Building callouses and chasing goals

First session of oly lifting in limitless health, absolutely loved it!!

5x5 snatch with empty bar(20kg) ,being taught good technique
3x3 overhead squats empty bar
3x3 snatch pulls 40kg
3x5 back squats 50kg(never done back squats before)

it was a lot of fun, and very hard,i'll be in bits tomorrow
my hand is also seriously cut open with a blister #htfu

Decent session tonight with gch

8x100m sprints as preparation for starting blocks on sunday morning
Getting faster each session but not anywhere to close to where i should be

Another GCH session at the track
Plyometric warmup similar to yesterdays drills
Microurdle drills: one leg in x4,sideways one leg in x2,dead leg x2 , bunny hop x1
working on speed and power in all the drills

Sprint speed session then as indoor racing will be on soon.
4x60m from rolling start
4x40m from starting blocks
3x120m working on technique and try to relax while running
Am building up my speed gradually and am at the point where im finishing the sessions well now

So the weather outside is too crappy to do the planned track session so i went to the gym instead during the public hours.
Managed to get a rack to myself for the entirety of my session

I only did back squats as i want to really get stronger at them
2x5 @20kg
2x5 @30kg
2x5 @40kg
2x5 @50kg
2x5 @55kg
2x5 @60kg
Did them all strong ,had no real trouble doing them,shoulders hurt though from supporting the bar
And bodyweight is now 61kg

County indoors were on today in Athlone IT so was running in that
Wanted to see just how bad my race time are right now so as to asess how much work is needed,they were electronically timed i think
I did the 200m,got into a good heat, and ran a decent race technically and felt really good so it just my actual speed that needs work. Times havent officially been released yet but i think it was around 24.5 which is what i was expecting but isnt a good time at all ,my pb from 2 years ago is 23,5 seconds. i know though that i can easily cut a second off my time quickly just training up some speed and stamina in the next few weeks where ill hopefully get to test it again in the connaughts

Had an endoscopy yesterday to check up on my stomach ulcers, apparently the situation is much improved now and i wont need another for maybe 2 years.

So didnt do the track session i had planned for this morning to make sure i was recovered from yesterday but i felt good when i got home form college so i pulled out the barbell and did a quick session
And it went like this

• 1x5 hang power cleans 15kg
• 1x5 hang power cleans 25kg
• 1x4 hand power cleans 35kg
• 2x2 hang power clean and power jerk 35kg
• 1x5 front squats 25kg
• 1x5 front squats 235kg
• 2x5 front squats 45kg

Felt really good and strong, form was as solid as i can get it at this stage.The hang position is great because it negates the fact that the plates i have at home dont put the bar high enough to do the first pull comfortably.
Proper gym session should be tomorrow afternoon when i pay for public hours in the kingfisher

Had a fabulous session today in the gym,the session was full of surprises particularly in the squat! SQUATS ARE THE BEST EXCERCISE EVA!!
I have got a bit of a niggle in my shoulder now so ill ice it tonight and all will be good then.
right when i arrived the squat racks were full so i did some other stuff first
so 3x3 pullups
5x5 dips
Then a rack freed up
so Back squats

• 1x5 20kg
• 1x5 40kg
• 1x5 50kg
• 1x5 55kg
• 1x5 60kg
• 1x5 65kg
• 1x5 67.5kg
• 1x5 70kg
• 1x5 72.5kg
• 1x5 75kg

Every set from 65kg onwards was a new pb,i felt i had more in the tank after 75kg and might have managed 77.5 but i felt id done enough
Then power jerks

• 1x5 20kg
• 2x3 25kg
• 1x3 27.5kg
• 1x3 30kg
• 1x1 35kg

The 35kg was a struggle but i did them,copying the form i'd seen the guys at the gym do on monday.Shoulder a little sore afterwards though
Then snatch pulls

• 2x5 30kg from hang
• 2x3 40kg from floor
• 2x3 50kg
• 1x3 55kg
• 1x3 60kg

the first set was done from hang as the bar wasnt high enough to pull from the floor comfortably but afterwards they were all from the floor.
Just working on clearing the knees correctly and keeping the line of the bar and really exploding from the hips and getting up onto toes
Overall a very enjoyable session.but very long aswell

Very light weight practice,just trying to drill the oly lift coordination into my muscles,and i think my technique is improving
so first a warmup type circuit with the empty barbell(5kg)
2 circuits of

• 2 overhead squats
• 5 sotz press
• 5 hang snatch pulls
• 5 hang clean pulls
• 5 drop snatches
• 2 snatches
• 2 hang cleans

My mobility at the bottom of the snatch is really improving,im happy with that,and sotz press is tough!!!
Then the session

• hang power cleans +power jerk
  3,3 x4 @25kg
• Front squats
  2x10 @25kg
• Bent over rows
  2x5 @25kg

Real easy session as im tired and have my oly lifting session tomorrow at limitless and just trying to make sure i have the coordination improved each week

The body is still in bits after monday nights session, my arms,back and shoulders especially.
But i have gym tomorrow aswell and i want to do a deadlift session because its been ages since i did deadlifts but i also want to do squats, getting a bit sick of back squats and was thinking of doing some front squats and testing how much weight i can do on them but the only thing holding me back is that i want to keep increasing my back squat but after failing the set last monday on a weight i can do i feel like taking a break.
Unless i do both and keep the back squats really light or something.
What do you think i should do ?

Im so unbeliveably tired today, was at a party last night,didnt drink a drop but still shattered, it was a gaelgoir party and after 6 months of not speaking it properly it started off hard but after about a half hour i was as close to fluent as ever. ,most people there irish is their first language and have irish speaking at home,i was told my irish is actually really good for someone who doesnt have irish in the house and doesnt speak it often.:D
Anyway i couldnt train this morning because i was too tired, i actually fell asleep in the canteen and missed my first lecture i was so tired.
So this afternoon did a gentle running session to just get something in
The session
2km brisk walk warmup, few strideouts then
Followed by 4x120m sprints on grass.Break between each one.
I have a 21st to go to in cellbridge tomorrow so therell be no training this weekend so i felt i had to do something today
I'm really feeling the deadlifts in my back today

A friend was going to the gym and had a spare pair of pants so i was just like ya sure and went in.
Maxed out the leg press at 195 for 10 reps easy enough and then realised it didnt go any heavier....i cant understand why its so easy compared to squats
Then i met more friends who were in the gym doing arms so i joined them.
Benched 20kg,then 30kg,then 40kg for 5 reps
Then a few dips,few pullups neutral grip and overhand.
Tricep pulldowns at like 21.5kg or something ,just remember them being easy
Then close grip bench at 30kg for 8 reps
Folwed by 3 sets of:

• 10kg powerbag back squats,front squats 8 reps each

Then 3 sets with 20kg barbell

• back squats,front squats,military press,bent over row,split squats x10 reps on squats x5reps everything else

Last circuit piece was for a kind of active recovery

Forgot to log last nights running session.
Did 3 sets of 6 uphill sprints and 1 set of 6 downhill sprints.
Only about 60m but steep enough and the pitch dark didnt help.
Felt really powerful going up,never felt this kind of power before ,i was tearing up the hill big long strides and everything,the oly lifting and strength training must be kicking in.
I can run uphills all day though and not get tired so it wasnt a particularly strenuous session.
I think friday is going to be short sprints,coach seems to be constantly switching from longer sprints to short sprints and back,its making it hard to plan

Wanted to go for a cycle this morning but it was much too foggy and it would have been unsafe so went to the track instead.
Did 3x3 jog,stride,sprint
the jog was 20m,stride was 40m, sprint was 40m
felt good this morning running, my speed is coming back slowly but surely .
It'll be a long time before im back at my fastest again due to the years ive been out of racing for but i have a list of fixtures for this year and im determined to at least not run embarassing times this year

So weightlifting session again tonight.
very happy with my progress, the bar is following a more coordinated path now, theres a bit of speed developing, getting the pull from the floor a bit easier not bumping the bar off my knees on the way
So this was a deload session so it was low volume and not pushing for weight, i liked it ,i want to try get a few good sprinting sessions in this week because of that
So heres the session
Snatch from floor
4 sets of 2 reps @35kg
wasnt too hard,failed a few of them mostly because i wasnt getting the timing right and going under the bar too early when it wasnt in the proper position yet leaving it too far forward, when i miss a snatch i always miss it to the front.
Coach says my snatch is actually looking pretty good and we'll start tuning it up technically soon
Front squats
Was looking forward to doing back squats but alas we had to do front ones,havent done them in about 3 weeks
4 sets of 2 reps @70kg
the 70kg is more than ive ever front squatted but it felt comfortable so i wouldnt think its my max
Jerk from rack
4 sets of 2 reps @40kg
Tried 45kg but it was just to heavy to get the form right so dropped to 40kg.
I did power jerks for these as i cant do the split jerk yet.
Nothing much to say about them really,they were grand
Snatch groove ??
5 sets of 5 reps @35kg
Not really sure what they were ,nobody seemed to be sure. Did the first 2 sets as snatch pulls, did the last 3 sets as kind of a snatch pull without the pop at the top where you extend your hips.
Cant wait for next week!

So hill sprints session tonight at the gch training session
Did 3x6 hill sprints of around 60m
Found them easy, powerful going up them,i dont get tired on hills in general
Then 1x6 downhills, didnt like these because the ground was uneven and i was a bit afraid of hurting my knees since i want to do squats tomorrow

Another track session tonight, definitely getting some speed back into the legs, it was similar to last fridays session but better in that we did more short sprints and less long ones
2x3 110m sprints at an almost flat out pace,walk back break,5 min break between the 2 sets
Then 2x220m ,these were just a struggle and i was too wrecked to even bother trying to run with good form
Still it wasnt a bad session at all

Tonight was MAX night at the weightlifting, my first time trying to max out on the oly lifts. And also the first time id had kevin coaching me since the second week,i think i did good

Did 2 reps per set of snatch until 40kg where i switched to 1 rep sets
Increased the weight by 2.5kg each time until i reached a max of 45kg
I missed 47.5kg twice, both time lost it behind me. Felt like i should have gotten it, There was some serious speed under the bar on the second attempt but still ,i failed in the recievin gposition i will get it next time though
Then clean and jerk, i still havent worked on the split jerk yet so all these were done as push jerks.
Did sets of 1 rep from 35kg onwards ,adding 5kg until i reached untill 50kg
after that I added 2.5kg untill i got a max of 55kg.
I missed 57.5kg twice and didnt have a hope of jerking 57.5 this time, got the clean easy on both attempts.
Was taught the split jerk tonight but wasnt ready yet to use it in my max lift,will drill the movement at some stage this week

Sprint session this evening,it was intensely cold out and i have a headache now
Did 3x60m sprint and 3x200m all pretty fast
It wasnt too hard and im improving every session

ah great weightlifting session was had,new pb's in nearly everything
Front squats
3x2 80kg
Felt challenging but i did it grand
Snatch
3x1 40kg
3x1 42.5kg
3x1 45kg
1x1 47.5kg PR
They just kept going up so easy so i kept increasing the weight
Clean and jerk
3x1 +2 40kg
6x1 45kg
Kept these light just to work on the jerk which im finding tough,i keep sending the bar out in front of me
Clean
1x2 50kg
1x2 55kg
1x1 60kg PR
Finished up with these just to make up for keeping the clean and jerks so light

So final prepartion for the connaughts on sunday

4x30m sprints from the blocks,plenty of break between each.
Need to stop myself from just kind of stepping out of the blocks

Well i naively assumed that since the weightlifters had been competing on saturday that todays session would be a light session so id be grand after racing at the weekend and wouldnt be left too tired after this evening,how wrong was i.... there was a lot of volume,and i was exhausted and feeling sluggish,i couldnt lift as heavy as i expected to be able to but all in all i'd say it was a brilliant strength building session and im definitely better off for doing it,i dont think ill go into college tomorrow though,ill be surprised if i can walk.

Hip snatch
6 sets of 3 @37.5kg
Tried 40kg but it kept slipping out of my fingers,i probably need to start using chalk when doing triples
Hang snatch (from above knee)
6 sets of 3 @37.5kg
Cleans
6 sets of 3 @60kg
last week 60kg was my one rep max on the clean but i was working in with one of the women and when she said she was going to use 60 or 62.5 i was just like okay i'll do 60 too even though i should probably have been doing about 55. I wasn't going to be unloading too much off that bar:o but she was strong!!!:eek: I nearly died on the last set although i'd lost count so theres a good chance i did 7 sets
Snatch pulls
6 sets of 5 @55kg
These were just excruciating,im lifting my hips too early and its turning into more of a deadlift but my back is sore anyway from yesterday as i was getting cramps all day while sprinting.

Didnt go running on wednesday night because i'd been up late after the nuig bal na gaeilge on tuesday and was exhausted,hit the gym today though

back squats
Warmup 1x5 @50kg,60kg,70kg,75kg
Then 4x5 @80kg wanted to do 5x5 but i knew there was a pretty good chance of only managing a triple on the fifth set and its quite hard to bail a lift in a normal gym and there wasnt a single member of staff around in the kingfisher gym that i could ask to help me out.
Clean
3x2 @50kg very simple
Power cleans
5x2 @50kg also very simple,was very surprised when i accidentally power cleaned 50 and then decided to finish the session with power ones because i could
Rack jerks
4x2 @40kg
Again very light but not that hard at all,just trying to get more confident and aggressive under the bar

A nice little session now today,helping my younger brother out with the very beginning of his strength training, a 4kg bar for him haha while he can do more i just dont want the bar to be completely weightless.

I used 15kg for the whole session
4x10 pushups
4x10 military press
4x10 bodyweight leg press
4x10 squats
4x10 deadlift from above knee, basically a hang clean pull
4x3 pullups from a dead hang

Went out on the bike for a quick spin as i want to start cycling again now that the weather should be getting better
But i dont remember it being so terrifying ,i was wobbling and gripping it too hard and anytime i picked up a bit of speed my nerves would be fried.
Did about 12km,my legs actually feel really strong on it because i did go up some fairly steep hills