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 :)

(Not) Running On Thin Ice

Well, there go the Christmas plans, along with the feeling in my hands, after scraping a half-inch thick layer of ice from the driveway :(

Today was my last chance to get out for a run over Christmas. It just didn't happen with the ice, getting out of the estate would possibly have been the end of me, or, at the very least, a bone or two. For reference, the reflection and glare in the pic is just from the ice; no lens glare came into that one, it was taken as seen.

Also, because I couldn't get out yesterday with the same ice, I missed the Aldi bargains on merino base layers, meaning I'll have to fork out more monies for them at some point. Damn weather.

I also learned today that the UCC student gym was ruined in the floods, which pushes the city running plans back a while. I'll eventually run out of excuses I'm sure...

No Training :(

You know about my good intentions for running at home? You know how I got some Winter gear lately? Yeah... I didn't quite get enough...

So yes, I need to HTFU, but I really don't want to damage my knees, and I really don't want cold shock again. I'll start after Christmas...

Mental Training

I've discovered how useful a tool mental training can be over the past while. Since the rifles have been handed back, and, in at least one case, redistributed, this is the only way I can get anything done. I mean, I don't want to get rusty before Germany, like.

I haven't yet set aside any specific times or plans for it, but that's owing a lot to the whole moving thing. However, at various points during the day it just strikes me that I'm not balanced correctly, that my leg muscles are tensing to keep me upright. This can happen anywhere: standing around the house; at a bus stop; and so on. I have even started to notice it while walking. Changing my centre of gravity to be over between my feet relaxes my back totally, something I wasn't even aware of tensing before.

The relaxing is a very simple thing too; I close my eyes and feel whether I'm pulling myself in one direction or another. In most cases I'm falling forwards, and in almost all these cases it's because my head isn't sitting upright; it's tilted forwards, or slumped down. Simply righting my head makes a lot of difference. This all starts to feed into my mental training again. Some balance work, which is then followed by shifting into a standing position, followed by relaxation.

The second part of this is the shot routine. I have usually done this on a bus or train. Closing my eyes while I sit there I try to imagine myself in the situation, mostly in UCDRC as it's where I do most competitions. I run through the entire shot routine from charging to checking the shot, paying particular attention to the final sight picture and shot release and making sure I'm relaxed all over. The next step is to do this standing up and see how it goes.

I'll move on a little more with doing this for prone and kneeling as well. I mean, I have to keep myself in shape. Speaking of which, I've brought my running kit all the way from Dublin to Cork and now to Roscommon, so I've never had a better incentive to do some than now. I've also got some new kit coming in the post this week, which will leave me with no excuse, funny looks be damned :D