Normal service has been resumed ...
After injuring my Achilles on June 26, I decided that a 3 session lay off was enough and I needed to test the injury to see if it would hold up. With a speed endurance session having caused the injury I decided it would be best not to try one of those again so I thought a basic run for 12 minutes, walk for 5 minutes and run for 12 minutes would give it a reasonable test.
The field was a little crowded with our usual field occupied by an open age ladies team in one quadrant and an open age men's team in another. On the adjacent rugby field another open age men's team were setting up to train and in the top left hand corner of that field two junior teams were going through their paces. So rather than our usual rectangular lap we ran something that would have looked like a large apostrophe if viewed from above. Before that I did an extra long warm up to make sure I didn't damage anything and also avoided any exercises that put pressure on my Achilles, so high knees and bum kicks in the shuttles were off the menu!
The last time we did this exercise Neil managed to lap me and Paul wasn't that far away, however with the benefit of a week's rest I was able to work that much harder and kept them both within view for much of the first 6 minutes and then lost them. I felt as strong at the end of the run as I did at the start and probably covered around 1800m. That's a massive improvement on my part and I felt pretty satisfied.
We had our 5 minutes walking rest and then set off again. Neil upped his pace and I didn't feel as strong so I was around 100m shorter and Neil nearly caught me up. James F turned up as well and he joined us on the 2nd run before setting off on his own 12 minute run. He set off too fast and had to have a short walking break but still managed to pack in around 2100m in his 12 minutes. A few more weeks training and I reckon he'll be within touching distance of 2500m.
So I'm back in action again on Friday, when I'll have to be slightly more adventurous with the exercise. I should have fully recovered from last weekend's illness and should be able to put even more in.
Calories 966, average heart rate 80% (extra long warm up impacting on the long period of hard work ... honest!). Click on the picture for a larger version ...
After injuring my Achilles on June 26, I decided that a 3 session lay off was enough and I needed to test the injury to see if it would hold up. With a speed endurance session having caused the injury I decided it would be best not to try one of those again so I thought a basic run for 12 minutes, walk for 5 minutes and run for 12 minutes would give it a reasonable test.
The field was a little crowded with our usual field occupied by an open age ladies team in one quadrant and an open age men's team in another. On the adjacent rugby field another open age men's team were setting up to train and in the top left hand corner of that field two junior teams were going through their paces. So rather than our usual rectangular lap we ran something that would have looked like a large apostrophe if viewed from above. Before that I did an extra long warm up to make sure I didn't damage anything and also avoided any exercises that put pressure on my Achilles, so high knees and bum kicks in the shuttles were off the menu!
The last time we did this exercise Neil managed to lap me and Paul wasn't that far away, however with the benefit of a week's rest I was able to work that much harder and kept them both within view for much of the first 6 minutes and then lost them. I felt as strong at the end of the run as I did at the start and probably covered around 1800m. That's a massive improvement on my part and I felt pretty satisfied.
We had our 5 minutes walking rest and then set off again. Neil upped his pace and I didn't feel as strong so I was around 100m shorter and Neil nearly caught me up. James F turned up as well and he joined us on the 2nd run before setting off on his own 12 minute run. He set off too fast and had to have a short walking break but still managed to pack in around 2100m in his 12 minutes. A few more weeks training and I reckon he'll be within touching distance of 2500m.
So I'm back in action again on Friday, when I'll have to be slightly more adventurous with the exercise. I should have fully recovered from last weekend's illness and should be able to put even more in.
Calories 966, average heart rate 80% (extra long warm up impacting on the long period of hard work ... honest!). Click on the picture for a larger version ...
