5/3/1 & Rowing

Training Logs
1

Figured I’d keep a log. You know, one more thing to be accountable to, since there’s currently nothing like that for my weights sessions. Probably useful to give you guys a brief background too, so here goes:

Currently in my 4th year at university, starting rowing (crew if you’re from the US I believe) in my first year and loved it. The training we did involved weights as circuit training, but I didn’t get serious about that until my second year when I noticed injuries didn’t happen when I got stronger. Had a bit of a setback in my strength earlier this year when I trialled for the university crew, but think I’m about back to where I was last spring strength-wise.

Presently I’m weighing in at ~90kg/198lb at 190cm/6’3, with PRs of;
Deadlift 180 (probably about my current max)
Back Squat 145 (didn’t train this for a while due to shoulder issues, so almost certainly higher)
Bench Press 110 (currently so far off this it’s hilarious, the joys of dislocating a shoulder)
Press 70 (also pretty far off this, more like 60 or so at the moment)

Just realised I’ve now put up a veritable wall of text, so I’ll shut the hell up and get to the point. I’m going back to 5/3/1 because that’s always got me stronger, and that’s the main point of being in the weight room.

Currently just running the basic BBB @ 50% with 4 workouts a week, and I’m just going into week 3 of the first cycle (I don’t really keep a track of which cycle I’m on, just keep increasing the weights and reset stuff if needs be). Below is my deadliest workout from 4/2/14 (d/m/yy because I’m British and we’re awkward bastards).

Warmup (stretching/moving/activating or whatever you want to call it).
Power Clean
65 x 5
72.5 x 3
82.5 x 1
Deadlift
120 x 5
137.5 x 3
152.5 x 6
There were some jumps and chin ups (just 6 reps with BW) between all sets.

Bench Press 37.5 - 5 x 10
Bench Pull 50 - 5 x 10
Front Squat 60 - 5 x 10
I do the BBB as a sort of tri-set/circuit thing, just take as little rest as possible to still smash stuff. A Bench Pull is basically an upside down bench press for those who don’t know, kind of like a chest supported row with a barbell.

Core - Ab Wheel from knees (just BW) 5 x 12

Overall pretty happy with how things are progressing, think my bench has started too low at just 75, but I’m happy to leave it, things’ll get heavier soon enough.

My deadlift is maybe a little below where it has been, but it may just be getting used to lifting something heavier than a 20rep set weight (yeah, uni rowing team weights were so very not fun last term, don’t think I ever went below 15 reps for about 3 months in anything, I was very not pleased about that).

2

Just done my press workout, nothing much to say really. Had a pretty easy day yesterday with nothing apart from weights, but that’ll change today.

Power Clean
65 x 5
72.5 x 3
82.5 x 1 (much better than yesterdays, actually decided to lift the bar rather than waft it in a vaguely upwards direction)
Press
37.5 x 5
42.5 x 3
47.5 x 6
Again jumps and chin ups between sets (weighted chins today), and push ups with the press.

Deadlift 80 - 5 x 10
Inverted Row (BW) - 5 x 10
Push Ups (BW on Rings) - 5 x 10

Core - Ab Wheel (BW 10) from knees - 5 x 10

3

Did a long row yesterday night (90’ U2, or pretty low effort) after weights in the morning.

Today was a row in the morning before lectures, just 12k U2 and a bit of tech in the 8 , so just keeping ourselves sharp really. Tonight was weights again (I’m kind of catching up from the previous week as I missed a workout and everything’s been pushed back).

Power Clean
65 x 5
72.5 x 3
82.5 x 1
Back Squat
102.5 x 5
115 x 3
130 x 6
Jumps and chin ups then DB Rows between sets.

Press 25 - 5 x 10
Bench Pull 50 - 5 x 10
Leg Press 220 - 5 x 10 (forgot to load a plate and did the first set at 200, no biggie I figured)

Core - Ab Wheel on decline - 5 x 10. These are awesome and hit my entire trunk like a steam train at the moment.
Think we’ve got something diabolical planned for the weekend since a race was cancelled due to flooding (we have one of the few rivers that’s still actually rowable in the country), so it’ll probably go something like Saturday: row, row, weights; Sunday: row, row, bike. Then I’ll probably have died in some horrific fashion and will have a legitimate excuse to sleep for about 12 hours straight.

4

Cool, man, will be following. Was a kayaker until I was 20 and still like reading about cross-training for watersports.

5

Good to see another rower on here (even though I am taking a 6 month break from rowing to do something a bit different after committing to it for 3 years). How do you find 531 fits in with rowing in terms of recovery?

6

Hi guys, thanks for the interest and such.
Ironwarrior, I find that doing 5/3/1 is actually much less demanding than lots of the weights programs prescribed by rowing programs. For instance when trialling for the uni crews earlier this year I think I spent about 5 days out of 7 rowing like a half cold turd I was so sore from the weights we were doing (3x20, strength endurance crap.

Think I was pulling ~100kg on deadlifts and ~80kg on the squats, but man, something about all that just completely debilitated me and I got so much weaker on anything about 15 reps or less).

7

Ok, the weekend was a complete mess. What happened was as follows:

Saturday:
Row - Tech focus on the outing, ~8-10k overall I think.
Row - 6x60 stroke pieces (10 strokes at rates 26/28/30/32/34/36) with warmup and such.
Sunday:
River flooded into the boathouse and I really couldn’t summon the willpower to not just chill out at home with my girlfriend and do nothing apart from have a fry up and then pie and custard when we got hungry again. Awesome day, just not in the training sense.
Today:
Training happened again! Oh joy. Started off with a 120 minute cycle (really low intensity - haven’t been on my bike for a long time and was very much feeling that it wasn’t rowing). Average heart rate in the high 130’s (I think 137) so low level U2 I believe. Then there was weights, which went fairly well:

Power Clean
65 x 5
72.5 x 3
82.5 x 1 (not as good as they have been, but still solid)
Bench Press
57.5 x 5
65 x 3
72.5 x 6
Depth Jumps after Power Cleans, Push Ups (really bloody fast ones) after bench press, and chin ups after all that. Hit 100 reps of chin ups, so fairly happy about that.

Back Squat 67.5 - 5 x 10
Inverted Row (BW) - 5 x 11
Push Up (BW on Rings) - 5 x 10
Hips were feeling dodgy on the squats, but I stretched out my hip flexors between sets and it all tidied up. Definitely need to give my flexibility/mobility a bigger focus. I used to be fairly good, but that was because there was a squad screening every month or so with the uni rowing before I got cut, and so of course everybody always stretched. Now it’s much more of an ‘in your own time’ thing, and while I’m not bad I’m worse than I was (apart from my shoulders, but that’s because one of them is no longer subluxated and the lower training volume isn’t making my upper back tighten up to the extent it needs the physio to sort it, foam rollers are fine now so it gets done every day at least).
I’ll probably just give myself a little chart or something each day and make sure I stretch out all the major muscle groups four or five times during the day and have a foam roll of my back/shoulder area and see how that goes, will hopefully sort out most problems.
Squad test (30 minutes at rate 20) tomorrow, so no weights. The rowers here will know the agony of that test once you get 15-20 minutes in and your hanging out your arse with 2-4k still to go…

8

Test today went pretty well, managed a PB with 8516 metres which was a nice surprise, thought I’d clock in around 8475 or so. Obviously the long low intensity sessions have been paying off, and from HR data it seems like there may be another couple of watts to come, which is always comforting.
Weighed in at 90.3kg before and 89.0kg after, so a normal amount of fluid loss for that sort of session this time of year (longer U2 rows can see up to 4kg weight difference, so it’s really no biggie), and also means I’m not dropping weight - that tends to be fine until I get down to 85kg or so and then I die a horrible death every time I train.

Plan for tomorrow is outing in the morning, ~10-12k or so, an ergo or bike ride (depending on weather, primarily wind) and then weights in the evening. It’ll be interesting seeing as my legs are not liking life right now.

9

Didn’t get round to the extra U2 training after the outing this morning (I should probably point out that most of the sessions I miss are kind of optional - in an ideal world I’d do it but real world time constraints/limited recovery/bad sleep etc make it more sensible not to and save my energy for more important sessions).

Anyways, that means today was:

Outing - some of the guys are ill/injured or whatever, so we went out in a coxless 4. Pretty shaky start, but it was coming together fairly well by the end. Think we did ~8k or so before all the college crap started clogging up the river with their headless centipede rowing and we went in rather than get spannered by some novice cox.

Weights - Deadlift day, yay! (Deadlifts kill me. I have amusingly short legs and a comically long torso, so I’m not exactly built for it and they just seem to… yeah… kill me very effectively).

Power Clean
5 x 57.5
5 x 67.5
5 x 75
Deadlift
5 x 107.5
5 x 125
10 x 142.5
Broad Jumps, a few chins and DB Rows between sets as usual.

Bench Press 40 - 5 x 10
Bench Pull 52.5 - 5 x 10
Front Squat 62.5 - 5 x 10
Core - Seated Twizzles with a 20kg plate. Gave up after 3 sets of 20 because it just wasn’t challenging my core (I wanted to do something more lateral than the ab wheel). Will search around and experiment to see if I can find a good alternative I’ve got the equipment to do, currently looks like some sort of rotational landmine thing will do the trick.
So yeah, PR in the Deadlift, power clean were a bit wonky for a few reps, but that was just me not concentrating enough. Noticing a difference in my flexibility already, will keep up with my stretching since it’s obviously doing good things. Good session, and pleased that I’m on a roll with these.

10

Just a quick update. Since my last post on Wednesday it’s been a bit hectic with work, a very minor injury and a bit of cold/man flu hanging around.

Thursday: Weights
Power Clean
5 x 57.5
5 x 67.5
5 x 75
Press
35 x 5
40 x 5
45 x 10
Jumps etc as normal.

Deadlift 82.5 - 5 x 10
Inverted Row BW - 5 x 11
Push Up (Rings) BW - 5 x 10
Core - Can’t remember what I did and can’t be bothered to find my log right now, think it was a few sets of Hip Thrusts (BW and with a 10kg plate or something) since my glutes just didn’t seem switched on (I do remember the deadlifts being good but feeling very “backie” rather than “hippie” as I like to say). There was some ab wheel stuff too, I think 2 x 20 at BW.

3 x 20’ Ergo in the evening, pushing it a little. Better than last time (lower average and max HR for the same distance) but it did feel harder. Think this was due to the fact that the next morning man flu hit like a truck and I sneezed once or twice and my nose was a bit bunged up.

Friday: As mentioned I was hit hard by man flu, had a bit of a blocked nose and everything. Absolutely terrible. Had an outing in the morning then did complaining and shit for the rest of the day.

Saturday: Fucking windy. Got blown around a bit and didn’t go rowing due to aforementioned minor injury and also still feeling a bit delicate.

Today: Race. Probably not the wisest thing to do after illness, but hey. Went pretty well, definitely improving, but still plenty more speed to come in quite a few areas. Have managed to persuade myself not to give the blow by blow account because that would take up a few pages since it’s massively epic (of course). May go for a little recovery bike or something later on.

11

Monday (17/02/14):

Outing in the morning, one our guys was ill (or otherwise absent), so instead of the 8 we went out in a coxed 4, pair and a single. I was out in the pair, and we did some showing the crappy 8’s how to go fast. As in, we paddled faster than them and made them feel bad about how they’re shit at rowing. Sometimes I think I must be a terrible person for feeling good about that. Anyhow, just paddling, but felt like a good amount of effort in the slower boat.

Weights in the evening. My shoulder has been degrading over the past few months since I started back squatting again, and it’s now at the point where I think it’s just getting too much (volume, weight, or maybe both). As a precaution I replaced my 5/3/1 back squats with front squats (which I’ve done before and I know it works), so now I have heavy work with front squats but still 5 x 10 each week with both front and back. I’ll see how it goes, will try doing 5/3/1 back squats and just front squats for 5 x 10 if it doesn’t clear up. Anyhow, todays workout was front squats (and stuff):

Power Clean
5 x 57.5
5 x 67.5
5 x 75
Front Squat
5 x 75
5 x 85
5 x 97.5 (Happy I got this, thought I’d only get 6 or 7 reps since it’s a while since I did heavier front squats)
Of course, jumps and stuff in between. Opted for weighted chins and got 6 x 4 @ 15kg, better than last time (6 x 3).

Press 27.5 - 5 x 10
Bench Pull 52.5 - 5 x 10
Leg Press 220 - 5 x 11

Core - single arm overhead DB carry. Once each way down the boat bay with each arm. Found out I really can’t do this with my left arm (due to the past dislocation it simply won’t go in the right fucking place, which is obscenely annoying and fairly retarded because I properly felt this in my entire core, but especially the side bits).

12

Tuesday:

Had a terrible ergo in the morning, my heart rate was just sky high and I felt like I was hauling a ton of bricks up and down the slide. Got out some slides and did some more technical stuff, so not really a wasted session.

Wednesday:

Outing the in morning, 12k as usual, just steady state. Went ok, nothing much to say, it comes and goes a bit, but definitely improving.

Weights in the evening. Bench press day. I hate bench press day. Well, I hate bench press, bench press day has squats and power cleans so it can’t be too bad.

Power Clean
5 x 57.5
5 x 67.5
5 x 75
Bench Press
5 x 57.5
5 x 60
10 x 67.5
Jumps, chin ups, blah blah blah in between sets.

Front Squat 57.5 - 5 x 10 got these properly ass on calves towards the end, definitely improving my mobility.
Inverted Row (BW) - 5 x 11
Push Up - 16/15/14/13/12 forgot my rings, so just did regular push ups.

13

[quote]Jim A wrote:
Test today went pretty well, managed a PB with 8516 metres which was a nice surprise, thought I’d clock in around 8475 or so. Obviously the long low intensity sessions have been paying off, and from HR data it seems like there may be another couple of watts to come, which is always comforting.
Weighed in at 90.3kg before and 89.0kg after, so a normal amount of fluid loss for that sort of session this time of year (longer U2 rows can see up to 4kg weight difference, so it’s really no biggie), and also means I’m not dropping weight - that tends to be fine until I get down to 85kg or so and then I die a horrible death every time I train.

Plan for tomorrow is outing in the morning, ~10-12k or so, an ergo or bike ride (depending on weather, primarily wind) and then weights in the evening. It’ll be interesting seeing as my legs are not liking life right now.[/quote]

Solid effort, beating 8500m takes some doing. I have only broken 8200m once, need to get my act together when I go back to rowing next season. You got your sights set on Henley at all?

Interesting that you are giving 531 a go I always struggled with that volume. You ever thought of using 531 for athletes in season?

14

[quote]Ironwarrior25 wrote:

[quote]Jim A wrote:
Test today went pretty well, managed a PB with 8516 metres which was a nice surprise, thought I’d clock in around 8475 or so. Obviously the long low intensity sessions have been paying off, and from HR data it seems like there may be another couple of watts to come, which is always comforting.
Weighed in at 90.3kg before and 89.0kg after, so a normal amount of fluid loss for that sort of session this time of year (longer U2 rows can see up to 4kg weight difference, so it’s really no biggie), and also means I’m not dropping weight - that tends to be fine until I get down to 85kg or so and then I die a horrible death every time I train.

Plan for tomorrow is outing in the morning, ~10-12k or so, an ergo or bike ride (depending on weather, primarily wind) and then weights in the evening. It’ll be interesting seeing as my legs are not liking life right now.[/quote]

Solid effort, beating 8500m takes some doing. I have only broken 8200m once, need to get my act together when I go back to rowing next season. You got your sights set on Henley at all?

Interesting that you are giving 531 a go I always struggled with that volume. You ever thought of using 531 for athletes in season?[/quote]

Thanks, but you know how it goes, it’s now 8600m that’s the goal. Oh joy!

I assume you mean the 5 x 10 volume, and not the actual 5/3/1? I always found the 5 x 10 relatively easy, I think just because all the long distance rowing tends to gear you more towards relatively better performance at a percentage of your 1RM than, say, a powerlifter as an extreme example. Might just be the way I’m made, or that I’m not actually strong yet, but it’s never been a problem.
Just eat all the time (think I go through ~6000kcal a day right now) and do all the recovery stuff.

15

The last two days were pretty mediocre, apart from one session of death.

Thursday:

Ergo, 8 x 250m capped at rate 34, 1 minute rests. This is a downright horrible distance to row for me; I’m very much a steady starter as it were, and with these you’ve got to go off fucking hard and get the split down in the first two to three strokes or you lose too much. Anyway, smashed the first three then died. Power started to fade a little after the fourth interval, but still got pretty consistent splits considering the short distance. Averaged 1:28.2, at rate 34. Good session, but man that shit hurt.

Ergo, 3 x 20 minutes, rate 18, 1 minute rests. Just pretty casual U2 stuff, but at the upper end, so my legs were actually pushing a bit at the end. Heart rate was a little high because I was an idiot and did this about 30 mins after the 8 x 250m - won’t be doing that again. Totalled up just over 16k, so 1:52.2 splits.

Friday:

Just weights, but deadlift weights. Can’t decide if I love or hate this session. I always kind of dread it going in, because I know a deadlift is just one of those things that you can’t cheat and it’s such a good measure of basic brute force. Nothing really beats “can you pick that heavy shit over there up off the ground?”. Afterwards i always get fairly pleased with myself, provided I actually hit my targets. Not sure what I’ll think if that doesn’t happen, probably get really pissed off and stuff, but manage to persuade myself not to do stupid shit.

Power Clean
3 x 62.5
3 x 70
3 x 80
Deadlift
3 x 117.5
3 x 132.5
8 x 150
Jumps, chin ups and inverted rows between sets.

Bench Press 40 - 5 x 10
Bench Pull 52.5 - 5 x 10
Back Squat 70 - 5 x 10
Didn’t do core because I’m a lazy fucker (also didn’t have my ab wheel). Back squats were feeling good with my shoulder with the lower weights, so it’s looking hopeful that it was just the heavier weights that were making them a bugger and I can still use them for more squats. Because squats seems to be one of those things where (for me) more is better. Also, I fucking love squats, and you should still practice what you love because that’s why you’re there in the first place.

16

Solid Weekend of work on the water, but now my hands have died (in my life rowing gives the worst blisters/calluses ever) so I’m currently spending my day with about half my fingers wrapped up in tape.

Saturday:

Outing - 15k of steady state and tech in a coxed four. Probably my least favourite boat class along with eights. Just seems to take forever to get them running even half well, and then (unlike eights) you really don’t go very fast. At least pairs are just freaking awesome, but hey, that’s just me. Anyway, outing went ok, definitely did changes and improvements and stuff.

Outing - went and hopped over the lock for the longer stretch of water and did 2 x 19 minute rate pyramids - in the 4 again. This was really fucking hard work and sucked ass because it went on forever and then our bowman (who’s men’s captain) decided it would be better to do both pieces in bits rather than at least one whole one (we ran out of water in the tailwind because we’re awesome and fast). We ended up doing the first one in two bits (the first bit being 16 minutes, so the important bit), either side of the second one, which we did in one with a surprisingly stiff headwind. 16k overall I think.

Sunday:

Outing - The plan was for 2 x (10 x 1 minute on/off) pieces at rate 34 and rate oh-shit-that-minute-was-hard-I-just-died (somewhere between 16 and 20 without any kind of push whatsoever). Guys who have done this kind of thing know how much this shit hurts. Don’t know how many we ended up doing, but we were going for 3 runs (~9k) before we went back in. Probably turned out at about 20, but in three bits instead of one. So glad we were in the coxless boat, we were getting the awesome sucking-the-boat-under-you on the recovery thing going on and the high rates were pretty easy to hit.

May do a bit of extended stretching and such this afternoon after a sleep, but I’ll have to see how work turns out time-wise.

17

Apologies for being caught up with other stuff this week for anybody who actually reads this. Um, yeah, decent training monday through to wednesday, had thursday off and then 5k test tonight (friday). Did some weights (Press) on Monday and got 8 reps with 47.5kg, which is exciting since this is the first time my press had actually been going anywhere since… ever really.
Tuesday was max power testing which is absolute bollocks in my opinion. This is because everybody just goes and smashes shit at rate 46 or something on the open rate and beats me because I can only get to ~40. Oh well, I still own them on all the other testing we do on the ergo.

Wednesday was… an outing in a coxless 4. Went pretty well, plus we scared the shit out a rather novice looking college crew on our way back literally three of four hours before they were due to race. Sometimes I just revel in being a dick I think.
Thursday was off. I liked this. I did sleeping, did some work, watched a film at lunch and all that stuff.

Today was 5k. I was properly shitting myself since about 1800 on thurs, which didn’t help sleep. Also had something going on with my guts, but it definitely didn’t feel like it was affecting my performance. For anybody who does endurance sports, they know how terrible the 5k sort of test is. It’s definitely short enough to have a huge amount of crap build up in your muscles, and definitely long enough to give you oh-so-many points where you can just if you’re mentally not with it. All said and done I retained my spot in the squad with a time of 16:51.4, with one hell of a just-close-your-eyes-and-haul-ass moment at the finish. I say moment, it was actually about three minutes. Sort of happy with it. It’s another 4.1 seconds off my PB, but it would’ve been nice to go sub 16:50. Next time is still there, and I now know that one does not start winding it with 2k still to go. That was an excessively stupid idea and I think it broke the remnants of my sanity.
Anyway, I’ll shut the hell up and do the sleep, God knows I need it.

18

Fairly solid weekend and a start to the week:

Saturday:
Double outing with race crew for Sunday. Been moved back to the 6 seat, where I belong. Pretty much everything was shattered after the 5k on Friday, but it was only 12k outings with mostly tech and U2 work, just a few bursts to get the body firing on all cylinders for Sunday.

Sunday:
Race, just over 2k, think it’s 2.3k or something because we have a crappy short windy river and can’t do proper 5k head races. First crew in the division, so nice clear water with no chop etc, but there was a fair breeze down the course, which coupled with the stream lead to some slow ass times (for everybody, not just us). Took us 9:03, and we were only beaten by one boat who did 8:59. Given that those guys are all massive and probably outpull us by a ridiculous amount of watts (as the big gun in our boat I’d almost certainly be in the bottom end of theirs power-wise) a fairly ok result. Still need improvements in fitness for the summer though.

Monday:
Went out in a single in the morning, just 12k of steady state work. Surprisingly good considering I haven’t been in a scull since before Christmas. Having two water-sticks instead of one was a little overwhelming at times though. Also screwed my hands to hell, and resulted in a lot of bloody blisters, a general lack of skin on my hands and the loss of two calluses. Oh joy of joys, such a pain in the arse.
Ergo in the evening, 3x20 min with 1 min rests at rate 18. I tend to push this one a bit harder, in the upper end of my aerobic zone. Got about 16.1k, so a good half split better than last time. Think my fitness may have taken another little jump, all the half splits add up over time. Sure as hell beats the bastards who aren’t consistent.

Today (Tuesday):
I’m just doing weights today, me and my gf are going on a date and stuff this evening, so no time for training then. Weights was solid though, and good to be back lifting stuff after more than a weeks break with easing up for the 5k and racing at the weekend.

Power Clean
3 x 62.5
3 x 70
3 x 80
Front Squat
3 x 80
3 x 90
8 x 102.5
I was a little shaky on the last rep of the front squat, which meant my speed out the bottom was real slow because I was trying so hard not to lose the bar forward. Think it’s just me getting a little too focused on other things and letting the weight pull me over slightly. As usual jumping around like a loony and some pulling in between all these sets. Hit 16 on chin ups (just BW), which is a PB, up from 14.
Press 27.5 - 5 x 10
Bench Pull 52.5 - 5 x 10
Leg Press 220 - 5 x 11
The leg press freakin’ killed me today, think that might just be because it only comes up once a week and I haven’t touched it for like, 10 or 11 days or something by now.

19

Wednesday (05/03/14):

Outing, 8 : pretty much the same crew that raced on Sunday. Just went out and did four runs as usual on the weekday mornings (~12k), three of which we did at R24. The first one was pretty lacklustre, then we realised that you can actually really give it some at 24, it’s not exactly a high rate, and the last two runs were pretty solid. Sure as hell smashed everything else on the river, but since that’s just college crews it’s not really surprising.

Bike: Just went out and did a 30 mile ride at lunch. Heart rate was generally 130-145, so low intensity stuff. Still trashed my legs though, I’ve decided I’m blaming cross winds for that one, merely because one existed today and I hate them.

Weights: Bench press day, and yet another opportunity for me to realise I really don’t like pressing. O well, managed an ok workout;

Power Clean
3 x 62.5
3 x 70
3 x 80
Bench Press
3 x 55
3 x 62.5
8 x 70
As usual jumps and suchlike between sets, today pulling was some easy sets of DB Rows then 5 x 10 BW chin ups.

Front Squat 57.5 - 5 x 10
Inverted Row BW - 5 x 11
Push Up (Rings) BW - 5 x 10

Solid workout despite my legs feeling fairly drained when I went in, that feeling actually got better throughout the workout, may have just been a late kick in from post-bike food.

20

Thursday (06/03/14):

Just a single ergo, but fairly hard work - 4 x 2,000m R26 with a 5’ rest. My previous best time on this was 27:1x.x, can’t remember exactly what it was, and I pushed it down to 26:59.8 which is a fair improvement, specially since it ended up not being as hard as it should have been. Four 2k’s with an average of 6:45 is ok going for now, but would hope that would be down to something more like 6:40’s by the time spring season rolls around. Still time to get my shorter distance times down.

Friday (07/03/14):

Outing, which was ok. Ok doesn’t win, so I’m fairly pissed off about it. Just got to make sure it keeps being positive negativity, as in let’s go out next time and bloody well learn from it. Not much else to say, it’s just one of those days I guess, it’s always going to be difficult to get 8 guys doing the same thing at the same time, nevermind while sitting in many thousands of pounds of carbon fibre and aluminium about as wide as a briefcase.

Weights, which went considerably better:

Power Clean
5 x 67.5
3 x 75
1 x 85 Pretty solid rep here, pleased enough with it.
Deadlift
5 x 125
3 x 142.5
6 x 157.5
As usual jumps etc between sets and whatnot.

Bench Press 40 - 5 x 10
Bench Pull 52.5 - 5 x 10
Back Squat 70 - 5 x 10