4 x 15m
8 x 30m (3 mins) - slight change of direction at 15m to replicate rugby a bit better
2 x Football pitch angled sprints (see pic) 102.5m - 13.3, 13.1
Made a little gate of two cones just on the edge of the centre circle and ran from outside the far post to the far post at the other side. First run felt pretty sluggish and second run was back the way I came and felt (and was) quicker.
Would like to include more sprint work in the week but will be hard to fit in. I could definitely do sprints on the weeks i’m not playing rugby so perhaps that will have to do.
Missed last week with work but we won 24-3, so undefeated in our first two games. Had work again this week but it was a home game and I was able to get there just before kickoff, warm up for the first half and come on for the last half hour. I was a bit annoyed I couldn’t get a full half but the two wingers looked like our best backs so I can understand the reluctance to bring me on.
My aim was to keep it simple and not make mistakes. I made a few tackles, only missed one that wasn’t my man to tackle as he broke the line and stepped me as I came across, and got involved clearing a few rucks too. In terms of attacking play I touched it twice: once in the middle to pick it off the floor and pass, and second touch I scored. Was straight hands from a scrum to me and I managed to knock the winger to the ground and cross for a try. Had two other clear chances with an overlap but the same forward joined the line both times and knocked it on because he’s not quick enough to run with us but insisted on being part of the move - well done you cost me two tries.
I think i’ll play home games as the pitch is on my way back from work but not go out of my way to make away games.
Despite a lot of rest i’m still tight and achey from weights so quite glad I didn’t try to go straight into my next cycle.
New approach to distance runs as plodding around in 8:30+/mi feels unproductive. My GPS messed up on the first run as it said 8 mins for the mile but missed a chunk of my run, so I took the avg pace of the correct bit to get 7:10. Quite pleased with that sequence, feel a lot fresher than if I did 3 miles in a row.
Back Squat 5 x 5 x 110kg - getting a stretch reflex out the bottom of the lift, quite comfortable
OHP 5 x 5 x 55kg
Bent Over Row 3 x 6 x 75kg - worked on driving the elbows back and controlling the speed
Single Arm BB Bench Press 3 x 6 x 32.5kg
Close Grip Bench Press 3 x 10 x 65kg - almost a failure
A1 DB Walking Lunge 2 x 16 x 22.5kg - like the two sets but dropped it to 16 reps
A2 Pull-ups 3 x 10
Abs 9 mins (4.5 before and after)
Great to be back in the gym. I did half my abs in the warm up as I tend to neglect them. My 5 x 5 lifts were both within myself as were rows. Probably in the gym Thursday and may do a few miles running tomorrow.
RDL 3 x 10 x 77.5kg - dropped the reps from 12 to 10
Clap Push-ups 3 x 10
Bench Press 5 x 5 x 90kg
BW Chin Ups 3 x 10
Seated Rows 5 x 9 x 120lbs
Ab Wheel 2 x 20
Roman Twists 2 x 40 x 5kg plate
Felt tight for the last few days but that whole session was pretty straight forward. Still really neglecting my ab work, if anyone has a routine that works for them i’d be keen to hear it.
Single Arm DB Bench Press 1 x 6 x 37.5kg, 2 x 6 x 32.5kg - picked up the wrong DB first time (both benches were in use)
Close Hand Pushups 3 x 10 x 15kg - both benches were in use so did these for triceps
A1 DB Walking Lunge 2 x 16 x 22.5kg
A2 Pull-ups 3 x 10
Abs: Hanging Leg Raise 4 x 12, V-Situp 4 x 12, Roman Twist 4 x 24 x 7.5kg plate
Pleased with abs and how easy my squats and press felt. Been a busy week so no time to do any kind of running. Even busier this week so I think weights will have to be Friday and no rugby again.
4 x 15m
8 x 30m (3 mins) - slight change of direction at 15m to replicate rugby a bit better
55m sprint - 7.1
Not enough time to get to the gym so a quick sprint session out on a nearby patch of grass. Felt speedy, particularly in the 55m run. Busy period at work but i’ll try to fit in one gym session in midweek and then play rugby next Saturday.
Not run in just over two weeks so I stuck an extra minute on the recovery. Pleased to get all runs under 8 minutes but I could tell my fitness has dropped off. Will try and do abs tomorrow then i’m playing rugby on Sat.
Tough opposition v league leaders. Their 1st XV didn’t have a game this weekend and a few of their players were suspiciously good for a 3rd team. They were a lot stronger in the forwards and bigger in the backs but not as fast. We scored first from a line break and followed it up soon after with a penalty. They looked the more dangerous but had the odd mistake each time to lose possession in our 22. Just before half time they had a scrum 5 metres out and pulled it wide where it was me vs 3 of them and the first guy got through me and scored.
Half time 10-5 up. Our 9 was standing out in a bad way, taking a few extra seconds at every breakdown which gave them time to reset defence or to grab him and turn it over. I came off at 60 mins and soon after they scored twice on my wing. Pretty gutted as we’d been working well and the guy who came on was out of position both times. They had a penalty to make it 22-10 and could have had more but eased off at the end.
Overall I was happy with my contribution, I cleared a few rucks, knocked their winger into touch twice and my only missed tackles were luckily called back for earlier errors from their team. I need to work on being more involved in the breakdown rather than standing there watching us lose it, and attack was non-existent as it was very one sided.
Abs: Hanging Leg Raise 4 x 12, V-Situp 3 x 12, Roman Twist 3 x 24 x 7.5kg plate
Half asleep today, had to get up for work at 2.30am on Saturday and haven’t made up the hours in bed yet. I was going to repeat the Monday session from two weeks ago due to the gap in training i’ve had, then realised if I want to have less doms to lift on Wed I could take out some exercises. Skipped broad jump, lunges, single arm bench and ohp but still felt lethargic the whole time. Glad it’s done, big sleep, session 2 on Wed and rugby on Sat.
Hanging Leg Raise 4 x 12 x 2.5kg
Roman Twists 4 x 24 x 7.5kg plate
Good squats and good bench. Annoyed I ran out of BCAA’s so going to be really sore tomorrow. Didn’t go crazy on abs as I have rugby on Saturday and I could imagine weighted leg raise would give me doms.
2.17 miles in 18.5 mins
(6 mins rest)
1.53 miles in 13 mins
Both averaged 8:30/mi pace. The grass was wet so I didn’t bother trying a sprint session as I know my feet would slip. My breathing feels bad after 5-10 mins of running then doesn’t get any worse so it’s deceptive when I do short runs and I worry I can’t maintain. I wasn’t selected for the 3rd XV for rugby and ended up having other commitments so quite lucky I didn’t have to withdraw from the squad.
At parents house next week so i’ll home gym Tues & Thurs. No rugby on Sat.
After the pressing I had no energy for anything. I tried single arm bench and couldn’t do 30kg so I did some face pulls and called it a day. Squats and press felt good, gym again Thursday.
Power Clean 3 x 4 x 70kg - no wrist straps so had to reduce the weight
Front Squat 4,4,4,3 x 92.5kg - solid
Clap Push-ups 3 x 10
Bench Press 5 x 3 x 95kg - always in control but some of the final reps were slow
A1 Chin-ups 30 total
A2 Seated Rows 50 total
A3 V-Situps 50 total
Bit of a superset to finish as I was short on time. Had no wrist straps so had to leave out RDL. Squats and Bench were good, i’m at my parents house and my weights are in the garage so back to squatting without any safety bars. I appreciate a home gym so much more this week, saves me a 50 minute round trip by car compared to what i’ve been doing the last 11 months and I don’t have to stop working at 3pm on lifting days to ensure a less busy workout.
No rugby this weekend as it’s the world cup final on tv, i’ll go up the road to the athletics track and do a dozen laps there.
V-Situps 4 x 12
DB Toe Touch 4 x 6 x 2.5kg per side
RKC Plank 4 x 20 secs
As you may have guessed I tired myself out having realised halfway through the 1st run that I had a chance of breaking 7 mins. Going to try and run twice a week now or one run + rugby. Was meant to be weights today but don’t have time so will just be doing the Wed session then rugby on Sat. Also going to get on top of my ab work. Promises promises.
Back Squat 5 x 3 x 125kg - pleased to get through it, needed 4 mins rest
OHP 5 x 3 x 62.5kg - back was a bit over-arched for some
Bent Over Row 3 x 6 x 75kg
Single Arm angled Press-up 3 x 6 - leaned on the bar at about 45 degree angle
Pull-ups 3 x 10
Abs: Hanging Leg Raise 4 x 11 x 3.5kg, RKC Plank 4 x 20 secs, Roman Twist 4 x 24 x 10kg plate
Squats were a challenge, knew I had the safety bar so pushed it hard. Eager to get the next session done and then will get a sports massage as i’m hurting everywhere.
Nice pitch but a clear slope that favoured us in the first half. We were slightly better in the backs and that’s where both our tries came from, and we scored a few penalties too. Referee made awful decisions but with no bias towards either team. I was a sub in the first half and we came in 18-8 up.
2nd half my first touch was from kick off and I tried to chip the winger but it was caught by a centre so I lost it. Not sure why I chose to kick as the winger was tiny, but I did so with my next possession too. Worst game i’ve played this season as I committed needlessly to some rucks and although I didn’t see it as I was rucking, they went blind on my wing and scored. We had lots of line breaks on the far side of the pitch and I made the effort to support but never got the ball. Frustratingly close a few times but we always seemed to drop it in the final 10 and they’d kick it from the floor back to the halfway line. They scored again through the middle and a nice drop goal to take the lead to 8 points.
Absolutely fuming as when we were 18-23 down I noticed an overlap and called for quick hands, 9 took a quick penalty and miss pass to 12, who popped to 13 and myself and the full back just had the winger to beat and he f**king cut inside to get hit by 3 players. Incredibly frustrating as they just don’t appreciate that simple hands down the line leaves me with an almost certain try. Also annoyed at the 12 who, despite being able to break 2 or 3 tackles in the middle, never attempts the offload to me or anyone else. Mostly annoyed at myself though.
These were the League leaders and unfortunately only a few teams can challenge them so having won against 2nd place and 3rd (us) they’ve pretty much secured promotion.
Bench Press 5 x 3 x 97.5kg - never in doubt but needed longer rest
BW Chin Ups 3 x 10
Seated Rows 3 x 10 x 120lbs - don’t need 5 sets of this as my triceps are really tight
Hollow Rock 4 x 20 secs
Twists 4 x 30 x 10kg plate
Good session. Got through my main lifts without any trouble and really glad to have a few days recovery. I’m going to sprint on Wed if the weather’s nice, if not then some mile repeats. Been doing 5 x 20 squats and 5 x 10 press-ups every day since the start of the month, just seeing how much it helps my general conditioning.
If you don’t follow rugby,chip and chase example here (1st clip), except i’d catch it myself. This is what I tried to do twice in the last game unsuccessfully.
I was running at pace and aiming for the ball to travel at least 10m before I caught it again. Did 10-12 runs with 3 mins rest, varying success. I then did → Football pitch angled sprints 102.5m - 13.4
Legs felt tired at top speed, likely from weights on Mon, so instead of a second long run I did a few more chip and chase attempts.
In a game situation I tend to guess the direction of the bounce but having got probably 1 from 7 right in practice I know i’m better off delaying my run and reacting. Quite a lot of volume today but not much flat out running.
Finished with abs. Hollow Rock 4 x 20 secs, Suitcase deadlift 2 x 30 secs per side with 20kg, V-Situps 4 x 12.
