Set myself up for that one!

A reasonable week training-wise. Went for a short run on Monday night and on Tuesday I had planned to go to football training, but it was cancelled due to a problem with the floodlights. Only found out whilst I was still at work, but it was too late at that point to get home changed and down to the NSC to meet the guys at 6pm, so had a lazy evening.

On Wednesday I went to circuit training at the NSC with Kyley. Michael George was there and put me to shame when he mentioned it was his 3rd training session of the day. He had already been for a walk along Marine Drive in the morning, and had then done a number of 1 mile reps in the afternoon, before winding down at the NSC in the evening! I haven't been to circuit training for a while and whilst I didn't have any problems with the stations that involved running, steps up, skipping, etc, it was certainly more of a struggle with the weights and abdominal exercises. This manifested itself for the next couple of days in the aching stomach I had.

If you have done circuit training before it is conditioning that involves performing multiple exercises within one session, moving from one exercise to the next in a circuit. At each station, the exercise is performed  for a certain amount of time, and then you move to the next station. The goal is to move between them with little or no break. Once each has been performed, you can move back to the beginning of the circuit and perform them in order again. The benefits of circuit training are:

 

An effective means of improving strength endurance

Can be easily structured to provide a whole body workout, using a range of different muscle groups.

It's time efficient and incorporates strength, flexibility and cardio in the same workout

It doesn't necessarily require expensive gym equipment, so you could do it at home.

You can work in small groups, motivating each other and it also allows beginners to be helped by more experienced people, as well as getting guidance from the person running the session (Liz Corrin runs the Wednesday session and is always on hand to provide encouragement).

It is more motivating and stimulating than spending hours in the Gym on a treadmill or rowing machine.

It has the potential to burn more calories than conventional aerobic exercise or strength training, both during and post-workout (increase in post workout metabolism), thus beneficial for those attempting to lose body fat.

Saturday morning was a really good training session. Met up with Jock, Michael, Dave W and Vinny at the NSC and headed off on the Parish route again. It was freezing cold with the roads frosty with ice in places. I usually make the mistake of wearing too many layers of clothing when I go out training, so on Saturday I only wore a base layer and a waterproof jacket, which was a mistake. I never really warmed up during the whole walk, which was probably why it was a very quick session, as I so was keen to get back into the warmth. After reaching Santon we came back along the old Castletown Road and ended up covering just under 14 miles, but it was only about 7 minutes slower than the previous week when we walked 2 miles less. Stopped for the usual cuppa and sausage bap in Mash, which really felt like it had been earned this week. If these early training sessions are anything to go by, then Dave is going to knock a lot of time off his PB in the Parish - definitely one to watch!

I'm ashamed to say that Saturday afternoon and evening were spent in the pub. I met up with a few mates to watch the Man U v Liverpool FA Cup match and wish I hadn't. We had a lot of possession but couldn't turn it in to goals, so had to stay in the pub longer than planned to drown my sorrows. In my last blog I made the mistake of commenting on Man U beating Arsenal and also having a dig at my fellow blogger Ed's team Livepool losing at Bolton. He returned the favour on his blog by asking if I enjoyed the footy on Saturday, hence the title of the blog.

Sunday was a big match for Colby Vets against last year's champions St Mary's, who beat us 7-1 last season. We have steadily started to improve over the last couple of games, so confidence had grown but our expectations weren't that high. We settled into the game really well and played some good football on a pitch that was starting to cut up badly after the constant rain and the Under 17s match in the morning (my son Tom was playing for Corinthians against Colby).

We turned round at half time with the score at 1-1, which was a fair reflection of the first half. Despite the cold wind and driving rain our manager decided to keep us on the pitch at half time (inspired by Tony Pulis no doubt) to deliver the team talk and show the opposition we weren't a team of southern softies who could be pushed around. Unfortunately it didn't work very well as we conceded a goal almost immediately after the second half kicked off. We dug and pulled a goal back through a long range effort from one of our midfielders that hit the cross-bar and went in off the St Mary's goalie's back to level the score at 2-2. We then had a period of 10 minutes where we had them under constant pressure but just couldn't put the ball in the back of the net. A couple of minutes later they were up our end of the pitch and we had things under control until their centre forward decided to throw himself up in the air over an imaginary leg and the ref fell for it! He converted the penalty to make it 3-2 and in our enthusiasm to get an equaliser and put right the shocking penalty decision we conceded a late goal to finish 4-2. Undeserved but it was a great team performance and it is matches like that, that make it difficult to think about packing in football to avoid a potential injury before the Parish!