Third session.

Charlie completed a mid-week run on his own at the PalmerSport circuit at Bedford Autodrome, the location of our running from now on. No more traffic, pot holes curbs pedestrians etc. I was suffering from a pulled calf muscle so had to wimp out.
On Friday we met at the gym for another session. Because I hadn't trained all week, I decided to join Charlie for some of the weight training.
Charlie is already exhibiting some strength gains, most evident in his press ups where he managed 20, 16 and then, somehow 17 reps.
Weights done it was onto the rower. This is where I can really push Charlie and it's also where he likes to be pushed.
I pre-programmed the rower for a warm up and then 8 intervals of 200 metres effort followed by 1 minute 20 seconds rest. a slight progression from last session. The intervals were polished off at 500 metre pace times between 1.39 and a 1.50.
This was a tough session with Charlie's heart rate peaking at 190 BPM and rarely dropping below 160. Charlie worked hard throughout unfortunately suffering from a stitch by the fifth interval.
Session done, we parted company and headed home.
Now that training has become quite well established I will produce weekly blogs from now on featuring significant progressions and highlights from the previous weeks training.
As there is a race fast approaching, Charlie has decided he just wants to swim for a couple of sessions. Its a bit easier on the body and will help in Charlie's preparation.
Once the race is done, I will probably throw some kettlebell training into the mix just to add interest and another dimension into his training.

Charlie's second gym session

Charlie arrived at the gym clearly up for it today, quite a contrast to the last session. Illness gone, energy levels back up, mentally readied for a tough workout.
Straight on to the rower for a 5 minute warm up. Heart rate up to 140, a one minute tail off and straight in to the weights room.
Lunges are up first. Using body weight only Charlie performs 30 reps total. With no rest, straight into a set of press ups, 20 reps, not too bad. a minutes rest and we're in again this time with some dumbbells. More press ups, quick rest and then a final set. The sweat is on, breathing hard, so far the session is going well.
Next up, a superset combination of bicep cable curls, with a rope to emphasise the forearms and triceps pressdowns. Moving swiftly between the two exercises leaves Charlie's arms very tired. High reps are once again the order of the day to emphasize endurance over muscle growth.
Arms thoroughly worked, we move on to dumbbell shrugs. Here we once again do 3 sets of 20-25 repetitions.
That's the brunt of the weight training done. This will evolve over the coming weeks and months as Charlie's conditioning improves.
From here it's in to the studio for some abdominal and core work before we hit the rower. We do some rotations on a stability ball whilst holding a 5 kg plate in the approximate position of a steering wheel. The idea here is to work up to multiple sets of 100 reps. Once a certain level of conditioning is achieved, a medicine ball will be introduced under Charlie's feet to further de-stabilise him and increase the recruitment of the core muscles. A few sets of planks later and we're back in to the cardio suite for an interval session on the rower.
I programme the rower for 10 intervals of work to rest ratio of 1 to 2. 30 seconds of work followed by 1 minute's rest.
First set in Charlie averages 1.47 per 500. Second set he hits 1.45, which is none too shabby. Subsequent sets fall between 1.46 and 1.47 per 500 metre. Heart rate peaks at 180, sweating heavily, breathing heavily, job done.
10 minutes stretching back in the studio in the middle of a very noisy spin session and we're finished. All in all a great session. Charlie seems very pleased with his efforts and thanks me for pushing him hard.
Next up a 5 mile steady state run on Wednesday.

A nauseating second session

Today was our first gym session. I've arranged a deal with my local gym which enables me to bring clients in to use the facilities which is great.(thank you Shane from the Pemberton Centre, Rushden)
So, Charlie's back from his trip to Scotland and we meet at the gym at 8.40am.
On my arrival, Charlie give me some worrying news that he has had some sort of bug and as a result has had frequent trips to the toilet and not been eating properly.
Despite this, he wants to press on.
First up, the rower for a 5 minute general warm up.
Charlie sets off at 2.10 per 500 metre pace. He is wearing his heart rate monitor but as it's a warm up, I don't bother to really check it. This was a mistake. Charlie doesn't appear to be overly exerting himself but once the warm up is over, we check the HR. It's a way too high 170BPM. Twice resting heart rate is a better target for a warm up. The higher than expected HR is definitely due to his illness.
Feeling nauseous, Charlie wants to carry on so we head to the weights room. One set of lunges and press ups later and Charlie simply can't carry on.
He apologises but I tell him there is absolutely no need to.
Charlie is basically running on empty. Quite simply you can't train so soon after an illness, especially a stomach bug. It's counter-productive. Charlie needs to recover fully so as to replenish his glycogen stores and get his strength levels back up.
So, not a great start and I didn't get to unleash my workout on him.
On exiting, Charlie informs me that he will be in touch once he is fully recovered.
Next week, if all goes well, we should be training 3 days. A long endurance run and twice in the gym.

Charlie's VO2 max and first run

Met at a freezing rugby pitch today to start Charlie on the road to super racecar ready fitness.
First up, a VO2 max fitness test so I can ascertain Charlie's current cardiovascular fitness level. We run a mile, record the time and end heart rate and reveal a VO2 max score of 46. This is pretty good and puts him in the excellent category of most reference value tables. These however are based on average people and so aren't being applied here. The aim is to get Charlie's VO2 max up into the 60's.
So much goes on in a physiological and psychological sense when involved in the pressures of a tight race and therefore a lack of fitness is just another distraction that we could do without. By the time we are finished, this aspect is something Charlie won't even have to think about allowing him to concentrate purely on winning his race.

Once Charlie's heart has recovered to approximately twice his resting heart rate we start the session.
Today is a steady state run, keeping Charlie to about 70 to 80% of his heart rate reserve. this is between 152 and 164 BPM.

Heart rate reserve calculation
220-age=maximum heart rate
Maximum heart -resting heart rate=heart rate reserve
(Heart rate reserve x training%)+ resting heart rate= target heart rate

1.5 miles into our run, Charlie is peaking above 164bpm but feels fine so we press on. We rest at 2 miles (half way point)and allow Charlie' heart rate to come down to twice his resting rate.
Then, on we go. another mile and a half in with Charlie's heart rate hitting close to 170 we rest again.
On to the final mile. Charlie is determined to finish strong and suggests we sprint the final section. With this his heart rate peaks at 190.(so much for the 164 max, but this man is keen)
OK, job done. We've covered 4 miles including the fitness test mile. Our average pace was just over 11 minutes per mile and we completed the run in 45 minutes.
This steady state aspect of our training will be performed once a week and will either be a run, bike ride, or swim.
We will have two sessions in the gym which will consist of strength endurance weight training and interval sessions on the concept 2 rower. Core stability will also be included within these sessions.
Charlie has a busy seven days ahead of him now but once that is out of the way he will commit to the three day a week programme progressing to four days a week in a few months time.(not sure he knows that yet!)