Continuation of cross training and strengthening exercises this week. Walking keeps improving, not quite 100 per cent as my leg can get tired if I do too much, but I’m getting around pretty well now.
This week a.k.a. Ben’s Babbling
Monday
Monday evening I did my rehab exercises followed by upper body strength.
Tuesday
Dropped by Aquapulse after work and completed 100m swim, 30 mins of pool running – mixed fartlek no real plan, 300m swim.
I also enrolled in a short course in Data Science which should be interesting. I start classes in just over a week and there is “up to 40 hours” of pre-course work and assignments which is a little nerve racking! As of writing this I don’t have a login yet to see what I have to do, so wish me luck…
Wednesday
Back to the Western Aths Rehab Bike – thanks Brigitte. 15 minutes light spinning followed by exercises.
Thursday
Rehab exercises and upper body strength. Chin ups are still hard.
Friday
Nothing today – I was going to go to the pool after work but the motivation wasn’t there at all. I’m usually pretty good at sticking to what I have planned but yeah, really couldn’t be bothered, pushed pool back to Sunday.
Saturday
Went for a light bike ride on the mountain bike, just over 20 minutes, and completed the rehab exercises and some more upper body gym.
Sunday
I had a nice sleep in but eventually got myself to the pool in the afternoon. It was a good session actually. I’m enjoying the challenge of improving my swimming, while I still wouldn’t say I’m very good I’m getting a bit more distance in each time. I did a 150m swim, 30 mins of pool running (modified mona fartlek), 500m swim.
My modified mona fartlek for pool running is:
- 5 min warm up
- 4 x 90 sec hard (30 sec recovery)
- 4 x 60 sec hard (30 sec recovery)
- 4 x 30 sec hard (30 sec recovery)
- 4 x 15 sec hard (15 sec recovery)
- 5 min cool down
It still works out as 20 minutes like the traditional mona fartlek (30 minutes with the warm up/cool down added). I find with pool running I don’t need to recover anywhere near as long as actual running. I like doing this session since I’m a bit distracted keeping track of where I’m at and constant changes make the time go by quicker, can’t say water running is all that exciting!
Detail
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Rehab exercises – 24 mins Calf raise (single leg) 3 x 12 (last set to failure - 23) Calf raise bent knee (single leg) 3 x 10 Single leg squat (theraband) x 30 Shoulder bridge with leg raise 3 x 12 (with band around thigh) Glute med at wall 3 x 6 Lunge 3 x 8 Arabesque 3 x 6 Upper body weights - 9 mins Barbell rows 3x5+ 20kg (5,5,20) Bench press 3x5+ 20kg (5,5,20) |
| Tue | Swimming - 100m, 3:49 Pool running - 30 mins, 96 bpm Mixed fartlek Swimming - 300m, 12:11 |
| Wed | Spin bike (light resistance) – 15 mins, 110 bpm Rehab exercises - 30 mins Calf raise (single leg) 3 x 12 (last set to failure - 20) Calf raise bent knee (single leg) 3 x 10 Single leg squat (theraband) x 30 Shoulder bridge with leg raise 3 x 12 (with band around thigh) Glute med at wall 3 x 6 Lunge 3 x 8 Arabesque 3 x 6 |
| Thu | Rehab exercises - 22 mins Calf raise (single leg) 3 x 12 (last set to failure - 23) Calf raise bent knee (single leg) 3 x 10 Single leg squat (theraband) x 30 Shoulder bridge with leg raise 3 x 12 (with band around thigh) Glute med at wall 3 x 6 Upper body strength - 10 mins Chin ups 3x5+ (5,5,5) OHP 3x5+ 22.5kg (5,5,10) |
| Fri | Lazy |
| Sat | Light bike ride on flat road on mountain bike – 22 mins, 124 bpm Rehab exercises - 28 mins Calf raise (single leg) 3 x 12 (last set to failure - 22) Calf raise bent knee (single leg) 3 x 10 Single leg squat (theraband) x 30 Shoulder bridge with leg raise 3 x 12 (with band around thigh) Glute med at wall 3 x 6 Lunge 3 x 8 Arabesque 3 x 6 Upper body strength - 11 mins Barbell rows 3x5+ 22.5kg (5,5,16) Bench press 3x5+ 22.5kg (5,5,22) |
| Sun | Swimming - 150m, 5:58 Pool running – 30 mins, 107 bpm 5 min warm up, Modified mona, 5 min cool down Swimming - 500m, 21:15 |
Song of the week
Introducing a new section of the weekly update, song of the week! Now I know this is pretty off topic for a running related blog – but hey, I’m not doing any running so may as well indulge in one of my other passions.
Back in the mid 90’s I remember going on school camp, one of the activities was to do a dance to the song Come out and Play by the Offspring. After that I bought their CD “Smash” and the Offspring remain one of my favourite bands to this day. Also around that time I bought CD’s from The Presidents of the United States of America (remember the song Lump??), “Nevermind” by Nirvana, oh and I also had the Spice Girls album!
My love of the Offspring (I even had an Offspring fan web page back in the days of animated gifs and flashing text web pages) led me to discover Nitro Records, which is a record label created by Dexter from the Offspring. I bought the Nitro Records sampler albums and discovered a few punk bands like AFI, The Vandals and Jughead’s Revenge.
After that I went further and further into discovering more punk music. Back then before Spotify, before torrents, before napster, the way to download music was IRC. People would run bots that you could connect to using commands in the chat to download files that they shared. It was always cool when you found someone with a good collection of albums that you could very slowly download songs over 56k modem.
Anyway all these years later, I’ve lost the punk look and don’t really go see bands anymore, but I still love listening to music and discovering new bands and songs. So that’s my lengthy introduction to song of the week.
My first song of the week, is from a band I only discovered a few weeks ago. They are a UK based band called The Human Project. “That One Percent” is just a ripper catchy punk song. It’s melodic punk similar to bands like Strung Out and A Wilhelm Scream.
The song is from their new album Clarion Call due out on July 6, looking forward to giving this one a listen. So far this is one of my favourite songs to come out this year.
Coming up
Next week continuation of same cross training structure – spin bike, pool and exercises.
Following week appointment with sports doctor to check progress and next steps and will also meet with rehab physio to adjust the plan based on doctor’s advice.
Song of the week – great idea. Long way from the spice girls. Can’t say it’s my type of music, but as you have a punk background I can see the appeal 🙂
Haha at Falls Creek Chelsea encouraged me to play my music at prehab one day. That was fun, I’m still surprised no one turned it off lol. I doubt anyone reading my blog will like my song of the week choices but just going to do it for a bit of fun, at least until I’m back running! Also I still like the Spice Girls 🙂
Great way to end the week reading your blog. I gave never heard of any of the songs or artists (except Spice Girls). Could be a generational thing. I still can’t believe you were a punk. Glad to hear your are improving and are now becoming a swimmer
Nah don’t worry Mechelle I think you actually have to be interested in 90’s and 00’s punk music to have heard of those bands. I’m still a hopeless swimmer but enjoying a bit of a different challenge!