I’ll give you a head start Nick:
hahaha shut up the both of you 
I’m going through a phase :o
Presentation went fine. My adviser said that I have a vast enough of material gathered and studied, “enough for three PhD thesis’”, and that I should sell the two… 
:o Oh boy.
Training is looking like CRAP these days (like Silencer’s picture). Today was pouring all day long. I will EMS soon and do plyos on the carpet in the hall, for real. Tomorrow is a trip to Vicenza, and then I start training like a sprinter, I promise !!! I swear. :mad:
ummm… so far today: 90min walking (under the umbrella)
Tuesday, Nov. 16h, 2010
- 30min warm up
- drills
- 4 x 300m (63, 63, 58, 53) - wet, on dirt road, and crappy stomach.
- long cool down
(Vicenza got postponed for tomorrow, due to rain)
What was the rest between these times?
2.30’, except for the last one, which was 2’
Vicanza was nice.
Tomorrow morning I have an oral examination, but I’m not so worried. Then a seminar. Then training, at last.
Friday, November 19th, 2010.
Vicenza was a nice trip…
Dejan left today.
I think I resumed normal training again
And thankfully, the sky cleared up, and for the first time in days, it was not extremely cloudy or rainy all day. :eek:
(all grass today, in trainers - trail shoes, to be exact…)
-
15min warm up jog
-
10min dynamic stretching
-
4 x 30m A skips
-
4 x 20m running A’s + 40m stride
-
4 x 30m scissor kicks + 60m stride
-
8 x ~37m hills (walk back recovery) - slippery… spikes next time for this and the following (I bought nice new long ones, for grass)
-
4 x 100m (at decent speed), walk back recoveries (spikes next time, on grass again)
-
3 x 100m low dorsiflexing skips (Charlie showed me this exercise, I don’t know the name for it, I should post a video, but i don’t have a video camera now…)
-
push ups, abs, and resistance bands
-
30min EMS resistance, on glutes
-
3 times 20min relaxing massage on calves (I had an issue today, but it’s already solved now ;))
Nice email today, from a professor… first kind word from a higher faculty member since I got here… (I can say that my experience here has been “cold”). She said (in email of course, cause people don’t have the guts to speak nicely out loud) “you are a very good architect and student”.
This was so uncharacteristic of my experience here, that it goes in the journal… imagine that.
Pardon the slight sarcasm.
And to dwell on something that I had quoted from Angella Coon a while back, and that I found highly refreshing today… :
"LIfe is long ( we hope) and ideally we never stop learning. Nothing beats passion as a guide to navigate truth. The only judge you need to pay any attention to is you." - Angela Coon
Thank you, Ange.
This city must be worse than Seattle and London together, rain-wise…
This is r i d i c u l o u s. I think that for the 2+ weeks that I’ve been here so far, it only hasn’t rained 2 days.
…
Yesterday: Saturday, Nov. 20th (pouring, like the day before):
EMS (like the day before)
- explosive strength hamstrings
- active recovery hamstrings
- relaxing massage calves
- strength quads
Today: Sunday, Nov.21st (raining ALL the time, like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before and before… ahhhh !!!)
- 25min warm up
- 5 x 300m tempo (2min rests) I re-measured the distance that I had also done last time, and last time I was actually running longer. p.s. today they were not timed - too much rain for ‘equipment’.
- 2 x 80m low dorsiflexing skips.
- 30min cool down (I jogged back).
- many push ups and abs, and resistance band (sideway walks).
I think the forecast says no rain for tomorrow, but I’m not even going to say anything.
I drew this quickly today: (I think I made Dejan look a little like a girl - with hair )
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
(double post)
Monday, Nov.22nd, 2010
NO RAIN. WOW !! YAYYY!!! HURRAY !! 
on my grass park today:
- 15min warm up
- 10min dynamic stretching
- 5 x 30m A skips
- 4 x 30m B skips
- 3 x 30m running A skips
- 3 x 30m scissor kicks into 30m stride
in my long spikes today, on grass:
- 10 x 30m hills (walk back recoveries)
still in spikes spikes:
- 6 x 100m relaxed runs (walk back recoveries) >> weirdo dude staring and wanted to flirt with me, I swear… men suck sometimes.
Plus, I stepped on dog poop. eew… But Greeks say that means money will come to me. I’m waiting. :o
back in my trainers:
- 10 x stairs (not as great as my Thessaloniki 100 steps in a row; these were only 35, and I do them double, so … boring… ).
on playground tartan:
-
3 x 8 single leg bounds each leg
-
1 x 5 imaginary hurdle hops
-
3 x 10 chin ups
-
3 x 8 pull ups
-
5 x 10 dips
-
4 x 15 push ups
In my living room residence:
- 500 abs
Ideally I would strength-EMS now, but…
Tuesday, Nov.23rd, 2010
15min+15min biking
4 sets of 20 push ups
20min run
Wednesday, Nov.24th, 2010
- 15min+15min biking
- 25min run to the park
- 3 x (4x200m), (walk back recoveries between reps, longer walk between sets)
- ~600 push ups
- 20min relaxing massage on calves (tight tight tight, they’re always so tight…)
Immune system dropped to the floor after today’s session… Trying to recover.
I feel like i’m not doing things right… not because I don’t know how to do things right, but because it’s too darn cold, it rains 90% of the time, or I have too much to do and then I’m tired to do my training , and I still don’t like training alone, and I don’t have access to a gym for proper weights, and and and…
I’m going through a crisis.
I don’t know if I’m running indoors… In Greece everyone is running in 20 degree weather, and here we have 5 … This city is a loadfull of crap and I’m stuck here until Dec.15th. 
Look at the positives, cold is great for recovery.
where’s the heater
haha, I spend my recovery period indoors and my place is warm 
Rain’s gone, I’m happy now.
Thursday, Nov.25th, 2010
This day felt awful, training-wise, I couldn’t even warm up, and my bones where hurting, so I tried not to do much.
(all on grass)
-
15min warm up
-
10min dynamic stretching
-
4 x 45m A skips
-
4 x 45m B skips
-
4 x 45m running A’s into stride
-
3 x 60m scissor kicks into stride
-
2 x 60m plyos: right-right-left-left (I wanted have this be a plyo-based day, but things hurt so I called it a session here).
-
600 abs and push ups
-
30min night run on grass with researcher upstairs genius friend.
Friday, Nov. 26th, 2010
-
35min easy jog to park
-
7 x 120m hills (walk back recoveries)
-
5 x 120m hills (walk back recoveries)
-
4 x 60m dorsiflexing skip/bounds up the hill
-
2 x 60m running A skips up the hill (ouch)
-
slowww jog back home
It was snowing this morning, and things were very beautiful. At first I was angry, but then I pinched myself (metaphorically speaking) and thought ‘jeez… you came to study near the Alps… what did you expect, for heaven’s sake???’ :o Training was done in 2 degree weather, but it was not bad at all. Thanks to my double isothermic spandex suit
Saturday, Nov. 28th, 2010
-
40min run with upstairs friend (on the grass park), in 1 degree temperature
-
Long circuit (on grass )
100+100+100+
100+200++100+100+
100+200++200++100+
100+200++100+100+
100+100+100
Today it will be raining all day long and I’m not sure what to do. Thankfully there’s the EMS and my rubber bands Let’s see…
Note: my favorite drink these days: HEMO (instant drink with cocoa and malt, including 11 vitamins and 5 minerals plus malt) I found out it’s been around for years, but I just discovered it recently !! Yum.
Sunday, Nov. 28th, 2010
Do you mind if I share a song? I’m not sure what’s better - the lyrics, the melody, or the graphics. All three share this bitter-sweetness that I love on rain days It seems that all my days here this fall are shared by this same atmosphere!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA2h9PrIUxs&playnext=1&list=PLDE5C4E5DCDDA8D77&index=1
Actually the rain is not so bad. It inspires a different kind of perspective. I don’t know how people tolerate it year-around in cities like London and Seattle - the minds needs alterations of stimuli. And while this weather inspires me to write restlessly sometimes - with the aid of some tasty red wine and a cup of greek/turkish/arabic coffee (it seems that all three are the same thing, but all three nationalities claim it to be their own creation :o ) , but who really cares…? (not me) … there comes a point when the sun is also wanted - simple =)
It is always interesting on my plane ride here, as it a similar experience every time: Departing from the clear blue bright sky of Greece, then flying for quite some time over an endless carpet of puffy white clouds, in mid air of endless bright blue, and then 20 minutes prior to landing, while the plane begins to descent, we penetrate through the white carpet, that is now perceived as much thicker than before, white surroundings begin to shade. After complete penetration (which sometimes lasts until we hit the ground), the air texture is this foggy gray dooming spirit of a different reality that always strikes me.
I am aware of ‘psychology of perception’, and the fact that perhaps this sudden shock of air-character difference has much to do with my mood, in terms of appreciation, but the eyes cannot be so deceiving to the point of color blindness!
:o
All things are blessings, in the end, because if it were not for rain, I’d perhaps have nothing bitter-sweet to write in this journal today, and I would most likely not even appreciate this lovely song. “The Great Escape”… how fitting it really is!!
I love the arts.
I’m really excited about my Bamboo pen (it’s a pen-pad that you attach to your computer and whatever you draw goes on the screen).
Since I seem to be ahead of schedule with everything, I plan to make some comic strips these days. I’m not making promises, but at least one will be done and relating to my research, because I found an Arch. Journal that is looking for such things and I want to publish more. I love being published.
I’m not the type of the ‘wanna-be-academic’ whose utter most wish is to ‘contribute to the scientific community’… But I like publishing because I enjoy seeing my name printed under a well-done piece of work. I think it’s more of an ego thing… Perhaps I’m a fine-artist more than I am an architect. … what can I say.
Oh yea… this is a training journal:
I was mentioning this morning how it’s raining all day long: True. So:
> 4 x 15 push ups
EMS:
> 30min resistance on glutes
> 30min explosive strength on hamstrings
> 30min active recovery on hamstrings
> 30min strength on quads
(so I guess this is like my off day, running-wise)
Sunday, Nov. 28th, 2010
Do you mind if I share a song? I’m not sure what’s better - the lyrics, the melody, or the graphics. All three share this bitter-sweetness that I love on rain days It seems that all my days here this fall are shared by this same atmosphere!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA2h9PrIUxs&playnext=1&list=PLDE5C4E5DCDDA8D77&index=1
Actually the rain is not so bad. It inspires a different kind of perspective. I don’t know how people tolerate it year-around in cities like London and Seattle - the mind needs alterations of stimuli. And while this weather inspires me to write restlessly sometimes - with the aid of some tasty red wine or a cup of strong sugarless greek/turkish/arabic coffee (it seems that all three are the same thing, but all three nationalities claim it to be their own creation :o ) , but who really cares…? (not me) … there comes a point when the sun is also wanted - simple =)
It is always interesting on my plane ride here, as it a similar experience every time: Departing from the clear blue bright sky of Greece, then flying for quite some time over an endless carpet of puffy white clouds, in mid air of endless bright blue, and then 20 minutes prior to landing, while the plane begins to descent, we penetrate through the white carpet, that is now perceived as much thicker than before, white surroundings begin to shade. After complete penetration (which sometimes lasts until we hit the ground), the air texture is this foggy gray dooming spirit of a different reality that always strikes me.
I am aware of ‘psychology of perception’, and the fact that perhaps this sudden shock of air-character difference has much to do with my mood, in terms of appreciation, but the eyes cannot be so deceiving to the point of color blindness!
:o
All things are blessings, in the end, because if it were not for rain, I’d perhaps have nothing bitter-sweet to write in this journal today, and I would most likely not even appreciate this lovely song. “The Great Escape”… how fitting it really is!!
I love the arts.
I’m really excited about my Bamboo pen (it’s a pen-pad that you attach to your computer and whatever you draw goes on the screen).
Since I seem to be ahead of schedule with everything, I plan to make some comic strips these days. I’m not making promises, but at least one will be done and relating to my research, because I found an Arch. Journal that is looking for such things and I want to publish more. I love being published.
I’m not the type of the ‘wanna-be-academic’ whose utter most wish is to ‘contribute to the scientific community’… But I like publishing because I enjoy seeing my name printed under a well-done piece of work. I think it’s more of an ego thing… Perhaps I’m a fine-artist more than I am an architect. … what can I say.
Oh yea… this is a training journal:
I was mentioning this morning how it’s raining all day long: True. So:
> 4 x 15 push ups
EMS:
> 30min resistance on glutes
> 30min explosive strength on hamstrings
> 30min active recovery on hamstrings
> 30min strength on quads
(so I guess this is like my off day, running-wise)
Hows the EMS working out for you? It seems like your using it more than previous years training.
Can you describe Charlie’s drill? the low dorsiflexing skip…
thanks
EMS works wonders, and I’m hoping it will ‘save’ me this winter. The explosive strength program is really intense for the hamstrings (and I hold the duration of the intensity for more than 4", by cranking it up, or going two pushes up, one push down, if I’m reaching my tolerance limit, for up to 12-14 seconds), and I feel my legs “go” as a result of this especially in the longer sprints.
Charlie’s drill… He main attend that day was to make me to dorsiflex better, so he did a bounding motion (not covering too much ground at all), while toes pointing up as much as possible, but as he bounded, he also cycled each leg through quickly, like a fast A skip (strongly dorsiflexing as the leg went up)… ugghhh it’s reallly hard to explain, I wish I had my camera with me.
Oh; I’ll try and draw it today, showing the consecutive movements.
EMS works wonders, and I’m hoping it will ‘save’ me this winter. The explosive strength program is really intense for the hamstrings (and I hold the duration of the intensity for more than 4", by cranking it up, or going two pushes up, one push down, if I’m reaching my tolerance limit, for up to 12-14 seconds), and I feel my legs “go” as a result of this especially in the longer sprints.
It’s true that I wasn’t using it as much previous seasons, except for two summers ago when I was extremely busy with workshops, and I just trained a little and EMS’ed each and every night for one month prior to national, and then on the day of the competition I split the 400 in a 200pr (of 25.7"), way ahead of the national champion, and then hit the wall at 250m… :o
I’m thinking (hoping) that if I use the EMS as much as I can (and I can do better than what I’m doing… I just get humanly lazy sometimes), with the existing weather of 1 degree outside and not much chance to do speed work, while working on longer reps with short recoveries for that hard part of the 400, I could see some results for indoors at least.
We’ll see…
Charlie’s drill… His main intention that day was to make me to dorsiflex better, so he did a bounding motion (not covering too much ground at all), while toes pointing up as much as possible, but as he bounded, he also cycled each leg through quickly, like a fast A skip (strongly dorsiflexing as the leg went up)… ugghhh it’s reallly hard to explain, I wish I had my camera with me.
Oh; I’ll try and draw it today, showing the consecutive movements.
If you get a chance can you post your EMS routine? I have a compex sport and it has the preset program. I use the explosive program and its something like 4-6 seconds on 25-30 seconds off (I loose count) how do you get the EMS to stay on for 12-14 sec?