I should start by saying that I don’t really know what I’m talking about. In my youth, back before the old king died, I was very fit. I did a lot of martial arts training, played badminton every day for years, ran about five miles almost every day and walked everywhere else. Injury and life rather got in the way of this and it was really only last year, at age 48, that I decided to start exercising regularly again. It was only this year, approaching 49, that I decided to train seriously.
Between those two dates, I lost around 7 stones in weight, but I also lost the use of my legs, so you will understand that my exercise regime has changed greatly. Even back in my youth, I had no formal training in fitness, no training in losing weight or graining stamina. I relied on my whippersnapperhood and on gradually pushing myself harder when whatever I was doing began to feel easy.
With age and infirmity, I feel I have to be a little more precise in my measurements. I’ll explain my thinking more fully as it develops, but for now, here’s the routine I’ve settled into for the time being.
Rollo is the key here. The rolling road means that I can train consistently and in all weathers. Of course, rolling on Rollo is different to rolling on real terrain. There’s no camber, for one thing. No potholes or broken glass to avoid (I feel like I might be painting an inaccurate picture of where I live, but it’s lovely here, honest.) There’s no wind resistance or hills. But the idea of Rollo is like that of a treadmill: to perfect technique and build stamina. I also train in the outdoors, but less consistently than I should. More on this in a later post.
Every day I do four runs of 35 minutes each consisting of repeated sets of:
- 400 normal strokes
- 400 strokes of alternate wheels, one at a time, at a faster rate than the above
Finished with five minutes of backward strokes. I’m told this is important because shoulder injuries can occur if you don’t develop those muscles too. Wheeling a chair is not really a very natural action for a human so it’s important to avoid causing undue stress on muscles and bones.
At the moment I’m not accurately measuring the frequency of the strokes; I’m just pushing as hard and fast as I can manage and counting to maintain a rough sort of frequency. I’m measuring (using my watch) the overall number of strokes per session, aiming to keep them roughly consistent. I’m also monitoring my heart rate, which I’m trying to keep in the stamina-building zone. None of this is very scientific and I’m working on ways to improve that. I need better ways to tell whether I’m improving. One improvement I’m thinking about is a metronome app for my watch to keep my strokes consistent. If there isn’t one, I’ll probably write one. In my imagination, this would make the watch pulse once per stroke for a set number of strokes until I’ve got the rhythm, then pulse once per, say, ten strokes so I can learn to keep the rhythm without constant reenforcement. And without killing my watch battery when I’m barely out of the starting blocks.
I’m also trying to keep an eye on technique. Correct technique requires sitting fully upright (or backward) in the chair and using long strokes from as far back on the wheel as possible. When I do this, I can feel it in my chest as well as my arms and that’s how I know (as far as I know) that I’m doing it right. I have a tendency to lean forward, especially when I’m getting tired, and I need to kill that habit.
There’s lots more to say about training, especially in the outdoors and with weights. I’ll say those things in future posts.