Strength Training, W3:D1

Clean Pull, 4 x 105/5

Romanian Deadlift, 4 x 155/6

Kettlebell Forward Lunge, 4 x 24kg/6

Bench Press, 4 x 125/6

One-Arm Standing Cable Row, 4 x 40/6

Push Press, 4 x 75/6

Single-Arm Pulldown, 4 x 50/6

Cable Rotation, 4 x 40/10

T-Push and Hold, 4 x 45 sec.

Last week, I realized I'd lowballed my bench press in week one, so these should be the right weights for these past three weeks.  My range of motion on the Romanian deadlifts felt compromised; at kettlebell class this past weekend I learned some new hamstring correctives that I start doing to address this.  It doesn't help that 155 pounds is awesome for my hamstrings, but murder on my arms.

Someone left the bumper plates on the floor, so I got to use them for my clean pulls, which made them more comfortable.  I've got to find a way to use these every time.

Strength Training, W1:D1

I haven't been blogging, but I have been in the gym.

After doing another 12 weeks of power training, I decided to tack on three to six weeks using the program for strength training.  Here's what I did today:

Clean Pull, 4 x 105/5

Romanian Deadlift, 4 x 145/6

Kettlebell Forward Lunge, 4 x 24kg/6

Bench Press, 4 x 115/6

Single-Arm Pulldown, 4 x 50/6

Bent-Over Dumbbell Alternating Row, 4 x 40/6

Push Press, 4 x 75/6

Cable Rotation, 4 x 40/10

T-Push and Hold, 4 x 45 sec.

Everything other than the clean pulls were in super-sets.  The deadlifts should have been at 155, but I realized after my last set that I'd loaded the wrong amount of weight.  I'd also intended to do one-arm standing cable rows rather than bent-over dumbbell alternating rows, but the adjustable cable machine was in use (and broken), so I substituted dumbbells for cables.  I guess that's one of the advantages of having a variety of exercises to go to for each moment (and having your notes handy to know the load).

Cherry Tree Results

Last Sunday, I ran the Cherry Tree relay in Prospect Park, my first 5K in a long time.  First half of the race felt great.  I timed myself at 25.00.80; official South Brooklyn Running Club results, which C. got conscripted into helping out with recording, had me at 27:38 for ~ 3.35 miles.  I didn't do much training for this, but I'm confident I could have shaved two or three minutes off my time if I'd run the entire second half.  After the race, I joked that I felt great in two-minute increments, like sports-conditioning class.

Plyo Fury

That’s me on the left, doing lateral plyo pushups with the Bosu ball. These were tough—in the reflection, one can see me compensating with my butt too high in air.

Leg Circuit Times

I haven't been blogging, but I have been training.

Today, I finished the leg circuit. It should have been done last Friday, but real life and Wildwood intervened. Despite two tournaments in as many weekends, I was feeling good, and thought it was going to show. Below are all the circuit dates and times:

Week One
6/21, 21'45" and 6/24, 19'42"

Week Two
6/28, 25'02" and 7/1, 24'08"

Week Three
7/5, 26'34" and 7/8, 26'06"

Week Four
7/11, 24'14" and 7/14, 24'25"

Week Five
7/18, 26'33" and 7/21, 23'47"

Week Six
7/26, 17'40" and 8/2, 18'58"

Overall, the times are pretty slow, but I was most disappointed with today's time being slower than last week's penultimate session. Going into today's, I figured that, with the finish line in sight, I would have ripped through it. With only the gym clock to go by, it's difficult to time the individual rounds, but I want to say that after the first two circuits I was on pace to finish in 15 minutes. Perhaps my legs were more tired from two consecutive weekends of tournaments than I knew.

Certainly, this was worthwhile, but the best I have to say about this is that now I have benchmarks to work against for next year.

Yesterday's Pre-Season Sports Conditioning

In case you wanted to see what it looked like. I'm just off camera to Joël's left.

Leg Circuit

I’ve wound up with an inexplicable deltoid strain/sprain to my left shoulder, so I’m giving it a break for a few days, lest I end up with something that’s going to haunt me all season. In search of something to do this week that wouldn’t involve my shoulder, I dove into Vern Gambetta’s leg circuit, which I’d read about on Dusty’s blog.

I figured that 11+ weeks of weight training qualified me as having a “good base” for beginning this program, which meant starting with three circuits at full repetitions.

Warmup: Five minutes on the treadmill at 7’30” pace.

Dynamic warmup (from Coach Dos’s Cardio Strength Training): Knee skips x 2, leg swings x 2, carioca stepovers x 2, Atlas lunges x 2, lateral 180-degree squats x 2, Spiderman lunges x 2, three-quarter speed accelerations x 2 (all movements were done for the length of the room).

Bodyweight squat x 20
45sec. rest
Alternating lunge x 10 each leg
45sec. rest
Alternating stepup x 10 each leg
45sec. rest
Jump squat x 10
3min. rest

Time for three circuits: 21’45”

Cooldown: Three minutes of stretching.

Despite my concerns, the Atlas lunges and Spiderman lunges did not bother my shoulder. As for the actual circuit, it wasn’t easy, but I also felt fairly prepared for the workload. That being said, I was much slower on the bodyweight squats than I expected to be (I guesstimate each of those sets took me ~ 40secs.), and on both the bodyweight squats and jump squats had difficulty breaking parallel. I was pleased with the workout, however, the future of this progression is up in the air depending on how things shake out with my shoulder and wrapping up my power training.