The Irish weather can’t be used as an excuse when training is scheduled, when goals have been set it takes mental perseverance to push on regardless of the obstacles.
Saturday morning’s Ballinrobe boot camp Trainee’s got all four seasons in 90 minutes, rain, sleet, wind and sun were all part of their workout.
After a short warm up all the Boot campers were thrown strong rubber bands and told to tie them around their legs (no this was not a scene from 50 shades of grey) the aim was to create resistance so specific muscles were isolated and activated with a serious (secret )of movements that is designed to get key muscles activated so that the trainee gets the most out of their session.
The aim of week 2 was to build strength for both running and cycling, after our activation exercises it was time to hit the bike for a five min fast spinning warm up.
The Bike session consisted of 2 x 5 min time trail efforts in big gears (heavy and slow pedaling) was used for these effects which helps build muscle and strength in the legs.
These efforts are perfect to help get you thought the hilly section of the cycle in the Castlebar Adventure Duathlon. following our TT effort we went straight into isolated leg training (pedaling with one leg) as our bikes are hooked up to the turbo we can un -clip one leg and pedal with only one leg. This type of training helps to prefect your peddling technique and also makes you use the muscles in the back of your legs more (Gluts, hamstrings and Calf muscle).
Everyone is able to push the pedals down but forget to pull up which is equally as important to get that perfect 360 degree pedal stroke.
Off the bikes and into a 1k run working on stride and technique. Today’s session was all about strength, hill intervals are the best for building strength for running. Our set consisted of 5 x 250 meters of hill repeats, technique for hill running is getting up onto the ball part of your foot and slightly lean forward into the hill and pump the arms to create momentum to get you up the hill as fast as you can.
Our recovery was walking and sometimes jogging back down to the bottom.
We finished of our session with a 1k jog/run back to the Western Lakes cycling centre to cool down and stretch after a great workout.
Mary Mulchrone
Double Gaelforce Champion
