Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

It was horrible! Maybe I should have powered through instead of having tea, but I'm not too concerned about being completely caffeine-free. I mostly want to elimate all the sugar in my usual coffee drinks, so am not having those.

Sadly haven't done much exercise this week...

Tues 29 May
Cycled to and from work
Did plyo at home in the evening

Wed 30 May
Cycled to and from work

Thurs 31 May
No exercise

I got over the feeling horrible bit that I experienced on Monday, though that might be due to drinking tea (no sugar or soy milk) the remaining days. I'm a bit disappointed I didn't do more exercise (esp not doing a derby practice) to see if I have more energy. However, I was suddenly able to do pull-ups! OK, partial ones. But previously I couldn't really pull myself up at all and when I tried today I was able to do a partial pull-up (not starting at a dead hang). That was kind of weird. I did about 6 total, but not all consecutively.

I'm going to visit my mom this weekend, which is a 4-day weekend here in the UK. So I won't be doing any exercise other than walking around for a while. My eating plan for the future is to eat well (but not as strict as this week) during the week but allow treats (without going crazy) on the weekend. That will still be an improvement over my previous habit of eating something in the cake family pretty much every day.

I'll be weighing myself tomorrow. I was right around 70kg last week.

I got back from visiting my mom on Monday evening. (In the UK it was a 4-day weekend with Mon and Tues being bank holidays.) Yesterday I went for a team picnic where I ate lots of food--people made and brought all sorts of vegan stuff including vegan cookies.

Today is back to work and back to eating semi-well and doing some exercise! Planning to lift weights tonight.

This is our last week before a one-month derby break. I have two bouts this weekend--one on Saturday and the other on Sunday. During the break we'll be doing our off-skates training twice a week instead of just one, which is good, but I'll need to work out what to do on the other days. Probably some kind of plyo, maybe one more day of weights (the off-skates sessions include weights).

Had two bouts this past weekend. Saturday was a home team bout. We won, and by enough of a point difference to become our league's season champions! It's the first time: we've generally been the league underdogs. So I'm really pleased about that as a team member and the captain.

Yesterday was an inter-league game with our B team. We won, but we came pretty close to losing it at one point as we were an absolute mess with penalties. That game definitely didn't feel as good as the one on Saturday!

So now it's our 1-month break and I'll have to find other exercise to do. I have off-skates training tonight.

Hope you enjoy your month off!

All the best!

Thanks!

Despite it being our month off, we have a training session on Thursday and a bout (the B travel team) on Saturday.

Meanwhile...

Mon 18 June
2-hour off skates training

Tues 19 June
No exercise

Wed 20 June
Off-skates training (speed/agility/quickness, strength/weights)

Thurs 21 June
2-hour derby practice

Fri 22 June
Cycled to/from work

Sat 23 June
Played in a bout.
Was our B team. We won and it was a lot of fun!

Sun 24 June
Nowt

Mon 25 June
Off-skates training: agility, weights, circuits

Tues 26 June
Nowt

My dad is over from the US so I'll be seeing him today and tomorrow, so no exercise for those days.

Had a bit of a break while my dad was down in London. I'll be going up north to meet up with him again next weekend for 4 days, so that will be another chunk of time without exercise.

Sun 1 July
Went for a bike ride with some friends. I think I covered about 20 miles total, so not very much, especially for the amount of time it took! But it was a rather leisurely ride and largely on shared paths, which meant having to keep the speed down.

Mon 2 July
Off-skates training session
Lately the format has been about 50 minutes of weights (last night focused on squat and deadlift), then speed/agility, then vision training, then circuits. I like that set up.

Food-wise, my diet has been OK, but it could be better. My partner and I are trying to be frugal now, so we'll be doing less eating out at lunchtime and more bringing our own food.

Still on derby break. First practice back is one week from today.

Tues 3 July
Cycled to and from work

Wed 4 July
2-hour off-skates training
Weight portion focued on higher-rep, lower-weight squats and sumo deadlifts.

Roller derby is slowly catching on...I live near Birmingham (UK) & I'm sure they have a team or two!

Whip it is a great movie

It is SO COOL to me that you're involved with roller derby. I went to a local game once and fell in love but I have no free time right now.

Yup, there are two leagues in Birmingham!

It's grown massively in UK and the rest of Europe. I started over 5 years ago and at that time there were around five leagues in all of Europe. Now there are around 200!

It definitely takes up a lot of time. We have group training four times a week (three on skates, one off skates). And then there's the time we put in to run the league and put on events. I got started right when I moved to London so didn't know anyone and had nothing else to do so it worked out pretty well.

Which league did you see? I used to live in Baltimore and thats where I first discovered roller derby and decided I had to do it.

Got back last night from four days with my family. No exercise other than a bit of walking. But today is our first derby practice back after the break and I think training is going to be pretty intense in the lead up to Playoffs, which are at the end of September. My Sunday practices are now going to be 4 hours.