A bit of a lazy start to the week seems to be the usual case at the moment with class Monday and Wednesday nights. However still got a good amount of exercise and strength work in. I see the sports doctor this Tuesday coming so fingers crossed for some good news from the www.luxuryrehab.org.uk
This Week a.k.a. Ben’s Babbling
Monday
Weigh in: 65.8kg, 18.0% body fat
Completed wall sit and calf raise holds in the morning. No other exercise due to work and class in the evening. Next week I’m going to make more of an effort to get a Monday gym session in – either at lunch or between work and class.
Tuesday
No exercise session today but I walked to and from the train station which is about a 2km walk, and also from training course venue to Flinders St station. So I got a reasonable amount of walking in at least. I went out for dinner rather than doing any exercise after work.
Wednesday
I went to Melbourne City Baths in between work and class. Started off with skipping to warm up and then into the usual rehab exercises followed by some upper body strength work. I’m considering getting a gym membership in the city. At the moment I’ve been paying casual entry which is $22.10 each time, while a membership is $50.60 per fortnight. So I would have to use the gym twice a week for it to be worth it. Melbourne City Baths also have a small lap pool (25m, 4 lanes) but it doesn’t seem to get too busy so could be an option for swimming too.
Alternatively I’ve also been thinking about a WynActive membership. I’ve been paying $15-20 a week to use the pool at Aquapulse casual entry prices. Where I could get a membership for $19.80 which would also give me access to Eagle stadium gym which is just across the road from me. AND another option I’ve been thinking about is getting a second hand spin bike for home, because really that’s the main reason I’d want to use the gym at Eagle Stadium.
Thursday
I got to the pool pretty late so I just went for a swim. 1000m in 30:40 which I think is a new best. This is sort of my routine now – Thursday nights I just swim, while Sunday I do a combination of swimming and pool running.
Also I did my stair exercises in the stairwell at work. Got a couple interesting looks from other staff going in between floors for meetings while I’m just going up and down the stairs looking at my watch!
Friday
I’m usually pretty slack on Fridays but I made sure I got my rehab exercises done. THEN I could relax and have a beer and watch the footy.
Saturday
Today was a lazy day. Thought about going to the pack run but it was at 9am and I decided to sleep in instead. I was going to go for a ride but wasn’t feeling the motivation to get out into the cold and on and off rain. But I felt like I needed to do something after doing very little all day so I just did some yoga for runners in the evening.
Sunday
With my usual pool training partners up at the Gold Coast I wasn’t in any rush to get to the pool. I started around 9:50am with a 200m warm up swim, 30 mins of pool running (2min on, 1min off) and 200m swim at the end. Then straight to the cafe to join the Cashins for the usual post You Yangs long run breaky.
Also I did some work.. not too much thankfully just a task I need to do each EOFY.
Detail
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | AM Holds - 10 mins 1 x 1min wall squat 1 x 1min calf raise holds 2 x 30sec single leg wall squat 2 x 30sec calf raise holds 1 x 1min wall squat 1 x 1min bent knee calf raise (back against wall in squat position and lifting heels) |
| Tue | |
| Wed | Skipping - 10 mins, 114 bpm 10 x 30 secs on/ 30secs off Rehab exercises - 26 mins Glute med at wall 3 x 6 Lunge 3 x 8 with barbell 10kg Single leg squat with band around thigh 3 x 8 Arabesque with dumbbell lateral arm fly 3 x 8 4kg Calf raise (single leg) x 50 (28) Standing balance four point reach 3 x 4 Upper body strength - 10 mins Chin ups 3x5+ 5, 5, 6 OHP 3x5+ 25kg 5, 5, 9 |
| Thu | AM Holds 1 x 1min wall squat 1 x 1min calf raise holds 2 x 30sec single leg wall squat 2 x 30sec calf raise holds 1 x 1min wall squat 1 x 1min bent knee calf raise (back against wall in squat position and lifting heels) Stairs and step ups STAIRS – 2 x 1min (1min rest); 2min (1min rest); 3mins (1min rest). STEP UPS – 3 x 8 Swimming - 1000m, 30:40, 3:04min/100m |
| Fri | AM Holds - 10 mins 1 x 1min wall squat 1 x 1min calf raise holds 2 x 30sec single leg wall squat 2 x 30sec calf raise holds 1 x 1min wall squat 1 x 1min bent knee calf raise (back against wall in squat position and lifting heels) Skipping - 10 mins, 117bpm 10 x 30 sec on, 30 sec off Rehab exercises - 25 mins Glute med at wall 3 x 6 Lunge 3 x 8 with barbell 20kg Single leg squat with band around thigh 3 x 8 Arabesque with dumbbell lateral arm fly 3 x 8 4kg Calf raise (single leg) x 50 (28) Standing balance four point reach 3 x 4 Upper body strength - 10 mins Barbell rows 3x5+ 37.5kg 5, 5, 9 Bench press 3x5+ 37.5kg 5, 5, 8 |
| Sat | Recovery yoga for runners (McMillan Running) - 30 mins |
| Sun | Swimming - 200m, 5:56, 2:58/100m Pool running – 30 mins, 118bpm 10 x 2min on, 1 min off (with flotation belt) Swimming - 200m, 5:50, 2:55/100m |
Race results
Over the weekend I’ve been looking out for lot’s of race results both in Victoria and up at Gold Coast.
Deb – Surf Coast Trail Marathon
Let’s start with Surf Coast Trail Marathon. I’ve been coaching Deb over the past 21 weeks. From a coaching perspective it’s been an interesting journey. I don’t have full control over Deb’s program as on a Tuesday she runs with Hawthorn Running Group, which is either a speed or hill session. This is a session she enjoys training with a group of friends so we would rely on this for her hill and shorter speed work. On Thursday’s was a session I would program, which towards the end was a longer tempo run a bit faster than marathon pace.
Deb was really good with getting her long runs in. I rotated weeks between long and really long runs and also programmed the long runs by time rather than pace. I typically think going by time is better because it takes away any thought of running faster to try and finish the run sooner, just about time of the feet. Longest training run was 3 and a half hours which ended up being 31km. If we had more time I might have gotten her to go a little further in training but I think it was a pretty solid marathon build.
The week before the race I was checking out the race results of a lady who had run both Melbourne Marathon and Surf Coast Trail Marathon. She ran Melbourne in 3:45 and the year after ran Surf Coast in 4:35. So it’s definitely much harder than your typical flat road marathon.
This is a tough hilly marathon running along the coastal trails from Torquay to Fairhaven with 788m of elevation. But Deb got through it even with half of it with a strained calf. Anyway very proud of Deb getting through her first marathon a very tough one at that!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bko4shylJwK/?taken-by=readydebbierun
Gold Coast Marathon
Meanwhile up in sunny Gold Coast it’s been good hearing plenty of great results.
A big run from the coach.. Chelsea averaged 4:00/km flat for the 5.7km race and finished first in her age group. Very impressive especially with nursing an injury for the past month. Meanwhile mother Morley put in a great run too finishing 11th in her age group.
In the 10km the young Western Aths lads Cody and Liam put in top 10 finishes 5th and 8th. My training buddy Brigitte knocked out an impressive PB finishing in 42:25. I have a lot of catching up to do when I come back!
On the Sunday Jack Rayner had a break through run in the half marathon winning in 1:03:12 – that’s sub 3:00/km pace for 21.1kms… far out. And it was good to see Bree back running well after injury with a 1:22:56. In the marathon I was keen to see how Dave would go, a very well paced run up to the 30km split. Unfortunately the heat and high humidity got the better of him. Which I can completely understand I always struggle with it at Gold Coast, I don’t think I would run another marathon there. My pal Tash knocked out another great marathon with a 3:30 finish.. 2 mins off her best very good effort. AND hooray for Jess Trengove marathon PB, big prize money, marry me.. <3
Song of the week
The Living End! Man.. the Second Solution/Prisoner of Society EP by got many many plays in my stereo. Two of their best songs, and I still have that CD somewhere..
What are The Living End like in 2018? Hmm they don’t have the same energy as back then but I feel like I say that about a lot of bands. I think there is that youthful raw energy and rebelliousness which can be lost a bit as bands (and people in general) mature. But in saying that new music from The Living End is still an enjoyable listen.
Coming up
I have an appointment with the sports doctor on Tuesday so keep your fingers crossed for me. Hopefully some good news. Although I was also hopeful last time and it ended up being another 4 weeks so we’ll see!
Tomorrow I have to present three ideas for my data science project, rapid fire style and one get’s chosen to do as the project. I have a few ideas in mind..
- Something work related – are non-compliance factors correlated with legionella sample detections?
- AFL stats – is it possible to predict a players fantasy points, are there certain factors that correlate with worse or better point scoring? – not sure how easy it is to get access to the data for this one.
- Running (a) – is there a correlation between running pace and the weather? It’s a tricky one since there are so many different factors that influence pace (type of run, fitness level, etc.).
- Running (b) – is there a correlation between training pace and race pace? again this is pretty tricky but do-able I think, I’d want to take data from a sample of runners.. let’s say 20 runners. And look at their training pace across different types of sessions and their race result for a certain distance, ideally all in the one race but could look at different races. I’m leaning towards this option now that I’m thinking about it more because I think it would be the most interesting.
