Too fat to be a cyclist. Too skinny to be a weightlifter.

[Big Good Wolf]

Press ups - 30
Sit ups - 20
Chin ups - 2

[Big Good Wolf]

Press ups - 35+35
Sit ups - 20+20
Chin ups - 5+4

[Frostfire]

Hum, does it ever seem like you are not getting enough variety in your workouts? Not trying to be mean, just wondering!

[Big Good Wolf]

Press ups - 35
Sit ups - 20
Chin ups - 3

Hum, does it ever seem like you are not getting enough variety in your workouts?

I had been thinking that myself.
I have got no organised training programme and no specific goals. I am just working on the idea that anything is better than nothing.
I am finding these boots a bit uncomfortable for running, which has put me off a bit. I am still wearing the leather boots they supply me with at work, these and my leather cycling shoes are are my only major failings in acheiving a vegan lifestyle.
I am going to buy some vegan safety boots and running shoes, but I am still undecide as to whether to buy them mail order and hope I get the right size first time, or travel some distance to a shop that stocks them so I can try them on first.
I haven't been out on the mountain bike much recently because of the cold weather. If I was training seriously I would go anyway, but I like mountain biking because I like mountain biking and because it is exercise. If it's just exercise, I don't bother.
Once I get some lighter footwear I'll go back to doing more burpees and skipping.
I tend to always look for the difficult way of doing things to make it harder as well which gives me a bit of variety. I'll carry truck parts out of the stores at work rather than use a pallet truck, I run back from a transport yard at the other end of the industrial estate after delivering a lorry rather than walk. I dragged 44kg of snow chains 200 yards down the hill to where I park my Land Rover this morning, found they were a solid block of frozen mud because I hadn't washed them after the last time I used them, then dragged them 200 yards back up the hill to thaw them out. I could have put them in the wheelbarrow, but that's not half the challenge.
My present way of training suits me at the moment.
Get down on the floor, do a few press ups, then carry on what I was doing before. Maybe I should be a bit better organised and set aside half an hour or an hour every day for a set routine.

[moggy]

Well Graham hasn't done his log for a week, and its my fault, because he's been at my place (I run a cat rescue)and has been putting up a 42' polytunnel (lots of trench digging), for me to grow plants for fundraising, putting a new roof on the Aids cats house, putting new windows in the same building fixing my van, fixing stable doors, and generally being a suiperhero about the place.
Not proper training as such, but hes worked damn hard and is now fast asleep, and has been since 8.30

[Big Good Wolf]

I'm better at doing exercise than I am at keeping a record of it.
I'm still not sure, though, if I'm doing exercise or training.
Training implies there's some sort of event I am am working towards, so I'll stick with calling it exercise.
I tried doing short laps near home on my mountain bike. I'm on call at work this weekend, if a truck breaks down in our area I have to go out and deal with it, so I can't go too far from home and I have to stay in the areas where there is good mobile phone reception.
That limits me to the steep and muddy bits round here. I worked out a figure of eight route going up hill on the hard tracks and back down through the mud, but found it heavy going. What it needs is a change of attitude. I need to think more of the effort I am putting in to the ride rather than the distance I am covering. I only did 6km, but found it more tiring than my usual rides of more than twice that distance .
A bit of a change of emphasis on the strength exercise as well.
I read the thread on doing as many push ups as you can in 10 minutes, so I gave that a go.

First attempts gave;

147 pressup in 10 minutes
77 sit ups in 10 minutes

[Big Good Wolf]

I came up with a plan for the 10 minute press ups challenge.
See, I'm starting to take this fitness training seriously, working out training programmes for myself.
Anyway, I figured if I can do 147 press ups in 10 minutes, rounding up, that's 150, or 15 per minute. Rounding up again, that's 8 every 30 seconds, so that's what I aimed for.
Start the clock, do 8 press ups, wait 'til the second hand reaches 30 seconds, do another 8, and so on. Towards the end I was resting longer and longer and doing the 8 nearer the end of each 30 second segment than the start, but I made it. 160 press ups in 10 minutes.
Just when I thought I would get myself in to a routine of doing this every day, it all changed and I got the opportunity to do some unconventional weight training.
I was given some firewood. Free if I collect it, and some help with loading too.
Out with the Land Rover & trailer on Monday (this is no Chelsea Tractor, it's a cabbage coloured 110 with a good thick layer of mud, oil, sawdust and dog hair on all internal surfaces) and load up with about 1500kg of cedar.
Two more loads on Tuesday and another two on Wednesday.
The only problem is I am not supposed to churn the grass up outside my bungalow. With the ground being wet I had to do a sort of loop to come in down hill which left me about 5 yards from the gate.
Over the last 3 days I have carried or thrown about 7 tons of wood across those 5 yards.

Early this morning. Four loads on the ground, one ready to unload and two yet to collect.


I should have recovered by tomorrow. I'll go back to my 8 press ups every 30 seconds routine and see if I can work a few 9s in to get the total up. Then I can start thinking about getting that lot sawn, split and stacked.

I've noticed other people are listing what they eat in their training logs.
A fairly typical day for me today.
8am Reddy Brek with sultanas, demerara sugar and soya milk.
1pm Four of Moggy's sausage rolls. Made with Sosmix or Linda McCartney sausages, currently half price in Tesco, followed by a bar of Ritter Sport chocolate.
6pm Six slices of toast with Marmite or Marmalade.
11pm A tin of pears with a carton of Alpro soya custard.
A few bananas and clementines and orange juice or orange squash throughout the day.
I've got no idea how many calories are in all that or what sort of a combination of protein or carbohydrates are in there, but I've lived on that sort of food for about 25 years and I'm doing OK on it. I rarely eat anything cooked other than chips or toast.

[Big Good Wolf]

Using the 20 x 30 second segment method I have just managed;

166 press ups in 10 minutes
84 sit ups in 10 minutes.

I was going to do some skipping, but there is a big pile of logs on the only flat, level hard surface around here.

5km of heavy going on the mountain bike.

[SpugFab]

Good work on the press ups.

I read this routine the other day:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1462189

It's a pretty good bodyweight workout (in the main, there is some stuff with weights but I thought you'd be able to improvise. Maybe a sandbag or two), I thought you might be interested in some of the moves at least. I did the "Hammer Down Endurance" workout (the link is near the top of that page) at lunchtime today and enjoyed it. Not worked the medicine ball for a while.

Have a read and see if it appeals.

I'm looking to do a bit more conditioning work of this ilk so I'll keep you notified of anything interesting.

[Big Good Wolf]

Thanks Spug, I keep writing this stuff and it's nice to know that those who are obviously far more advanced than myself are taking an interest and offering advice.
I read that t-nation article and it looks a good plan. I don't think I will follow it to the letter, but I can certainly use parts of it.

I have bought some running shoes, New Balance 606, vegan with a good tread for cross country use. I'm trying to get in to a routine of running every morning, but it's not easy, I get home from work around 11pm with all sorts of plans for the next day, then the phone goes at 4.30am because there's a petrol tanker at Evesham services with the brakes stuck on. By the time I get back home at 7.30am, I'm more interested in sleep and food than exercise.
Nevertheless, I've run about 3km yesterday and today, probably the furthest I have ever run non-stop in my life.
I'm beginning to think that maybe I should be aiming for something with my training. There's a 5km fun run coming up soon around here, but it's for the BHF and I'm not going to support a vivisection charity. I've started looking at running clubs, mountain bike clubs and gyms, but not decided yet. I'll carry on just improving my overall fitness for now.

170 press ups in 10 minutes
84 sit ups in 10 minutes.

[Big Good Wolf]

3km run this morning

400m of uphill wheelbarrow pushing.
I normally park about 200m from home down a steep hill across the field. I was given some more free firewood which I brought home in the work van. 400m doesn't sound like far to push a wheelbarrow, but uphill on wet grass with a good load of wood on it makes me struggle.

[Big Good Wolf]

Spent the weekend at Moggy's so had a go on her rowing machine.
Did a couple of 2000m rows in just under 8 minutes.
Moggy gave me some dumbells she had picked up cheap in a charity shop. She's kept the smaller ones and given me the 6.6kg ones.
I found this site which has got some good little animated diagrams to copy.

180 press ups in 10 minutes
90 sit ups in 10 minutes.
3 chin ups
About 15 minutes messing about with the dumbells. Nothing organised, just seeing what hurts and what doesn't before I try and work out a proper daily routine.

[Big Good Wolf]

Press ups - 40
Cross country run - 3km
Dumbells - 20 minutes of various exercises with 2.2, 4.6 or 6.8kg in each hand.

I've got some old fashioned 56lb weights so I tied them together in two pairs, put a jack handle through the handles and did;

Dead lift - 100kgx10

The idea of odd object lifting is starting to appeal to me now as well.
First attempts;

35kg punch bag - failed to get it overhead. Brought it in the house to dry out, will try again when I can grip it better.
35kg Land Rover wheel & tyre - overhead press
30kg post rammer - overhead pressx10
38kg ammunition box with three snowchains in it - overhead press
49kg ammunition box with four snowchains in it - failed

[Big Good Wolf]

I did my running route on the mountain bike today to check the distance. I had deliberately underestimated it so as not to claim I was doing more than I really was, but it turned out to actually be 3.97km, so all the 3km runs I have done so far have really been 4km runs.

I can get the 48kg ammo box overhead now, but I can't get my arms straight, I'll keep working on that one.

100kg dead lift x 10
30kg post rammer overhead press x 10
33kg punch bag overhead press
40 press ups
I've worked out a dumbell routine that suits me as well. Various movements x 50 for about 15 minutes.

I bought the local free ads paper to see if there were any weights for sale near by. There always seems to be a lot of second hand fitness equipment for sale. If it takes a couple of years to even qualify as a novice strongman, I can see why people give up.
I thought a novice strongman competition would be like a fun run or charity bike ride where anyone can turn up and have a bash. How wrong I was. Never mind, I'm still having fun swinging dumbells around and thrashing my mountain bike round the forest.

Edited to add;
180 press ups in 10 minutes
100 sit ups in 10 minutes
And another 15 minutes with the dumbells.

[JP]

you will be suprised how fast you progress with strength if you keep in mind the basic rules of progressive load and basic compound training (which you seem to do with all the odd object lifting - which is awesome!). In that sense the novice comps are for people to have a go, but you need to build some kind of basic strength level. Kind of like a couch potatoe cant just hit 10k charity run straight up Strength is slower to build than basic cardio endurance, that explains the difference.

I have no doubt you can have a bash next year if you keep working at it.