Work Out

It has been very long time since I last visited the gym for some weights training. The last times where I went to the gym were the ones where I wanted to increase the strength on my swimming muscles – mainly upper body workout. And with few constant visits to the gym, spending about 1 hour on each visit, I could see and feel some increase in my swimming performance, compared to before.

I’m in the situation where my target is starting to change. I guess a better word for it rather than using ‘change’ is – develop. My target is starting to develop. My initial target when doing endurance sports was just to see whether I can do it, whether I can endure the whole journey. I think I’ve passed that with flying colors.

My developed target now is, to see whether I can do it, faster.

I’m starting another journey to see how far of that target I can achieve. And I know this time, the journey is going to be tougher than before. And definitely going to be longer.

Jealousy drives me into this. Yes, I’m jealous to see other athletes who can swim or bike or run faster. It’s the inner competitiveness character inside me that is causing the shift in my target. Not to compete with anyone else, but to compete against myself.

Though I did not record them properly, I always keep in mind of the timing of each of my training so that I know where I stand as I go along. The mental torture is greater when what you want to beat is your own best timing. So, I have to be really careful with what I’m doing, so that I won’t burn out before hitting my peak performance.

And I believe it’s ok to take it easy once in a while. Give the body some rest. Resting is also part of the training. By the way, I’m only doing this mainly for fun. So, I will push when I can, and I will rest if I feel I needed one.

Now that I’m targeting to go a bit faster, lot’s of things need to be done. One step at a time, no rush here. I’m starting to read some books and online reading on the topic of effective training, and anything similar to it. I hope one day I can come up with a proper training plan specific to a race or target, and stick to it.

One of the things to do is, to strengthen the muscles. Stronger muscles will drive you faster. It’s like the car engine. I discussed this over with one friend, and without any doubt, strong muscles are necessary if you want to go faster. Well, strong muscles do not mean that you have to have a body shape like those body builders. They are in a different regime and endurance athletes are in a different regime. The way we use our muscles are different.

Well, I’m still learning more on the scientific facts behind this, so I won’t preach so much on it yet at this moment.

With Ramadhan coming close, and with a first small target to improve my running speed, I went to the gym last night. At first I only planned to do a 10km run after work, but my car air-cond broke down so I have to ditch the run and bring the car for repair. Hence, I’m RM200 poorer.

Not wanting to waste a day where I’m healthy and energetic and have the time to train, I went to the gym after an early dinner of nasi ayam penyet. Paid RM5 for a daily entry fee, and duh…!! I forgot to bring my tights. So, I just changed to my sleeveless dri-fit shirt and running shoes, and still wearing the pair of jeans from work, I started my lower body workouts.

Please don’t ask me on the movements names of the workouts, because I don’t know. But I worked out mostly on the leg muscles, mainly quadriceps and calves, and a little bit on hamstrings.

The front leg muscles

The back leg muscles

In between the repetitions, I also did some upper body workouts, just to alternate and balance up the muscle usage. Just as I was doing the last few repetitions before calling it a day, I took some photos so that I have some ‘idea’ of what to merepek (ramble) write in my blog. Hahaha.

Do you notice me wearing the jeans for working out? Next time I will dress up properly and suitably. Yesterday was an ‘emergency’ case.

At one point, my legs were so “itchy” that I went on the treadmill and do a fast run for about 7 minutes (yes, while wearing jeans!). Upon coming down from the treadmill, I can’t feel my legs. Then, back on to do some more weight training before finishing up with some stretching, when the gym was already getting too crowded.

Having spent more than an hour at the gym last night, now I have a little bit of soreness on my quadriceps. For me, it’s a sign of a successful workouts and I hope my work outs worked out alright.

This might be my training menu during Ramadhan.