Physical Training

This is not a post about geology, so if you’re picking this up in a geofeed feel free to ignore it.

That said however, I’m doing this at least partly for reasons related to my course – so feel free to have a read if you’re interested.

I am woefully unfit. This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows me and in the past I haven’t cared that much. I’m more than fit enough for the relatively easy walking that we do on university field trips, however I’m not satisfied with this level of fitness. I want to go climb Munros; go Skating a lot more and do my summer mapping project in a reasonably good physical condition. So, to achieve this I am finally making an effort to get a little bit healthier.

There are two main steps involved in this and they are:

1. Exercise a MINIMUM of 3 times a week
2. Stop drinking until (at least) my Birthday in March.

Accompanying me on this probably doomed attempt is one of my best friends, Mark, who is chronicling the attempt on his own blog here. We’re doing it for different reasons, but the desired result is the same. We’re calling it Operation Duck Hook, as a bit of Nixon-era Gallows Humour – something that’s a bit silly and over top that most likely won’t get followed through on.

I haven’t decided yet to what extent I’ll chronicle this on here. This is a geology blog first and foremost so I’d rather not overwhelm it. Never-the-less if you don’t hear me talking about it here or on twitter for a few weeks I would appreciate a good kick. So in any event I’ll let you know what I’ve done in my first week:

Sunday Run – Following the First of Robert Ullrey’s Podcasts for Running. I highly recommend these, they’re really inspiring and are helpful if you don’t really know what you’re doing with regards to training (i.e. you’re like me). I ran along the road out towards Renfrew. Light snow cover on the ground, but nothing too slippy. Run felt pretty easy, but it was the first week and I’m not quite couch potato unfit.

Joined the Gym on Monday. The Glasgow University gym is a fantastic deal – £40 for the entire year (which is about what most gyms charge per month!). I figure that since it’s £3.75 a session otherwise I need to go at least 12 times to make it worthwhile. That’s once a week for the rest of term. I want to make it at least two.

Wednesday Run – Planned to play squash, Courts were booked so went for a run instead. Again used Podcasts for running. Overdid it slightly, so back of my legs felt a bit weird for a couple of days.

Saturday Cross-Trainer – A kilometre at a time on my flatmate’s cross-trainer interspersed with breaks to sort out laundry. Did 10k, little bit worried that my dodgy knee may be unhappy with me though. I don’t particularly like the cross-trainer, it isn’t great for cardio (in my opinion) and it hurts my knees, but it’ll do my leg muscles good.

I plan to hit the gym again tomorrow for another session of running along to the podcasts. That will complete my first week of them, and I’ll be ready to move onto week two of the training program. To give myself a target I’m going to aim to do a 5k funrun in March, followed by a 10k in the summer some time.

Let’s see how it goes.

Edit: Week 2 Update (rather than a new post).

Sunday Run – Did the first of Robert Ullrey’s Podcasts for the third time. This completes the first week of running training, so for the next runs I’ll be using week two. Managed 3.5km on the treadmill. Pretty happy with that, I think I’m on track for being able to do the 5k in March. Knees are acting up a little bit though, so going to go easy on them for the next couple of days.

Monday Run – Gym, Did another Week 1 podcast (taking it slow for the sake of the knees).

Wednesday Squash – Squash with Kathie, I mopped the floor with her but it was nice to see that I’ve still got the skills – it’s like riding a bike.

Thursday Run – Week 2 Podcast.

Friday Run – Week 2 Podcast.

Sunday Squash + Run – Most of a week 2 podcast (cut short for time) + 40 minutes of Squash with Mark (3-1 to me). Pulled a muscle in the back of my left leg though, hoping that I haven’t injured myself too badly. Really enjoyed this gym session, managed to push myself quite hard in the squash games. Mark’s a great opponent because we’re pretty much on the same level skillwise, this means I spend a lot of time running around and jumping for shots.

Plan is to do another 3 (or so) runs over the next week as well as playing Squash again next Sunday. Really starting to get into this.

Tags: Blah, Fitness, Running