Caesium32's Log - Cycling With a Side of Lifting

Training Training Logs
823

That’s interesting to me because I have pretty much the opposite reaction to being beaten by women. It motivates me significantly more than being beaten by a man. It’s happened many times and it’s never gotten to me. In comparison, being beaten by certain men has actually gotten to me. One of my main goals is to run faster than some elite (American) women over various distances: mile, 5k, 10k. So maybe that helps my psyche, dno.

Lots of great advice here!

The only thing that I could debate is, trying to improve times weekly etc. That’s my mindset in a peeking phase, but like @ironOne said, it can be very taxing. So, in a backup/buildup period, holding back and getting more work in, just improving fitness & work capacity in general, can set you up well for that peaking style phase. But I do agree with trying to improve something per week, it can be a subset or longer variation of your goal distances. For example, improving your 300m or 500m, or improving the amount N of 300’s @ X pace and Y rest you can hit in a session etc. So like he said, tracking everything properly is very important: precision can help you improve considerably faster, that’s for certain.

It’s possible but, it’s just like lifting. If you want to rep 225 in bench without wiping yourself out, you’re going to need a big bench. So, for running, you can tempo those distances, staying nice and relaxed, getting in the volume/work, it’ll help. But to improve the most, you’ll also need to hit subsets of those distances at faster paces, ie 200’s/300’s for the 400, 200’s/400’s/800’s/1k/1200’s for the 1500. Those workouts can get pretty taxing, mostly dependent on the rest intervals. So I guess it depends on what “half decent” means. You can make lots of progress without flooring it, and you can run decent times without wiping yourself out - if they are a subset of your max. But at max, 400m through 5k are pure pain. At max effort, there’s absolutely no way around it.

Longer running @ ~10k to half pace for 1500 is also beneficial, since it’s more aerobic than anaerobic.

I have a book (Black Book Redux) with some elite workouts in it, people would be surprised by some of the 1500m workouts. Here’s one page:

3024×4032 1.17 MB

Also, regarding @IronOne’s pain threshold comments. Here’s an excerpt from the 5k section:

3024×4032 969 KB

^^ For non-elites, I think those same words can be applied to the 1500m & mile.

peace!

2 Likes
824

23/2/18
C2W1D3

Superset
Box jumps: 3x5xlow
Shoulder dislocates: 3x10

Face pulls (30s rest): 10x10

Leg press:
15x50
12x80
3x15x100
3x10x120

Back extensions: 3x8x10

Ab wheel rollouts: 3x8

Couldn’t get a squat rack so settled with leg press, at least it’s something. Assistance was good, I’m going to try and include box jumps more often.

1 Like
825

Thank you, that’s a great post. I’ll have to read it a few times to soak it in but it’ll help me a lot.

1 Like
826

Cool np! Glad it could be of some help.

peace dude

827

24/2/18
Conditioning/active recovery

1 minute treadmill at 10km/h
6kg left arm dumbell snatch x10
1 minute treadmill at 10km/h
6kg right arm dumbell snatch x10
1 minute treadmill at 10km/h
6kg dumbell thrusters x10
1 minute treadmill at 10km/h
6kg dumbell thrusters x10

Not too hard but got the heart rate up and me breathing heavier.

828

Despite mentioning it a week or so ago my diet still hasn’t improved much so I’m going to go back to tracking what I eat roughly using an app. To keep me accountable I’m going to post my average calories and macros each week.

Also need to get my scales working still and some progress pictures.

3 Likes
829

26/2/18
C2W1D4

Overhead Press (TM-45):
10x20
5x30
3x35
10x40 (RPE 9)

Superset
Overhead Press: 5x10x30
Dumbell Rows: 4x10x24, 20x24

Press ups superset with dumbell curls: 2 sets to near failure

Treadmill: 4 minutes at 10km/h

Planned to cap the PR set at 10 reps to save myself for the BBB sets but that was actually where I’d have stopped anyway. BBB sets were tough but got easier as they went on, dumbell rows were the opposite but I got a great MMC.

2 Likes
830

27/2/18
C1W2D1

Deadlift (TM-120):
5x60
3x80
3x90
16x100 (PR) (RPE 8.5, DOH)
3x3x80

Leg press:
12x60
Drop set: 10s isometric- 12x70 -5x140 -5x100 -10x60
15x80

Lying leg raises: 3x10

Lat pull down: 5x10x40

Beat last time’s effort by 4 reps which is great. It’s hard to tell how much more I could do- reps 10 to 16 were all a similar difficulty but doubt I had more than two left in me. Last time when I tried another set a couple minutes after my grip failed on the fourth rep so I’ve definitely beat that. Pulled my first callus off too so I guess that’s a notch on the hardcore scale. Aiming for 20 reps now in a couple of weeks.

Tried something new with leg press by doing an isometric to sort of active myself then some explosive reps after before the heavy stuff. Not sure if I really liked it.

4 Likes
831

28/2/18
Conditioning- Swimming

Athletics was cancelled due to snow so swam instead and did eight rounds of the following:

25m front crawl
25m breast stroke
2 mins rest

Each round of swimming took around 80-90s and the front crawl part about 30s. I really pushed the last front crawl and got it done in the low 20s which I’m happy with.

3 Likes
832

2/3/18
C2W2D2

Bench press:
10x20
5x40
3x60
2x70
2x80 (RPE 9)
3x5x60 (3 ct pause)

Cable rows:
3x RP: 18-10-5x30

Didn’t really follow 531 at all today. I wanted to try something heavy with my grip a bit wider since I’ve been doing close grip for a while and I just felt like doing my own thing to be honest. Felt out of the groove with it which I guess is to be expected so I’ll see how it feels next week. The last two sets of 60kg started feeling good though.

Had to sort some stuff out so left the gym early.

4 Likes
833

So even though I’d planned to track my food this week I’ve done a pretty dreadful job. Between forgetting to do it or just eating things I couldn’t really track I only got one complete full day.

However, I’ve cleaned up what I’ve been eating a lot, I think just because I was intending to track it so I guess that served its purpose. I don’t think I’m eating as much as I was before though so I need to make more effort to eat more. I’ll try to have a protein shake most nights before bed.

1 Like
834

5/3/18
C2W2D3

Superset
Squat:
2x5x20
3x60
3x65
3x70
3x75
3x80
5x70
10x60
Chins: Sets of one and two reps

Back extensions: 3x10x10

Face pulls: 4x15x15

Rope cable curls: 1 set to failure

Squats moved well and most importantly I didn’t have any SI discomfort or pain at all other than some tightness during back extensions. Increasing the intensity a little this week and next to see where I’m at strength wise but keeping it within reason.

1 Like
835

I like to follow the systems for the most part, so not being able to toggle lifts at will with 531 caused me more stress than it should have sometimes lol.

836

As much as it’s probably best for me to just follow the program I think it’s important for me to enjoy what I’m doing somewhat so on days where I feel like going a little off track I will, provided I don’t do it too often.

2 Likes
837

Welcome to autoregulation! It’s good to know when you ‘need’ something. Not to be confused with ‘wanting’ something though!

So what’s your current goal(s)?

838

I outlined my goals for the end of this year in post 743 but to summarise they’re 160kg deadlift, 100kg bench, 60kg overhead press and to back squat 25 reps with my bodyweight. I also would like to run 400m in under 75s and 1500m under 6:30 minutes but I’m not sure how ambitious these are.

The squat goal I care about less because they’ve been causing me some pain so if I can’t fix it eventually I’ll probably swap them for front squats. However, I think it’d require a good mix of conditioning, mental toughness and strength to rep out my BW that much so I’d like to try and do it.

In terms of more recent goals I’m going to work up to some maxes in a few weeks and would like to bench 90kg, deadlift 140kg, overhead press 3x52.5 and be comfortable back squatting 100kg again. After that I’m going to be dieting a bit in line with the T-ransformation so during that time I’d be happy to maintain my strength if it means improving my physique. Then back to getting stronger after that.

Thanks for popping in!

EDIT: not sure it replied to you like I meant to @IronOne

7 Likes
839

6/3/18
C2W2D4

Superset
Overhead press (TM-45):
10x20
5x30
5x35
15x37.5 (PR) (RPE 9.5)
3x42.5
10x30
Chin ups: Sets of 1 and 2 reps

Superset
Dumbell decline bench: 3x10x18
Dumbell rows: 3x15x18

Treadmill: 5 minutes at 10km/h

Average workout, the run at the end was good. Managed to keep myself distracted rather than thinking how much it sucked which helped a lot. Chins are feeling strong recently.

1 Like
840

I think you’re already very close to that 60kg OHP goal.

841

I hope so! I think out of all my goals that one will probably be the easiest to get. My overhead press has been making great progress recently.

1 Like
842

Looks like all of your goals will fall this year. Nothing seems out of line from where your lifts stand currently. Your running goals and the t-ransformation should pair together nicely.

Good stuff! If anything, you’re sandbagging! :slight_smile:

2 Likes