Fitness Program

during our Wambana experience, we have a strict course of running long distance everyday or doing fitness games and power training. All the fitness is done with Dale. Everyone is to wake up early so we can start running at 7:00. The distances are either 3.4km, 5.5km, 9.2km and a challenging 11km run.

Friday 4th June

We woke up early in the morning to the sound of Paul, an instructor, playing the bongo's. Other than the stiffness in my legs from riding for 5 days and sleeping in a tent, I felt pretty good. I knew I wasn't going to run my best at all this programme because of the after effects I've had from a cold which has given me some serious asthma. Today we are to run 3.4km. The run starts at the Wambana shed, continues down the esplanade to "The Sacred Stone". We then run back the same route back to the shed. Today I was leading the pack until my asthma kicked in and forced me to slow down. Olly Clark then overtook me on the half way mark and I finished with a time of 14. 35. I was happy with this score because I knew I had asthma. After this we had to do the 100 100. This consists of 100 push ups and 100 sit ups.

Saturday 5th June

I didn't feel as stiff this time because we slept in our wardli's in beds. Though we still woke at about 6:35 to be at the tent before 7:00 to run at 7:00. This run we do the same run but pass the Sacred Stone and continue on to a jetty and back. This is the 5.5km. I pulled in a solid score of 23.10. Considering another unpleasant run of asthma I thought it was an alright score. After that we had to do 100 100.

Sunday 6th June

3.4km
A Disaster! I forgot to take ventolin to control my asthma therefore I could hardly breathe the whole way. Alot of people that I easily won againts over took me and some supported me. When I stopped at the finnish line, I had a bit of a coughing fit then went to get my ventolin to open me up a bit. My time was 16. 25. I had to do my 100 100 afterwards as well.

Monday 7th June

Today we didn't do a long distance run but played a fitness game. after doing a few laps around a small oval, we did some agility drills. Alot of this was sprinting ten metres, picking up a cone, and sprinting back that ten metes and dropping the cone. We did this 9 times so we sprinted about 90 metres. After about 20min of this, we moved on to another "fun" game where two teams were in two parallel lines about 20cm apart. If the teacher, Bairdy, called crumbs, we would have to sprint 5 metres towards our side without being caught by the other team. If crusts were called, We would have to chase the other team ad catch them before they reach the other side.

Tuesday 8th June

Today we were to run a 5.5km. I made sure I was in good shape today by taking my Ventolin. My muscles felt ok today and I was breathing well. I improved my time by 5 seconds at 23.10. I hope to get my next 5.5km time under 23 minutes next time. We then did 100 sit ups and 100 push ups then went in for breaky.

Thursday 10th June

Today we ran 9.2km. I woke up feeling sick therefore i thought i had a cold. I didn't have enough time to have some lemsip so I got dressed and went out to the shed. There were two groups. The first group was to run 7km, and the second group was to run 9.2km. We all had a choice and i chose the 9.2km. The first 5.5km was on a road therefore we had to run in a group. It was only until we reached the sand when we were allowed to split up and un at our own pace. The last 2km was extremely hard. Everyone was starting to cramp up a little bit and the sand was soft. Near the end I over took Olly Clarke and took the lead in 1st place. Though a kilometre later He caught up with me an we finished the run together with a time of 50.30. After this I felt dead. Though I was very proud of myself. Within ten minutes after my shower I felt good again and felt even happier that the run was over.

Friday 11th June

We are to do a fitness game today. But first we ran around the oval a few times and do a drill. The drill was for a whole wardli to carry one person in their group to the other side. They would then run back and carry another person to the other side. The person that was carried would just stay on the side he was carried to, so everytime there were fewer people to carry. After this we played team poison ball.

Saturday 12th June

We ran a 3.4km today. I felt really sick running because I had a cold. This virus really slowed me down. because i couldn't breathe through my nose and my asthma was worse. I felt pretty depressed running today because I was only sick a fortnight ago and I was sick again. My time was 18min. After the run I could hardly breathe. and didn't really do the 100 100 bcause I physically couldn't.

Sunday 13th June

I was sleeping out in a tent tonight and no one woke me up. So when I eventually did, the sun was right up and it was really bright. I thought to myself, "This can't be 6:30am". So I ran to my Wardli to find out that the time was 7:35. I freaked. I was shocked, and I felt totally lost and betrayed that out of all 20 people on campus, no one woke me up because how was I to know what the time was? I was in a tent! The other morning I was woken up by people but this time everyone left me. So I walked all depressed with my head down to the shed to get killed be Dale. Though all Dale said was, "Go run a 3.4km". So i ran the 3.4km with dunlop volleys on, no stretches and no Ventolin. I was really angry so I ran the whole thing but with no effort at all. When I arrived back, My muscles were aching and there was a note on the white board saying I would have to run another 3.4km at free time. This was all I needed. So in the end I ran a total of 6.8km that day and it wasn't healthy for me as I was sick. So at free time I slowly walked to the shed to run my second 3.4km that day. As my muscles were aching I put on some deep heat to make it feel better. I set off. Within the first kilometre it was hard for me to breathe. I couldn't believe I was doing this. I didn't really do anything wrong. I eventually finished the race with a lot of hatred and negativity in my mind.

Monday 14th June

Instead of power training we decided to use the new chin-up bars. We did this for half an hour then did the 100 100. Today's fitness session was pretty easy for me.

Tuesday 15th June

Today we ran the 3.4km. This was the first day when I was actually well and not sick. My legs felt good today and I ran quite solidly. I ended up with a time of 14.10min. For the next 3.4km I am hoping to get under 14min.

Wednesday 16th June

I felt like there was no fuel in my legs today when I ran the 5.5km. Therefore I was much slower than all my previous times. today's time was 25min. I was not happy because I have not improven my 5.5km time a lot since my very first run.

Friday 17th June

Today we played a fitness today. After running a few laps around the oval, we did a few agility drills and then played a sort of netball game. There were two teams and it was keepings off. If one team passed the ball to each other ten times in a row without dropping it they would get 1 point. After this we played brandy. This is when you would throw a ball and try to hit someone. When a person is hit, they have to help the person that hit them tag everyone else. Its a bit like 'Gang up'

Saturday 18th June

Today we ran the last 5.5km. I really wanted to get a good time today because I know I haven't been running too well lately. My aim was to run at a pace which was slightly faster than my natural running pace, and run even fastr the last kilometre. This was really hard for me and I struggled. I was running with 3 people - Olly Clarke and Stuart Harvey. The last 800m I coughed up a lot of flem and I weased a bit, but I toughed it out and finnished with a time of 21.10min. I was stoked! A time like that felt alien to me. I felt lke I achieved the impossible and the smile on my face that day was unbelievable.

Sunday 19th June

I really wanted to run well today. For the first 100m I was sprinting when suddenly Tom Plant started sprinting next to me. He said "I want to keep up with you Paul". About 2 seconds later I heard this massive BANG and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tom hit into something really hard and fall to the ground. He didn't look in any good shape. I checked if he was ok, he didn't answer because he was in so much pain, so I sprinted back to the shed where Bairdy, an instructor, was getting on his bike for a ride. I shouted while sprinting towards the shed, "Biardy! Toms just totally ran into a pole and he's in bad shape. He's on the ground in pain as we speak". So I sprinted back with Bairdy to where tom was.
There was no point in me running the 3.4km fast today because I was too tired from all that sprinting. So I jogged it slowly.

Monday 20th June

Today my room mate, Edward Boyd, and I woke up late and therefore were late to the 5.5km. Well we were on time but we couldn't stretch because we had to run in 30 seconds. So I ran a very sore 5.5km and had to stop and stretch a few times. Its probably good that I haven't ran well the last few days because it will make me hungry to run the 11km as well as I can tomorrow.