It has been an interesting week, with posture identified as a possible factor to my injury. Probably the most consistent I’ve been with getting everything in each day and no issues.

This Week

Monday

So it turns out last week’s weigh in was a fluke or mis-read!

Weigh in: 65.5kg, 18.5% body fat.

Continuing with my trial of gyms that are close to work, I went to Virgin Active at lunch. It’s an impressive gym, multiple levels with a rock climbing wall through the middle, lap pool, spa and sauna, and great weights and cardio areas. I think the main selling point of Virgin is the very extensive class timetable, looking at Monday they have 35 classes listed which is huge, I don’t think any other gym comes close to that. Price wise however it’s the most expensive at $34.95 per week and just to try the gym it’s $45, no free trials here however you get the $45 towards your membership fee if you decide to join.

Tuesday

At lunch I did my 30 min walk with 8 x 30 sec run session around Carlton Gardens which was good.

In the afternoon I met Roy at Pure Physio, since my usual physio Laura is off on maternity leave. The main reason for seeing Roy was to further look into the postural issue that Cara picked up last week. I tend to slouch to my right, with my right shoulder sitting lower than my left, it’s almost like a bit of a tension thing I’m gripping that shoulder in. Interestingly when Roy adjusted my posture it makes differences lower down. One noticeable difference is lunging with my left leg back, I tend to feel tightness through my left hip, hip flexor. But with my posture corrected that tightness mostly disappears, it actually shifts my hip position. So very interesting could certainly be a big factor with bad posture causing uneven loading with my running.

In terms of how to fix the problem it’s tricky, essentially it’s using cues to relax and focus on “floating the upper ribs up as an even platform”, and also some release work. So I’m doing that whenever I’m doing my exercises and whenever else I think to do it. Eventually I’ll hopefully start holding my posture better without thinking about it.

Wednesday

Ok this is my final gym trial, Fitness First QV. This was one of my favourites that I tried. If you want the best gym for barbells and free weights this is it. Big area with multiple olympic barbell lifting racks, dead lifting platforms, etc. The membership also allows you to access other Fitness First platinum or passport gyms, if there was one out near Werribee I would have considered joining. Downside of Fitness First is it’s on the more expensive end, $27 per week is the cheapest price, and to get that price you have to sign up for 18 months. It’s also missing a couple of things that other gyms in this price range have, no pool and class timetable is a little limited, no spin bike studio/classes.

Thursday

Doubled up today! Walk/run at lunch progressing to 10 x 30 sec. I did this around Carlton Gardens rather than back and forth in the one spot which felt a bit more productive and leg felt good. After work headed to Aquapulse for a 1200m swim.

Friday

So after all my gym trials I actually decided to join one. Genesis Fitness came back and offered me a better deal, which made it the equal cheapest, same price as Zap Fitness. As well as being a 3 month contract, so not a huge commitment if I decided it’s not worth it, most other gyms were 12 months. It’s also the most convenient option for me, being located right next to work. Basically it’s going to save me money compared to casual sessions at Melbourne City Baths and really help with getting my rehab and strength work in. Friday lunch times are so much easier than trying to do strength training Friday evening after work!

Saturday

I spent the day doing the Level 2 Recreational Running coaching course at Athletics Victoria. Have to say while it was good, I didn’t find it quite as useful as the Level 1 course. Some material was covered previously in Level 1 – the purpose and design of warm ups and cool downs.

The thing I was most interested to cover was training program design, which ended up being quite simple. Basically covered the fundamentals which was nice to see matched what I already do, work backwards from the goal race, start with long run endurance progression, factoring in taper and ease back weeks, add in quality sessions, add in absorption runs (easy runs) and finally any cross training. Quality sessions should be separated with absorption runs. If you’ve been running for some time it’s all pretty common sense.

I think the hardest part of designing a good program is choosing and designing the right quality sessions for the runner and their goal, which we did one exercise on coming up with some sessions for different scenarios. But it’s obviously an area where there can be huge differences between coaches who have different ideas and philosophies.

We also covered off a number of other things which was interesting. Like hill running technique were we went out doors to do a practical exercise running up and down a small hill – this and going through some skipping and strides was my running for the day.

Also I found this chart interesting, I put a lot of focus on nutrition during my marathon training. But SLEEP is the biggest factor by far and one that I still need to improve.

Sunday

The usual, down to Aquapulse for pool running and swimming. I think both Sharon and I were feeling a little lazy today instead of doing any reps we just did a pretty casual water run and chatted haha.

Detail

Song of the week

This is going to be hard to believe.. but I don’t always listen to rock/punk/metal music. I discovered Porter Robinson a few years ago when I heard the song Sad Machine which I love. But instead of Sad Machine I’m sharing Shelter which is also a great song, and has a more interesting video. Pretty cool that they have done a anime story for the music video, I hadn’t seen this until now, who doesn’t love a good anime? right??

Coming up

More of the same run walking, strength and cross training.

Appointment with Cara on Wednesday to assess and make any progressions to the strength and return to run program.

Summary