My everything hurts!

I decided, upon being bored the other day, and having a lot of tensed muscles these days, to look up some arm stretches. Which I then did. And all was well.

Then I got it into my head that I could also look up some core strength building exercises. How hard could they be? I mean, surely I have a decent enough core, I've been doing a lot of running and cycling (OK, fine, not recently, but I've a cough and don't have a bike, alright!) and I've never felt I have a poor core. But some toning of it would be good.

Twenty minutes later I'm lying on my floor, not able to do any more. Core is crap, needs work. Whatevs. Stretch, go to sleep, happy days.

Wake up the next day, stomach and sides are in bits. Sitting up now feels like doing fifty stomach crunches at once. I'm feeling muscles in my sides that I didn't really know were there... This will be a much more interesting year than I thought.

So this has been added to the list of things to do. I'm told it'll improve your balance, and generally help you out. I assume this is after the the aches subside.

Where we stand

Right, so the training plan is up and coming at the moment. I've been working on it for the past three days and generated five pages of ramblings. It covers the four stages that seem to be an essential part of a training plan and inserts what I should do, and plan to do in each section.

Included in this I've come up with a list of goals, which has my current standing in each of my disciplines/sports and what to do about getting to the goal standard. So here we go.

Prone

Current: ~ 580(576-582) at 50m

Need: 582 by June (World Uni. Champs)

Want: ~587 by June (Olympic MQS)

This equates, roughly, to a 7 point increase in 6 or so months, which is doable, but difficult.

Areas to focus on: butt of rifle: length; and place in shoulder; eyesight: may need new frames (left the old ones in Ireland in any case...); otherwise need to be more careful when aiming; match planning; taking breaks every 20 shots or so, mainly to check the sling on my upper arm.

Air Rifle

Current: ~545 (542-546)

Need: I'm not sure as data is hard to come by, but I'm going to go with an MQS of 570

This is a totally different kettle of fish, being a 25 point increase, which will not be easy. However, I feel that the points are there, I just need to be careful in how I go about putting that through paper. If I hit this, I'll be very happy with myself. My air rifle has, historically, seen a lot of setbacks, notably a severe sprain two years ago that kept me off the line for three months and ruined a lot of hard work prior to that. The unfocused off-time also generated a lot of bad habits that dragged me back for a year. At least I've tried to keep my head in the game this time round.

Areas to focus on: zero point; balance; relaxation: shoulders; arms; neck; head position; cheekpiece; faster rhythm.

Cycling

Current: I have little idea, as it's been a while since I was on a bike. The few short commuting spins before Christmas felt good, though, so I have hope that my level here hasn't fallen off too much.

Want: 200-300 km sportive at approximately 30 km/hr average by September.

If I follow a solid 12 week plan I should get the kilometerage up to around 165 by simply increasing an endurance spin by 10% each week, which would be good. Now, that's most likely not going to work out, but the goal is there.

Also, my speed is going to have to improve, and I think I have some interval suggestions somewhere that could work well.

Also, I'd like to compete in a cyclocross race, but only if I get reasonably good at both cycling and running. And lose whatever sanity I have left.

Running

Current: Atrocious. Nuff said.

Want: Half marathon (20 km) at two hour pace (10 km/hr) by September.

The plan for this is to run a set distance three or four times per week, working in intervals as well. By increasing the distance by one km a week (which shouldn't be too bad, right?) that should bring me up to what I want, when I want it.

I do have some interval sessions here for this, which will help a lot.

So there you have it, my wildly outlandish targets for the next six to nine months. There are some competition goals for rifle later in the season, in keeping with a full training plan; the ones here are preliminary and will serve to test the validity of my longer term plan.

There's about a one in a million chance that I'll actually hit any of these goals, but, hey, one in a million chances crop up nine times out of ten, right?

It's been a while...

I know, I know, it's been far too long, but hey, moving country is a bit demanding, alright! Alright.

On the bright side, I'm close to getting paid, and hence to getting my bike :) Also, I have found a club within about 5km of here. If for some reason I don't join that, I'll just have to choose one of the other hundred odd clubs around Munich...

Stay tuned for updates on training plans. I've been given some guidelines, which are excellent. I'll throw up my take on it, along with my plans when I get them sorted (read, when I actually get a bike and join a club :P). There will be some long posts in the near future.

I have started back with the running, but let's not talk about that for the moment. Suffice to say that I have a good 2 kg of tummy to lose before any real work will get done :-/ Christmas is so yummy, yet so punishing...

Irrational Proposals

Looks like I might have to hold off on that jacket review...

I won't go into it in detail, but essentially, an ISSF committee are considering banning all composite materials from shooting clothing, among other pointless things, such as removing the padded bits on shooting pants and also the shooting boots.

Why? Well, that's a very good question. I'll get back to you on that one...

New Years Resolutions

It appears to be around the time of year to declare those New Years resolutions that everybody will try, and subsequently fail, to complete. Me, I'm gonna make them nice and broad and simple.

First, buy a road bike. This one has been on the list for over six months at this stage and it's about time that I followed through on it. No more of this, "I need to save money" crap. I have a paying job, there are no excuses! I have a pretty good idea of what I'm gonna get; the Planet-X Ultegra build, possibly in white, though there will be much washing of it... It seems to be the best value bike around at the moment, and there have been many excellent testimonials for it on Boards.ie, so who am I to contradict them!

Second, develop training plans for shooting. All three disciplines. Sort out my current level, decide on matches to go to, that I'll have a good three to four months minimum to train for a qualification, and plan it. Sort out a range in Germany, most likely buy a rifle or two, and train.

Third, try to up the fitness. The long term goal is an IRONMAN, so we'll have to see how some shorter term stuff goes. It's not something that I'll be focussing on at all; just there in the back of my mind. Fitness for target shooting is more important.

I'm looking forwards to this year. It's going to be a tough year: in my personal life, due to moving to Germany for nine months; in my academic career, as it's starting off; and also in my sporting life as this is going to be a sort of springboard from which everything is going to stem. It will be challenging, but also exciting. There are a lot of opportunities coming up right now, and I intend to make the most of them. I'll let you know how it goes :)