After a week of general non-activity I am now feeling much more motivated to get some training done. Luckily the match this afternoon got the go-ahead as it has been relatively dry in the last few days. I played the full 90 mins and probably touched the ball more times with my head than feet (I play in central defence, in a distinctly average league) but the good news is that the knee felt fine, so with some more hot water bottles/ice packs (I never know which is best?!) it should be ok for a decent walk come the weekend.
I want to try and get out either tomorrow or Friday, and then again on Saturday, to try and keep things going and hopefully build some muscle strength. I'm also thinking about circuit training instead of just football and walking all the time - I think it can be easy to fall into the trap of concentrating too much on the legs, when in actual fact a good all-round level of fitness will be important for the Parish. We've got a decent circuit regime at the club I play for back home (one of the players is a personal trainer) so I will just steal everything from that. It includes press-ups, sit-ups, short sprints etc and provides a decent workout if you have 8 activities, doing each for a minute followed by a minute's rest, and then an repeat circuit at a higher intensity for 30 seconds each.
Although my training has been haphazard so far to say the least, I'm taking comfort from the fact that it's much earlier than I have started in previous years and I feel what I have done has been more beneficial, especially the short 45 minute/1 hour sessions at high speed. I am missing being able to do that with company, but happily I've got 5 weeks at home over Easter (when I think my training will be peaking) to concentrate on technique and speed on the flat. One thing I do need to learn is how to go up hills reasonably quickly without dying...hopefully I can glean some ideas when I am home.
2 comments:
Hi Adam
For good hill training, you are lucky enough to live in Saddlestone which is brilliant for hill repeats. There are 5 in total ( think the first one is Copse Hill ) ending with the slight climb to the top of Pinehurst Avenue.When you come back,do each one once to start off with and then gradually build up the number of repeats over a few weeks. It's good for leg strength and a great CV workout. Keep up the good training and blogs.
Thanks Dave, last night I was having a read of Mark's blog from 2007 and I noticed he also mentioned using Saddlestone for hill repeats. Sounds like a plan, especially as they get gradually easier as you go along towards Pinehurst! I think you can make 5 if you include Vicarage Road as the first one - after that there are Copse/Spinney, Ballaughton, Harcroft and Pinehurst? I suppose Kirby Hill could be one too. Cheers
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