Tag Archives: Exercise

Going solo

This morning I was presented with a dilemma. Due to a combination of (1) an unexpectedly heavy night and (2) a communication break down, I found myself all ready to go for a ride but no-one to cycle with.

So far, whenever I’ve cycled on the road I have done so with a wing man to accompany me. Initially this was as a safety precaution. Cycling as a pair provided comfort that any unforeseen Heart issues could be attended to quickly, and also meant that I could rely on someone a bit more experienced to help with any more “run of the mill” cycling problems (flat tyres, minor accidents, getting lost, etc.). It therefore helped build confidence; mine and everyone else’s.

The risks of cycling alone…

Up to this point I have not really considered cycling on the road by myself. It’s just not been a factor. This morning I was ready to ride, but alone. Hence, my dilemma.

***

There were plenty of reasons not to head out… besides all the reasons I prefer to cycle with company… it was a bit cold and clouds were gathering (a hint of snow perhaps?). There were plenty of flimsy but credible excuses if I wanted one.

Having had one abortive trip already this winter due to cold weather, I now have all the kit necessary to keep me warm. So, the decision came down to whether I was up for it or not. As it turned out, it really wasn’t that much of a decision. It turns out that cycling is just something I do now.

So, I headed out. I followed a route I know well. I kept my cadence high, gears low. I stayed well within my physical limits and I had a rest en route. I returned safely after an uneventful ride, feeling good. No biggie!

I felt good as I approached the end of my ride!

I feel like I’ve moved beyond the stage where I cycle as part of my Cardiac Rehabilitation. Now I just cycle. Of course it’s good for me. Of course I constantly monitor my Heart Rate to keep in “in the range”. However, I think I’ve graduated beyond being a Heart Attack Survivor that cycles a bit, to being a “Novice Cyclist”. A small but significant milestone!

One of those weeks

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It’s only Wednesday, but it’s already been one of “those” weeks…

We had our first dusting of snow on Monday. Winter is definitely on its way. This means frosty mornings, traffic chaos and general disruption. Great!

Fortunately the snow wasn’t quite as deep as this!

The cold is one thing my medication doesn’t help with. Whether it’s the blood thinners, my weight loss or something else, I feel the cold much more than I used to. Gone are the days of me being a one-man, furnace with unlimited internal heating. Reluctantly, I have had to invest in extra layers to keep me warm. Perhaps I’ll even be “ne’er casting a clout” come next May!

Tuesday was my birthday. Another year older. I’m grateful for the gifts and cards, and it was nice to be the centre of attention for a day (at home at least!). I guess it’s natural to have some sort of emotional reaction to my first post-Heart Attack Birthday… a reminder that I’m well and truly in the “lucky to be alive” club! To be honest, I’ve just found myself feeling a bit colder and older.

Birthday

To compound matters, it feels like I’ve hardly done any exercise recently. I think this is largely because the grind of the week has made the days seem longer. I was therefore looking forward to my swimming lesson on Wednesday evening.

As I arrived at the pool it looked like there was a gala on and my plans would be ruined (“Please, not those pesky Brownies again!!!”). There were cars everywhere. Just my luck! Fortunately the pool was just busy, “Zigzag down the pool to find some space” busy as I had a quick swim to warm up (in more ways than one!) in advance of my lesson.

Although my swimming has improved, and the distance I’m covering in each session is gradually increasing, I’m still finding it exhausting. I guess this is positive as I want it to be good exercise, but I’m not progressing as I hoped I would. Discussions during my lesson focussed mostly on this… and we concluded that I’m a “sinker”. I have not been naturally blessed with buoyancy. As a result, I’m generally too tense, and a lot of my swimming effort is spent preventing myself from sinking (or drowning, whichever way you want to look at it!). I am therefore inefficient, using much more energy and “puff” than I should need to.

My natural swimming position!

Short of getting floats installed, the only way I can see of addressing this issue is through patience and practice. So, more of the same. Onwards and upwards (to the surface of the pool at least)!

Only 30 days until the days start getting longer! 🙂

Earning my 100m badge

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Our dining table was oval… a rectangular table tennis table was a dream!

As a child I did lots of sport. When I was young we tended to organise our own “events”. We’d play football into the dark winter evenings, play cricket through the long summer holidays, compete in “do it yourself” athletics challenges, play table tennis on the dining room table and participate in epic snooker matches on our child-sized tables, and participate in any other sport we had the chance to.

As I got older, I did more and more organised sport providing structured competition, regular training and coaching. In summary, Sport was an important part of my life.

One sport I never did competitively was swimming. After having been taught to swim by my parents, it was strictly a “fun” activity. While my evenings and weekends were fairly busy, my morning activities were limited to getting up, eating breakfast and getting myself to school. For me, there was no pre-school training that swimming seems to require. Swimming “competitions” were limited to low key school galas and attempts to gain badges and / or certificates to record my achievements.

Having never really got into it as a child, swimming has never been a feature of any previous attempts to get fit as an adult. It always seemed like too much work. An inefficient, and potentially embarrassing, way of getting exercise that I could get much more easily on dry land. As a result I have never swum any significant distances.

Turning isn’t a strong point for me either! It all tends to be a bit hit or miss!

Things have changed a little in recent weeks as I’ve added swimming to my regular exercise regime. I recognise that I’m not getting any younger, and now seems like a good time to overcome my prejudices and inadequacies (in relation to swimming at least!) and learn to swim properly.

Having decided to take on Freestyle first, my initial goal was to learn how to breathe properly…

My first few weeks were spent doing single 25m lengths, in sets of one. I tended to reach the end of each length short of breathe and needing a rest. Stepping up to doing sets of 50m was a big deal. Again, the second (and final) length always seemed to be more difficult than it should.

For some reason moving beyond 50m proved to be a big psychological barrier for me. Perhaps it was because I’ve never swum 100m without stopping before (at least as far as I can remember). The chances of successfully turning after the second length seemed slim. Completing a further two lengths seemed almost a physical impossibility.

So, my successful attempt to get my 100m badge on Friday morning resulted in a fair amount of satisfaction! It wasn’t easy, but I’m hoping it will mark the beginning of a new phase of my swimming career.

I’m not looking to compete competitively, but it would be fantastic if I could build up to being able to swim for an hour without stopping.

Next goal, 200m!

Twice the satisfaction

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I’m a believer in the principle that exercise counts twice as much if you don’t want to do it than it does when you do. As a result, I almost look forward to days when I lack motivation because you get so much more satisfaction after your work out.

Today was one of those days. Work was busy. The weather was grim; cold, wet and windy. I arrived home from work a little late, feeling a jaded.

I’ve got into a good exercise routine over the past couple of weeks:

I swim first thing on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday
I cycle Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
Wednesday alternates between swimming lessons and a visit to the gym
On Monday’s I rest.

So far, I’ve had no trouble getting up and out in the mornings. I don’t have much time to think about it, I just grab a quick bite to eat and head out the door. I’m finding a swim a good way to start the day. It makes me feel different… good different.

I’m not the only one to enjoy an early morning swim!

Depending on the day I’ve had, the evenings are more difficult. Fortunately, once I’ve started, it only takes a few minutes for the fatigue of the day to dissipate and for me to get into my exercise. I generally feel great afterwards too – clean, healthy and relaxed.

The overall routine is definitely doing me good. I’m getting stronger and fitter all the time. I have the continual challenge of staying within the safe working range of my Heart, but it’s satisfying to see my work rate slowly increasing over time… twice as satisfying after a hard day in the office!

Totes Emosh

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Today I received some fantastic news…

I recently presented the medical form for my Charity Bike Ride to my Doctor for his consideration. I had two main concerns: (1) that he wouldn’t think that embarking on a 300 mile cycle was a sensible thing to do less than a year after having a Heart Attack and (2) that his insurance company might have an issue with the wording of the statement I was asking him to sign.

A “No” would have left me lacking direction somewhat!

On one level I would have understood if either of these issues had arisen. I was potentially asking a lot given my recent medical history. I would even have understood if he had asked me to come back in a few months so he could see how my health and fitness have progressed.

On another level, I would have been totally gutted if he had said “No”. It would have thrown the ride into some jeopardy. Given it’s been my main focus for the past few months (at least as far as motivation for exercise is concerned), it would have felt deflated. I think I’m progressing well, and I want to stay motivated. Having something to work towards really helps.

***

Today I received the form back, signed and stamped by my Doctor. As far as he is concerned, I am “good to go”. I just need to continue to gradually build up my training and listen to my cardiologist.

For the record, I have never used these words before!

It was just some ink on a bit of paper, but I felt quite emotional as I left the Surgery. I’m not sure exactly why. It may have been the removal of doubt about whether he’d sign the form. It may have been the fact that the ball is now in my court as far as the ride is concerned – no excuses. It may also have been the small vote of confidence that he recognises the progress I’ve made and trusts that it will continue.

Whatever the reason, it reinforced the fact that the ride is important to me. 180 days to go!

An “and” day

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Recently I’ve been trying to be more of an “and” person rather than an “or” person…

We spend a lot of time and energy making difficult decisions, forcing ourselves to choose between different options, working around the constraints. Often we forget that there may be an option that allows us to do both… “and” rather than “or”… all we need is to be positive and think a bit differently.

Working on the principle of “and”, today was my first double exercise day…

Monday’s have become my designated rest day – I’m always tired after the weekend. It takes me a day to properly get back into the swing of a working week. So, I don’t do any exercise on a Monday. Hopefully this allows my body to properly recover and set me up for the rest of the week.

A cold, dark and very frosty start to the day!

Having had a day off, I set my alarm early this morning so I could swim before work. I left the house to be greeted by a heavy frost, the first of the winter. As well as double exercise, it turned out to be a double scrape day – I had to scrape the windshield before I could head to the pool, and again after my swim before I could head off to work. Great!

Louise (my wife) was also faced with a frozen car as she set off to take the girls to school. I have agreed to clear the garage to create space for her to get the car in, making the school run as straightforward as possible. Unfortunately the arrival of winter has beaten me to the punch. I now need to pull my finger out and clear space for the car… space that is currently occupied by my bike and Turbo Trainer.

It did turn into a beautiful day… if a little chilly!

Using the principle of “and”, this does not mean that I will lose the use of my bike. I just need to find the next best place to locate it. Fortunately, there are a couple of options inside the house. The main considerations will be (1) to keep it out of the way and (2) to minimise the chances of me over-heating when riding. There’s the minor consideration of sweat and oil pollution too, but I’m hoping a couple of towels and some carpet offcuts will do the trick there!

In the immediate term the bike will stay where it is. Shifting the kit around can be something to look forward to doing at the weekend. So, I successfully completed my ride, and my double exercise day – a ride and a swim.

Pushing the boundaries

The Joy of Winter Training

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When I was in my youth I used to do athletics fairly seriously. For a few years I trained up to 5 days a week, trying to build strength and speed to enable me to run faster and, in particular, jump further.

It was an exciting time for me. I was blessed with the physical attributes to allow me to compete at the National level. It helped me build self-confidence and it also taught me that the world (or the UK at least) isn’t that large a place. Being the fastest runner in my school, or even my home town suddenly wasn’t such a big deal. I was very lucky.

As I was growing throughout this period, my athletic development was also assisted by my physical development. As a result, I was almost guaranteed to improve year on year. If all other things had stayed equal I should improve over time because I was getting bigger and stronger.

If I had been competing continuously throughout the year it could have resulted in a slow, steady improvement requiring patience on my part. As it was, the annual cycle of training and competition created natural breaks that generated the potential for “Step Changes” in performance. A few months could make a big difference.

There were some key milestones during the year that were always eagerly anticipated. They included:

My first competition of the season – always a highlight although it was slightly nerve-racking as my expectations were always set on the high side,
The major competitions / events (notably County & National Championships),
My final competition of the season. The last chance to make an impact, and the start of a well earned rest. The final effort before a few weeks off training. Often the relaxed atmosphere produced unexpectedly good results.

Possibly the most notable, and least heralded milestone was the start of “Winter Training”. This marked the end of the “rest” and the beginning of a long, cold and often miserable period of training that had the potential to make all the difference to performance levels for the following season.

Winter training was different from the summer. It was much more focused on strength and endurance rather than speed and technique. “Favoured” sessions included Circuits, Weights, Hill Runs, Fartlek Runs, 300m Repetitions. Most of this was designed hurt, and it was often completed in cold, miserable weather adding an extra reason not to do it.

We worked in a tight group. Pushing each other to dig deep and push harder. You had to believe you would reap rewards for the effort you put in, but there was also the sadistic satisfaction of completing each session.

***

Today, for the first time in twenty years, I started a Winter Training campaign. Having returned from work and changed into my cycling kit, I left the warmth of the house and braved the chill of the garage to get on my bike.

It was a low key event, but significant. A strong winter’s exercise will play an important role in my on-going rehabilitation. Given my general physical neglect over the past few years I have high hopes of significant improvements in strength and stamina. I don’t have any real points of comparison against which to measure performance, however I have a clear goal… to cycle into Brussels on 11th May 2014.

Born Survivor (Part II)

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The hotel we’re in organises a number of bike rides of varying difficulties during the week. Having bravely ventured out on my own yesterday, I decided to join todays “challenging” ride. I had done it before… it was billed as being approximately 15 km, to “Epta Piges”.

Amusingly, there is another ride that I also did last week to the “Seven Springs”. I’ve only just realised that they both mean the same thing! Doh!

Our destination, although we had no intention of seeing any springs on this ride!

The ride took us up into the mountains, a route that I’ve now covered many times, before heading off up a very steep off-road climb.

This week’s participants appeared to all be fit males and were apparently keen cyclist – I’m not sure how much of a barometer it is, but I was the only person not to be wearing cycling gloves!

I had done the climb before an knew it was tough, so I mentally prepared myself to be satisfied with being “tail-end Charlie” as everyone else headed into the hills. There was no way I could keep up and maintain a reasonable Heart Rate.

More cost effective than getting fit?

All was good. We re-grouped twice as we completed the main ascent. I had started to ride alongside another Paul, a Doctor from “Up North” (England), who had recently started doing triathlons. He believed that when people turn 40 they either get a Sports Car, have an affair or get fit. Originally he figured that getting fit was the cheapest option… hence the triathlons. (He has subsequently started to re-assess as the cost of kit continues to escalate. If you’re approaching this milestone and money is the only consideration, you might want to think seriously about a Sports Car!)

Having hit the top of the climb the terrain flattened off however the number of paths and potential routes increased dramatically. I had done the ride once before, but I was following someone’s wheel. This time there was no wheel to follow…

In fact, in almost no time, there weren’t any wheels, frames or any other parts of bicycles or cyclists in sight! We were alone.

It was incumbent on me to remember the route.

We got lost.

To start with, I would describe us as “just off track”, as we followed a couple of tracks to dead ends before circling back on ourselves.

After some time we’d got ourselves lost good and proper!

We had decided to follow a maintenance access track for some electrical pylons… it seemed to be heading down, and generally in the right direction. We followed it downwards, gaining speed and optimism as we descended. Unfortunately it came to an abrupt end as the electrical cables spanned a ravine, connecting to a pylon on an adjacent hill some way away.

We weren’t quite as comfortable going off-road as this chap!

There was no obvious route down the steep, rugged hillside. We could see the destination, but there was no obvious way of reaching it.

We were despondent. We had been out for over 2 hours. The midday sun was beating down on us. We were more off track than ever. Water was running low. It was almost lunchtime, and Paul had a Sailing lesson at two-thirty!!!

We did not have high hopes of being rescued by our cycling guide. He’s not the most attentive at the best of times, and he loves a descent, so he probably wouldn’t have missed us until he’d been at the bottom of the hill, and waited for some time. I’m sure he would have assumed (1) that I had been on the ride before and therefore was familiar with the route (2) that we’d intentionally decided to take a different route and (3) that our ride would include a trip to a bar for a drink. As a result, I didn’t expect the alarm to be raised until darkness fell, perhaps a little sooner if our other halves noticed we were missing!

***

Bear Grylls the last time he got lost in the Rhodes wilderness

From time to time, I watch some random TV. Just before I came away, I watched a programme featuring a number of different groups that had got lost in unfamiliar terrain:

While travelling on business, one guy had decided to go for a walk from his hotel in Thailand. Targeting the top of an adjacent hill, he ended up being lost in the jungle for several days before being found (following a telephone call home, to the UK, from his mobile which fortunately worked from high ground to raise the alarm).
Another couple of intrepid explorers got themselves lost in a Rain Forrest in South America. The plan had been to spend five days in the jungle before rendezvousing at a prescribed pick-up spot. They over-shot and ended up living off their wits for many days before one of them got seriously ill and the other had to head off alone in a desperate attempt to find help. (He succeeded).

Our prospective dinner… catch me if you can!

I also have the tips and tricks gained from many episodes of “Born Survivor” to fall back on if necessary. We had already spotted wild sage and thyme that might go well with one of the not so wild goats that we had seen further up the hillside. We weren’t quite there yet, but it was reassuring to have this in-depth survival knowledge to rely on if things became that desperate.

Most of the “almost disaster” TV shows I’ve seen feature a couple of bad decisions. Faced with the final Electricity Pylon, Paul made a good one. We decided to turn around and head back the way we’d come. It felt like the track back up would be long and tiring (and I was already getting weary), but it was a sensible call. We’d avoid more dead-ends, reduce the chances of hurting ourselves, and, with a bit of luck, we might get back to being “just off track” again.

We dug deep.

Having made it back up the track, we made our next good decision… we asked someone for directions. To be fair to us, the “someone” (a goat herd who appeared to have made the ascent in a Fiat Punto) wasn’t there when we’d passed the same spot earlier (at least not obviously anyway), so it wasn’t like we’d ignored the earlier opportunity… but if he had have been we probably would have done!

All lonely European goat herds are not made the same!

It turned out that we had missed the start of our descent by about 30 metres. It was hidden from view by an unassuming olive tree in the middle of a clearing. We had cycled straight past and onto the maintenance track. I vaguely remembered the clearing, but not the olive tree!

Our relief was palpable.

We descended and headed home, tired and grateful (and having covered over 25 km).

To be fair to the guide, he passed us in a car as we approached the resort. Apparently they had waited for us for some time, shouting and whistling (Plan A). He had headed back up to the top of the hill to try and find us (Plan B). I’m not sure what his Plan C was, but I’m glad it wasn’t put into action… it could have been highly embarrassing all round. At least this way no-one will hear about it!