at the bottom of a very steep hill

as an international rower you were clearly once at a v.high level of fitness and training. does your uni not have a boat club you could join, as being put back into a member of a squad will help your motivation no end ( can you still row with your ankle??) . Just try to remember what it was like to be competitive and set yourself some targets, remember what it was like to achieve something important to you regardless of what it is. As soon as you get in a routine of exercise itll be easier, it just takes the motivation to get started.

Best of luck, wish there was more i could say to help but i think it's down to you to do what you need to.

Hope things go well :)

Hi Seen your mail,
Just to start with I think that 8 1/2 marathons before christmas is a bit too much. Aim for 10kms leave the 1/2 marathons till next year. If you start to hard you will get injured.
You have a bike I would suggest 1 day cycle and 1 day running with a little bit of weight training. Plenty of reps and low weights.
The cycle will help your running.
As for your ankles try to get a wobble board and work on it when you can.
Good luck in your return to fitness.

Three weeks later....thanks for the responses. Thought I would post whats happened. I started slowly with a few swimming sessions (untimes, just 40 laps of the pool) and have started doing an hour of cardio in the gym three times a week, breaking down like this

20 mins running at 8.8kms/h
20 mins cycling full resistance (pb 9km)
20 mins ergometer (pb 4500m)

The other two days I'm swimming to try and build up the muscles around my ankles and shoulder.

Considering that when I was at junior international level I was clocking 5200m on a 20min erg test I'm fairly happy that ten years of booze and fags hasn't messed me up totally.

Started doing half hour road runs as well (covering 3 miles once a week)

Am not losing any weight though I'm sure that'll come though. The rugby season is seven weeks away and I'm gradually coming off the fags.

As I'm playing prop this season I'm going to start some weights soon, anyone have any rough ideas at what point I should start and what sort of reps/weights I should be doing?

Ok...time for an update. Don't know if this is helping anyone but its almost as good for myself, and you never know, someone may take something from it.

I've got myself back with a rugby club. How embarassing is it to finish stone last in every running exercise we do? That was the story for the first couple of weeks. But I stuck at it and now I'm there or thereabouts with the rest of the forwards.

The training rhythm I've got into goes like this

Mon - Gym
Treadmill - 9.5kms per hour for 20 mins
Bike - full resistance for 20 mins - pb edging up, I'm around 9.25kms now
Rowing Machine - 20mins, apart from one frwakishly high score of 4800, I'm around the 4600m mark

Tues
Rugby training 90 mins cardiovascular/contact work (tacklebags passing drills etc)

Wed
lunchtime - Weights. 10x30 reps, all upper body work inc sit ups and press ups

pm - swimming - (Man I hate this one!) 1250m, 50m breaststroke followed by 50m freestyle

Thurs
Rugby training (as above)

Fri
Gym (as Monday)

Sat
30mins training run (I'm covering about three miles in this, not spectacular, but there you go)

Gym session (as Mon and Fri)

Swimming (as Wed)

Sun
Day of rest

Been doing this for a few weeks now. Unfortunately I'm sitting here with icepacks on my legs as I pulled my hamstrings during a sprint drill on Tues night.

I'm totally off the booze. I'm (nearly) off the cigarettes too (sprint drills against wingers and centres make you think twice before lighting up!) so its all going well apart from this damned injury. I've done nothing yesterday and today so hopefully I can try a gym session tomorrow to see if shes nice and rested.

I feel great, better than I have done for years. Good luck with all your training and if this diary thing I'm posting is annoying you just let me know and I'll not post any more.

Thanks to all those that have messaged me with support and tips. For a lot of people that have messaged I think the first week of training is fine - the second and third week when they start to lose motivation. I'm not going to set myself up as a guru because in the first few weeks I missed sessions when I was on my own and felt like chucking it in. But don't. You're never alone, there are people on this forum, there are people across the internet world, who can and will support you.

Do it because you want to, not because you have to.

Good luck everyone. Hope to speak to you again soon. (Nothing else to do while I've got this ice pack on!)

Well I left it a little while more to make sure I was disciplined to keep things going and guess what?

I have been

Gym work is now up, adding in weights and harder CV workouts (still 20mins cycling, running and rowing but much higher intensity)

Obviously I'm now playing a game every Saturday and forgot how much it can hurt on a Sunday!!!

I'm at a point now where I think my core fitness will improve slightly more (as the number of ciggies I smoke sinks!)...but I'm looking to do a lot more dynamic work.

In the games I've played in so far I've been up with play for about 60 to 70 mins so I'm getting more "match-fit". I scored a try or two as well!

The only problem is that whereas I used to be able to get the ball, break a tackle and accelarate away from people (yes, even props can do that!) I feel like I'm treading water slightly and as such am taking a lot more hits than I used to.

We've got a Christmas break coming up and I want to try and improve my sprinting through pitch training and weights. Can anyone suggest what I might be able to do.

(The hamstrings are fine now thanks!!)

Hi,

I enjoyed reading your posts, what hapened since November? I sent a message to your box if you wanted to exchnge some emails as I am also on th ebottom of a very steep hill as you put it. And I could do with an on line training pal as no one takes me seriously here (at my local club).

Roderick

Apologies, I'm slack as you like...sorry to everyone who has e-mailed me as well.

Where to start?

Well, I carried on fine until Christmas. Played in just about every game or got a half.

The squad got through to the finals of our league and I played in every game in the knockout phase, only to get told that I wouldn't be playing in the final.

I sat on the bench, the team won (the most important thing) but the champagne was a bit flat for me, only having played three minutes as a sub at the end. This was March.

So I have spent the last month or two doing odds and sods, more drinking and smoking than training. But hell, I'm back up for it again this week and am back in the gym, doing the cardio stuff and have actually set a date to quit smoking (I appreciate this is a whole different thread entirely!)

So we're back, but I have upped the intensity to last year so this is the plan...

Mon

Gym
20 mins running - 5mins at 9.7km/h, 5mins at 9.9km/h, 5mins at 10.1km/h and 5mins at 10.3km/h

20mins cycling (upping the difficulty level by one notch every five mins

20 mins erg test (I will get 5,000m I will, I will!)

Tues

30min run

Wed

Swimming - 50 lengths (one length freestyle, one length breast-stroke)

Thurs
32 min run

Fri
Gym (as above)

Quit the cigs on the 14th June, I've put the booze down as well for the forseeable future (brothers stag do, long story and another different thread althogether!) and up the intensity of each one (eg on the treadmill I will start at 9.9km/h then go up 0.2km/h each five minutes)

Sorry sorry sorry sorry to everyone who sent me private messages but sometimes sport can leave you absolutely gutted. I had to get away from it all for a little bit, having played 22 games and not the final really sent me down. But the only way to react to a setback is to come back harder.

Keep training everyone and thanks for reading the thread.

I guess you've heard about that smoke-ending miracle book by Mr.Carr? ("Finally smoke-free" or something like that.) As a rule I'm thoroughly sceptical towards such "cures", but that's one I really can recommend. Just put scepticism in brackets for the reading, sink into the book and lap up the Gospel.
I did that two years ago and haven't missed my beloved handrolled cigarettes one single minute. And I guess I smoked 30 of them each day. It didn't take will-power at all, because I had no sense at all of sacrifcing anything. On the contrary, all I felt was a great sense of relief.

finn

it sounds like you are making some good progress, Great Actually! Hang in there. The best that I could add is that keep your training enjoyable, and avoid overtraining to prevent injury or else you won't be able to have
fun persuing your fitness goals. I do realize that you were joking about the 1/2 marathons before Christmas. Be gentle with yourself. Here I am
telling a Rugby player to be gentle . . . seems odd! However, it is important to regaining your fitness level of younger days, and that is precisely my point. Many of us are not teen - agers anymore. Take your
time, enjoy the ride.

I am not rugby material my stature is 5 feet 3.75 inches, and my wt is
only, and I'll take a stab at "Stones" a gal from Ireland, if i remeber
correctly said a stone = about 14 lbs. if that is the case I only weigh
about 9.1 stones. (128 lbs). However, for my size and age, I'd say I'm
built like a brick loo house! I have done a lot of the poor health behaviors
you have, yet on my way back to good health, and making good fitness
choices, I have made mistakes that have led to set backs over the past
few years. Nothing serious, and I have been able to recognize what the
injuries were early on, and to treat them, or to see a Doc for treatment
and advise. I am a runner and have had shin splints, IT Band Injury, and
plantars facitius. I lift wt. on a fairly regular basis, and have participated
and studied group fitness . . . aerobic conditioning. These classes are
great for improvement of overall cardio vascular fitness, as well as for
flexibility (very very important especially when growing older, (I THINK)
it would be great for Rugby players too. You have to be able to get over the reality that a lot of women take these classes to be able to enjoy it.
if you think about it, that is also a plus!) Try it in the off season as these
classes also will impact your sport specific training and performance. However, a class a week wouldn't hurt. It will broaden your perspective
on fitness, and enhance your ability to find new creative things to do in
your own fitness routines. By learning how to do this, it will help you to
be able to analyze, and revise your fitness routines on a regular basis
to keep your fitness persuits fresh, and also make your fitness level
progressive. I wish you all the best in your fitness endeavors. :P

cjchartree 8)
albany, ny . . . usa

Jeez...has it really been six months?

Sorry to anyone who has msg'd me or e-mailed or anything. I may as well confess that I went flat on my face and got run over by the wagon I fell off.

Everything started to go a little crazy at work, one drink to wind down became two, smoking sky-rocketed...all the normal excuses. Then Christmas bingeing....epic

So I have done nothing for six months, to give you a flat out idea, I could have run for the bus the other day. I waited twenty minutes chain-smoking in the rain for the next one....

You get the idea

Anyway, I played rugby as a big favour for a friend last weekend. Remember last time I was talking about playing 30 games? This time I lasted about 30 minutes. I mean it, I was a mess.

So I guess I fell down the hill again. But I went out running a few nights ago (to try and stop my legs from feeling as stiff as they did!) and meant to knock off a quick 30 mins high pace.

Back when I last wrote I was able to get out and easily cover about 4.5 miles in thirty minutes.

The other night, I managed twenty minutes before I started hyperventilating.

So taking the rough with the smooth, thats my baseline, I'm out running tonight and going to try 25 minutes.

Have to start building again from somewhere...I have a different job now and one where I'm a lot more chilled out, as soon as I get paid I'm going to take the bike in to be MOT'd and try and get down the gym again.

Good luck to the rest of you, I hope you all kept at it better than I did.

And thanks to everyone who has viewed me pouring my soul out so far. I ought to write a book....