So this morning I was woken up at 3:30 by my neighbour getting up for a wee and I wasn’t able to get back to sleep so I started to research training to get lean and the consensus was walk as much as possible and do weight training 3x a week and the exercises to do are:
- Squats
- Lunges/ Stepups/Bulgarian squats
- Bench Press
- Chin-up
- Dips
I have the equipment for all the exercises except for chin-ups so I have bought myself a door mounted chin-up bar from Amazon which will be here next Friday so just in time to install it ready to start on Monday 1st Jan! I bought the cheapest bar possible as I am skint and also I am not sure if I will use it much as the last couple of times I have bought chin up bars they have mainly been used as coat racks!
I have decided that for 2024 I am only going to actively try and walk 12500 steps a day Monday-Friday as I am increasing my training load a lot during the week so I think I should rest at the weekends ready to get back to it on Monday Morning early! I will see how I feel not getting my steps in at the weekend and if I feel like I am being affected negatively by it I will go back to walking every day!
Along with the weight training on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evening, I will do Sprints on Monday, Wednesday and Friday Lunch followed by Pump Laps to finish off and Tuesday and Thursday Lunchtime I plan to go to a pump track and Saturday I will do gates. I will completely rest on Sundays.
On Gate sessions I want to work in the following routine every time:
| Warmup | Ride to Track from carpark with cooldown post |
| Warmup | 10 MINUTES CAR PARK SKILLS TO GET WARM |
| Warmup | 10 MINUTES ON TRACK TO GET WARM AND GET A FEEL FOR THE TRACK AND BIKE |
| Warmup | 3X WARM UP GATE ONLY |
| Training | 1X FIRST STRAIGHTS FROM GATE |
| Training | Rest 5 minutes |
| Training | 1X 1ST + 2ND STRAIGHTS FRM GATE |
| Training | Rest 5 minutes |
| Training | 1X 1ST , 2ND + 3RD STRAIGHTS FROM GATE |
| Training | Rest 5 minutes |
| Training | 1X FULL LAP FROM GATE |
| Training | Rest 10 Minutes |
| Training | 1X FIRST STRAIGHTS FROM GATE |
| Training | Rest 5 minutes |
| Training | 1X 1ST + 2ND STRAIGHTS FRM GATE |
| Training | Rest 5 minutes |
| Training | 1X 1ST , 2ND + 3RD STRAIGHTS FROM GATE |
| Training | Rest 5 minutes |
| Training | 1X FULL LAP FROM GATE |
| Cool Down | Cooldown Ride to Car with cooldown post |
I plan to try and do the same Warmup for every session so that I am consistent and when I go through the warmup my body will know that I am getting in training mode. Until we get the new gate and track refurb in February I will only do gates on Saturdays as the current gate is a ball ache to setup and use and setting it up and putting it away will waste at least 30-45 minutes of my 2 hour lunch break so its not feasible. When we get the new ProStart gate put in the setup time will be minutes so I can add gates sessions to my Tuesday and Thursday Lunch times as well. Also the ProStart gate has auto mode so I can do gates on my own which will be nice!
On Tuesday and Thursdays until we get the new gate and track work done I will go to the nearest pump track and ride that for as long as I can before having to get back to work. Pump track sessions are great for skill development AND really good for building BMX specific fitness as there is virtually no pedalling so you are only building and carrying speed using pumping, manuals and jumping so its an amazing BMX Specific workout which is probably harder than doing a full lap of a BMX track! These pump track sessions will be more about having fun and building skills than fitness as I can work on fitness once the track is done so I want the pump track focus being more about just riding the bike and working on my manuals and jumping so that once I get to doing full laps of the track I will be able to manual and jump most of the jumps on the track so I can work on full laps with lots of manuals and jumping in them and not just being pump laps after the first straight!
The only goal I am setting for 2024 is it be as consistent as possible with my training and stick to the training as much as possible. Obviously when I am away racing I may not be able to complete my Friday Sprints and Saturday Gates Sessions but that is fine as They will be replaced by racing which is the best training anyway!
So basically for January and February and maybe the beginning of March depending how the track work goes my training week will look like this:
| Day | Date | Steps (12500 Goal) | Sprints | Weights | BMX |
| Monday | 01/01/2024 | 12500 steps | 6 x 15m | REST | Pump Laps |
| Tuesday | 02/01/2024 | 12500 steps | REST | Yes | Pump Track |
| Wednesday | 03/01/2024 | 12500 steps | 6 x 30m | REST | Pump Laps |
| Thursday | 04/01/2024 | 12500 steps | REST | Yes | Pump Track |
| Friday | 05/01/2024 | 12500 steps | 6 x 60m | REST | Pump Laps |
| Saturday | 06/01/2024 | REST | REST | REST | Gates |
| Sunday | 07/01/2024 | REST | REST | REST | REST |
I am also very aware that for the first month at least I may not be able to complete everything as my body will take a while to adjust to the increased training load so the Pump track visits may need to be cut out but once my body is ready it will be full steam ahead!
Luckily this year Jan 1st falls on a Monday so it makes the training year really clean as I can start on a Monday 🙂 I am also on holiday from 2nd Jan-9th Jan so I will be able to get timings of how long training takes without being in a rush to get back to work so that will make things easier too!
I have also decided that I will Take the Xmas Break off from training and just do as much walking as I feel like doing without setting target daily walks etc as its good to rest at the end of the year and re-focus for the next years training!