It’s been almost two weeks since I posted, hard to believe, except I do believe it, because I haven’t been at the gym very much in that time.  Working late, can’t fit it all in, excuses excuses.  I’ve been at the gym 2, maybe 3 times a week instead of my normal 5 or 6 times. I suspect that the loathing I feel for the cycling part of the cardio regime has a lot to do with it, so I am trying a different approach.

First, focus on strengths. The rowing normally tops 800m in 4 minutes now, and I have occasionally exceeded the 819 I did when Aaron first monitored me. I’m happy if it’s over 800m. The walking has always been OK, ie have been able to do the time at the settings Aaron chose. I now do the first five minutes completely hands-free, and the last minute hands-free, and some of the intervening minutes too. Occasionally I step on the frame of the treadmill at the front, this means I’m walking slightly faster than the treadmill is going, so that has got to mean I’m doing OK (I confess this has not happened when I’m on the 4% incline in the second half of the walk). My calves are rock-hard these days.

Weights: Now doing three sets of 12 of the clean and jerks and the bicep curl with tricep kickbacks. These are work but I don’t feel at any point that I’m not going to make it. The lat pull-downs are now pretty good, I’ve had three sessions where 17.5kg has not caused a problem, and today I did them so smoothly and evenly I was almost tempted to shout out “hey everybody, look at me!” On to 20kg next week, two sets, go up to three when I can. The trick is to lean back.

Core exercises: I confess I haven’t always been doing the hamstring curls. I really should though, because every time I do them I find I am doing them much better and more smoothly than I expect to. Which shows that they’re working and I’m improving. The pelvic tilts are fine and indeed fairly boring, I don’t feel like they’re doing anything. The ab crunches I really enjoy and never cut out, because my back feels so much better for having done them. I now have my fingertips on or near my head instead of hands on shoulders, and I focus on wrapping/unwrapping one vertebra at a time round the ball.

Weaknesses: I suppose the lat pull downs are a weakness in that I am not yet at the level Aaron set, but I have made such progress that I don’t see these as a weakness and I look forward to doing them. The main block is the wretched cycle programme. I am still only on level 10 and Aaron wanted level 12 at 75rpm. Today my rpm at level 10 was 79 on average, it is often over 80 and I’ve decided there is nothing wrong with that. I still feel like I might not make it, while I’m cycling I’m thinking, I’ll stop at 7 mins, I can’t do another hill, it’s ok if I stop… But I don’t, and I manage it. So I have reset my target to be level 11 at 80rpm by the time I have my next assessment, which brings me nicely to that.

I think I am probably due now for another assessment, but because I’m going away for December and January AND because I have not been in the gym much, I wanted to do that a bit differently. So I’ve booked a half-hour assessment and half-hour personal training session with Aaron on 28 November, we can look at my progress and he can give me some tips on what I might be able to do when I’m abroad. So I have three weeks to get to level 11 and if I make it I will be very happy indeed.