08/06/21
Bike
3x10 mins in Zone 4
Did this exact same workout with same route, HR etc twice last month and was about 1mph slower both times. Could be a sign of progress.
1 Like
10/06/21
Cycle
Easy endurance ride
Nice steady ride with a couple of guys from the cycling club. For reference how easy it was, average HR was only about 120bpm and at some points was in the high 90s which is about the same as a brisk walk. I’m not sure how much of a training stimulus it’ll provide but at least it’s hours on the bike. More importantly had a great time with some nice company and weather.
I’ve also walked about 5 miles today and yesterday which probably isn’t worth logging alone but is nice for recovery and a bit of extra activity. I’ve a lot more free time now and I’m spending a lot of it being active.
2 Likes
11/06/21
Squat:
5x40
5x45
5x50
3x5x40
OHP:
2x5x30
8x30
3x5x30
Hammer upper-back row: 20x40, 15x50
Hammer dip: 15x70 (PR)
Hammer curl: 10, 20x8s
Decline crunch: 2x10xBW
OHP was taken from the floor and superset with squats. Today I did squats first but will do the reverse next time because it made it hard to brace for OHP when breathing heavy.
The squats finally felt half decent although hard to say much with such light weight. Was able to do a few of the reps explosively enough that I came onto my tiptoes. Once again had me sweating lots but I like it.
2 Likes
13/06/21
Cycle
Missed my usual club ride as something came up so just did a hard short one instead. About as hard as I’ve gone on a bike so far and not surprising looking at my HR data. That’ll take a couple of days to recover from.
I went fast though - I set PRs on 31 of the 32 Strava segments I rode. The one where I didn’t was as I was cooling down a bit just before home
2 Likes
14/06/21
Bench press:
5x50
3x55
11x65
3x5x50
RDL:
5x75
5x85
5x95
3x5x75
Seated dumbbell OHP: 15, 10x12.5s
Lat pull-down: 7x72, 8x54
Decline crunch: 2x11xBW
Adductors: 30x20, 15x30
Good workout and lots to be pleased with. That bench topset is only three reps shy of my PR but I’m about 10kg lighter and have had a lot less practice with the movement. RDLs were fast and assistance felt good too. Biggest improvement since last week though is how much less tiring and how much easier the workout was. Last week was warmer so that could play a part but I think my body has just adapted to this sort of work already and my conditioning is shining through. Up to the top set, the only rest between sets was to change plates, I never actually stopped moving, then when I wasn’t changing weights it was about a minute. I’m very conscious not to turn the lifting sessions into conditioning ones, that’s not why I’m doing them, but right now I just don’t need more rest.
I also got weighed this morning for the first time in about a month and I’m about 1kg heavier. I’ve been eating completely intuitively since then with A LOT of meals out so I’m very happy with that. In general I think my diet has been good recently.
My plan for now is to try and drop a bit more fat over the next month or so then maintain until the end of summer as I ramp up my cycling volume. After that it’s full steam ahead with muscle gaining and unless I get too fat I don’t plan to go into a deficit until late winter/early spring 2022.
3 Likes
15/06/21
Cycle - Intervals
3x:
9 mins Z4
1 min Z5
5 mins Z1
Followed by 30 mins Z2
This was tough and I think if I can recover from it it’ll pay off with some big fitness gains. First two intervals felt great, definitely easier to hold that HR than it used to be. The third interval was a bit harder but not too bad however my average speed dropped about 1.5mph which I find interesting. Legs were done by the end though and the final 15 mins of the 30 mins at Z2 were a slog. It’s the sort of thing I need to get good at though - emptying the tank then pushing on and recovering as fast as possible.
The progression for this workout each week is as follows (rest stays the same):
Week 1 - 3x10 mins Z4
Week 2 - 3x(9 mins Z4, 1 min Z5)
Week 3 - 3x(4 mins Z4, 1 min Z5, 4 mins Z4, 1 min Z5)
Week 4 - 1x10 mins Z4, 2x15 mins Z4
And so on adding time at Z5. Each three week wave will add 10 mins extra at Z4 until I get to 3x20 mins and I’ll take a recovery week in the seventh week. Works nicely with the three week 5/3/1 cycles too. As well as this session I’ll do an endurance one on Thursday or Friday then a hard group ride at the weekend which is a mix of intensities. From week eight onwards I may add a fourth day focussing on higher intensity efforts and remove them all from this day but that depends how I recover.
At the end of the four cycles I’ll probably aim for a 100+mi ride to round out the summer and end the cycling season, although I’m flexible to a few weeks so may finish a bit earlier.
1 Like
17/06/21
Cycle - Endurance
Long zone 2 base building ride. Nothing super hard or exciting but laying a good foundation.
2 Likes
18/06/21
Squat:
5x45
5x50
5x55
3x5x45
OHP:
2x5x30
8x35
3x5x30
Hammer upper-back row: 16x60 (PR), 12x60
Hammer dip: 16x70 (PR)
Hammer curl: 20x10s, 10x10s
Decline crunch: 2x12xBW
Good session and continuing the trend of being a bit easier than last week. Recorded my HR for the first time while lifting and I’m quite surprised how high it got. After the squat and OHP supersets it was getting into the 150s.
3 Likes
Congratulations on the PR!
Thank you!
1 Like
20/07/21
Cycle - Club Ride (slow)
No one else wanted to go on the faster ride so went on the slower one. It’s probably more fun but not as good in terms of training effect - mostly zone 1 work.
This route was my first ever ride with the cycling club on 11th April and my average HR was 147bpm, today it was 120bpm. I’ll take that as a pretty good sign my fitness has improved. To compare, below is my HR zones from today (black background) and my first ride (white background). The zones aren’t exactly the same but gives a good idea, the 20ish mins hard work on the first ride would have been zone 5 and I didn’t even get to zone 4 today.
2 Likes
22/06/21
Bench press:
5x55
3x60
6x70
RDL:
5x80
5x90
5x100
Seated dumbbell OHP: 16x10s, 12x15s
Decline crunch: 2x8xBW
Adductors: 30x20, 10x40
Didn’t feel 100% so skipped the supplemental and lat pull-downs. It was probably just because I worked out earlier than usual with a lot less food.
2 Likes
22/06/21
Cycle - Intervals
3x:
4 mins Z4
1 min Z5
4 mins Z4
1 min Z5
5 mins Z1
Followed by 30 mins Z2
Added an extra minute of Z5 work in the middle this week and it made the last five minutes of the interval suck so much more because you just can’t recover properly. Like last week the first two intervals were fine then the third became a bit tough. Unlike last week though, the 30 mins Z2 was not too bad today. Seems that once again my body is adapting quickly to what I throw at it.
I’ve also been getting in about an hour of walking per day for the last couple of weeks. Not much effort but I like to think the activity adds up.
1 Like
24/06/21
Cycle - Endurance
Longish steady ride with a couple of guys from the cycling club. These sort of rides are probably the least effective training wise but are the most enjoyable. I also went on an easy 10 mile ride yesterday to test a new saddle height, mostly zone 1.
I’m starting to feel the fatigue add up from all this riding and walking (last week was about 7hrs cycling and 4+hrs walking, this week will be more) but I’m pushing on. I want to build up as much fatigue as I can over the next few weeks then I have a forced week off where I’ll recover and hopefully realise lots of fitness gains. Then I’ll do another few hard weeks before tapering off for a couple of big rides on consecutive weekends to round out the season.
3 Likes
25/06/21
Squat:
5x50
5x55
5x60
3x5x50
OHP:
5x30
3x35
8x40
3x5x30
Hammer dip: 19x70 (PR), 15x40
Lat pull-down: 9x63, 7x54
Hammer curl: 2x10x10s
Decline crunch: 2x8xBW
Felt much better today. Supersetted OHP and squats as usual and got through them in 21 minutes including setting up the rack, warm ups and swapping the plates each set since I only used one bar - my improved conditioning really shone through again. Assistance was good, just working the muscles.
4 Likes
27/06/21
Cycle - Club Ride
Fastest ride yet, about equal with my longest but nowhere near the hardest.
This week I’ve cycled 130 miles and for about 8 hours and it’s paying off massively fitness wise. I’ve an app which gives you a fitness score each week based on the work you’ve done, it obviously isn’t super accurate but it gives you an idea. Anyway, for reference when I did my first club ride at the start of April I had a score of 12, four weeks ago at the start of this hard training block it was 24 and now it’s 45.
Between this and the gym I’m building up a lot of fatigue and my legs ache most days but I’m still feeling fitter each week. I cannot wait to deload and properly realise some of these fitness gains.
3 Likes
28/06/21
Cycle - Endurance
Another 40ish miles around Z2. I’ve read around a bit and the zone 1 and 2 I’ve been using seem to be a bit off. I got them from the garmin app’s default settings but the HR percentages for them don’t match basically others. It’s likely the HR they’ve been calculated off isn’t exactly what Garmin meant me to use. Doesn’t change much since I’ve largely been assuming they were a little off anyway. Now Z1 is under 116bpm and Z2 is 116-144bpm
2 Likes
29/06/21
Bench press:
5x50
3x55
10x65
3x5x50
RDL:
5x75
5x85
5x95
3x5x75
Seated dumbbell OHP: 15x15s, 6x15s
Lat pull-down: 11x64, 10x46
Concentration curl: 10, 8x9
One less rep on the bench top set than last time but I’m confident I could have gotten at least 11 reps if I had a spotter - without one I just didn’t want to risk it.
2 Likes
30/06/21
Cycle - Intervals
01/07/21
Cycle - Endurance
A lot of cycling in the last 24hrs. The interval session once again felt easier than the previous week despite being harder on paper. I am really pushing the volume this week.
1 Like
02/07/21
Squat:
5x50
5x55
5x60
3x5x50
OHP:
5x30
5x30
10x35
3x5x30
Hammer upper-back row: 16x60 (PR), 10x60
Hammer dip: 14x75 (PR), 20x40
Hammer curl: 2x15x10s
Tricep push-down: 2x15
Decline crunch: 2x10xBW
Good workout but feeling a lot of fatigue in my legs from the cycling the previous days - this and the last two rides I logged are all in about a 40 hour window. Anyway, it’s not a bad thing, it gives me chance to push my body and my goal right now is just to keep on pushing it. I have a forced week off in two weeks and I want to come into it with as much fatigue as possible. I have a lot of free time right now, more than I might have for a long time, and I intend to make the most of it.
Diet has been good recently - I’m eating three decent meals a day with usually one or two smaller ones in between and focussing carbs around my workouts. I’m trying to keep protein high and make sure there’s at least 20ish grams in each meal. That being said, I’m in no way being restrictive and I’ve eaten two tubs of Ben & Jerries in the last week because I fancied them. If anything though I’m getting leaner but I haven’t bothered to get weighed for a while.
I’m hoping to do a hilly 75 mile ride tomorrow which will be my longest by about 20 miles and definitely the hilliest too. There’s a 65 mile ride I might do on Sunday too if I’m feeling really crazy. Unfortunately the weather forecast isn’t great so that could stop me but hopefully not.
3 Likes