Yeah you might as well skip indoors if youre going to be gone for nationals… With all the traveling you do cant you get to Jamaica 
Oh BTW I like the Knee pic. Its hot
Sunshine I suggest you are showing signs of overtraining and would cut back both volume and intensity for a block.
One day
10min warm up
- no dynamic stretching
Other day - 4 x 150m strides (walk 40-50m + stabilised HR for 2 minutes recoveries)
Haven’t thought about t-shirts officially, but I already have had one of my designs made into one, with the stivoz.gr logo that I made
Regarding overtraining… hmmm I really don’t feel overtrained. I just got sick with a virus, and now it’s taking a WHILE to recover (I still have a cough).
I think I’m over-traveled, if anything… :o
Anyway, this is a light week to find myself again =)
Monday ,Feb. 7th, 2011
-
25min warm up (good pace, as I was going with Dejan)
-
dynamic stretching
-
4 x 20m A skips
-
4 x 20m running A skips
-
6 x 50m scissor kicks
-
6 x 50m B skips
-
5 x 60m charlie skips
-
3 x 60m strides
Tuesday, Feb.8th, 2011
(morning)
-
20min run
-
dynamic stretching
-
8 x 150m tempo strides
travel to Milan
usual post-travel headache and extra chocolate consumption
watched a really sad movie ( “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale”, with Richard Gere, and I cried my eyes out… 
) I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do on the first night in a new environment…
Debating whether or not I want to join the gym for a month here, so I can start doing some quality weights again. Let’s take a vote…
I miss Dejan so badly already.
I also miss my mom 
I’ve been so sleepy lately… I think I still have this virus in me… Sleep feels like heaven. So time for Heaven now.
If you have the time/plan to use it, then it’s a yes for the gym.
Gym time tomorrow morning
Good day… (good meeting…)
- 15+15min biking
I got the best painting interpretation I could hope for today, by a very special friend…
(on the girl with the knee operation)
Best song/interpretation on the planet (and in the sky):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I
I’ve been following your journal for quite some time now, I enjoy reading it. Find it inspirational among other things.
This is probably the drawing I’ve liked the most so far. 
Thanks so much for reading and liking =))
I decided to translate my friend’s interpretation of my painting. I simply find it spectacular, the way he expressed himself and the kind of emotions that he extracted from it. This person is very special, because he fights through life with some difficult health and economic problems (for one, he’s been a sprinter competing with ‘normal dudes’ while having hearing problems, among other things, and the way he’s been reacting to the gun is by sensing the initial motions of the people next to him… and he has run 10.8s consistently…) He is also very well read, and vies life in a very profound way that I admire.
This is what he wrote to me:
" A soul in agony - the heroine (the world), tries to pick up the scattered pieces of her soul (pulling her knee out), with an effort generated from deception, false knowledge of outwardly situations (poisenous mushrooms), and the heroine that we see has entered a rough and brutal atrocious forest that causes plangent and
lacerating crying of the soul. Because of the deception, due to the fact that the soul was untortured, the heroine came to this forest on purpose, as she is staring around with feelings of terror and fear, but meanwhile with admiration and the feeling of sacred. This is her chance to heal herself, in this absolute calamity. The book will offer her medicine for the soul, but because of its thickness, it won’t heal her immediately; there is much effort required, as the depth of the soul is very great and it is hard to extract everything because of our many sufferings. The heroine (the world) would think that she took substantial knowledge from the initial pages, and she would think that by sewing up her knee, she would get better. But after a while, the wound would open up again.
What does it mean when it tears up, when it gets sewed, when it tears up again, gets sewed, and the same thing constantly, constantly and constantly happens again? There is much time required for knowledge to take place, hence the process will always feel at the beginning. Furthermore, the knee being exposed signifies another very important thing!! It means STRESS, due to the sufferings that we endure, which come from voracity, lustiness, anger, and intellectual sleep. This is the reason why our girl tries to cultivate her soul, and from her gaze we understand that she picked up on her mistakes and will take on new feats for internal composure.
What kind of fear can such a painting (that others are describing) possibly cause… on the contrary, it is perfect for internal psychic understanding; meaning that if this thing is happening to me, that means that I understand it, so I only keep going towards my evolution, I do not remain stagnant and knowledge continues. "
I read your first post where you start with,
““I think this is my 4th or 5th journal here. Every journal ends with injuries and frustration after continuous weeks of training obsessions and enthusiasm for reaching some kind of potential - whatever that may be. So I hope this one goes on the right track and brings satisfaction in the end.””
I may well have been jumping to conclusions.
Don’t worry, for sure I’m not injured or overtrained!! Thank you for the consideration though, it’s always good to keep a heads-up 
I’m still so relatively weak from being sick for 9 days… .ugghhh.
I cannot go to the gym until Tuesday, because I need to have my medical examination on Monday… pffffff !!!
Italian men are bad news !! (not to be racist or anything… :rolleyes: )
Taking this week easy, as told.
Thursday, Feb. 10th, 2011
-
15min biking
-
20min warm up
(I have a pain low down and on the inside of my shin, from stepping on uneven ground during Tuesday morning’s tempo. It was pretty intense today, so I took it extra easy - it even bothered on drills).
-
dynamic stretching, abs, and glute exercises
-
3 x 30m A skips
-
4 x 50m scissor kicks
-
4 x 100m Charlie’s low skips
-
3 x 80m very easy strides (some pain)
-
abs and glute exercises
-
15min biking
-
25min biking
(aperitivo)
- 25min biking
Wonderful weather. It helps with psychology, that’s for sure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0dzRQSKv8s&feature=player_embedded
Friday, Feb. 11th, 2011
-
15min warm up
-
tempo (grass)
100+100+100+
100+200++100+100+
100+200++200++100+
100+200++100
(1800m total) > (vs 1200m from last two sessions) > taking this gradually back.
Leg feels fine as long as I step correctly. I’ve always been saying these past 2 years that injuries and niggles are now technique-blessings
Too much chocolate since I got here… But now that I ate it all, I’m choco-de-toxing… End of story.
Saturday, Feb. 12th, 2011
OFF
Sunday, Feb. 13th, 2011
- push ups/abs
-25min biking to the park
-
10min warm up jog
-
8 x 100m hills , walk back recoveries
(Time to get strong again… 9 days away from running, while being sick, really destroys EVERYTHING, doesn’t it?? I don’t feel in ‘running form equilibrium’. ) -
25min biking back home
Tomorrow I can get my medical checkup, and then finally weights again. And track =)) Time for outdoor prep.
EMS
- 2 x 20min calves relaxing massage (they were too tight)
Monday, Feb. 14th, 2011
-
15min warm up
-
quick stretch (quick as lightning)
-
long tempo
100+100+100+
100+200+100+100++
100+200++200++100+
100+100+200++100+
100+100+100
(total 1200m)
> stalker case… I had to change spots three times, pfffff… -
5min jog
Note: I HATEEEE post-illness training come-backs… ughhhh. I guess I hadn’t had such a break in ages, and I’ve been through a shock now.
-
15min biking (to the medical examination for gym-use permission >> my heart is healthy, yesssss)
-
15min biking back
Tomorrow weights. Hurray.
You either have two many reps or the total is wrong… Take it easy, no reason to rush! Enjoy your weights!
Ok !!! I’ll see how things go this week…
Tuesday, Feb. 15h, 2011
Today was raining all day. I’ve never experienced a more slippery track on rainy days, than the one I use here in Milan. I’m scared to do drills…
Anyhow, I have many niggles … maybe it’s part of the ‘transition’. But I’m having trouble finding myself. Not only am I not ‘springy’, but my shin bothers me, and like I said yesterday, I feel ‘out of equilibrium’.
But no rush
-
15min bike
-
3 laps warm up
-
3 x 200m skips (the ‘girly’ kind) with 100m jogs inbetween (sometimes I substitute these skips with jogging, when jogging hurts. Plus I find the surface on this track so hard, that skips are better, plus it was too muddy/puddy to run on the dirt). Anyhow, silly details…
-
10min dynamic stretching
at the bleachers: (covered, so no rain there =) )
- 2 x 13 upward lunges (doubles - these stairs are much higher than my stairs in Thessaloniki)
- 16 x 26 stairs (singles - too scared to do doubles! Not springy enough yet for this kind of height). Walk down recoveries
- 3 x 13 upward lunges
Gym:
- Leg press machine (no rack for free back-squats, but I don’t want to do those anyway, because I think I have a back issue when i do those) : 3 x 8 @ 50, 60, 70 kg (I honestly think I shouldn’t go heavy/crazy with this… I think I have a low back defect (it’s almost in the butt area) - it just doesn’t feel ‘right’, but it doesn’t hurt, per say… I just feel that it could ‘break’ any minute, if I went much heavier. I still haven’t followed Jamirok’s advice to get it MRI’ed… life gets so much in the way :rolleyes:
(too much rambling and not much reporting… so here we go: ) - Bench Press: 3 x 8 @ 16, 27, 36, 40 kg
- Swiss Ball Glute bridges: 3 x 12 reps
- Bent Rows: 3 x 8 (w/ dumbbells) @ 12, 12, 16kg (total weight) This exercise also feels strange in my ‘tail’ area.
- Lat. Pull Downs: 2 x 8 @ 40, 45kg
- Seated Front presses (w/bar): 3 x 8 @ 16, 20, 26 kg
- Seated Rows: 2 x 8 @ 30, 35 kg
(abs in the beginning, in between and after)
- 15min biking
Before I forget:
-
Pick your friends wisely
There are friends that cause ‘doing nothing’ , and friends that cause inspiration and creativity. I feel happier with the latter, most of the time. -
Wisdom is a strange thing. Someone will come to me, ‘playing wise’, and I know that I know everything he says, but I also know it’s impossible to practice all of wisdom in real life. It’s like I’ve learned all of the wisdom along the way, but it’s never too much to hear certain things over through time, because I know that somewhere, I forgot about something, that is important.
(it’s late here…)
Wednesday, Feb. 16th, 2011
Off from running (raining hard all day)
EMS
- 25min active recovery hamstrings
- 25min active recovery calves
- 20min relaxing massage calves
Thursday, Feb. 17th, 2011
-
15min bike
-
20min warm up jog
-
10min dynamic stretching
-
4 x 20m A skips
-
2 x 20m B skips
-
4 x 50m scissor kicks
-
1 x 40m stride
-
2 x 80m strides
-
5 x 60m, w/5m build up prior to it, walk back recoveries (trainers, i have a back issue these days) felt really nice though, as I tried to be as relaxed as possible.
-
5 x 60m, as above.
-
3 x 60m, as above
(total of SE: 780m)
Gym:
-
Incline press: 3 x 8 @ 26, 30, 34kg
-
One-arm DB rows: 3 x 8 @ 10s, 12s, 14s (kg)
-
Upright rows: 2 x 8 @ bar+10, bar+14 kg (that was a different, smaller bar; don’t know weight)
-
Swiss ball glute extensions: 4 x 12 (body weight)
-
Dips: 3 x 10
(abs here and there) -
15min bike
Sorry Nick, I hadn’t understood what you said… I wrote the total wrong >> should be 2200m ! Thanks for pointing out
Friday, Feb. 18th, 2011
-
20min warm up run
-
tempo
100+100+100+
100+100+200++100+
200++100+200++100+
200
(more tired than last time; longer rests)
- 30min fast walking
EMS probably later today
p.s. I am craving a huge juicy stake !!!
(continued)
EMS
- 25min active recovery hamstrings
- 25min active recovery calves
- 20min relaxing massage calves
Saturday, Feb. 19th, 2011
-
15min biking
-
15min warm up
-
10min dynamic stretching
-
5min static stretching
-
abs
-
4 x 20m A skips
-
4 x 20m B skips
-
2 x 20m running B skips
-
5 x 50+m scissor kicks
-
2 x 60m strides
(I’m having shin splits… this session was not pleasant, but I didn’t want to leave without something more intense, so I continued, always in trainers) :
-
2 x 30m accelerations
-
3 x 60m accelerations
(enough…)
Gym:
This is the day (Saturday) when I can do all the “forbidden exercises” (the trainer that is there on Tues. and Thurs. won’t let me do olympic lifts, because, as he says, even though I know the technique, others would want to copy me, and they would end up injuring themselves… oh puleaseeee couldn’t this happen anywhere on earth, and on any occasion?) Anyway… Saturday’s trainer is way more cool.
My back was not feeling well again , so I took it wayyyy tooooo easy with these exercises:
-
Hang cleans: warm up with bar: 8x16kg, then: 4 x 26kg, 4 x 30kg
-
Deadlifts: (deadlifting feels great regarding my nowadays-problematic back, but I have trouble with the bringing-down part, and I can’t drop it in that gym, as the floor is not what it should be…ughhh… so I have an overall problem with this exercise): 5 x 30kg, 5 x 36kg (this is way too light for me, but…)
-
Tricep pulldowns: 8 x 20kg, 8 x 30kg, 8 x 35kg
-
Chin downs: 8 x 45kg, 8 x 50kg, 8 x 55kg
-
Leg press: 8 x 60kg, 8 x 70kg, (these felt much much better and easier on the back than on Tuesday, so maybe it’s just an issue of overall strength balance. I’ll see
) -
Swiss ball glute raises: 4 x 12 reps
-
Swills ball glute raises/one leg at a time: 4 x 6 reps for each leg
-
Abs
-
15min biking
Sunday, Feb. 20th, 2011
Off from running
EMS
- 20min explosive strength on hamstrings
- 2 x 20min relaxing massage on calves
Monday, Feb. 21st, 2011
-
15min running (everything on grass park today, and shins felt great)
-
tempo:
5 x 100m (walk 50m recoveries)
8 x 200m (walk 100m recoveries)
5 x 100m (walk 50m recoveries)
(total 2600m)
- 10min jog
Not sure how to handle my shin issue on the track for the time being, but I’ll try to stretch the calves as much as possible (they are tighter than usual, perhaps from too much sitting here in Milan, as I find myself doing more work in my room. Which makes me think whether or not I should do doubles - even a short warm up in the morning).