A word on training

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.

Rolling road

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.

To begin

I’m training for a wheelchair half marathon. If I can pull that off, I’ll go on to do more, and hopefully to do some full marathons. The point of this is to raise some money for charities that support women and girls who have suffered violence and abuse. The thing is, I’m new to all this. I’m new to disability, to being a wheelchair user and to distance wheelchairing (we need a better word for that. “Distance rolling” is presumably a different thing altogether, although it sounds like a great spectator sport). I’m new to fundraising in this day and age (we just used to go round with a piece of paper asking people to write down how much money they promised to give us if we did The Thing. Now it all seems more complicated.) And while I’m not new to serious training (I ran, did a lot of martial arts and played badminton fairly seriously), that was back before the old king died. I’m only just starting to get fit again.

So this is a blog about learning to do all those things. I need to learn what equipment I need, what training regimen I should follow, what times I can expect to achieve and, most importantly, I need to learn about raising money. I also need to know more about the charities and people I’m raising money for, so I can better help them. I need to learn what else I need to learn.

I’m assuming there might be others in the same boat; mid-life crisis people like me who want to get into distance… err…. wheeling(?) but don’t have fancy racing wheelchairs or belong to any wheelchair racing clubs. And people who want to raise money in this sporadic fashion. People like me who don’t really know where to begin. This blog is for those people. And for people who want to find out more about the violence and abuse that women face every single day in every country there is. People who want to find out what we can do about it.

So to begin, here is my extensive range of wheelchair marathon equipment.

This is my wheelchair. It was cheap. When I bought it, I wasn’t certain that I’d be in a chair forever, so I didn’t over-spend. In the future I might invest in a better chair, but I don’t even know what to look for or what constitutes ‘better’. I have the off-road wheels shown here and some nice, thin racing wheels (I won’t bore you with details of the tyres, even I’m not that obsessive.) There are some things I’d like to change. For example, the footrests are a constant annoyance and they and the front castors do not look sufficiently badass for my purposes. I might change those. I might get pushrims that are more grippy and a better shape. If I get really into distance…. pushing(?) I might even get a fancy racing chair. They look bloody uncomfortable, though, and how you get in and out of them is a complete mystery. They are also very expensive, so I’d have to get really, really, into endurance wheelchairing to justify that.

This is my rolling road. I call it Rollo, after the only king I will ever serve. I bought it from Invictus Active, who make them and sell other wheelchair stuff. This was not cheap, but it’s a good, well-engineered piece of kit and it means I can train indoors. I don’t have to explain how the thing works, it’s fairly self-explanatory, but I’ll write a lot here about the cons, pros and practicalities of using it every day. There’s lots of video about Rollo on the Invictus Active site if you’re curious.

These are my gloves. Actually, I have lots of different pairs of gloves and I’m not entirely happy with any of them. Either I tear then to shreds in no time or they strip the skin clean off that bit between the thumb and finger where it really bloody hurts. They also tend to get in the way of my watch, which is busy trying to measure my pulse. These ones are climbing gloves and are as sturdy as any I’ve come across, but not perfect. I’m always on the lookout for better ones.

And that’s it. That’s my kit. I expect it will change as I learn more. And if you have any suggestions, I’d really like to hear them.