Not a bad weekend

Sunday we had the basketball tournament that I have been training for. We did much better than I expected. We lost by one point to a team that beat us by 20 last year. I didn't play too well and missed my 2 free throws that I have been practicing for the last 2 weeks!!

The good news is that the whole team like the new system and are all wanting to start training every week now. We are going to start training at least one more time a week and maybe more twice a week this will only help me get back into shape.

This morning I went to the gym and went on the recumbent bike for 45 minutes, I did 10.43 km and burned 382 Cals. I did 10 minutes on level 1, 10 minutes on level 7, 15 minutes on level 11 and 10 minutes on level 5.

I was pretty hard going today as my legs were a bit tired from basketball yesterday so I went on the vibrating platform for 10 minutes after the bike to relax my legs a bit.

Weighed myself before the gym today and my weight has dropped from 96.4 to 96.1 a drop of 0.3kgs.

Weight loss progress chart is shared here:

https://docs.google.com/a/boldnet.com.br/spreadsheets/d/1f-64Sv552RgVPBNHweR0OnAzSBte2g9sEZM8rqtra2w/edit#gid=334736510

Busy morning

Got up at 6:30 this morning and took the dog up the hill. I was a bit slow today as I am still a bit tired from the weeks training. Took me 33:45 minutes as apposed to just under 20 minutes last weekend! I managed to walk 1.5 miles this morning compared to 1.4 km last weekend even though I walked to exactly the same point on top of the hill! I climbed 478 ft in elevation.

After that I went to the club and shot 100 free throws again this time on my own so no excuses about distractions!

Improved 7% from the last time I shot from 67% to 74%:

Date	Set	Made	Missed	Total Shot	Percentage
29/09/2014	1	10	5	15	67
	2	10	2	12	83
	3	10	3	13	77
	4	10	2	12	83
	5	10	3	13	77
	6	10	3	13	77
	7	10	8	18	56
	8	10	2	12	83
	9	10	5	15	67
	10	10	2	12	83
Totals		100	35	135	74

I also made the the 100 free throws in 15 less shots and in just 45 minutes.

The tournament is tomorrow so I am planning to only shoot 50 free throws and then shoot 50 3 pointers early in the morning before breakfast. Next week I will change up the daily shooting so that I do 50 free throws and 50 3 pointers.

My elbow is better today and I shot pain free without my elbow support.

Slack Couple of days

Thursday and Friday I couldn´t shoot free throws due to time constraints and the fact it was raining and the court was under water!!!

Thursday morning I did Pilates and Friday morning I did 60 minutes on the recumbent bike. I was really tired from the weeks exertion and getting up early everyday but managed to do 13.48km and burned 526 cals. I did 15 minutes on level 3, 10 minutes on level 6 and 35 minutes on level 11.

I also did 10 minutes on the vibrating platform on level 10 to relax my body a bit.

Feeling good

Got up early for the gym again this morning my knee was hurting a bit but managed to do an hour on the ergonomic bike, did 14.26km and burned 526 Cals. Was on level 1 for 15 minutes level 6 for 20 minutes and level 10 for 35 minutes.

Just got back from shooting free throws at the club I recorded all of my shots the sets with (D) are where my son was distracting me:

Date	Set	Made	Missed	Total Shot	Percentage	Distractions
24/set	1	10	14	24	42	(D)
	2	10	4	14	72
	3	10	4	14	72
	4	10	1	11	91
	5	10	4	14	72
	6	10	4	14	72	(D)
	7	10	3	13	77	(D)
	8	10	7	17	59	(D)
	9	10	3	13	77
	10	10	6	16	63
Totals		100	50	150	67

Total percentage for the day was 67% and it took 150 shots to make 100 freethrows and took 55 minutes.

I am going to set a goal to be shooting 80% in a months time (24/10/14).

I also weighed myself this morning at the gym and my weight has dropped another from 96.8kgs on Monday to 96.4kgs today. This means that I have lost 1.8kgs this month just by exercising and cutting back on coca cola.

More Injuries

Did pilates today and made 100 freethrows. Managed to hyper extend my elbow shooting a 3 pointer. It is not too bad except when I fully extend my arm. I have been icing the elbow and my knee all morning. I will keep icing them all afternoon.

I forgot my new shooting log this morning when I went to the club so I couldn't log my shots. I will remember it tomorrow.

First gym day of the week done

Got up at 5:30 and went to the gym this morning.

My knee was hurting but still managed to do 60 minutes on the recumbent bike.

Did 15 minutes on level one, 20 minutes on level 6 and 35 minutes on level 10. Traveled 14.48 km and burned 481 Cals.

Also weighed myself when I got to the gym and I was 96.8kg this week. Which is a loss of 0.7kg for the week which is not bad seeing that I only did one 2 out of 4 gym workouts this week.

I have created a spreadsheet to chart my weight loss progress that can be seen on the following link:

https://docs.google.com/a/boldnet.com.br/spreadsheets/d/1f-64Sv552RgVPBNHweR0OnAzSBte2g9sEZM8rqtra2w/edit?usp=sharing

Off to Ice my knee now as it is still hurting loads.

Training

Woke up with my knee hurting today so decided to not train this morning and iced my knee instead and had a lie in. 

Had a basketball team training session this afternoon. Only 4 people out of 15 turned up and one of them didn't bring any kit! We made the most of it and played 2 vs 2 for 2 hours.

My knees and ankle are now hurting and I am going to be icing it for the next few hours!

Retraining shot technique

Had a really positive morning. Woke up and walked the dog to the top of the mountain/hill behind our house. Took it relatively easily although it only took 19:24 minutes do do the 1.4 miles climbing 476ft in elevation. I really noticed that it was much easier to climb than it used to be when I climbed it every day and my legs were much less painful than normal. I will see if this stays the same tomorrow morning or if it was just a fluke.

I have also just finished shooting my 100 made free throws in a record time of 35 minutes (yesterday it took 65 minutes!!!). After making 20 shots I had the idea to change my free throw routing to mirror the same foot patterns as my jump shot (bounce the ball catch left foot right foot shoot). I am not sure if this caused the reduced time to make 100 shots but it definitely increase my focus and as a result increased shooting percentage and reduced the number of missed shots dramatically.

I also shot 10 3 point shots from varying positions after the 100 made shots and made 6 out of 10 which isn´t too bad for less than a week of training. I am going to keep practicing with the same routine an log my daily progress to see if the improvement will last or if it was just a fluke.

I am not sure if the reduced shooting time or the walk before shooting helped but my arms were not aching even after making 100 free throws! Compared to yesterday when they were aching after just 60 made free throws it was much better.

Just having breakfast now to refuel before organizing the training for this afternoon.

Training was cancelled due to rain!

Slack Day

Manged to sleep in yesterday morning as my son changed my alarm from 5:30 to 6:30!! so missed the gym! decided to have a lie in and got up at 7:30.

Went to the club and did my 100 made free throws took a really long time to get into a rhythm and my arm started aching at around 60 made! I had to start breaking the shots down in 10 made and counting the missed shots as well to get focused.

I have decided that as of Tuesday I am going to keep a shooting log and break the 100 made shots down into groups of 10 to improve focus and to quantify the amount of shot that I take to start making goals based on shot percentage.

Managed to speak to the Club director and he said we can have the outdoor court any time we like the only issue is that all of the spot lights can not be on at the same time so if we want to play in the evenings we have to make sure that there is no football or anything in the sports hall.

I have arranged for the first team training session to be tomorrow afternoon at 16:00.

Pilates done

Did my second session of pilates this morning. Feeling good and very little pain in my knee today

Rest Day

Had to have a rest day today as my knee was really sore when I woke up to go to the gym. Decided that it was better to take the day off to not over exert myself and hurt the knee any further. The good news is that my arms were not aching so it looks like my body is adjusting to the training as my arms were aching on monday after shooting freethrows for an hour on the sunday.

Tomorrow I am going to do an hour on the exercise bike followed by Pilates and then go to the club and shoot freethrows again.

I am hoping to talk to the club director tomorrow as well to try and get the court at nights to train with my team for the next couple of weeks before the tournament.

Back to Pilates

Had a good morning this morning. Went to the gym from 6:00 til 6:55 went on the recumbent bike. Did 14.58 kms on levels 1, 5 and 10 and burned 425 Cals.

Started back at Pilates from 7:00 until 7:45 this morning. Feeling much better and my knees is hurting much less than before.

I also went to the Club and shot 100 free throws in about an hour.

At night I played full court 5 v5 basketball for 2 hours. I was pain free in my legs and also shooting the lights out from 3 point range after the morning training.

Lost 0.5 kgs last week

Weighed myself at the gym this morning and I am 97.5 kgs with my gym kit on compared to 98 kgs last week.

Did 60 minutes on the recumbant bike on level 1 for 10 minutes then level 5 for 20 minutes followed by level 9 for 25 minutes followed my 5 minutes on level 1 again. Did 15.50km and burned 650 Cals according to the bike computer.

Planning to do another hour on my exercise bike tonight and some ab work.

Another Setback

Woke up at 5:30 am this morning with my knee and leg really sore. Decided not to train this morning so went back to sleep until 9:00 am. I am now icing my knee every hour to see if it get better to train this afternoon. After the first icing it felt a little better so hopefully I will be able to train this afternoon pain free.

I am planning to ride the exercise bike from 15:00 until 16:00 when my wife goes to work then from 16:00 to 18:30 I plan to take my son to the country club for me to shoot hoops and him ride his bike and then from 17:30 until 18:00 we both go for a swim.

In the end I did 1 hour of shooting freethrows before my son got bored and wanted to go home.

Did another hour early on sunday morining until my son fell off of his bike and decided he wanted to go home!

Gym Done

Got up and went to the gym today. Went on the recumbant bike for 50 minutes (10 minutes level 1, 20 minutes level 5 and 20 minutes on level 7) followed by 10 minutes on the vibrating platform on level 5 followed by 3 x 30 crunches and 3 x 30 back extensions.

My leg is feeling much better but my knee is hurting still.

Weighed myself when I got to the gym and I am 98KG!!!!!

I need to loose as much weight as possible before the tornament without stressing out my knees too much.

I have not been able to cycle in the evenings yet due to work commitments all week so I have not been stretching either. To compensate for this I am starting pilates on Tuesdays and Fridays.

This weekend I plan to cycle from 6-7 and then go to the country club from 7-9 to shoot hoops. I also need to speak to the club director about getting the basketball court for the next couple of weeks for the team to train on before the tornament as I plan to implement a new system of play as we are going to play without a centre. This system will need a lot of practice to put into play.

I am icing my knee at the moment and I am going to ice it every hour for 20 minutes all morning.

Day 2 - done

Just finished my morning workout. 1 hour on the exercise bike, rode 28.67 km and burned 653 cals. Also did 3 x 30 crunches and 3 x 30 back extensions.

My leg is feeling good but my knee is hurting.

First session done.

Just got back from the gym. Did 1 hour on the recumbent bike, took it easy to see how my leg was and didn´t feel it too much. Was on level one for the whole hour and did 15.48 km burning 565Cals.

This evening I am going to go to the country club and shoot hoops for an hour to an hour and a half after I pick up my son from school and then I plan do do an hour on the exercise bike followed by 30 minutes stretching.

Not the best start

Not the best start to the week training wise. I had to get up at 5 am this morning to go to work so my new training went out of the window.

I am going to try and train tonight and will post the details here after!

More planning

As I have been laid up for the last week with a torn quad muscle I have been planning how to move forwards with my training program.

I have decided that I need to ramp up my aerobic training to drop the kgs. I also need to stop drinking coca-cola urgently as my coke consumption has steadily increased again for the last 3 weeks which probably helped me to tear my quad with the excess weight!!!

Another thing I need to do is start recording my weight in order to be able to measure the success or failure of my training as well as see if I am slipping again.

I think that it will be 3-4 weeks until I can go back to playing basketball and volleyball so I am going to use this time to concentrate on weight loss and core strength for 4 weeks before starting back to the gym and pilates.

Next week I am going to use the arm bike that is getting rusty in my office and do the following Monday through Friday next week.

Arm Bike - 30 minutes
Press-ups - 3x20
Dips - 3x20
Weighted shoulder sequence - 2 x 20 (each exercise)
Bicep curls - 3x20
Crunches - 3x30
Back Extensions - 3x30
Pull ups - 3xMAX (currently 3)
Arm Bike - 30 minutes

Monday I am going to buy some scales to weigh myself and I am going to start to record my weight daily when I wake up and post daily blogs to keep a record of my progress.

I am hoping that after next week my leg will be good enough to start cycling on the exercise bike on a low level. I plan to do this for 1 week instead of the Arm Bike and then return to the gym Monday, Wednesday and Friday Mornings. Tuesdays and Thursday mornings I plan to cycle on the exercise bike for 1 hour from 5:45 to 6:45 before doing Pilates from 7:00 until 8:00.

I am going to also record my daily training and also my daily Coca-cola intake in this blog. I am planning to drink one can of coke a day at lunch time next week and then stop drinking coke altogether after that.

Once my leg is strong enough I plan to go back to playing basketball but before I start playing Volleyball again I plan do do at least 1 month of Plyomentric Jump training to ready my legs for the stress of jumping again.

Once my legs are ready I plan to take one morning over the weekends to do at least a 3 hour mountain bike ride to help with the weight loss. The last time I did this I found that the weight dropped off really quickly and I also found that my legs got even stronger which helped with my basketball and volleyball.

More setbacks

Played volleyball tonight and while doing spiking practice I took off and straied my left quad!!!!

I have ices the quad for 30 minutes and as well as my quad my left knee is also hurting!!! off to see the doctor again in the morning.

Hopefully it is not too bad as I stopped as soon as I hurt leg instead of trying to carry on like I normally do! I am not too confident though as it is really painful.

Looking on the net it looks like I will be out of action for 6-12 weeks! Once I have seen the doctor I will find out the best way of keeping up training while not stressing my injured leg.