Longer session than usual, combining upper and lower and freeing me up to stretch and rest tomorrow. I found the squats comfortable and the only struggle was bicep curls. Didn’t feel any after effects from track yesterday so will look to push on in that session and once I get into a pattern I can start progressing the weights. I have a holiday and new flat this month so this is just experimentation and a sort of pre-conditioning and from early April I will have a weekly workout sorted.
5 x 68.5kg
4 x 68.5kg
3 x 73.5kg
2 x 78.5kg
1 x 83.5kg
Bench Press
5 x 88.5kg
4 x 93.5kg
3 x 98.5kg
2 x 103.5kg
1 x 108.5kg
Back Squat
5 x 108.5kg
4 x 113.5kg
3 x 118.5kg
2 x 123.5kg
2 x 128.5kg
DB Rows
3 x 10 x 29kg
DB Shoulder Press (1)
3 x 10 x 20kg
Chin Ups (1)
3 x 12
Descending reps on 3 big lifts, i’ve had the most experience with bench so was able to make the numbers about 90-95% effort, whereas the other two I underestimated on purpose and will tailor that in weeks to come. I did an extra rep of squats because it took me until 130kg to realise it wasn’t getting much harder and jumps of 7.5kg might have been more suitable. I need to increase DB press as my arms just cruise through 20s.
Forgot lunges and high knees, probably best I skip those as today was more intense than last week. 150 to 50m were only a tenth or two different compared to last week, the big change was in the intensity I brought into my first two runs, taking 2.1 secs and 1.2 secs off the 250m and 200m. This is my final session on shitty fucking gravel, it was also full of puddles and partly snowy today so really hard to run any kind of speed on it. I might do a 300m session at the weekend, then I move house on the 20th, followed by a conference in London 21st-22nd and a holiday 29th-6th so a little disrupted but if I can keep at least a few sessions constant each week that’ll suit me.
Slight alteration after failing on last rep of bench. I rushed into it after squats and took a 3 min recovery, probably needed an extra 15 secs rest and i’d have been fine. I increased shoulder press and decreased curls to get the intensity the same. Few more press ups and a touch more ab work. All in all a good birthday workout.
5 x 68.5kg
4 x 73.5kg
3 x 73.5kg
2 x 78.5kg
1 x 83.5kg
Bench Press
5 x 88.5kg
4 x 93.5kg
3 x 98.5kg
2 x 103.5kg
1 x 108.5kg
Back Squat
5 x 113.5kg
4 x 118.5kg
3 x 123.5kg
4 x 128.5kg
1 x 133.5kg
DB Rows
3 x 10 x 29kg
Shoulder Press (1)
3 x 10 x 21.5kg
Chin Ups (1)
3 x 14
Again I did extra reps in squats but the session as a whole was more challenging. I think the number of reps in power cleans made me complacent about technique on each one and I think I tweaked my back slightly as the squats that followed made it worse, will be sure to take my time and compose myself for each rep. Chin ups were a bit too much, 12 is fine if I do them nice and slowly from near dead hang.
Water on the track meant I had to meander on the home straight and that affected my rhythm. First rep I was in tempo mode and didn’t push it at all, then the next two were 90-95%, with the third rep leaving me too dead to try a 4th.
Tomorrow I move into my new flat, and my next track session will be on a real track with real markings in real running spikes, with any luck the change will be worth at least half a second per 100m.
Back on a real athletics track, times obviously improved from the surface but I put more effort into the 150m than usual and consequently struggled with the last part of the 100m. Away on holiday until April 6th where I will do my best to pick up where I left off.
Had no set recovery and some breaks were up to 8 minutes as I was also re-arranging my new flat at the same time. Was a nice basic workout to get me some doms and later in the week I can get into a real routine.
Had a week away doing neearly nothing, few press-ups and BW squats in the morning when I felt the need to, ate cleaner than when I went away last year which I was happy about, had eggs most days and took some protein powder with me as well as supps.
Had the time to fit in a quick upper body session before work, tried to switch back to alternate curls but those were much harder than standard curls and I didn’t want to reduce the weight. If I remember i’ll do a half-decent stretch tonight in preparation for track tomorrow.
Did the session with a friend, he’s not run before so I gave him a head start, turns out too much of one and the focus of chasing him led me to take almost two seconds off my 250m time from before Easter. Consequently my times suffered and the next four runs were all slower, but not by much. Didn’t have full recovery before walking lunges and seized up about 15m to go and had to do them in singles and doubles to get to the line. I was pleased with that as a first attempt, if I can consistently visit the track twice a week then I can establish a nice baseline a little quicker than that.
Had a busy few days and took longer than expected to recover from track, in fact my legs are still a bit sore. Will do track tomorrow as I have a day off, then i’ll try and fit in another weights session before the weekend is over.
I reduced the intensity of the first run and wasn’t pushing it enough in the 200m, which meant I was almost a second slower in those runs compared to last week. After that it picked up and I ran within 4 tenths of my pb’s for this session in 150, 100 and 50m. In terms of fitness I was much better and only dropped to the floor after the 100m. I feel like I can soldier through a leg workout tomorrow morning then take it easy over the weekend.
Didn’t have anything high enough for box jumps in my flat so settled for a single leg onto the bench. Bench was the perfect weight, squeezed out the final rep. Curls are still difficult, another few weeks and I hope to feel it become easier. Came on here to write this after doing abs and noticed i’d missed out squats! Had to go put the bar up and get them done, the weight is hard to judge until you get to the final rep but 103 was too easy so i added 5kg. Very pleased to have now managed three sessions in three days, and with a busy weekend ahead i’ll rest up and get back to the weights on Monday.
5 x 88.5kg
4 x 93.5kg
3 x 98.5kg
2 x 103.5kg
1 x 108.5kg
DB Rows
3 x 10 x 29kg
DB Press
3 x 10 x 24kg
DB Curls
3 x 10 x 19kg
Bodysaw
14 slow reps
Upped my press, pleased that it didn’t make it that much harder even though it equates to about a 10% increase. Bench was ok, my first week back doing under 5 reps so next week should be an improvement. I’m going to try and fit two track sessions in this week, with the eventual format being something like:
Day 1 - Cleans, Squat, Bench 5,4,3,2,1 & Upper Body
Day 2 - Stretch/Recover
Day 3 - Track 250, 200, 150, 100, 50
Day 4 - Cleans, Squat, Bench 3 x 5 & Upper Body
Day 5 - Track 4 x 300 or 2 x (300, 200, 100)
Day 6 - Cleans, Squat, Bench 3 x 10 & Upper Body
Day 7 - Stretch/Recover
I don’t know whether it’s better to do the whole week at a low intensity and slowly bring it up but i’m currently keeping the intensity high and adding in exercises one by one.
My training partner had a head start and he PB’d by several seconds, which I didn’t know would happen so I tried to get level with him by the line and ended up going too hard in the first few runs and didn’t have the energy to even get off the floor in time for the 50m let alone run it. I was surprised with the 200m time because it didn’t feel that fast, I used to do 5 x 200m in under 26 secs so it’s where my runs should be and I feel recovered now and will continue the sessions as usual this week.
Took out a few upper body exercises and put in some resistance bands and introduced power cleans to this session. Also finished with ab exercise, i’m doing the 4 day split from a 2011 article on T-Nation, they will be: Ab Wheel, DB Windmill, Landmine & Spiderman Press-ups. My abs are pretty shit, my aspirations in training are set to being a certain strength not a certain appearance but that doesn’t mean I should neglect the mirror muscles and the accompanying ‘core’ stuff which will ultimately make me stronger.
10 x 400m (4 mins rest) all in 80 secs
400m in 63.7
Ab Wheel, 3 x 10
Met up with my friend who’s training for Ironman and his session was 10 x 800m with 2 mins rest so I did the 2nd lap with him each time (so my recovery was more like 3 mins 20), then we had our standard fast twitch v slow twitch 400m race. Abs to finish. My calves will be really solid tomorrow so i’m doing my best to minimize the tightness.
The guy i’ve been doing track with has a friend who runs fitness bootcamps in South London and he put me forward as a trainer, so I was up watching the boot camp Friday morning and gymmed there. Good session, was a bit hesitant about smashing around power cleans on my first day there.
Apr 29
Back Squat
5 x 117.5kg
4 x 122.5kg
3 x 127.5kg
2 x 132.5kg
1 x 137.5kg
Bench Press
5 x 87.5kg
4 x 92.5kg
3 x 97.5kg
2 x 102.5kg
1 x 107.5kg
DB Rows
3 x 10 x 32.5kg
DB Press
3 x 10 x 25kg
DB Curls
3 x 10 x 17.5kg
Ab Crunch Machine
3 x 18 x 39kg
Meant to do Windmill ab exercise but forgot to find a video on technique and couldn’t get it to work obliques, only felt it in lats. I took a fitness class in an upstairs hall of a bodybuilding gym this morning, then the receptionist said i’m welcome to go down and train if I want. Looked an absolute fucking muppet in my vest, all 160lbs of me with my gloves on while this guy next to me just sat there growling and DB pressing 55kg, but I just quietly slipped my gloves off, got on with my workout and made a mental note to wear a t-shirt next time. The workout itself was mixed, I didn’t like the hooks for bench and struggled on that, but I was cruising through squats comfortably and they have a fixed T-bar and everything so have more options for exercises. I’m hoping he’ll give me a regular class each week and i’ll be able to do weights after that.
Great workout today, really enjoy the new training environment. I couldn’t be arsed to walk across the room to get the 25’s and the heavier ones were there so I think I set a shoulder press PB. Bench felt pretty good today, always does two days after another bench workout. Track tomorrow.
Also quite a momentous occasion today as I sold a set of weights that I got seven years ago, and tomorrow will spend the money from that plus my tax rebate on a shiny new Olympic Tri-Grip set. It’s the end of an era and those weights have seen me put 55kg on my bench and 80kg on my squat so i’m sad to part with them.
The first rep was too slow and that annoyed me and spurred me on to push the next four reps, which were all within 0.3 secs of my PB’s for this session, including equalling my 100m best with my legs far from their freshest. Did a kind of TUT with ab wheel, rather than reps I wanted a set time so did 3 x 1 minute which was tougher than ab wheel normally is. Bought my oly weights, first workout with them tomoz.