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.
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 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’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.
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)
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)
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
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)
(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).
Title/emotional theme of training day: (maybe I can start a new journal-trend here ) Shin splints, dragging and pumping, and the encouragement of the mirror. ( :rolleyes: )
Morning EMS:
25min active recovering on hamstrings
2 x 20min relaxing massage on calves
15min biking (to the track)
15min jogging
10min dynamic stretching
10min static stretching and abs
3 x 20m A skips
3 x 20m B skips
4 x 30-40m scissor kicks (nothing felt good, my shin hurt. Here I’m thinking about going straight to the weights, but one thing that <I think> I learned, is trying to resolve the issue by fixing technique. So I decided to just run fast to minimize the ground impact time. And it worked )
2 x 60m strides
6 x 60m accelerations (walk back recoveries)
(walk 300m)
4 x 60m accelerations (walk back recoveries)
(I’m still in trainers, for two reasons: a) better for shins to feel better first? , and b) my spikes have the longggg spikes for grass, and the sports store doesn’t have the smaller ones… .but Dejan can bring me some next Wednesday when he comes)
At the gym:
(pretty much everything went up except for seated presses w/bar)
Leg press on Smith machine (who is Smith?): 8 x 60, 8 x 70, 8 x 80 (kg) (no back problems !! >> but my back is still bothering me during the day)
Bench press: 8 x 20, 8 x 36, 8 x 40, 8 x 44 (kg) 44 was rather heavy today for 8 reps, and the (lets see what’s a polite word :o) senseless trainer exited the room and left me all alone when I started the set… :rolleyes: I completed the set by myself for reasons of survival (well the only iffy-rep was the last one, but anyway…)
(And to justify the title of this post; then I took off my long sleeved shirt and was left with a sleeveless top, and admired by toned body :p, thinking that training is all-worth it, regardless the occasional niggles and daily “hassle” of going out there and doing challenging physical things, alone for most of the times. And no, “working out” for simple “fitness” purposes doesn’t cut it ! - for me)
Glute raises with swiss ball: 4 x 12reps
(I skipped bent rows today because I was sure this is a motion that would have bothered my back).
Seated front presses (w/bar): 8 x 26, 8 x 26 (kg)
Lateral pull downs: 8 x 45, 8 x 50 (kg)
Seated rows: 8 x 35, 8 x 40 (kg)
(abs in between and in the end)
15min biking back home to some excellent burgers with cheese.
But I’m still worrying about Silencer23… Please refer to this post, and reply, if you have any updates/communication with him. Thank you.
) I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do on the first night in a new environment…
)