Training 2.4

Some days you just wake up feeling great and others you feel like turning over, going back to sleep and letting the world pass you by. Today was option 2 but I had to get up and deal with it.

I battled through the day and headed off to training where Fat Lad, Andy, the recently married Ricky and Zico were all waiting. We were soon joined by Mr Mark and Snails. I had planned a little speed endurance session but this was scuppered on two fronts. Firstly, part of the field was taken up by the local ladies team training for next season and secondly, Andy decided to run the session.

We kicked off with our usual long lap around the field and some shuttles to warm. Mark ran the shuttles and they were about 25% further than usual! We then did the first part which was 30 seconds running followed by 30 seconds rest. We did this 4 times in total, had a rest then repeated the set of 4.

At the end of the second set I was understandably struggling to breathe and on checking my heart monitor, it was showing 111%. When I stopped it slowed down very quickly and was back under 80% within a minute. This was my first (heart) wobble in a while. It knocked me sideways for a minute or so as I checked the full read out and found that I had actually hit 117% with an average of 76%, burning 417 calories.

I wasn't the only one struggling as Zico's back pain, which had hampered her last week, kicked in hard. It meant she couldn't continue and she went home early. I've spoke to her since (on Facebook). She agrees that she needs a proper rest and she'll be back when she's ready.

After another short rest we did something we something we did last year. It combined running and conditioning work. We ran from one corner to the centre mark, turned right and headed for the other corner on the same touchline from where we started. On arriving in the second corner we did 5 press-ups.

We then ran back to the centre mark and turned right again, this time to the corner on the same goal line as corner 2. Once there, the guys did 5 burpees but I decided to do sit-ups. Then it was another run back to the centre mark and back to corner 2 where we did 5 squats. Once the squats were done, it was another run back to the centre mark, then back to the first corner.

We had a 90 second rest then repeated the same set. Another 90 second rest and back through again. This time I set off back on the 90 second mark, but the others held back until I hit corner 2. I worked as hard as I could but I was still over taken on the run in back to corner 1.

Another 90 second rest and away I went again. For a second time the guys held back until I hit corner 2, I thought for maybe a second or two longer. This time I wasn't letting anyone catch me and despite hearing Andy charging up behind me, I wasn't letting him get past lol. This time the heart rate monitor showed that I had hit 97% and averaged 78%, burning 552 calories. This gave a total of 969 calories for 93 minute session. Not too bad but a lower work rate than I was achieving last week.

I think we might just try the 4m30s running followed by 2m rest and repeat 3 times, then do 2m15s running with a 1 minute rest, again repeated 3 times. This gives a good hard 27 minute work out and sets me up nicely for a little recovery session before I head off on my 2 weeks in the sun next Sunday!