Day 33 - Mega Session!

Saturday - Train Hard....

...You know the rest. Just be the best (you can be)...

So, after the long and exhaustive (and slightly alcohol fuelled) day of ANZAC 2014, I got up a little slower than normal. Still made it in time to get the first train outta Crib, bound for Melbourne.

My plan - Train Legs at Fitness First's new platinum gym on Flinders Street, collect my bike from Cycles Galleria and come back to base. I stuck to my plan and gained more than sore legs...

LEGS DAY!

Arrival at the gym at 1000h was nicely done. I had jumped off the train walked around the block (Swanston, Collins, Elizabeth, Flinders Streets) and smashed down my pre-work out drink - it was good warm up walk which was followed by some quick dynamic stretched as I changed into my gym gear. I have to say, the new gym on Flinders is wicked - great facilities, great people - check ito ut even as a guest its worth it.

I went up to the "big boys" area of the gym since it was quiet, and did some free-squats to get my legs in shape, then headed over to the new leg press machines. I was feeling really focused and very strong in the leg dept today. My confidence with legs has never been great, especially since recovering from my torn hamstring during NEOC last year!  After a quick 20kg warm up set of 15 reps I did 5 sets (12 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps, 10 reps, 12 reps). I reached a pretty good weight in set 3 (for a novice) - 140kg, and felt comfortable, then on the 4th and 5th sets I removed 20kg each set.

I returned to the squat rack, set up a 20kg barbell with 15kg on each end in preparation to do squats. At that moment a massive dude came in and jumped onto the rack next to me, my image in the mirror was lost to his huge size, so he offered to alternate his sets to allow me to use the mirror so I could work on my technique - he was called Ryan, a cool guy. The dude he was training with (well there were four dudes and pretty cool chick actually), Kieran, offered to coach me through a legs session and so I joined in with the group - learning heaps! Kieran continued to assist me with my lifting tech and showed me some new moves, which I'll be sure to include (since they really gave me a great workout today).

After squats, reaching around 90kg on the bar (45kg each side of the barbell), I moved to calves and really let rip! I wasn't going heavy, but I was really enjoying the larger pyramid sets. I returned to the barbell on the squat rack. I loaded up my barbell, and after some guidance from Ryan and Kieran, I did two types of dead lift. The first set of dead lifts was a glute strengthening dead lift devised by an American trainer from Winnepeg! Ainsley McSorley has an entire Glute exercise regimen, but I incorporated just a few of her routines today, to test the water. This dead lift was a barbell Romanian dead lift. The smaller movements in this exercise really tweaked the hamstring and really worked my core. I only lifted around 50kg all up, but I could really feel it work my legs. The second, given by Ryan, was a full dead lift - amazingly he was lifting 230kg, whilst I was lifting around 70kg! Still, I'm new to legs so I was enjoying the coaching and technique development!

After a quick set of Ainsley's Squats using a fit-ball against a wall, performed slowly in 3x15 rep sets (which burned so much in my quads), I grabbed a 25kg bar and performed a set of my own 'crazy lunge pyramid walks'... lol. 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1 reps on each leg, stepping forwards on each set. After travelling around 20-30m and covering 43 reps per leg, I stopped, turned and returned to the start point. I did three sets of these, each time with about a minute or so rest between each. Kieran guided me on my posture during the lunges, and really assisted in pushing me through what ended up being a really intense leg burnout! I concluded my legs workout with  hamstring curls. I performed these on a machine, doing 8 reps each set. I started at 30kg, then 60, 90, 120, 150, 170kg. My legs were actually shaking as I stretched and hydrated!

Chest Builder

I was working hard, feeling really charged up. I enjoyed the workout and was going good guns. I decided to push my chest sets a little harder and longer. I started with the inclined chest press bench. I continued with pyramid sets. I lifted 50kg x 10 reps, then 70kg x8 reps (for 2 sets). I started feeling the struggle of lifting without a spotter, and (low and behold) Kieran appears to give me the encouragement I needed....I then reduced to 60kg for a fourth set of 10 reps. I finished with 50kg for a final 12 reps! As I moved from inclined to flat bench, with awesome energy and motivation, I repeated the same sets and weights - my chest was really surging and I felt like I had started to build on my normal chest workout. I concluded my bench workout with a slow, arduous declined chest press. I started with 50kg, then upped it to 60kg. I then added 2.5kg per set, until I was at 70kg, each set being 8 reps long. This really made me feel the burn!

I left the "big boys" area and headed to the cables and dumbbells for conclusion of chest. I did my normal pectoral flyes and added a set of dumbbell inclined flyes to finish. My chest was done for!

Final Burnout

I went down to the open area to do abdominals and my new burnout. I started with the burn. I picked up the 10kg tubie thing with handles, and did the arm burnout I mentioned on my recent arm workout blog.I did two sets of around 3 minutes, feeling stronger. I obtained two 32kg kettle bells to tweak my obliques before heading on a short walk (farmer's walks to strengthen my abs). After two laps of the gym, I remembered there was an actual device to do farmer walks using free weights. Utilising this, I walked 25kg per arm back and fourth in the astro turf area. On completion of the farmer walks I finished with some lower abdominal lifts and left for a needed shower. I left the gym at 1320h... lol :)

After replenishment of aminos and protein drinks, I headed to collect my bike. Shortly after I was eating a yummy steak and fries with a well earned coffee for lunch.

Another big, educational day with lots of energy spent. Time to sleep!

Days 17-21 - End of Week 3

Another crazy week…

Hey there F2F readers! It’s been a very busy few days for me, incorporating lots of things, especially work! Now, in the interest of my own health, and to keep some organisation with my blog posts, I needed to spend some time doing some catch up workouts.

Wednesday & Thursday

I took a rest day on Wednesday to rest after a particularly gruelling tuesday Yoga, then returned with a vengeance on Thursday morning to do a 60 minute back training session. Friday morning, exam day, I stuck to last week's routine - up early to study and ready myself for the exam and train later. The exam was headache worthy and lasted almost 4 hours! I then travelled to Melbourne to meet my lovely wifey to celebrate her birthday weekend. We had planned to use the city Fitness Firsts to continue our training - the hotel we had booked allowed some guest passes for me and Winnie could go to any with her Platinum FF Membership. We did end up getting a lot of gym time, plus the use of two different gyms and a whole variety of equipment. 

Friday – The Birthday Workout

Yes, you can and should do a workout on your birthday! It will raise your endorphins and as a bonus, you can go out and feel less guilty about it! It had been decided before Friday, we were both prepared for at least an hour of gym. I arrived to the city to meet Winnie, and after some light lunch, we got ready for a good Back, Shoulders and Abdominals workout. I was very impressed by the new standard Fitness First are setting. The re-brand to Red is awesome, but the gyms were really modern. Friday's workout was conducted at the FF on the corner of Lonsdale and Russell and was a smaller gym, with everything you needed to to a fairly functional workout; cable machines, the main resistance machines, ample free weights (lots really) and a good selection of kettle bells and weigh disks for doing some 'cross-fit' style training. I was impressed also with the birthday girl's training, she pushes hard and stays focussed. Hopefully she will have some new tricks up her sleeve after training with me! The back equipment was excellent, different row machines, for tweaking different muscles in your back, a variety of pulldowns to work strength and keep a variety of work. The gym was really spacious for a smaller city gym, lots of space to do abdominals too (in a dedicated area). Whilst doing shoulders we were able to throw in some use of the cable machines, free weights an kettle bells. I even got a a chance to use a couple weight disks to enhance my shoulder routine. Awesome.

Saturday - The "I will get this workout in" session.

So, after a long day of shopping, and gradually feeling more and more tired from doing so, Winnie and I were determined to get a workout in. We went up to the top deck of our hotel to use their 'lap pool'; which was so small I could have just tumble turned at each end and kept going until I either got dizzy or passed out from shallow water blackout! Needless to say we decided to go and get stuck into our workout. We returned to the same Fitness First as Friday evening, to find that the gym was closing (at 1700h? Really?) and were redirected to the Melbourne Central club that was closing in 60 minutes…..OR we could walk all the way down to Flinders and Elizabeth to train there (until 2300h if we wanted)…Well, we decided to power on and head to Flinders Street! I actually commented at how the universe was testing us! Well, we got to the gym, figured out it was built on 2 levels, with various stuff for training on each level.

We started with arms, specifically Biceps, then worked Triceps prior to finishing with Chest and Abdominals. We utilised a cable machine and a variety of hand grips / bars to accomplish most exercises, then moved to free weights and barbells to conclude arms. We repeated with cables then free weights for chest. After about 90 minutes we headed to the open space on the first level, to do abdominals. I thought it would be a good time to utilise more cross-fit gear to help finish us off - kettle bells, weighted tubes with handles on, medicine balls. We grabbed some mats and worked through lots oblique and lower abdominal strengthening exercises. I was really enjoying training and then stretching with my wife. I look forward to the next time.

Sunday…. Raw Me Up, Baby!

Today, is normally my rest day, so we decided to chill and go to a movie to reward ourselves for training over the weekend. The Lego Movie was so much fun "everything is awesome"…. After making our farewells I headed to Crib Point (via Frankston) and Winnie to the Sydney (via Melbourne)….I later found she had been delayed and our 'early' night became a late night…. Oh well. A weekend well spent. 

Where's Winnie!

I utilised my free evening to make some raw and tasty hummus (and chopped my carrot sticks to munch it with), then my second batch of Raw and tasty Chia Pudding - which I know will be just as tasty as last week, topped with blueberries and strawberries I'm onto a winner!

My final exercise in raw food that CAN be prepared with just a bullet blender and some creativity was to make some yummy protein balls. I used almond meal, desiccated coconut, natural peanut spread, ground roasted almonds, vanilla sun warrior rice protein, and coconut water to bind it. yummy. I made about 16 and ate two 'testers' which were good for a brain storm! Next time I might grind up some Cacao nibs and add to the balls to give some choco-flavours! Still it was cool to make some more healthy snacks to keep me going...

Protein Balls

Inspiration for Monday

So, I was thinking of how to inspire myself into the next week, to be strong on the build up of easter and not eat badly. Stage 1 was the raw food preparations, Stage 2 is to just get on with it - JFDI as we mentioned last week! Stage 3 is just to provoke thought….

Day 6 - What Goes Down...

What a fantabulous day I've had!

I hope your Saturday has been equally fulfilling, satisfactory. I got up this morning, made a few edits to yesterday's post and added some cool photos from last night's mess dinner and got on with my day. I have been totally motivated all day.

Day 6 - Something a little different

I decided to don my cycling gear and go for a nice long bike ride, I haven't explored much of the Mornington Peninsular since my arrival in January and this is the best way I've found! I jumped on my bike, which by the way is my new super-cool Cannondale Caad 8 and headed off-base….

My Bike

Being the chary sort of Naval officer that I am, I felt a compelling urge to take my self to the namesake town of my old NEOC 49 Division, Flinders. Incidentally, NEOC 49 was that last time Flinders will be used to be a Divisional name. 

 

Flinders is approximately 25km South-West of HMAS Cerberus, fairly easy to get to if you follow the Frankston-Flinders Road. Now, I'd never been to Flinders, and thought I could make an adventure of it,  to ride and explore, whilst doing a nice gentle cardio workout. I left my cabin with bike, dressed for action - my Garmin 910XT and HR monitor, my iPhone strapped to my arm ready to record to Map My Ride - I like a double source of data, for greater accuracy!

I jumped on my bike and set off….

What Goes Down.

Now, when I left this morning I was expecting to see some wonderful sunshine, the open road ahead of me and some breathtaking ocean views in a 360 degree panorama around me. I was not to be disappointed, but initially was concerned about what I might see. As I cycled out of the main gate to the outside world, I realised I was rather chilly due to the fog that surrounded me. It was 9am and still foggy? Oh well, I just ploughed on...

After reaching the Frankston-Flinders Road, in pretty good time, I was cruising downhill using a fairly efficient spin technique and enjoying warming, from the exercise and noticed that the sun was burning up the fog and now the views were starting to open up to me - Oh Yea! I could see a long gradual downhill section of road that seemed to go down as far as the eye could see…. Clearly, I was wrong. The road to Flinders was not all downhill, or even flat in places. My 'gentle ride' in the countryside was looking epic from the saddle I was sitting in.

Initial Countryside Vistas

The hills were initially small and not too taxing, but frequent. I was travelling fairly well - a good speed and not too stiff a gear. I knew to glide and pull my feet, utilising the cleats to their max on the uphill sections.  I also remained seated - I had read that sitting down meant a more efficient ride up hills… They didn't mention that it takes a lot of effort to sustain on long hills!

As the hills started to get harder, I could feel I was getting a solid workout - nice. My heart rate was steady, averaging 135 bpm, but climbing with the hills. After a while I got into the rhythm of the hills.  I was powering down the hills and screaming to the top (although it felt like a crawl up). I noticed early on that I was changing to an overly easy gearing too soon into the hill and subsequently lost some power. I soon stopped that! I knew I was getting closer, and the country vistas were changing to dramatic views of cliffs and ocean views that were truly stunning. With around 15km under my belt, I was gifted a ridiculously steep, long downhill section that allowed me to really get my 'speed on'! I notched up my fasted downhill speed today - 72kph! However, what goes down…. must eventually come up.

Rolling Steep Hills

The hill up was equally steep and long, and I found myself in the easiest gear struggling and really working. My heart rate was pushing 150 bpm (which is pretty good for me) and as I reached the crest of the hill I could see the road far ahead of me…. (cue dramatic horror music) and the view ahead showed me something I didn't really wanna see…. about 5-6 more big hills just like this one! Two things immediately came to my mind - do I (a) turn around now, or (b) down this sucker and finish my ride to Flinders! I chose option B (as you might expect from me) and felt the literal burn in my legs, for the remain 5km or so…. It felt like 25km!

Before Descending to the Pier

As I spun my way into Flinders, I felt an awesome sensation to ride down to the pier and take a look, plus I would look awesome on my ride maps if it showed me riding down the pier, seemingly into the ocean! I didn't realise I'd be faced with 3 very steep declining roads to the pier! I went down anyway and rode my bike out onto the pier.

Stopping to take it all in...

Eventually….Flinders

After a short stop, and a comfort break I was back on my trusty machine, powering up those steep inclines and thinking only of one thing.

"Man, I need a coffee"

So, I stopped and ordered a short-mac, a milkshake and a slice of Gluten Free Orange Cake. I walked outside and joined a group senior citizens and their older looking dogs. As, I sat chatting to the gentleman closest to me, I found myself very intently listening to him, enjoying talking to someone new who could spin a story and was happy to while away a lazy hour. I enjoyed my coffee, the cake and my milkshake - loading up for the inevitable ride home. My legs were starting to get a little stiff, and the gentleman and his friends were just starting to leave - I promptly made to excuse myself from their company, so I could collect my bike, and go around the corner for a good stretch!

And Back!

After relaxing and listening to some local Flinders folk, I finished up and headed home. I found myself psyching myself up for each hill, then really getting into the aggression of powering back to base on a new found energy - even though my legs and my butt were getting sore!

Almost forgot, here's a few stats :- 

1. Round Trip Distance = 58km. 
2. Max Speed = 72kph
3. Average Speed = 21kph
4. Max HR = 168 bpm
5. Average HR = 135 bpm  

I returned to base around 1330h and gave my bike a quick clean, and then showered up and realised I had not only skipped breakie, but missed lunch too - so glad for my emergency supply of fruits and quinoa!

The rest of today has been spent relaxing, watching Dr Who (Season 5, if you're interested) and doing a little pre-reading for next weeks classes - Fluids Management!

What did I learn today….Well, if you want something go get it. If you are faced with a challenge you can either rise up and take it on, or not. I think just get the hell on with it and think a little less - you know you'll love it and you know you'll regret it if you turn back, so crack on!

I also realised, that I particularly enjoy listening to new people (old and young) tell their stories and share their experiences. That was a particular highlight. 

Time for bed, see you later!