Scotland Training Program Done!!!

Oof

Just back from my last workout of a four-month program to build up some basic fitness. The 80 burpees certainly killed me today. Not that I did an equal amount of squat jumps, 12kg kettle bell swings, battle rope swings, heel touches, 20kg step ups and 10 mins on the rowing machine as well.

That's all I could do to prepare for two weeks of winter mountaineering in Scotland. Seeing the local gym (brilliant place, Risk Gym on Gloucester Rd.) 3-4 times per week and do mostly highly intense circuit training. No lifting really and some cardio on top, although circuits are a killer already.

My endurance training software tells me, I have now reachrd a high fitness level. I still feel more like lower medium. I can be a lot better!!! Still, good achievement.

The Blue Line - Building up fitness

Despite really focussing on endurance I actually think I built up some bulk as well. My scale is showing me a higher percentage of muscle mass every week and looking in the mirror seems to support this. Up by 3% to 36% now. Nothing I was after but hey, we're far from complaining here, haha.

Muscle?

Was all this hard work enough? I don't know. I'm very keen on finding out. After all, I couldn't do much hillwalking or cycling over the dark months, which is certainly not good.

What Didn't Work

Concentrating on fitness and endurance alone I've neglected my diet a bit and had way too many cheat meals. This will be the main thing I'll be working on when I'm back home in order to finally reduce my body fat. I'm still carrying around too much useless weight.

What's Next

Now, I'm winding down this week to start my Scotland trip fresh and in good form, taking a 1.5 week break after to recover, before I'm starting the next training cycle in April (to prepare for the 3-week munro bagging trip in July). By then it will be warm enough to cycle some of the distance to work once or twice per week resulting in 30-50mi return per day, depending on where I swap the car for my bike.


See you on the flip side!!!