Tuesday 18/11/08 - Day 79 (18 Days to Deadline, pretty sure I messed up the number of days that had passed)
Coaching this morning and my boys have a great session. Head to the gym afterwards, there are issues involving my sponsor, which are a little complicated, the upshot is that atm I don't have access to my fitness coach. With that in mind I have to go back a few steps. In the absence of my fitness coach writing my weights program I'm just going with compound exercises for now... hopefully it'll be sorted soon.
1x5 Squats @ 140kg, when I start the second set I feel a painful twinge in my groin. I stop there as I knowI shouldn't be feeling that. I've torn my groin once when I was 14 playing soccer and I'm very cautious about doing a similiar injury again, it was exceedingly painful.
3x5 Bench Press @65kg
3x5 Deadlift @90kg
6x12 Weighted Cable Crunch @75kg
6x12 Hanging Leg Raises
I go for a 3k run in the afternoon through the pouring rain. Love it
In the afternoon I find out I've received the time trial results so I sit down to analyse them...
I'm ranked 78 out of 88 entries in the time trial. Better result than I thought, I was sure I was going to come in last, especially after the way I rowed...
My weight was 68.6kg
My first leg time was 8:16.71
My second leg time was 9:32.88
My total Time was 17:49.59
My prognostic was 72.38%
1% Prognostic = 14.78seconds
The next worst prognostic from one the club's elite lighty boys was 79.49%.
Now I know I rowed like crap on Sunday and haven't done nearly as much hard training in the boat or as much fitness work as those guys but thats still 1:45.07 I would need to make up on him to catch up.
I reckon rowing a proper boat (as opposed to a training scull that I had to borrow) I could knock 20-25 second off easily.
I think a few more practices and a bit more experience and I could knock another 20 seconds off.
Heavy fitness work (although too late to make a difference this season) could probably knock another 30 seconds off.
Weight gain of 4.3kg (the difference in weight between me and that next rower) of lean muscle would probably see me strong enough to knock another 20 seconds off.
I can therefore see 1min 30-35 seconds being knocked off my time with some more experience, a better boat, some more fitness work and putting on more lean muscle mass. That would still leave me 10-15 seconds to cover to get me to a 79.49% prog. More technique work could probably do that too.
Although I am a long way back I don't feel that it's insurmountable. Maybe it isn't doable this season but there's 12 months till state 2009 and I think I could definitely bring myself to an 80% prog by then, if I work hard enough.
So although the performance was dissapointing, and the results leave me well down the field, I do feel rather encouraged actually.
Another thing that was pleasing was to see that one of the girls I coached during the girls season entered the time trial, although her time was nearly 2mins slower than mine as a junior women's category she actually got a better prognostic than me, maybe I'm a better coach than rower
Food:
Breakfast:
Egg and cheese on wholemeal bread
Bowl of fruit w/mango yoghurt
Lunch:
2xCheese, Ham + Salami sandwich on wholemeal
Snack 1:
Protein Bar + 250ml 1% Milk
Dinner:
Chicken stir-fry w/noodles
Pre-Bed
Protein Shake w/1% Milk.
Total Calories: ~2200, well down. Today was difficult because I slept for nearly 5 hours during the day so missed meals.
Tomorrow I go down to Melbourne to buy the scull. I have rowing in the morning and I'll try and slip in a gym session before my flight leaves.
Thought for the Day:
I won't let myself end where it started, I won't let myself finish where it began. I know what is within me, even if you can't see it yet.
I have something more important than courage. I have patience.
I will become what I know I am."
