If you have been wondering how I train or if there even is a plan - there is.
I train in a 3:1 scheme. This means I increase the hours for 3 weeks and then cut back to a week where I only do about 6 hours, that's my recovery week.
For example, in week 1 I train 9 hours, in week 2 I train 11 hours, in week 3 I train 12,5 hours and in week 4 I train 6 hours and then it starts all over again.
Of course it depends on the phase I'm in. During a normal season I have the general preparation phase (Nov - Jan) where I do long, slow trainings so I normally get the most hours in during this phase. Then I have the specific preparation phase (Feb - Apr) where I add sprints, interval and all that stuff so I have more short trainings. In the competition phase (May - Sep) I normally don't train as much as in the preparation phases because I have races every weekend, but it's normally a mix between longer and short trainings. And then there's the recovery phase (Oct) where I only train about 6 hours a week.
I normally train about 10 times per week. At the moment on Mondays I train in the morning and evening, on Tuesdays I only train once, on Wendesdays I train in the morning and evening, on Thursdays I only train once, on Fridays I have my rest day and on Saturday and Sunday I train in the morning and evening.
For example, training last week looked like this:
Monday: morning running (35min), afternoon skating (1 h 10)
Tuesday: afternoon off-skate (1 h 15)
Wednesday: morning windtrainer (1 h 05), afternoon exercises (1 h 30)
Thursday: morning running (1 h 35)
Friday: rest day (40min stretching)
Saturday: morning power-workout (1 h 10), afternoon windtrainer (1 h 10)
Sunday: morning running interval (55min), afternoon exercises (1 h 30)
Total of 11 h 55 (without stretching)
So yeah, there's a lot of planning involved before I start a new phase. But it's good to have some sort of a plan. Like this, you can make sure you get all your training in, get a good mix between long, easy and short, hard trainings and rotate between all the different sports.
This year however, the phases are a bit different due to the opposite seasons they have here. At the moment I'm in my "competition phase" even though I only had one running race so far.
After the second race in July I'll take a break for a few weeks and start with the general preparation phase in August, with the specific preparation phase in October and the competition phase in December. At least that's the plan so far :). Aaaand I'm planning on running a half marathon after skating season is over. So that means that I'll train after a specific half marathon plan from April till June and run the half marathon at the end of June. I just hope this will work, but we'll see.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
rain? no rain? rain? no rain!
Yesterday morning when I woke up it was wet and drizzling. The weather forecast predicted drizzle and rain all day, so I decided to hop on the wind trainer for a 2 hours training cos we can't skate on the track when it's wet.
My legs felt a little bit better but were still sore and while I was pedaling and watching a movie, the sky cleared and the sun came out.
I thought about stopping and going skating at night, but I thought it's gonna rain again later anyway so I kept going.
Wrong decision though, the sun was shining for almost four hours and it didn't rain again, so the track was good to go (apart from a few puddles). I decided to go skating even though my legs felt tired from training in the morning.
We did a 15min warm-up, then some individual starts and some starts in the group (which I all missed as usual), followed by exercises in the corners for 2min each, for 10min in total and then 6 x 800 meters (5 laps). And omg I was hurting. The first one already killed me and from then on I struggled to even stay behing the two guys (my boyfriend and a guy from the club). After the first three 800 meters were over I was about to quit, but kept going and dying out there… My hamstrings hurt, my thighs hurt and my calfs hurt and I could not move my legs any faster. I normally whinge a lot at training, but I always keep going. So I think as long as I finish whatever I have to do, I'm allowed to whinge. However, the last one was of course the hardest and I was so glad when it was over. I really couldn't have done another one.
Today I only wanted to train once cos my body needed some rest after yesterda. That doesn't meen that today's training wasn't going to be hard though. I did a 10min warm-up jog, then an interval 5 - 5 - 4 - 4 - 3 - 3 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 30 sec (that means 5min fast, 5min slow, 4min fast, 4min slow and so on) followed by a 10min cool-down jog and 5min stretching.
The first one went way better than I expected and I held a steady, pretty fast pace through the whole 5min. The shorter the intervals got, the faster I ran and the last 30 sec I was just sprinting. It was a really good training and I was in good shape. And the best thing was, that this time there was a cold diet coke waiting for me - and even a piece of cake.
So in today's training I did 9,6 km in 51:26min (including warm-up and cool-down) with an average speed of 10,96 km/h. Of course you can't really compare these numbers as it was an interval training with slower jogs in between, but I thought I just put it out there :)
My legs felt a little bit better but were still sore and while I was pedaling and watching a movie, the sky cleared and the sun came out.
I thought about stopping and going skating at night, but I thought it's gonna rain again later anyway so I kept going.
Wrong decision though, the sun was shining for almost four hours and it didn't rain again, so the track was good to go (apart from a few puddles). I decided to go skating even though my legs felt tired from training in the morning.
We did a 15min warm-up, then some individual starts and some starts in the group (which I all missed as usual), followed by exercises in the corners for 2min each, for 10min in total and then 6 x 800 meters (5 laps). And omg I was hurting. The first one already killed me and from then on I struggled to even stay behing the two guys (my boyfriend and a guy from the club). After the first three 800 meters were over I was about to quit, but kept going and dying out there… My hamstrings hurt, my thighs hurt and my calfs hurt and I could not move my legs any faster. I normally whinge a lot at training, but I always keep going. So I think as long as I finish whatever I have to do, I'm allowed to whinge. However, the last one was of course the hardest and I was so glad when it was over. I really couldn't have done another one.
Today I only wanted to train once cos my body needed some rest after yesterda. That doesn't meen that today's training wasn't going to be hard though. I did a 10min warm-up jog, then an interval 5 - 5 - 4 - 4 - 3 - 3 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 30 sec (that means 5min fast, 5min slow, 4min fast, 4min slow and so on) followed by a 10min cool-down jog and 5min stretching.
The first one went way better than I expected and I held a steady, pretty fast pace through the whole 5min. The shorter the intervals got, the faster I ran and the last 30 sec I was just sprinting. It was a really good training and I was in good shape. And the best thing was, that this time there was a cold diet coke waiting for me - and even a piece of cake.
So in today's training I did 9,6 km in 51:26min (including warm-up and cool-down) with an average speed of 10,96 km/h. Of course you can't really compare these numbers as it was an interval training with slower jogs in between, but I thought I just put it out there :)
Sunday, June 27, 2010
morning interval training in the rain
This morning I wanted to do some interval training. When I woke up at 8:20am, my legs still felt really tired from yesterday's training. And it was raining outside. And it looked cold. Enough reasons to stay in bed, but when I got up 20min later I put on my running clothes and got ready. I only had a few crackers before the run, just to get something in my stomach and headed out into the rain. The first 15min was warm-up and I got to feel which muscles still hurt. And there were a few :) but after a while it was ok so I was ready for my 4 x 800m intervals with a 2min recovery jog in between (or 4 x 4min as I don't have a GPS). I started the first 4min a bit slower than I normally would and it was hard enough with all these aching muscles. The next two intervals went ok but I got side stitches in the last one. However, I did the last one faster than the ones before and really pushed my body to the limit, it felt gooood :). After the 4 intervals I jogged back home and did my 15min cool-down, but got side stitches again, so bad I had to walk in between.
All in all I was happy with the training cos first of all, last night I seriously thought I wouldn't go jogging this morning cos my muslces were so sore and second it felt good to do some speed workout in the rain.
For lunch we had pancakes (perfect post-run meal :)) and later we went shopping. I bought some new exercise shorts for cheap so that was good :).
When we got home it was already 4:30pm though and I was soooo tired from training this morning and walking around the shops that I really couldn't be bothered to do exercises. But still, I got changed and once I started it was ok. I did a 5min warm-up on the wind trainer, 75min exercises for my waist, abs, back and arms and a 10min cool-down. I made sure it didn't hurt my legs any more so I think I did good :).
All in all I was happy with the training cos first of all, last night I seriously thought I wouldn't go jogging this morning cos my muslces were so sore and second it felt good to do some speed workout in the rain.
For lunch we had pancakes (perfect post-run meal :)) and later we went shopping. I bought some new exercise shorts for cheap so that was good :).
When we got home it was already 4:30pm though and I was soooo tired from training this morning and walking around the shops that I really couldn't be bothered to do exercises. But still, I got changed and once I started it was ok. I did a 5min warm-up on the wind trainer, 75min exercises for my waist, abs, back and arms and a 10min cool-down. I made sure it didn't hurt my legs any more so I think I did good :).
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Power Workout = sore legs
After having my rest day yesterday, I had the Power Workout or S.I.T (Short Intense Training, see below) planed for this morning. It killed my legs! Seriously it's never been that hard before. My legs felt ok right after the workout and I hopped on the bike for a 10min cool-down, but after having lunch and going to the mall, my legs hurt. Really hurt. Man, all that walking didn't really help.
At 6:30pm I went on my indoor trainer for an hour. I thought I'll just do some easy training, but I ended up riding with more resistance than I had planned cos it actually felt ok and it kept my heart rate up. Well, after about an hour after I finished that training I found out that it wasn't such a great idea, now my legs hurt even more!
I'm already looking forward to the interval training tomorrow morning - not.
Just so that you get an idea of what that Power Workout is I'm talking about, here's what I do:
15min warm-up on the wind trainer and some dynamic stretching
3min jumping jacks
3min rope skipping (without a rope :))
3min running on the spot with high knees
3 x 45sec frog jumps alternating with 45sec shoulderblade pushes
3 x 45sec plank with legs pulling to abs (hard to explain) alternating with 45sec of press-ups
3 x 45sec lunges, jumping up and changing legs alternating with 45sec of arm exercise
3 x 45sec push ups alternating with cycling in the air
normally after this I'm finished and I do a 10min cool-down on the indoor trainer and 5min stretching, but today I did 1min of burpees and 1min of single leg treadmill as well, so I think that was the part that killed my legs :)
At 6:30pm I went on my indoor trainer for an hour. I thought I'll just do some easy training, but I ended up riding with more resistance than I had planned cos it actually felt ok and it kept my heart rate up. Well, after about an hour after I finished that training I found out that it wasn't such a great idea, now my legs hurt even more!
I'm already looking forward to the interval training tomorrow morning - not.
Just so that you get an idea of what that Power Workout is I'm talking about, here's what I do:
15min warm-up on the wind trainer and some dynamic stretching
3min jumping jacks
3min rope skipping (without a rope :))
3min running on the spot with high knees
3 x 45sec frog jumps alternating with 45sec shoulderblade pushes
3 x 45sec plank with legs pulling to abs (hard to explain) alternating with 45sec of press-ups
3 x 45sec lunges, jumping up and changing legs alternating with 45sec of arm exercise
3 x 45sec push ups alternating with cycling in the air
normally after this I'm finished and I do a 10min cool-down on the indoor trainer and 5min stretching, but today I did 1min of burpees and 1min of single leg treadmill as well, so I think that was the part that killed my legs :)
Thursday, June 24, 2010
long run
After training yesterday wasn't really challenging, it was time for my long run today. I had my muesli for breakfast and headed out at 10am. I went to Hagley Park what is a 20min run away from where I live. The weather was perfect for a run, it was cool (8 degrees) and cloudy. As soon as I got to the park, I started to feel hungry. I knew I should have eaten something between my muesli and the run, but now it was too late. I tried to keep my heart rate slow, but of course didn't even manage to do that. I just always go a bit too fast when I run by myself. But I felt ok so it couldn't have been that bad. I did a whole lap around south and north Hagley Park only to find out that I still had to do 20min before heading back home to get my 90min training in. I went a little further and turned around after 10min to run home. As soon as I was out of the park I felt like I could go a bit faster and about 2km away from home I picked up the pace again. I felt much better on the last 3km than through the whole run before, but I was glad to be home again after cos I started to get really thirsty (god, I would have killed for a cold diet coke waiting for me). So today I did 15km in 1 h 32 min (hey, long runs are supposed to be slow! :)). After a shower, half a litre of sports drink and some pasta, I snuggled up on the couch to read "Runner's World". I love reading magazines like that after a hart training. I don't know why, but I just cant read sports magazines if I haven't been training before. It makes me feel kind of guilty and lazy and it makes me want to go for a run.
I put every training I do on 1-2-sports.com. It's a great tool to keep all those trainings you do in one place so you can look up what you did last week or last month. It also gives you the possibility to make graphs and stuff - this is where it starts to be fun. I for example have been training for 719:54 hours since 24.11.2008 (that's when I joined 1-2-sport) and 122:57 hours of that was running and 125:12 hours was skating. On top of all that I waisted about 377'842 kcal - pretty cool, isn't it?! :)
Ok, enough about that. Tomorrow I won't waste any calories, or at least not while I'm training cos tomorrow is rest day. That means no training at all, only 30 - 40 min of stretching, lots of relaxing and most important of all (well, almost) eating whatever I want :) I try (I really do, even though it doesn't really work) to eat healthy, that means fruits, vegetables, carbs, proteins... and not so much sweets and cookies and stuff during the week. Only on Friday (my rest day) it doesn't matter at all. I can eat Pizza for lunch and Donut's for dessert, I don't care :) And I love these day's, even though I don't always eat "unhealthy". But I think it's important to have a day like that so I keep doing it.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
two days of nice weather, now rain again
The last two days the weather was really nice. The sun was out almost all day and it was around 13 degrees.
On Monday morning right after I woke up (as my legs were still sore) I went for a regeneration jog. I did 30min very easy and enjoyed looking in everyone's front yard and checking their houses out. I never thought I could jog with a heart rate that low (at some times it was down to 130). It was really nice and I felt relaxed afterwards. I had breakfast, wrote some job applications, had lunch and did some cleaning. In the afternoon me and my boyfriend went to the beach for a walk and in the evening we went to the skating rink. We weren't sure if it would be dry or not but it was worth a try, only the back straight was wet so that was ok.
I was glad that the guys weren't there cos that meant I could skate my pace and didn't have to go too hard (remember, legs were sore! :) So we warmed up nice and easy, did some starts, some technique and then 6 400 meters. I started as fast as i normally do, but after 1,5 laps I felt like I'm gonna have to stop, my legs just locked. So I decided that I won't do the others just as fast. Besides, it was quite dangerous, I had to go into the corner not too fast to come out low so that I don't hit the wet and fall, then I had to skate through the wet and not go into the next corner too fast as my wheels were still wet and I had to wait until they gripped again.
I survived the 400 meters, so as a reward we went to Burger King for dinner, yummy :D
Yesterday was another nice day, but on my program was only 1,25 hours of off-skate. So I waited until the afternoon when it was nice and warm and headed out to Woolston Park. I used the jog there as my warm-up and started doing the off-skate. I thought it would be a lot harder on my legs cos after the frog jumps (witch was the second exercise) my legs felt sore already. I went through the workout all right thoguh and enjoyed the warm weather.
This morning when I woke up I felt my shins (do not ask me what from cos normally I don't get this from doing off-skate, only from running), so that was a bit weird.
Because it looks like it's gonna rain all day and the track won't be dry, I'll hopp on my bike (indoors) in 10min and do an hour on there (just eeeeasy) and then 1,5 hours exercises tonight, but just for my body from the waist up, I don't wanna hurt my legs any more.
On Monday morning right after I woke up (as my legs were still sore) I went for a regeneration jog. I did 30min very easy and enjoyed looking in everyone's front yard and checking their houses out. I never thought I could jog with a heart rate that low (at some times it was down to 130). It was really nice and I felt relaxed afterwards. I had breakfast, wrote some job applications, had lunch and did some cleaning. In the afternoon me and my boyfriend went to the beach for a walk and in the evening we went to the skating rink. We weren't sure if it would be dry or not but it was worth a try, only the back straight was wet so that was ok.
I was glad that the guys weren't there cos that meant I could skate my pace and didn't have to go too hard (remember, legs were sore! :) So we warmed up nice and easy, did some starts, some technique and then 6 400 meters. I started as fast as i normally do, but after 1,5 laps I felt like I'm gonna have to stop, my legs just locked. So I decided that I won't do the others just as fast. Besides, it was quite dangerous, I had to go into the corner not too fast to come out low so that I don't hit the wet and fall, then I had to skate through the wet and not go into the next corner too fast as my wheels were still wet and I had to wait until they gripped again.
I survived the 400 meters, so as a reward we went to Burger King for dinner, yummy :D
Yesterday was another nice day, but on my program was only 1,25 hours of off-skate. So I waited until the afternoon when it was nice and warm and headed out to Woolston Park. I used the jog there as my warm-up and started doing the off-skate. I thought it would be a lot harder on my legs cos after the frog jumps (witch was the second exercise) my legs felt sore already. I went through the workout all right thoguh and enjoyed the warm weather.
This morning when I woke up I felt my shins (do not ask me what from cos normally I don't get this from doing off-skate, only from running), so that was a bit weird.
Because it looks like it's gonna rain all day and the track won't be dry, I'll hopp on my bike (indoors) in 10min and do an hour on there (just eeeeasy) and then 1,5 hours exercises tonight, but just for my body from the waist up, I don't wanna hurt my legs any more.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
a day full of training
This weekend was the club's training weekend.
It startet at 9am yesterday at an indoor stadium with skating. It was nice to skate in a warm place for a change and we started with the warm up, followed by some technique, then doing some cross overs and corners, then doing relay and a cool down. After this it was already 11:30am and we packed our gear and went for lunch. After lunch we had an offskate session which wasn't too hart cos at the beginning we only got the exercises demonstrated and did them for 30secs. At the end we actually ran through the whole program but doing them only half as long as they're supposed to be (we still had another skating session on afterwards). After a small break we headed back to the stadium to some more skating. we started with a warm up again, did some passing exercises, some more technique, relay, a flying lap each and 3 400 meters FAST. After this training was over and we cooled down and went home to have some yummy pasta and get a rest.
Today we were supposed to skate outdoors but it was wet so we decided to go home again. I did an hour on my bike though which was pretty hard because my legs were quite sore from yesterday. Apart from that I didn't do much today, just trying to get some rest in cos tomorrow is another day of training.
It startet at 9am yesterday at an indoor stadium with skating. It was nice to skate in a warm place for a change and we started with the warm up, followed by some technique, then doing some cross overs and corners, then doing relay and a cool down. After this it was already 11:30am and we packed our gear and went for lunch. After lunch we had an offskate session which wasn't too hart cos at the beginning we only got the exercises demonstrated and did them for 30secs. At the end we actually ran through the whole program but doing them only half as long as they're supposed to be (we still had another skating session on afterwards). After a small break we headed back to the stadium to some more skating. we started with a warm up again, did some passing exercises, some more technique, relay, a flying lap each and 3 400 meters FAST. After this training was over and we cooled down and went home to have some yummy pasta and get a rest.
Today we were supposed to skate outdoors but it was wet so we decided to go home again. I did an hour on my bike though which was pretty hard because my legs were quite sore from yesterday. Apart from that I didn't do much today, just trying to get some rest in cos tomorrow is another day of training.
Friday, June 18, 2010
me and my legs
I seriously think my legs don't like me anymore. I mean hello, that hard off-skate training my legs didn't really enjoy was on monday, now it's friday. So they can stop being mad at me and stop hurting everytime I work out.
On Wednesday I went to club training at the track. After the warm-up my legs decided they trained enough and started to be sore. Just like that. I tried to ignore them and we did some accelerations and starts. After that we did a 5km (32 laps). It never felt so hard, I had to force my legs to lift my skates off the ground and sometimes I struggled not to fall over. Anyway, after trainig I was sitting on the couch watching TV and my legs just hurt. I didn't even move but they just hurt and I didn't like that. So the next day I decided to have my rest day even though I normally have it a day later. I did some 40min stretching and my legs felt halfway ok.
Today when I woke up I could feel that my legs were still a little bit sore but I went for a 50min EASY run before breakfast. It was ok once I started running but I got out of breath pretty quickly. Back home my legs started hurting again and they've been like that all day. I don't know what's the matter with them. I think I'm gonna skip cycling tonight so that they'll (hopefully) feel a bit better for skating at the weekend cos it's gonna be a long, hard, painful training weekend.
On Wednesday I went to club training at the track. After the warm-up my legs decided they trained enough and started to be sore. Just like that. I tried to ignore them and we did some accelerations and starts. After that we did a 5km (32 laps). It never felt so hard, I had to force my legs to lift my skates off the ground and sometimes I struggled not to fall over. Anyway, after trainig I was sitting on the couch watching TV and my legs just hurt. I didn't even move but they just hurt and I didn't like that. So the next day I decided to have my rest day even though I normally have it a day later. I did some 40min stretching and my legs felt halfway ok.
Today when I woke up I could feel that my legs were still a little bit sore but I went for a 50min EASY run before breakfast. It was ok once I started running but I got out of breath pretty quickly. Back home my legs started hurting again and they've been like that all day. I don't know what's the matter with them. I think I'm gonna skip cycling tonight so that they'll (hopefully) feel a bit better for skating at the weekend cos it's gonna be a long, hard, painful training weekend.
Am I becoming a runner?! :)
Two months ago I moved from Switzerland to New Zealand (Christchurch). Not a smart move cos I moved from winter in Switzerland to winter in New Zealand, yeah well... And of course in winter there are no skating races so I decided (and that was a smart move) to run more often.
I used to run about twice a week as part of my speed inline skate training, but never really competed in runs (except for a 5km and a 6km race where I nearly died cos it was so hard). As soon as I got to Christchurch however, I saw all those ads for the Christchurch Marathon in 4 weeks time (no worries, I wasn't going to run a full marathon). Buuuut I decided to compete in the 10km race (another smart move). So I started running about four days a week while riding my bike, doing off-skate and exercises.
All the last minute training was worth it, I ran the 10km in 47:53 and of course I was proud of myself, after all it was my first. Right after the race I decided to do another one, that one is in a month time and I am already looking forward to it.
However, I started skating again, so I don't do that much running at the moment.
I used to run about twice a week as part of my speed inline skate training, but never really competed in runs (except for a 5km and a 6km race where I nearly died cos it was so hard). As soon as I got to Christchurch however, I saw all those ads for the Christchurch Marathon in 4 weeks time (no worries, I wasn't going to run a full marathon). Buuuut I decided to compete in the 10km race (another smart move). So I started running about four days a week while riding my bike, doing off-skate and exercises.
All the last minute training was worth it, I ran the 10km in 47:53 and of course I was proud of myself, after all it was my first. Right after the race I decided to do another one, that one is in a month time and I am already looking forward to it.
However, I started skating again, so I don't do that much running at the moment.
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