Straight after work I took the "Off the Couch" running club and had 8 runners turn up. Not quite the 15 we started out with but still a good number!
We are up to a 4 minutes run followed by a 1 minute walk repeated 6 times. They all did fantastically well and managed to run for the entire time during the run sections. We did a total of 2.34 miles which isn't far off our 5K goal and we still have a few weeks to go!
Then tonight I went on a Cycling improvement course!
One of the members of the tri club I go to is working towards his coaching qualification and needed some willing volunteers to practice on!
I decided that since my cycling definitely needs improving that I would volunteer my services.
The session started at 6.30pm and lasted an hour and took place in the playground of the local secondary school.
When we first got there we checked our bikes over making sure there was no evident problems as well as checking that our helmets fitted correctly.
We then started a Follow the Leader type exercise. One rider lead the group around the playground. The idea here was not speed but dexterity, and to not put a foot down however slow the group got. We practiced some fairly sharp turns which I am not good at!
After this initial "warm-up" we then practiced a series of drills to improve our sense of balance.
The first one we did was cycling slowly around the circuit and when the coach blew his whistle we had to pull the brakes on, turn the wheel to one side, and hold the pedals even without moving or putting a foot down! I lasted for about 1 second before falling over! We practiced this many, many times and it seemed to get harder each time we did it!
Next came the Slow Race! Great I thought! I'm not a fast rider so this one is for me! Evidentally I can't ride fast and I can't ride slowly either!
All the riders lined up as if at the start of a race with a finish line about 20 meters away. Using balance and steering, each rider had to ride as slowly as possible without falling over. The last rider to cross the line was the winner. If we rode backwards, put a foot down or crashed, we were out of the race. Its the only time I have been first over a finish line ... and I still lost the race!
Next we had to ride around the circuit and follow instructions. He would shout random instructions for us to attempt which included:
- right/left arm up.
- look over right/left shoulder.
- pedal with just right/left pedal taking foot off the other one.
- Stand as tall as possible whilst pedaling.
- Crouch as small as possible whilst pedalling.
I was OK at these except the pedal with one foot lark! It just didn't happen!
At the end of the session we were told to practice these skills so we could advance on them next time! I think I am going struggle when I can't even do the most basic skills!
Intermediately after the cycling finished it was time for me to head to the leisure centre next door for the Tri Club Swimming training session. Thankfully the cycling hadn't taken too much out of me physically!
We did a pyramid type training session starting off with a warm up and then swimming 100m with 15 secs rest, then 200m with 15 sec rest, then 400m with 15 secs rest before working back down the pyramid and then repeating again and finishing with a breaststroke cool down! We swam 1800 metres in total which is 1.11 miles!
All in all a very busy evening!
No comments:
Post a Comment