That’s why they’re so effective. And why I love to hate them! Nice work.
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Yep; I find heavy high-rep swings the same - you notice a gradual increase in fatigue as you’re doing them but as soon as you stop the world comes crashing down around you.
I remember a WOD I did some years back when I did crossfit that involved a load of wall-balls, and as difficult as they were I got to the point where I found it easier to take really short breaks (5-10s,) and then get back to it and just concentrate on getting through a few more reps, otherwise if I stopped for any longer my head/heart/lungs felt like they were going to explode.
Of course the problem with that type of tactic is eventually you do have to stop, and then it REALLY sucks…
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09/11 (Early AM)
Couch to 5K
- 5m walk
- 25m run
- 5m walk
35m total w/25m running
Pretty tough run today but I think I was very close to the 5K mark - probably within 100m of it.
I felt like I was going fairly quick at the beginning but I found a rhythm with it so I just kept it going. The music I was listening to had a decent tempo so I may have just been in sync with that.
I got out to around where I think the 2.5k mark is before having to turn around - probably only metres away if I was shy of it (the road I run along/fields I run alongside are fairly featureless so it’s hard to tell exactly where the mark would be).
After turning around I found the wind was pretty strong in my face so I was having to fight against that for a bit. Managed to keep the foot speed up but my lungs were struggling a bit and I finished out the last minute or so with a stitch. Finished maybe 20-30m short of where I started, so I obviously did a good job of keeping up the pace on the second half.
Left knee did have a touch of pain at about the 2 minute mark which faded and then came back again somewhere around the 6-7 minute mark, and then faded once more and didn’t bother me again after that (and doesn’t hurt now), so don’t think it was anything major.
Based on this I can see that 5k in 25m is doable for me, which is great, but is right at the upper-limit of what I can manage right now as this was much tougher than previous runs and it took a while to cooldown afterwards.
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10/11 (Early AM)
Warmup
-
Z-press - 3 @ 27.5, 32.5, 11 @ 36.25
(took about 7 mins) -
Deadlifts - 3 @ 77.5, 87.5, 13? @ 98.75
(took about 10 mins) -
Kroc rows (L/R) - 21/25 @ 30.5
(1m rest between arms)
Felt like a mixed bag today, although on paper things actually went pretty well; I was fast asleep when my alarm went off and felt pretty tired going through my mobility/warmup stuff, and generally felt a little sore all over from the rest of the week.
Z-press felt fine on the way up, and the first 7-8 reps on the top set were great but then my core started collapsing and my legs were aching from trying to keep them down. My arms/shoulders felt like they could’ve kept going but everything below the chest was done, but then I guess that’s sort of the point of using this variation.
Deadlifts felt strong on the way up but after the first few reps of the top set I realised I was almost just going through the motions. Tried to focus in a bit and pulled out a decent result - there’s a ? on the reps here again because I wasn’t sure if rep 7 was actually 7 or if I’d missed 6 (it often seems to be around that point that my counting goes awry…)
Kroc rows were tough again, but I managed to beat the reps from last time out on both arms. Left arm still feels less strong/comfortable than the right. I’m toying with a couple of ideas of what to do after this cycle is complete but I think these rows won’t be as regular a feature as they seem to be pretty draining.
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11/11 (Early AM)
Warmup
1 round, 50 reps each:
- Rack deadlifts (mid shin) - 50 @ 30
- BB rows (w/ straps) - 25+12+8+5 @ 30
- Hang power cleans (w/ straps) - 20+10+10+10 @ 30
- Back squats - ?+? (50 total) @ 30
- Standing OHP - 30+10+6+4 @ 5s (plates)
(1m rest between movements)
Completed in 16:34
This was challenging, but it didn’t completely floor me which was good. I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of days, trying to decide on the reps and weight, and finally settled on this. Think next week I’ll repeat this but go for 100 reps per movement using just the empty bar…
Deadlifts were fine - had a couple of pauses to get through all 50 but kept the bar in my hands without putting it down. Everything else had to be broken up.
Used straps for the rows and cleans as I knew grip would be a big problem otherwise (just from sweat if nothing else). Tried to engage my lats and pull back towards my hips for the rows as I knew the cleans would hit the upper traps. Think this worked well but I finished with a super pump in my lower-mid back - think I was probably arching my back slightly at the top of each rep as I tried to squeeze the lats.
Cleans were better than I expected, with the only real issue being that my bicep-forearm connecting area got sore despite using straps.
Squats are always metabolically challenging for me (because all my height is in my legs) and I switched to back squats to try and make it a bit easier, rather than having the bar pressed against my neck in the front rack position for 50 reps. Even so I had to break early and often to get through these. Can’t remember the exact breakdown now but I know I had my first pause at about rep 13 and I think I had to re-rack for the first time at about rep 20.
OHP was fine - I probably should have gone a slightly heavier weight but I didn’t know how difficult this would be over 50 reps. Basically did them strict apart from the last couple of reps where I did a small dip and leg drive, though to be honest I’m not sure it helped a lot.
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12/11 (Early AM)
Couch to 5K
- 5m walk
- 25m run
- 5m walk
35m total w/25m running
Tough run again, but overall I’d say I felt marginally better than last time and I’m confident I did hit the 5K mark this time - I have downloaded Strava now to track my runs and get this recorded accurately, but I’m obviously not as clever as I thought because I failed to set it up correctly and it didn’t record anything this time out…
Main issue again is just the lungs/general fitness really - felt like thing were tough by the 10 minute mark and then I just had to hold on from there. With a few minutes to go though I did increase my speed a bit, and then again with 1 minute left, to finish on a high a make sure I got far enough; good to know that was still in the tank.
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Weighed in on Sunday morning @ 13st 4.8lbs - I didn’t rebound this time, so maybe the cycle is broken! Waist measured 87cm/34.5in
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14/11 (Early AM)
Warmup
-
Front squats - 5 @ 50, 52.5
(took about 5:45) -
OHP - 5 @ 28.75, 33.75, 38.75
(took about 5:30) -
Kroc rows (R/L) - 28/24 @ 30.5
(1m rest)
Fairly quick workout today as I was only going for minimum reps. I did make a mistake on the front squats and accidentally miss out the first working set, which is why there are only two listed above - did the set of 50 and though “this feels a bit heavy” and only worked out afterwards that I must have done the jump wrong.
OHP felt a tad heavy on the top set as well which was odd - not to the point where I was really struggling or anything, but just more than expected.
Kroc rows went well, possibly due to less fatigue from the main work compared to normal.
2 Likes
15/11 (Early AM)
Warmup
- Plate G2OHs - 15 x 10 @ 25 bumper plate
(30s between rounds)
Got this done in 14:00 flat. First couple of rounds took about 30s so I figured this would basically end up as EMOM, but I then shaved off a couple of seconds each round to come in 30s under that projection.
This was tough, but breaking it down into sets of 10 was the right pacing to keep me short of red-lining. I did struggle with some knee pain in the right knee over the first few rounds, but I played around with foot positioning and tried to focus on pushing my knees and that helped a lot. It does feel a little tender now, but not terrible.
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16/11 (Early AM)
Couch to 5K
- 5m walk
- 28m run
- 5m walk
38m total w/28m running
Cold outside this morning. This run felt long, and was getting a but uncomfortable by the end but otherwise wasn’t too bad. I tried to hold back the pace a tad compared to the 25m run and at first it didn’t seem to make much difference but by the end I was slightly behind at each interval, but I only ended up finishing about 50 metres short of my starting point.
I did use Strava this morning but forgot to turn it off at the end (so it thinks I was going for 50-odd mins) and then I didn’t properly save it to review afterwards… pretty sure it said I covered 4.17 miles in all. Looking at the online route-mapper I get 5.42km/3.39miles of actual running.
I was worried about the right knee after yesterday’s session, and I was aware of it as soon as I got out of bed, but actually both were completely fine for the whole run!
2 Likes
17/11 (Early AM)
Warmup
-
Z-Press - 5 @ 26.25, 30, 33.75
(took about 5:30) -
Deadlifts - 5 @ 71.25, 82.5, 93.75
(took about 9:00) -
Kroc rows (L/R) - 25, 29 @ 30.5
(1m rest)
This was much tougher than it should have been - sleep was a bit off last night, and my legs felt sore when I woke up and I was generally feeling pretty fatigued and seemed to take longer than normal to get going.
Z-press went OK; not much to say there. Deadlifts felt a bit off due to the above, but I did them all beltless just to prove to myself that I could - I typically throw the belt on when I get to about bodyweight on the bar, but I want to be sure it’s not a crutch.
Kroc rows went pretty well, beating the reps again from last time out - I figured this was the only part of the workout where I needed to push myself so I made sure to put some effort in.
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18/11 (Early AM)
Warmup
1 round, 100 reps each:
- Rack deadlifts (mid shin, w/ straps) - 50+10s @ bar
- BB rows (w/straps) - 20+10s @ bar
- Hang power cleans (w/ straps) - 10s+5s @ bar
- Back squats - 10+10+5s+3s+1s @ bar
- Standing OHP - 30+10s+5s @ 5s (plates)
(1m rest between movements)
Completed in 23:21
This was rough. The above gives a rough idea of how the reps were broken down. Deadlifts and rows were done in a little over 3 minutes each, and cleans were a bit longer at 4 minutes or so. I used straps on all three as I knew grip would struggle for that amount of time. I wanted to try and not rack the bar at all during each movement, but I needed to a couple of times on the rows and cleans.
I knew squats would be the really hard part, and they were - took about 6:30 to get through them all. Started off with a couple of sets of 10 but then had to drop down to 5s until I got to about 75 and then used 3s from there, with a few quick singles to get the last few. Main issue was quads were trying to cramp up at the top of each rep.
OHPs went OK - got through 30 in one go out the gate, which felt pretty good and I thought I might steam through the rest, but then the fatigue built quickly and the pauses were getting longer. Used a few push presses to get through the last bunch.
2 Likes
19/11 (Early AM)
Couch to 5K
- 5m walk
- 28m run
- 5m walk
38m total w/28m running
Was feeling pretty tired on this morning, and legs were pretty sore, so I made a conscious effort to bring the pace down a tad from last time out - worked pretty well, probably covering about 250m less overall I reckon
I did remember to set Strava going properly this time and logged 3.91miles/6.25km in total.
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Weighed myself Saturday morning (after the run) instead of Sunday as I was away over the weekend. Came in @ 13st 4.6lbs, and waist measured 87cm/34.5in.
Followed up this up with a weekend of eating a lot more food than normal, and plenty of cake etc. Digestion was a bit of an issue to be honest - think I need to stop approaching these situations like a child because I just can’t handle it anymore and it’s not doing me any good…
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21/11 (Early AM)
Warmup
-
Front squats - 5 @ 50, 3 @ 57.5, 9 @ 63.75
(didn’t start timer properly for this) -
OHP - 5 @ 33.75, 3 @ 38.75, 7 @ 42.5
(took about 7:15) -
Kroc rows (R/L) - 30/27 @ 30.5
(1m rest)
Pretty decent session, albeit absolutely freezing cold in the garage this morning!
Very happy with the front squats, matching the reps on the top set from 2 weeks back, although last time I feel like there was a bit more in the tank whereas this time that 9th rep was fairly slow so was definitely the right place to cut it off. For TM calculation purposes I’d probably have to use 8 reps.
OHP was OK - again bar slowed right down on that 7th rep so I called it there. I was hoping to get 8 to match 2 weeks back but I think this was a fair result.
Kroc rows went surprisingly well, beating last time out and hitting the 30 mark with the right arm. I also closed the gap a bit on the left arm so that was a pleasant surprise.
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22/11 (Early AM)
Warmup
10 rounds:
- BB inverted rows (9 holes) - 10 x 10
- Pushups - 10 x 10
- KB goblet squats - 10 x 10 @ 16
(30s rest between rounds)
Completed in 17:56
First few rounds were taking about 1:10 to complete, which was slower than I was expecting going into this, but I guess I hadn’t factored in enough transition time as I felt I was getting through the movements quickly. By the middle rounds it had slipped to around 1:20-1:30 and then I think the last round was nearly 2:00 long.
Rows had to be broken up first, (think maybe on round 5?) but I tried to keep it quick, keeping my hands on the bar and just dropping my hips to sit on the floor for a few seconds before hitting the final few. Pushups lasted longer but had to broken on the last few rounds. Squats weren’t too taxing on the legs but hit the lungs harder instead and had be breathing hard right through the rest periods, which I guess made the rows a bit tougher too.
2 Likes
23/11 (Early AM)
Couch to 5K
- 5m walk
- 30m run
- 5m walk
40m total w/30m running
Cold this morning, and a little windy, but weather forecast was for rain so I think I got lucky!
Run was fine - tiring by the end but I didn’t push myself too hard again as I knew it would be a long one (and it definitely felt long halfway through it).
I got further than I have done previously (unsurprisingly) - Strava logged 4.18 miles/6.69km in total. It doesn’t give me a breakdown of run vs walking distance annoyingly, or maybe you have to pay for that, but using the only run tracker I’d estimate it was 5.5km/3.4 miles covered in the 30m run.
2 Likes
24/11 (Early AM)
Warmup
-
Z-Press - 5 @ 30, 3 @ 33.75, 9 @ 37.5
(took about 7:00) -
Deadlifts - 5 @ 82.5, 3 @ 93.75, 11 @ 105
(took about 12:00) -
Kroc rows (L/R) - 30/30 @ 30.5
(1m between arms)
Solid session all in all. Once again I felt like I had more left in my arms/shoulders on the z-press top set, but my core was giving out and the bar was slowing down as I fought to keep shape, so I called it there.
I had hoped to get up to 12 or 13 again on the top sets of deadlifts, but objectively 11 is a good result for the 1+ week. Rep 10 actually slowed quite a bit but I then took a breath at the top and rep 11 was smoother - still a bit slower than the early reps though so I didn’t push it any further.
As this the last ‘main’ session of this current setup I reaaaally wanted to get 30 on the left-arm kroc rows, and I did it! A fair amount of body english was required, and it obviously took a bit out of me as I only got to 30 on the right arm as well, but still a nice way to round things off and a solid improvement from when I started these 10 weeks ago (c.20 reps at a lower weight)
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25/11 (Early AM)
Warmup
20m EMOM:
- 2 chinups
- 3 dips
- 5 KB goblet squats @ 16
Underestimated my capabilities a bit on this one - I expected it to start off easy (which it did) but then for the back half to be tough as the fatigue built (it wasn’t). Every round was completed right around the the 30s mark, and I only felt marginally more tired by the 20m mark as I did at the 1m mark.
I think a big part of this was the goblet squats - they’ve jacked up my heart rate in the past on these assistance workouts and bled into the next movement/round, but here I think 5 reps just wasn’t enough to do it (or at least not at that weight), so I never really approached the red line.
Oh well, that’s the last ‘lifting’ workout of this cycle and tomorrow will be the last run. Pretty happy with what I’ve achieved over the past 10 weeks and trying to decide on what I’m going to move onto next…
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Quite a few updates to do all at once here, so bear with me…
26/11 (Early AM)
Couch to 5K
- 5m walk
- 30m run
- 5m walk
40m total w/30m running
Decent run - didn’t push too hard at the beginning but managed to get a tad further at the turn than last time out, and then pushed the last couple of minutes to make sure I at least made it back to the starting point, which I ended up beating by maybe 30-40m.
Strava says I covered 4.27 miles/6.83km all in all. Using the online run tracker I’d estimate I was actually running 5.78km/3.6 miles.
Happy to have got through the whole C25K program (ignoring the skipped runs on the last few weeks to make it work for 2x per week running), and very confident that I’m much fitter than when I started, so mission accomplished there!
Edit to add: got to sleep late the night before this, so I was a bit tired on getting up but it didn’t seem to affect me too much for the run which was good.
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