runthreeseven

So the other day on Twitter I asked people to suggest what they would like to see more of on my blog, the lovely Jessie suggested that I supply details of my training schedule.

It made me realise that the reason I love reading blogs like MeVsTheBulge (Amanda’s weight loss blog and in my opinion, one of the best blogs around) is because of the familiarity surrounded her entries. The way she makes herself very easy to connect with and the complete and utter exposure she undertakes to see through her goals. I’m not of that nature, I envy the ability she has to really strip down bare (literally, if you see her latest bikini post) and tell the world of the internet exactly what her goals are and her current situation. Part of me thinks that it would be very helpful when attempting to reach targets, but I’m a very private person in certain aspects and the gusto that I need to post bikini shots of myself on the internet does not exist within me. I have decided however that I would like to post something about my training and my goals in a much more generalised nature.

Alot of people have asked me lately what I’m training so hard for. I guess I don’t have a deliberate answer for this. I would love to move into the Fitness industry, but to be the best I can be in that industry I’d need to feel as though I practice what I preach, that I can hold it down with the clients I would take on. I also am really keen on running a marathon soon, but with my knee injury from early this year my fitness levels had depleted and in all honesty, I am not sure my injury is repaired enough yet to sustain such distance events. What I do know is that I long ago stopped training to get a killer body, and started training first and foremost to improve my athletic abilities. I think I’d love to be able to compete one day, but I’ve got to reach my first goal and take it from there.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a current goal with weight loss and body fat percentages, this is a vain activity on it’s own. But I do exercise to push myself to limits and test myself each day as opposed to doing it because I think my stomach is not flat enough.

So here it is, my goals, my training schedule and my nutrition, in brief… I will go into it in more detail over the next few weeks as I work towards this goal. The plan is to regularly update and speak more freely about what I’m working towards so please try not to get too sick of me.

Goals:

• First point:      
• -4.06kgs
• Second Goal:
• -5.99kgs

This isn’t because I want to be a skinny little thing, this gets me to a certain body fat percentage that should be exactly right for my frame and keeping me totally toned at the same time. This goal means nothing to me if I reach it and have no muscle definition. The idea is to strip down this body fat in order to look as toned and tight as possible.

 How I’ll reach this:

Timeline

I have allowed myself 12 weeks time to reach this point. This should be more than sufficient amount of time.  

Nutrition:

Calories:

I’m aiming to stay below 1500 calories a day. I’ve tried going lower and it’s not maintainable in reality, nor is it something I can sustain when I’m working out as often and as hard as I am. I get sick really easily so restricting calorie intake below 1500 usually just causes trouble.

Macro-Nutrients:

The 1500 calories are made up of:

Protein: 146grams

Carbohydrates: 131grams

Fat: 43grams

This section probably won’t interest anyone too much, it’s really hard to get exact numbers of course – but I try to plan as much as possible. If I get a little muddled I lean towards a higher protein measurement than that of fat or carbs. As far as carbs go I never eat anything ‘white’ (bread, pasta, flour), always wholemeal and preferably with grain/seed, I chose low GI foods. Oven baked sweet potato is one of my very favourite things so I don’t find it hard to choose wisely.

Training:

I’m in the gym 6 mornings a week. I’m not going to list all my workouts in detail, just how I section things off. I try to do as much compound exercise as possible, really restricting the amount of isolated work that I do when lifting weights. Basically this means that I try workout more than one muscle group at a time, it has far better results for me.  That said, I structure my days so that I’m working on a particular muscle group each day, leaving plenty of time for recovery.

Day 1: Glutes, Hamstrings, Abs and Cardio.

Day 2: Back, Yoga and Heavy Cardio.

Day 3: Arms, Chest and Abs. No cardio.

Day 4: Quads, Calves, Abs and Cardio.

Day 5: Shoulders and Heavy Cardio.

Day 6: Pure Cardio.

I have a Polar FT7 which I basically couldn’t live without, it tells me my calories burnt per session. I have a target calorie amount, but honestly I don’t always hit it. It’s hard to reach when you only have an hour and after that you have to go to work. If I could just stay home all day….. *dreaming*

As far as cardio is concerned I switch up between the treadmill/rowing machine/exercise bike or just running outdoors. Heavy cardio signifies days where I will use a heavier resistance or interval training. On full cardio days I will go for a long run.

Alot of what I do in the gym is weight lifting, I started off lifting decent amounts at higher reps, but I have changed things up and am currently lifting heavy on lower amounts of reps.
This plan isn’t neccessarily for everyone but lifting heavy is something I really enjoy and I’m getting closer and closer to being able to lift as heavy as the Boy (even if he tells me that is ‘uncool’ I’m pretty stoked on the idea).

So there you have it. That’s my little plan. On top of that I fit in 40 hours of full time work and 12 hours of study minimum a week. As you can imagine, I’m pretty fucking tired by the end of it.

What is your training schedule like ? Do you have goals / targets? Please share.

Tags: abs, arms, BMR, calories, carbohydrate, cardio, chest, cycling, fat, fitness, glutes, hamstring, health, legs, macro, macronutrients, protein, RMR, rowing, running, shoulder, weight lifting, weight loss, womens fitness