Training journal while learning to unicycle

[lillestrøm_uni]

Been a lazy weekend...

Saturday, nothing. I went out for a couple of walks on Sunday, perhaps 4 km in 45 mins or so in total.

And today I was more back in shape:

50 PK, 90s PL, 30 B
40 PK, 60s PL, 30 B
30 PK, 75s PL, 30 B

Total about 13 min.

Then I went out running; 7,2 km in about 50 minutes (58 minutes including stretching). Not too bad for a Monday.

[lillestrøm_uni]

84 kg (ate a lot this weekend...)

50 PK, 100s PL, 30 B
40 PK, 60s PL, 30 B
30 PK, 60s PL, 30 B

Total 12,3 min.

So, new record for the Plank: 100 seconds!

[lillestrøm_uni]

83 kg.

50 PK, 90s PL, 30 B
40 PK, 65s PL, 30 B

Total ~15 min.

[lillestrøm_uni]

83 kg.

60 PK, 90s PL, 30 B

Total 3,7 min.

[lillestrøm_uni]

84 kg and 4,4 min (60 PK and 600 crunches).

It's been a while since I did this "old routine" and I am proud to see that the new exercises have had a positive effect. I did 60 push-ups now instead of 50, and I kept my time at a good level (below 4,5 min). Before I would get too tired after doing 60 PK if I was even able to do it at all.

Obviously doing three series of 50,40,30 gives a lot more strength than just the regular 50 every day, but this is a nice way of quantifying the progress.

All right, off to the plane in an hour, so I'll post here again when I am able to, during/over the weekend.

PS: Briefly looked at the latest movies from my last unicycling session - looking good but they need editing as I am out of camera most of the time (as before). And I cannot get any good photos until I have somebody to take them for / of me...

[lillestrøm_uni]

60 PK, 60s PL, 30 B
40 PK, 45s PL, 30 B
30 PK, 60s PL, 30 B

Total 9,0 min.

And I also did 50 PK + perhaps 40-50s PL when I got back last night around 4 AM, was out drinking and dancing - first time I exercised while intoxicated - felt good to get my pulse up a little bit and then drink lots of water before going to bed. I think I will try that again in the future

Now I'll go out running, see how my knees feel.

[lillestrøm_uni]

Originally Posted by lillestrøm_uni

Now I'll go out running, see how my knees feel.

Went down in the gym here in the hotel - nice looking place with fancy machinery Tried a treadmill for the first time in my life, that was fun!

I used a pulse meter and found out that my regular running speed is just right for burning fat, but not so effective for increasing stamina. Which I sort of knew, but now I have it "scientifically" confirmed.

Did different programmes and when I was going almost all out, running 16 km/h for short intervals, my pulse climbed above 150-160 and peaked around 170-172 bpm - I guess that's close to my max pulse then. Which is certainly lower than it used to be back in the days when I was just above 20 and my pulse could reach almost 200 (I never used a pulse meter back then, just used my fingers and counted, so the figures were not too exact). The "normal" training pulse when running more normally (also when I came back after the long run, see below) was around 120 bpm. Which is right where it should be for burning fat (see above).

I ended up running around 2 km on the treadmill, and I spent more than an hour on it - most of the time walking at slow speeds (the programmes had a lot of warm-up time and you couldn't change them) or resting a little.

One really irritating thing was that when I tried to do the "fitness test" to see how well I would do stamina-wise, the pulse meter lost connection with the computer and the whole test was aborted. This happened 3 times, after I had been walking for between 2 and 8 minutes, before I could start on the actual running. I understand why the program starts with 2 minutes of walking at a low speed, since it measures your heart rate then too, and that rate probably says a lot about your stamina. I was around 110 while waklking 5 km/h at a very slight incline, so not too bad I think.

I also tried some lat pulls at the weight lift machine. Did 10 reps with 60 kg.

Then, after about 75 minutes in the gym I went out running.

Ran around town to do some sightseeing and check the route to the conference venue (as I used to do back in the days before I quit running). I'v measured it on the map I got here and it should be around 5,5 km, which I finished in 40 minutes.

Then I went back down in the gym and went on the treadmill again to try and measure my pulse after the running, and also try to find my speed. I was adjusting back and forth and ended up with 6 km/h when I felt that it was about the same speed as I had been running (or, rather, slowly jogging) at.

However, 5,5 km in 40 min translates to about 8,5 km/h. And usually I run 10 km in a little over an hour, e.g 66 minutes. That is about 9 km/h on average.

So I think it probably feels faster on a treadmill...

Summing up, I ran about 7,5 km this afternoon, and spent probably something like 75-90 minutes or so effectively (subtracting all the pauses in the gym, but taking into account that I was walking most of the time I covered the 2 km there). Plus I did the 10 lat pulls, covering other muscles than the ones I train with the push-ups and the plank.

Feel nice and tired now, wish I had been able to exercise more often. Last time I was out running was Monday. All in all a good day's work

And, not to forget, I had a nice time out in the sun!

[Into the blue]

Y'know, in a funny way I almost miss him.