After being away with the family over Easter and spending Easter Monday driving, this weeks training kicked off on Tuesday. I’m helping a work colleague with a little bit of research for an upper body strength training programme to improve pull ups.
Tuesday started (and finished) with a session in the weights room. The morning session involved completing a set of the maximum number of Pull Ups to see if his programme can improve on that number. I got through eleven with good form and couldn’t complete a twelfth!!!
We then did what are known as 3RM (3 Repetition Maximum) tests to see how much weight I can lift in three reps for both the Seated Cable Row (87kg) and Lat Pull Down (102kg). It took a few sets to build up to these before I couldn’t do any more.
Then in the afternoon it was back to the weight room for the first actual session of Kutz’ training programme. Three key exercises:
- Lat Pull Down 3 sets of 6 reps at 90kg
- Close Grip Pull Down 3 sets of 5 reps at 90kg
- Straight Arm Pull Down 3 sets of 12 reps at 24.5kg
Then a super set of DB Bench press and DB Flies 3 sets of 10 reps at 14kg and 8.5kg respectively.
Wednesday morning I made my way to the pool and completed two reps of 800 yards as the last session as part of the 4 Weeks to a Faster 1,500. I completed them pretty consistently. Even I was surprised with 13:38 for the first and 13:37 for the second.
I basically went straight from the pool to the weights room for my second session with Kutz. Today we did:
- Seated Cable Row 3 sets 6x 80kg
- DB Row 3 Sets 6x 38kg
- Wide Grip Seated Cable Row 3 sets 12x 47kg
- Mil Press 3 sets 10x 30kg super set with Cable Tricep Push Down 10x 21kg
I certainly felt the burn with these sessions back to back with yesterday.
Thursday morning saw an opportunity to escape and get out on the road, completing my standard 20km loop.
With some DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) setting in, I didn’t feel like swimming but knew I needed to have a good crack at bettering my 1,500 time from a few weeks ago. After diving in on Friday morning, I was feeling a bit stiff and committed to doing the session. Firstly I miscounted the warm up and ended up swimming further. DOH!! A few extra lengths for warm up isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Then it was time to do the 1,500m as fast as I could. I hit the STOP button and pushed off the wall and swam a the first couple of hundred meters as fast as I could, counting the lengths as I went.
“Wait a minute how many lengths am I up to?”
“Next time I turn I’ll have a look at the distance covered on my Garmin, then I’ll know.”
When I looked at my watch I realised it wasn’t recording my distance at all because I pressed the STOP button. DOH!! Combined with how tight and stiff I was feeling I flagged the session.
Later on that morning it was into the weights room for another big session with Kutz.
Yay, the weekend and the Kaiteriteri 6 Hour Mountain Bike Relay. I was part of the Tineli team and my partner brought home a new Tineli Nuclear MtB jersey for me to wear. Thanks babe. The top was nice and light and breathable and when the sun dipped below the hill I wasn’t too cold.
I rode fourth (out of four) on a borrowed Fat Bike (as I haven’t sorted out a replacement MtB after my crash in the Wairua Gorge yet). The Fat Bike was so much fun (check out Tom’s blog on what he has got up to on the very bike I rode here). I was surprised with how fast I can get the fat bike up to. I thought it would be sluggish on the climb but it was like a freight train, once I got it up to speed it didn’t want to slow down. On the muddy/wet sections it floated over and was wicked on the downhills, hugging the berms like it was on rails. It was so much fun to ride. I think a number of people got a surprise to see me flying past them. I even managed to get in the top 10 on Strava (although didn’t stay there by the end of the day). and set nine PRs out there on the route utilised.
After all this exercise, I struggled on Sunday through a 30 minute run. I was slow, sluggish and felt restricted the whole way. Since my crash I haven’t been able to run freely yet. It’s very frustrating. it was a good opportunity for me to capture some more training data with my Stryd running power meter.
PREVIOUS WEEKS TRAINING
Here is a link to last weeks Coach Ray’s Suffering:
Previous weeks of Coach Ray’s Suffering can be found here.
http://www.coachray.nz/category/adventures/coach-rays-sufferings/
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