Pre-season training starts here

Yesterday officially saw the end of the season, as Stafford CC 1sts and 2nds played their last games, and rather pleasingly both of them won relatively comfortably. Stretching out in front of me, however, is a vast barren landscape of four and a half cricket-less months before winter nets starts up again in February.

However I don't want to let that time go to waste, so I'm going to try to get into a schedule of training so I'm in as good a shape as possible by then. If I'm able to I'm hoping to go to the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but at the very least once a week on Thursdays, so as to mimic the rhythm of net sessions we've had this season.

I think my focus will mainly be on making myself stronger rather than fitter, as my fitness this year has been reasonably suitable while my actual power has been noticeably lacking, especially throwing the ball overarm. I made a start on Thursday but I'm still feeling a bit of soreness now, so perhaps I need to take it easy. The soreness in my legs came almost immediately but subsided within half a day, my upper body soreness came later and has lasted much longer. Even now - three days later - my left arm and shoulder are a bit painful.

My routines essentially boil down to coming in cold and doing an 8 minute warm-up, then moving over to the weight machines and alternating between lower and upper body machines, and some rotator cuff work, until I'm thoroughly knackered, at which point I go home, have a bit of a stretch and head for the shower. I'm not sure whether what I'm doing is absolutely right or not, but I'm sure it's better than nothing.