Return of the King

sunnyjim wrote: »

Ah go on, you have to post a vid!

We'll see :P

sunnyjim wrote: »

Did I read in another thread that ya live in London?! I was over there last weekend, and there was tons of people out road running, even in Mayfair and Parklane!

Yep, I do. Summer has landed!

Monday July 7th:

Squat
20kg x10
45kg x8
75kg - 5 sets of 5 reps ... this nearly killed me. Took ages. Didn't particularly enjoy it
45kg x8

Military Press
20kg x10
45kg x8
45kg - 5 sets of 5 reps
---
Deadlift (stiff leg)
45kg - 3 sets of 8 reps

Bent Over Row (oly bar, palms up)
45kg - 3 sets of 12 reps
---
High Row (similar to angled pull up, machine)
40kg per arm - 2 sets of 5 reps

Incline Press (machine)
20kg per arm - 3 sets of 15 reps ... so much easier than using dumbbells

V-Squat (machine)
45kg x15 x5 x10 ... I was experimenting with different starting depths. This made the exercise more difficult, which explains the variation in reps
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Bicep Curl (machine)
10kg per arm x8
15kg per arm x8
20kg per arm x8
25kg per arm x8 ... this machine feels good. Will use it more often
---

Today would have been my outdoor run but the weather was brutal.

I decided to try a 5x5 strategy for my squat today. Just about managed 5x5 on 75kg. Next time I'll up it and see how I get on. Today is probably the most volume I've done for a while (on squats).

I then ventured to the machine area to check out the new equipment. Some good ones such as the high row (pull up where you can add loads of weight) and the bicep curl machine. Will check out some others next time.

Weighed in at 73kg on the dot this morning so I've lost about ~1.5kg in just under the past 2 weeks. I've been steering clear of bread, pasta, rice, and the likes. It is driving me crazy :pac:

Tuesday July 8th:

Some very quick & light stuff at home. This was basically a day off.

Shoulder Press
6kg per arm - 3 sets of 10

Shrugs
6kg per arm - 3 sets of 10

Bicep Curl
6kg per arm - 3 sets of 10

Tuesday July 15th:

Run 2.1 km (9:43 mins) ... started at 12kmph, increased speed by 0.1kmph every 100 metres until at 14kmph. I find this a good warm up for lifting heavy on squats or deadlift
---
Deadlift
60kg x5
80kg x5
102.5kg - 5 sets of 5 reps ... personal best on 5x5
60kg x12 ... was going for 20 reps, but too tired after the 5x5
60kg x12 ... was going for only 8 to make up the 20, but rounded it up to 12 to match previous set
---
Shoulder Dislocates (studio bar)
3 sets of 10

External Rotation (dumbbell)
5kg - 3 sets of 8 reps
---
Lateral Raise (lying, 45 degree, dumbbell)
5kg - 3 sets of 8 reps

Sit Ups (5kg dumbbell between ankles)
3 sets of 10 reps
---
Tricep Extension (dumbbell)
5kg per arm x20 x20 x10
---
Bicep Curl (machine)
10kg per arm x15
15kg per arm x10
20kg per arm x10
25kg per arm x5
30kg per arm x5
65kg per arm x0.001 ... I mistakenly thought that using both arms together would mean that I could divide the total by two and be lifting 32.5kg per arm, not 65kg per arm. Apparently that is not how the machine is set up
20kg per arm x10
---
Crunch Machine (15kg at feet)
5 sets of 10 reps
---
Various lower body stretches
---
I was hoping to finish off with some facepulls and pulley external rotations but the gym was packed and I was wrecked so I hit the high road.

I accidently added 200+ml of porridge oats to my 500ml flask, along with some protein. The flask was alreay half full before adding water. Suprisingly it all mixed well and I'll be bringing oats like this in my PWO shake in future.

In the middle of my 5x5 deadlifts some muppet woman almost thumped me on the head as they started reversing to squat waaaayy back out of the rack with an oly bar. Had to shout at her as saw her coming out of the corner of my eye. Her bar ended up where my head would have been as I came up. She then very timidly stopped and let me continue and stood well back for the rest of my sets. Felt kinda bad shouting at her but she already hit someone in the head a month or two ago doing the samething. It is not as if she couldn't see me - she was looking in the mirror and had full visibility. Idiot.

My London Triathlon pack has just arrived in the post. So far I'm still registered for the Olympic distance (swim 1.5 km, bike 40 km, run 10km). Following the Blenheim Tri I was going to change my distance in the London to half of the above. However, now I'm thinking that I may leave it as the full Olympic distance and go out in a blaze of glory. If things go according to plan I may be able to squeeze in a bit more cardio than usual over the next 4 weeks.

Tuesday July 15th (workout 2)

Bike 10.9km (45 mins) ... easy outdoors

Stopped off a a running club up the road. Will try to get there for 7:30pm on Tuesday or Thursdays to check it out.

Squat (back)
20kg x10
25kg x10
27.5kg x10

Squat (front)
20kg x10
25kg x10
20kg x10

Bent Over Row (oly barbell)
20kg x10
25kg x10
27.5kg x10
---
Deadlift (stiff leg)
40kg x10 x10 x10

Bent Over Row (oly barbell)
40kg x10 x10 x10

Lateral Raise
8kg per arm x8 x8 x8
---
French Press (oly bar) ... testing this out
20kg x10 x10 x10
25kg x10 x10 x10

Shrugs
15kg plate per arm x10 x10 x10
20kg plate per arm x10 x10 x10
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One Arm Row (dumbbell) ... haven't done this for months
18kg per arm x8 x8 x8

Bradford Press (mini barbell) ... testing this out
20kg x8 x8 x8
---
Halbert Raise ... haven't done this for months
4kg per arm x10 x10 x10
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Pull Ups
x5 x5 x5
---
High Row (pull up machine)
40kg per arm x5 x5 x5
35kg per arm x5 x5 x5
20kg per arm x25
---

Really bad chest pain now, not in the muscle but somewhere else behind. It all started with the front squat and must have something to do with the weight pushing down on my arms as they try to get into correct position.

Tuesday July 22nd:

Walk 5.6km

Went to Physio on Tuesday evening. She reckons I had a pulled muscle somewhere in my chest, and some tightness in my right rhomboid. She did some accupunture on my back rightside, cracked my back accidently(apparently upper back is tight) told me to stretch more and sent me on my merry way.

Pain not as bad now. I was expecting to have a fractured sternum or stress fracture in a rib or something cos the pain over the weekend was brutal. I could barely move. Will take it easier over the coming days and see how I feel.

Sunday July 27th:

Deadlift
25kg x5 ... warm up
60kg - 5 sets of 10 reps
---
Bent Over Row (oly bar)
50kg - 3 sets of 10 reps
---
External Rotation (pulley)
5kg - 3 sets of 5 reps

Pull Ups
3 sets of 5 reps
---
Tricep Pushdown (pulley)
15kg - 3 sets of 10 reps
17.5kg - 3 sets of 10 reps
20g - 3 sets of 10 reps

Bicep Curl (pulley)
15kg - 3 sets of 10 reps
17.5kg - 3 sets of 10 reps
20g - 3 sets of 10 reps
---
Ab Machine
7.5kg at head - 3 sets of 10 reps
---

Good little session.

Tuesday July 29th:

Row 5mins (1240m, ~80cals) ... warm up
---
Squat
40kg x10
50kg x10
60kg x10
70kg x10

Pull Ups (to oly bar)
4 sets of 5 reps ... supersetted with squats. Raised the oly bar a notch and did the pull ups to this, whilst holding legs up to avoid hitting ground
---
Deadlift (stiff leg)
50kg - 3 sets of 10 reps

Lateral Raise (dumbbell)
5kg - 3 sets of 10 reps ... pretty light. Just something to do in between sets of deadlifts above
---
Bench Press (dumbbell)
24kg per arm - 2 sets of 8 reps

One Arm Row
24kg per arm - 2 sets of 8 reps
---
Fly (dumbbell)
6kg - 2 sets of 8 reps

Reverse Fly (dumbbell)
6kg - 2 sets of 8 reps
---

Squats were easy enough. By the last set of 70kg x10 I was rather sweaty and hoping the bar wasn't going to slither off my shoulders, down my back, and smash into bits on the rack.

Enjoying doing slightly lighter weights at higher reps for a change. 10 reps in a set is a nice number. No wonder the world is predominantly decimal.

Hope to increase the squat weight on the sets of 10. 100kg x10 would rock. It seems like eons ago since I did that 100kg squat. I'm kinda concentrating on form and trying not to bash my body up too much right now.

Waffle over.

Sunday August 3rd:

Pitch & Putt - belted a few balls around on the driving range and whilst walking home across a few mega sized football fields.

Was hoping to make it to the gym tonight but still not 100% over the cold so will give it a miss.

London triathlon tomorrow. Probably my last one. Looking forward to the event itself as it is always a bit of a laugh. Feeling stiff from the past 3 weeks of little activity.

Sunday August 10th:

London Triathlon (Olympic Distance)

Sunday August 10th:

• Swim 1.5km (0:46:11)
• Transition 1 (0:04:34)
• Bike 40km (1:23:12)
• Run 10km (0:57:54)
• Transition 2 (0:01:25)
• Total (3:13:14)

On Saturday evening (Triathlon eve) I checked my pre-race booklet to see exactly what time my race was scheduled to start at on Sunday. Much to my surprise I discovered my batch of racers were supposed to have racked our bikes on Saturday afternoon (i.e. about 6 hours ago), ahead of a 2:10pm start the next day. I wasn’t sure if this meant I would be prohibited from entering the transition area to rack my bike ahead of the race – maybe I was kind of hoping this would be a nice excuse to pull out of the event. The tri itself actually takes place over two days. Most of the sprint (i.e. half distance) races take place on the Saturday, whilst the Olympic is on Sunday.

As Sunday morning as the significance of the day dawned on me - Oh oh! I contemplated rolling over, staying in bed and ending my career as a triathlete … by well, not trying. It was cold, windy and a bit of rain fell making the prospect of approx 3 hours outdoors exertion seem at lot less appealing that last years’ tri in the sun.

I cycled the 7 km-ish from home to the venue (docklands Excel centre)and was slightly early, arriving at 1pm when my own heat was scheduled for 2:10pm. I decided to take a look at earlier heats as they progressed through the water. There was one poor guy totally lost miles behind everyone else, looking exhausted as he battled against the wind and swell which seemed to be moving him backwards faster than he could propel himself forwards.

Swim - At swim assembly I picked up my timing chip and listened apprehensively as the marshal stated “the swim gets easier” at the end of his safety briefing. I guessed he meant that the wind had changed direction. Earlier the wind was against the inward swimmers whom I had watched. According to this marshal we would be swimming the first 750m out against the wind and swell, whilst the second 750m in would be easier as the wind and swell would push us along. He was badly informed.

The memories of the guy that I watched earlier in the water were still in my head for the final few minutes as I bobbed around in the water waiting for the starter horn which would signal the start of my heat. It was way too windy and the swell was bashing us around in the water. I was out of my depth in more ways that one. All I could think was “WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE!?” I wasn’t exactly triathlon fit. Sure I’d spent ages in the gym for the past months, but there was a strong probability that I would end us as fish fodder in these conditions in the water.

The horn blows, a few kicks are exchanged with fellow competitors, some water leaks down the back of my neck and we’re off!

The first outward 750m was fine as – being pushed along nicely, however the second 750m was like being in the middle of the Atlantic swimming into the gale and getting bashed in the head with waves. I flipped between front crawl and breast stroke towards the end of the field and concentrated on moving along. The standard in these Olympic distance triathlons is way higher than the Sprint (i.e half) distance. This means that most people seem to be great swimmers and leave people like myself miles behind as we take double the time.

There were a few other swimmers around, but none too close by. This changed as soon as we rounded the half way mark and aimed for home. The wind and waves forced us all together like a herd(?), flock (??) … ok, ok… a general community of warm water Caribbean turtles lost at the north pole. This group (approx 6 of us) battled it out in what turned into a nice little mini race for the slow swimmers within the triathlon itself.

It was funny – one person within our group would go for glory (an all out front crawl sprint for 10 seconds trying to push their way to the head of the group) before succumbing to a wave in the head and going under for a few seconds. They would then fall back gasping for breath for a few minutes whilst someone else took over. Haha, I remember one guy who went off on like a motorboat. The only problem was he kept turning slightly further left with each stroke. He ended up swimming away from us at right angle. Hilarious! I watched him out of the corner of my eye as much as I could. After about 20 seconds he stopped, looked around smugly believing he was ahead of the rest…… and then realised he was going in totally the wrong direction. 1 down.

We continued like this the rest of the swim, each trying to outdo the other - constantly kicking/elbowing/biting each others toes/ankles/fingers. What initially terrified me turned into possibly the most enjoyable swim I’ve ever had! The bit of competition proved a pleasant distraction from what is usually a tough, lonesome swim. As I reached the swim exit the marshals pulled me out of the water as 2nd out of 6th in that little group. I was happy enough with that imaginary podium position.

Triathlon should really be upgraded from Tri to Pent as the there are two other tough parts to this event –-> getting in and out of the wetsuit. Before the race I had covered myself with baby oil and still wasted a heap of energy huffing and puffing my way into it. The same thing afterwards – I must have spent 30 seconds struggling to get my arms and legs free. A helpful marshal was on hand to free me from my nemesis before I fell over with exhaustion. Legs were like jelly and head spinning as I ran up the steps into transition.

The run from the water up to the transition area was fine – I could easily spot my bike as it was looking pretty isolated in the bike rack as everyone else had more or less departed and was already out on the road. I got ready: helmet on, cycling top on, gels in back pockets, runners on … then headed out on the bike.


Bike – Agh, relief. The bike leg of my triathlons is usually like collapsing onto the couch after a hard day. I usually target an average speed of 30kmph which should bring me around the 40km in 1hr 20 mins. This time I couldn’t decide which gear to stay in. This was probably due to lack of recent saddle time. Each lap took me from the docklands Excel centre, down towards the turn at Tower Bridge, then back up across the water from City airport, then back to the excel centre again. The 40km was 2 laps of 20km each (obviously).

The trip out towards Tower Bridge was into a strong wind which slowed things down. The trip back up towards the Excel Centre was wind assisted, but not enough to make up for time and energy lost in the opposite direction. I averaged 27.5kmph over the 40km which is below target.

At one stage some fellow went by me on a racer. I decided to try and stick with him and got up to 45kmph until I ran out of gearing and even with the assistance of a nice downhill stretch into the Blackhall tunnel I couldn’t keep up. It is times like this when I think I need to upgrade from a mountain bike to a racer. I guess I just I prefer the mountain bike for casual cycling. You cannot cycle a racer across a muddy football field in the winter!

At the end of the bike leg I hopped off and felt my right toes cramp up as I began to run back in through transition to rack the bike. After a few seconds they recovered and I was on my way to my spot where I re-racked the bike, dumped the helmet and headed off on the run.

Run – This was fine. The weather had turned slightly colder which was good. Droplets of rain every now and again helped cool me down and I suppose it was ideal conditions (temperature-wise) for the 10km (apart from the wind). On my first lap, when descending the ramp out of the excel centre, there was a medical crew around some guy who seems to have collapased. 25 to 30 mins later, when I was starting the second 5km lap the guy was still there with the ambulance crew around him asking stuff such as “what is your race number?” They seemed pretty concerned judging from the conversations going on amongst the medics… however the delay getting him off the course hopefully means it wasn’t anything too serious.

On each run lap I got a gel/power bar from a marshal handing them out at a promotional stall. Like He-Man, I too had the power (having had a banana 45 minutes before the race, a gel, plus a few gels during the bike leg which conveniently fitted into the snug pockets of my new cycling top).The second time around I shouted to the marshal guy that I wanted water not gel. He made a mess of finding a bottle, and by the time he had it I was past him. We both did a little shuffle and failed to connect – I somehow managed to give myself a mild quad strain with the quick stop and start change of direction, which was mildly sore for the last 5km. Anyway, this fellow sprinted after me and put both a gel and water into my hands. Fair play to him.

The last km was a struggle. I remember passing a sign which marked 4km/9km of the run as complete (depending on your lap). So, here I was 50.5 km through the 51.5 km in total. I slowed down to a stagger and thought about how close the end was. Up the last hill, round the corner into transition and time for the one final exertion over the last 100 metres.

Overall, it was a good experience but I could definitely do better by 30 mins or so. I’m now going to put my triathlon attempts on hold for the foreseeable future. Maybe one day when I have more time and live somewhere more conductive to tri training I’ll take it up again and break the 3hr barrier, before aiming for 2hr 30. My time this year was rather slow, however I enjoyed it and there is a nice feeling of satisfaction from getting through it without doing much prework.

This report has been a bit rushed as I haven’t had time to write it properly but I’d better post it now whilst it is still fresh in my brain.

Monday August 18th:

Pull Ups (wide-ish, parallel)
x8
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Bench Press (dumbbell)
60lbs per arm - 2 sets of 8 reps
55lbs per arm - 2 sets of 6 reps

One Arm Row
60lbs per arm - 2 sets of 8 reps
55lbs per arm - 2 sets of 6 reps
---
Fly (dumbbell)
20lbs per arm - 3 sets of 10 reps

Lunges
20lbs per arm - 3 sets of 10 reps
---
Reverse Fly
15lbs per arm - 3 sets of 8 reps

Split Squat
x8
---
Military Press (dumbbell)
30lbs - 3 sets of 5 reps

Curl (dumbbell)
30lbs - 3 sets of 5 reps
---
Face Pulls
8kg (weird this one is not lbs) - 3 sets of 8 reps

Tricep Pull Down
8kg (again weird this one is not lbs) - 3 sets of 8 reps
---
Run 800m in 5mins ... just a cool down jog really
---

Currently in Chicago after a weekend of beer and high fives in New York. Tough life but someone's gotta live it :pac:

Most of the guys I was hanging out with there were runners who got Uni scholarships back in the day on the strength of their running. Makes me wonder if I should just run to have more in common with them! At 29 one still does a sub 18 minute 5km which is something I'd love to one day do... but it's not too likely. Maybe 20mins if I trained properly for a year or two

Hoping to (& need to) sort out my training plans going forwards mid of next week / beginning of Sept. I'm perhaps going to drop a cupla kg to get from 74kg to 72. I've been a bit lax lately.

Thursday August 28th (micro session 1):

Bicep Curls
8kg per arm x10

Tricep Extension
6kg per arm x10
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At home this morning.

Saturday August 30th:

Deadlift
50kg x10
70kg x10
90kg x10
100kg x5

Shoulder Press (standing, dumbbells)
14kg per arm - 3 sets of 10 reps
---
Bench Press (incline)
60kg x8 x8 x7 x5 x5
---
Bent Over Row (palms down)
30kg x10 ... waiting for the squat rack
---
Squat
20kg x8
60kg x8
60kg x8
70kg x5
80kg x5
---
Face Pulls
11.25kg - 3 stes of 8 reps
---
Hanging Leg Raise (feet to hands)
3 sets of 8 reps
---
Ab Ball Rotation
5 sets of 20 reps
---
High Row (machine)
30kg x20
---

Good session. I out trained a hangover which was suprising. Got all the big compound exercises in there at reasonable enough weight.

During my deadlifts, folling the 90kg set, some guy advised me to put the weight down gently with a controlled motion as opposed to clanking it down. I thanked him for advice however I'm more concerned with the upwards phase than the downwards bit at higher % of my max.

I also witnessed the worst squatting ever. Two guys - the blind leading the blind. One fellow was holding the others elbows while he squatted. They started off with just the bar, doing a few sets, then jumped to 70kg. I know everyone has to learn but it was really really bad. If I had my camera I would have made a sly video. Maybe I would have tried to help out if it hadn't been so busy.