Day 167\ Back to the numbers

 Right it's the end of the month which means the numbers are in and in a nutshell, i'm really pleased with my last 5 weeks training and the numbers are motivating. Above all by the end of next month i'll have done more than 1000km on the steed. Last week i eased back a bit on the training after a really cracking week the week before and this week i pushed on again particularly on today's longer run trying to keep my HR at around 140bpm.

Monthly Totals....times & distance on the bike

In terms of the total numbers it was a best for everything, except skiing time and restoration which was only 4 mins less.

Average Weekly Loads By Month

On the average weekly training loads it was also tip top all round. I just have to be carefull with the monotony rating particularly as i will need to be increasing the volume of work.

Day 157\ Music & Exercise...

Following on from Saturdays blog, i thought i'd look into the effects of music and exercise given my singular experience shows it clearly works. Plus the general consensus from the Sports Psychology teaching community is that if your a bit of a divvy and don't know what to do for your final project you'll get given an 'effect of music on exercise' project because it'll give good results and plenty to wright about.

always put ipod in secure place

Potteiger et al. (2000) found in a study of 27 active subjects that different types of music resulted in lower ratings of perceived exerction and that depending on type of music acted as a distractor during exercise. Music was also associated with increased vigour and reduced confusion in the study of Hayakawa et al. (2000). While Karageorghis et al. (2009) study on 30 subjects using treadmill walking concluded that 'motivational synchronous music can elicit an ergogenic effect and enhance in-task affect during an exhaustive endurance task.'

So all in all listening to music DURING and drinking chocolate milk AFTER...i'm all over it.

Potteiger J.A., Schroeder J.M. & Goff K.L.,  Influence of music on ratings of perceived exertion during 20minuntes of moderate intensity exercise. Perceptual Motor Skills (2000), Dec (91), 848-54


Hayakawa, Y., Miki, H., Takada, K. & Tanaka, K,. Effects of music on mood during bench stepping exercise. Perceptual Motor Skills (2000), Feb (90), 307-14


Karageorghis, C.I, Mouzourides, D.A., Priest, D., Sasso, T.A., Morrish, D.J. & Walley, C.L., Psychological and ergogenic effects of synchronus music during treadmill walking. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology (2009). (31) 18-36.

Day 153\ Nailed it....

This week i have probably knocked out my best weeks training since i did my Boxing challenge a few years ago. The numbers on last week were

Total           Av.RPE      Weekly Load     Monotony    Strain
456mins      6.50          2942                 1.37            4021

plus my highest number of Kms at 91km. What's is interesting with the numbers is that this was the most training i've done by 19.7%, weekly load by 31.3% and with improved intensity Av. RPE of 6.5 v 5.79, and better than 2nd best week of 6.33 where i only worked for 288mins.  Because i'm working better in the Gym and finding the cycling easier (monday night cycle RPE 4 v's 6 in October)  there is less monotony. All in all the upshot is, more work, improved intensity, less monotony, less strain down 9.3%. Yip you read right, 20% more volume, 30% more load, 10% less strain.

the images for 'Nailed' were a bit more risque

Alongside this i did my longest time on a Bike 114mins today to Teolo. Nearly 14 mins more than before. The diference.....no music! Without the music i just pootle along, with it i turn the legs over in time to the tunes.....NIce.

Day 150\ Falling apart...

Right, the team part of Athletic Population would appear to be falling apart at this point. After the withdrawl of Smernicki in order to cruise round a German industrial estate in Lycra. Then followed little Hill, who has chosen to move house in order not to have to buy a bike. Now Head of Tour Ethics, Langton, is hanging in the balance due to back pain from his extraordinarily long back. Doesn't sound like anything some deadlifts couldn't fix.

literally falling apart

Day 148\ Back in the swing of it....

Back into the swing of things, the last 3 weeks training have made me feel like i am making some progress at least one of my two interval sessions i would rate as decent, and i need to start making the second session count. Rattling up any sort of distance is going to be difficult until i'm sorted out with a proper bike. However i'm out and about again and feeling the better for it.

a swing

Last week i also had my fitting done at Lab3cube in Padova so i have had the recommendations back and am waiting to see the video of myself on the bike. On the weight loss front i have managed to drop 3kg which is not bad going maybe 4 as i suspect my 103 however many weeks back was a little doctored. I'm feeling better having shed a few Kg's and see no reason why i can't sit happily at 95kg. My main goal for the rest of Feb is to make both interval sessions count and get down to 98kg. There i've said it.

Day 138\ Chocolate Milk & Recovery......

Now i'm in the habit of training and recording what i'm doing and the numbers are starting to rack up, i need to get in the habit of fueling better particularly during (mainly hydration but also carbs when i start riding longer) but more importantly immediately after sessions.

apparently does more than it says in the tin

For a while now there has been a movement towards chocolate milk as a bonafide 'ergogenic'. Yes you read correctly. Some of the research is flawed as the chocolate milk simply contains more calories than it's CHO sports drink rival. However the recently published paper by Gibson et al 2010 does provide us with one very interesting result.

Although performance markers were no different between the 2 groups doing intensified soccer training, as you would expect after only 4 days unless you were starving one of the groups, Creatine Kinase was reduced in the chocolate milk group. CK is an important enzyme in the production of energy and is used as a marker of muscle damage. It therefore makes sense that we would want to minimise it particularly if your training daily or taking part in contact sports, high intensity work or resistance work.

From my point of view it's yummy, cost effective and i don't need asking twice :-)

ref: Gilson SF, Saunders MJ, Moran CW, Corriere DF, Moore RW, Womack CJ, Todd MK. Effects of chocolate milk consumption on markers of muscle recovery during intensified soccer training. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2010, 7:19

Day 137\ Monthly Numbers......

POsitive POSitive POSITIVE is the name of the game. I'm booked in at LAB3cube Padova next week to have my metabolic tests done and also be video'd on the bike and have a fitting, not that i necessarily need it after seeing Scherrit but it's part of the package. So quite excited by that now onto month by month numbers.

Month By Month

First lot of numbers are my training times and Km's cycled. When taken in isolation they don't really stack up to much but over time they will help with the balance of training, the percentage of training time made up of restoration v gym v bike. The massive spike of other activity in January is also what's known in training terms as 'a really smart skiing holiday'.