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Always Be Smashing

Hamstrings still feeling off today, so I elected to forgo any running.

07/30 13:00

Static stretching sequence x1

07/30 18:00

GSQT 3x5 40,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24,20,20
SL glute bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
Circuit x3
- KB snatch 2x2 40
- Diamond pushups x5
- KB snatch 2x2 40
- GSQT x3 48

Had to cut this session short because my hips twinged. Don't mix heavy DL and heavy swings, dummy! You already know this!!

Someday I'll learn...
 
No training on Wednesday. I woke up early to see if I felt like stretching, but the hips just felt too creaky, headed back to bed instead. At the very least, it's a different soreness than I've had before from DL form issues - this is solidly in the outer hips and upper hamstrings, rather than the lower back. So I think this soreness really goes back to karate practice - Saturday was a lot of hip work after a long time away from karate. At least, I'm going to keep telling myself that, since making a new mistake feels better than repeating an old one.;)

What should I take away from it? I need to find a way to get more hip abduction work in during periods when I'm not getting much karate practice. EYFS attacks the adductors, but I don't have anything in my regular repertoire to address abduction, other than kicking the heavy bag.

Had volleyball in the evening. We did pretty poorly, my team is all slow and rusty, just couldn't get much going. That said, my hips lo0sened up nicely, I felt fast, and I had a couple of spikes that I really hammered - the offense is coming back.

08/01 06:00

5min samurai getups
EYFS +

08/01 13:00

Static stretching sequence x1

Hips/hamstrings feeling pretty creaky afterwards, unsurprisingly.

08/01 21:15

GSQT 3x5 40,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24,20,20
SL glute bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
DL 1x5 365#
Pullups 7,6,6,5
ZQST 3x5 185#
BB side press 4x3 75#
Convict circuit 3x10

Tough session, between the residual hip soreness and coming into this with low energy due to prior housework. On the plus the side, feel like I'm figuring the Zercher out - finding that positioning where I can carry some weight without a lot of pain.
 
08/02 06:00

50min treadmill walk 3.6m

Opted for a light morning, since I'm still feeling sore in the hips, and was planning a recovery day since I was supposed to run a Spartan on Sunday.

... was supposed to, but discovered later in the day that the race wasn't in the city I thought it was in, and I booked a hotel 3 hours away. Can't get a close hotel for less than 700$! So... second time this year I'm not making it to a race I had planned. So dumb...
 
08/02 06:00

50min treadmill walk 3.6m

Opted for a light morning, since I'm still feeling sore in the hips, and was planning a recovery day since I was supposed to run a Spartan on Sunday.

... was supposed to, but discovered later in the day that the race wasn't in the city I thought it was in, and I booked a hotel 3 hours away. Can't get a close hotel for less than 700$! So... second time this year I'm not making it to a race I had planned. So dumb...
Ouch!!!
 
Took Saturday off to try to get past this hip soreness. Felt pretty normal again by Sunday morning.

After a bunch of housework, found myself with a decision - my usual Sunday endurance session, or a make-up higher intensity session. Answer became clear when I asked myself, "what would a Pavel do?" He'd punch things, obviously.

08/04 15:30

5min jump rope
Heavy bag 1min on 2min off x4
Burpees 15x3
Bent press 5x1 x side 28,32,40,40,40
 
08/05 06:00

5min samurai getups
EYFS+

Sequence updates starting today:
- SLDL with 16 (x8)
- Alternating between straight hindu pushups and prying (center,left,center,right). This is a bit draining, I suppose from the extra time spent under tension
- Cossacks with 16 (x8)

08/05 13:00

Static stretching sequence x1

08/05 20:45

GSQT 3x5 40,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24,20,20
SL glute bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
DL 1x5 305#
Pullups 6,5,5,4
ZSQT 3x5 155#
BB side press 4x5 60#
Convict circuit 3x10
 
I finished reading my copy of Q&D yesterday. It's an interesting read - obviously a lot of research and data collection went in to it. Pavel fans won't be disappointed.

My general interpretation is that, where S&S is about building a foundational level of strength and durability, Q&D is more about training your biochemistry for efficiency. Not that swings and pushups won't get you stronger, of course, it's just not the primary aim. There's a lot of WTH effect anecdotes that make it sound really appealing... but I interpret them as being people who were already impressively strong finding more ways to show what you can do when you're impressively strong. Gotta get impressively strong first. Hence, the book is for the "advanced" minimalist.

I don't see myself jumping into Q&D too soon, since
  • I still have too many gaps in my relative strength to call myself advanced.
  • I'm not a minimalist. In my mind, minimalism is for people who can't dedicate a lot of time/energy to training due to other priorities, like a competitive support or a physically-demanding job. I've got the luxury of time & energy - just have to do it before the kids are up and/or after they go to bed.
That said, Q&D might be a good strength maintenance program the next time I want to do a base building cycle.
 
08/08 06:00

5min samurai getups
EYFS +

08/08 15:00

Static stretching sequence x1

Right near the end of the rag doll pose, something in my hamstrings released, and it felt like I dropped a couple of inches. Didn't feel it anywhere else - even the seated toe touch, and one might assume those two would be connected. But it was awesome.

08/08 20:45

GSQT 3x5 40,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24,20,20
Bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
DL 1x5 305#
Pullups 6,5,5,4
ZSQT 3x5 155#
BB side press 4x5 60#
Convict circuit 3x10

Felt strong tonight - light day feeling light. Wrist seems to have healed up enough to start working bridges again. Think I'll keep the wall overhead extensions for a while - my overhead mobility is really lousy, and they only cost me a minute or so for 3x5.
 
08/10 08:00

Maybe 4.5m run 44min
Ave HR 168, max HR 186

This is just not turning out to be my year for races.

This was supposed to be a 10k. And it actually goes through my neighborhood, so one might assume that I'd know where I'm going.

However, at about 4.something miles in, I made a wrong turn. Then I realized that I had cut about 0.3 miles off the course.

Now, if I had been in a reasonable mindset, I would have just headed back to were I messed up, and kept going. Would have added probably just 0.25 miles to my run.

But, at that point, I was really tired - I was going after it, as evidenced by my heartrate numbers. And I was really angry about making the mistake. And I was 100 yards from my house. So I just bailed off the course and went home.

With that, so far I'm 2 for 5 in completing races I've signed up for. And 2 of those failures are just due to being dumb. :oops:

3 more to go... hopefully I can get back over 50% completion rate at least.

Past all that... I am really struggling with the lack of improvement in my running. I'm getting in reasonable easy miles, I think, but experience and general internet wisdom seems to say that I need more hard miles if I want to get faster. Which would take recovery away from other strength work.

So... what would benefit me most among my conditioning targets? Running faster? KB snatch endurance? Jumping higher? Punching harder?

Don't know. They're all fun.
 
My experience and that of my peers and training partners says for locomotive endurance training...
  • The easy training days are usually too hard
  • The hard training days are usually too easy, and there are too many of them
But without a doubt the S.A.I.D. principal applies. If you want to get really good at endurance events, you need to log the kilometers (and be willing to suffer a bit...)

Do you mostly run on roads or do you ever get any trail running in? I find running trails is great for the 'hard' days. Added benefit is that I think trail running really helps with OCR

Pick up a copy of Training for the Uphill Athlete (House|Johnston|Jornet)
 
I was really angry about making the mistake. And I was 100 yards from my house. So I just bailed off the course and went home.
LmaoROFLROFLROFL
Someone once said that we either get good times or good stories, but rarely both; I would start doing races just to have stories like this to tell.

My experience and that of my peers and training partners says for locomotive endurance training...
  • The easy training days are usually too hard
  • The hard training days are usually too easy, and there are too many of them
Interesting!
 
Do you mostly run on roads or do you ever get any trail running in?

Well... to my shame, almost all of my running right now comes in the form of heartrate-regulated treadmill slogs. Running hasn't been my focus, but these are convenient enough that I get them in regularly, and they don't take away from my other training.

That said, I'd be happy just seeing some S.A.I.D. on the treadmill at this point. I had hoped that I'd be able to see some upward trend in the distance I'm able to go staying at Maffetone heart rate, but it really seems to have stagnated for the last few months.

I don't think I really put in much in the way of hard days running-wise, I put my hard effort in elsewhere (kettlebells, heavy bag, burpees). So maybe it's just as simple as that I shouldn't expect running to improve without some hard running days. And if so, what (if anything) am I willing to give up in order to do some hard running days. Can't just throw another thing on the pile...

Pick up a copy of Training for the Uphill Athlete (House|Johnston|Jornet)

Will do.

Someone once said that we either get good times or good stories, but rarely both

Ha! Sounds about right - a foul-up story is usually just as good in the telling as a success story, if not more so.
 
Well... to my shame, almost all of my running right now comes in the form of heartrate-regulated treadmill slogs. Running hasn't been my focus, but these are convenient enough that I get them in regularly, and they don't take away from my other training.

That said, I'd be happy just seeing some S.A.I.D. on the treadmill at this point. I had hoped that I'd be able to see some upward trend in the distance I'm able to go staying at Maffetone heart rate, but it really seems to have stagnated for the last few months.

I don't think I really put in much in the way of hard days running-wise, I put my hard effort in elsewhere (kettlebells, heavy bag, burpees). So maybe it's just as simple as that I shouldn't expect running to improve without some hard running days. And if so, what (if anything) am I willing to give up in order to do some hard running days. Can't just throw another thing on the pile...



Will do.



Ha! Sounds about right - a foul-up story is usually just as good in the telling as a success story, if not more so.

Even though I would almost rather stand in a cold shower with all my clothes on ripping up twenty dollar bills than run on a treadmill... they do have their purposes, and can be effective. If I recall correctly Joan Benoit Samuelson won the inaugural women's Olympic marathon (L.A.) doing a vast majority of her training on a treadmill.

Ask yerself... what would Hulk do? Nuff Said
 
Ask yerself... what would Hulk do? Nuff Said

Quite right, sir. Quite right.

08/12 06:00

5min samurai getups
EYFS +

08/12 14:00

Static stretching sequence x1

08/12 18:30

GSQT 3x5 40,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24,20,20
Bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
DL 1x5 325#
Pullups 7,6,5,4
ZSQT 3x5 165#
BB side press 4x5 65#

Little groaning from the elbows on the eccentric phase of the presses. Probably some pullup fatigue, but seems like I may have been flaring my elbows a little too - tuck 'em in.
 
08/13 06:00

Was feeling frustrated with my running training, and didn't have a new plan, so went with something fun.

Circuit x5
- 0.5m treadmill run
- KB snatch 2x5 28
- Pushups x5

08/13 13:00

Static stretching sequence x1

08/13 19:00

GSQT 3x5 40,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24,20,20
Bridge 3x5
KB snatch 10x5 32
TGU 5x1 x side 40,48,40,48,40

Spent some time today looking up running training strategies. For the last few months, during my 60min run/walks I've been trying to keep my HR at Maffetone for the whole time. Generally that means I've only been running 20-something minutes until I have to drop to a fast walk. I suspect that's my mistake - I really need to work on getting total running time up.

So, new strategy: run as long as I can based on HR, but once I'm forced to walk, drop speed way down to let HR drop, and start up running again once I have some headroom. Maybe even hop off the treadmill and do some pushups. But goal needs to be to accumulate more time actually running.

Need to get a 2nd timer or something to track how long I'm actually running.
 
No training on Wednesday. Woke up early, but body recommended more sleep. Had volleyball in the evening. Double-header, and pretty good games all around. But, as usually, we lost most of them. Oh well. Hips were pretty sore in the morning next day.

08/15 06:00

5min samurai getups
EYFS +

08/15 17:15

GSQT 3x5 40,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24,20,20
Bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
DL 1x5 325#
Pullups 7,6,5,4
ZSQT 3x5 165#
BB side press 4x5 65#

08/15 21:15

Convict circuit 3x10
Static stretching sequence x1
 
08/16 06:00

60min treadmill walk / run 4.3m

New strategy starts today - lower HR target, walking at lower speed to try to get overall running time up. Used run/walk speeds of 5.0/3.0, and got only slightly better than 1:1 ratio overall.

Have been reading Andrew Reid's "Run Strong". By the standards he sets there, I've got a weak aerobic system. That's always the problem with reading about fitness - you constantly discover new weaknesses.

I suspect that in order to make this strategy pay off, I probably need to add volume. Next week, will try to add a run Wednesday morning, rather than a long flexibility session. Hopefully with this easy pace it doesn't drain the batteries, but we'll see.

08/16 13:00

Static stretching sequence x1

08/16 16:30

5min jump rope
Heavy bag 1min on 2min off x6
Burpees 20x3
Bent press 5x1 x side 28,32,40,40,40

Bent presses not feeling very solid today, some kind of technique issue I think. Or tired back, maybe.
 
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