Three Peaks Training – Day 44
Before I say anything, here are my training stats since turning the cross-trainer up from 1 to 2.
The first thing to notice is that I only trained 7 times (aside from a couple of tennis sessions) during September, when I should have trained on at least 12 occasions. I hate to make excuses but the reason for this is because I went through a particularly bad narcolepsy episode. Of all the many difficulties that the Three Peaks is going to throw at me, I still contend that the most challenging is going to be my lack of sleep.
To counter this, I’ve decided to start training mid-late afternoon, instead of trying to do it all first thing in the morning. It’ll take some getting used to, but it’s probably the smart way to go. The good news is that my average speed has increased, suggesting that I’m still making progress, and that as of 1st October I felt able to increase the cross-trainer setting from 2 to 3.
So, there’s plenty of improvement to be had in the training side of things, but it feels like I’m moving in the right direction.
My new healthier diet is also going well. Junk food has been cut right back, and alcohol and bread consumption has greatly reduced. My three pieces of fruit per day target is suffering a little, but that’s mainly because although I started off eating fruit mainly in an evening instead of my typical cereal or toast supper, my desire to eat in an evening has almost completely disappeared. It’s easy to eat fruit when I’m hungry, less so when I don’t feel any desire to eat and I feel like I’m force-feeding myself.
I’ve also given up on the oily fish. I tried just about every type I could think of (mackerel, pilchards, sardines, salmon, herring…) and every single one repeated on me for the rest of the day. I’m now taking vegetarian Omega 3 capsules instead.
Although all of these efforts are with the goal of completing the Three Peaks next year, I am hoping that there’ll be the welcome side-effect of being healthier and stronger. And the early signs are good.
– The muscles in my legs (particularly the calves) are firming up nicely and, slightly worryingly, are taking on new shapes. My wife says it’s called “definition” but it seems a bit early for that.
– I’ve noticed while playing tennis it takes me a lot longer before I start to feel fatigue.
– Since the start of this new regime I’ve lost around seven pounds in weight.
I’m particularly pleased with this last development as I didn’t particularly set out to lose weight, but it should start to make exercise that little bit easier.
Despite what I said in my last post, I haven’t yet gone for an actual hill walk, but I have one pencilled in for next Saturday. Nothing too challenging. I’m aiming for something 2-3 hours in length that will hopefully stretch me without putting me on my back.
I’m very interested to see whether my training will stand up to a bit of punishment.
That’s all for now. If you know of any tough walks that you can recommend (preferably within 1 hour of driving from Leeds), post the details in the comments below.