instead and I did randomly timed fast sprints (run like a dog is chasing me) for random distances (from this tree to that lamp post) at random intervals (ok, I'm feeling good so lets start it up again). It was fun and somehow got me through the 6k distance. I enjoy doing really fast runs (5'00" to 5'30") but the trouble is that I cannot sustain that pace for long - maybe 100 meters at the most.

Friday was core day. Like many others, I aspire for nice, flat, toned abs (not six packs but I would like some definition). It is a very tough goal for me becuase it does involve a fair amount of dietary discipline (which I hugely lack) but I diligintely do core workouts once a week with the unabating hope that I'll get there someday (though I don't particularly enjoy doing crunches and planks and what not).

Today too I hit the roads at 5:00 with the goal of doing an easy paced 12k. I turned around at the 6k point and ran into some of the runners from Nitros. I enjoyed a chatty, slow run after that with even a couple of walking breaks thrown in. I turned off into Haddows park cutting my run short by 2 k, did my stretching, posed for the customary group pic, hung out with the group sipping the customary post-run coffee and headed home feeling pretty relaxed actually.

Now if I could queeze in a nice leisurely swim tomorrow then this week will be perfect!