The least important part of this thread is the Title

Oregano_State

Thursday 21st Feb - Gym
Today I sent in my entry for the meet on Saturday. I'm down for the 400m, and the 60m just over an hour later. I've never ran a 60m race before, and I have done no starting-block work in training but I want to run it just to see what I can do.

Anyway, here's what I got up to in d'aul gym:

Warm Up: 5 mins exercise bike, hip-mobility floor exercises, lunges, squats.

Hang Clean
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 3
[67kg x 3] x 3

Back Squat
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
90kg x 3
[100kg x 3] x 3

Pull Ups and Reverse Hyperextensions Supersets
5x6 pull ups, with 3x15xRH /w 10kg plate in between sets. Did one set of 20x med ball knee-tucks also.


Good session. I was happy with those squats, although my right knee was wobbling a fair bit on the 3rd rep of each set. That's because my right leg is still not quite on a par with my left, although it has gotten better since I started doing single leg stuff.

Oregano_State

First off, it was great to get back to competitive running, and I have plenty of positives to take away from yesterday. The track was great, my time wasn't awful, and I know I have a lot left more to come, and plenty of time to work on it before the outdoors. I'll get to the race in a minute, but first a quick run-through of the day from the beginning:

I awoke with a sore throat and fair bit of DOMs left over from the gym session on Thursday. In future, this might teach me that a max-effort squat session two days before a race is not best-practice. Anyway, the throat wasn't terrible, but I definitely wasn't feeling a 100%. I lashed a honey/lemon/orange/hot water drink into me, followed by a coffee and felt a good bit better.

I was feeling good by the time I got to AIT, although there was still some stiffness in my left hamstring. I had the sentiments of 2-Pac, Biggie, and Kanye West to accompany my warm-up, and was in a rap-induced frame of mind when it came time to head down to the start. I had a few words of encouragement from ecoli to take with me as I headed towards the in-field.

My first issue was the starting-blocks; hadn't touched them in years. Luckily, I had a few minuted to play with while the mile was being run, and the 60m start had a load of blocks for me to play with. I decided that two foot-lengths for my left, and 3 for my right would do, and that seemed to feel ok so problem 1 was sorted.

The Race
I was drawn in lane 2, with the only guy I knew running in lane 6, being a 49/50s runner. I was never going to be up there with him, but the rest of the guys had put down target times of 51-53s so if I could stay with the fella in lane 3 outside me I was in with a chance of a decent time. I had decided that I was going to go off fairly hard, and see where that left me, come the "fun" part.

I got off to a clean start and in my excitement, blasted through the first 180m, feeling brilliantly. I passed the fella in lane 3, hadn't seen Mr. Lane 1, and went through 200m in 4th out of 6 with the 3 leaders about 3-4m ahead of me in a bunch. This is where things started going pear-shaped. I knew I was in trouble half-way around the first bend of the second lap. i.e with 180m to run. Not good. I did my best to hold form, but both the lads behind me passed me on the back straight and I was in a world of pain for the last 80m or so. The winner crossed the line in a very respectable 49.2s (I think), and I was waaay back so I feared the worst for my time. I also got an unholy dose of lactic flooding my hams and glutes about 10s after crossing the line, so the pain continued for another 5 minutes at least.

Lessons Learned
I'm not race-fit yet. I can look at the first half of the race two-ways. I burnt myself out in that first 200m, so I should have taken it easier, but I need to be putting that sort of split in, in order to get the times I'll be looking for come the summer. The fact that I got so much lactic build up after the race also points towards a lack of fitness. Overall, I'm happy enough with the time, and I'll just have to keep plugging away at the training and see where that leaves me once the outdoors start.

60m
I also ran a 60m about an hour after the 400m race, but I almost fell over after my 3rd step out of the blocks so that completely ruined the race for me. The winner crossed in 7.5x, I was a 2-3m back. I left before they posted the times for that race but I'm not too interested anyway!

ecoli

The strength will come man. You looked very smooth in the first two hundred (especially out of he blocks given no block work done) Come the outdoors there no reason why you shouldnt be able to sustain the effort over the second half of the race man fair play again was envious seeing all you out on the track. Its making me look forward to outdoors

Pisco Sour

Nice first race back. That's surely worth a sub 54 outdoors.

With the sore throat, get some Molkason and gargle a few times a day. Miraculous stuff.

dna_leri

I'd echo what Ecoli said. I watched your 400m from upstairs. You got out as well as anyone from the blocks and held your own for 200. Any idea what time you went through the bell at? Maybe half a second slower and you would have had more in the tank. In any case a bit more strength work in the coming months and you will hold it all the way. Your speed will probably improve too, so lots of opportunities in the coming months. Well done for getting out there and laying down a marker.

Cleanman

Sounds like a solid start to your come back. Remember you weren't even going to run indoors this year because you knew you weren't race fit. That, along with the hard sessions you did on Wednesday and Thursday,then 54.5 sounds like very solid running. Even just taking part wil bring you on. Take the positives from the day and move on...

Oregano_State

Monday Feb 25th – Track

Back to Irishtown for yesterday evening’s track session, sans coach, but plus a training buddy. This new guy’s a decently fit newcomer to track running and sprinting in general but he launched himself into last Wednesday’s 300m session like a trooper, and turned up for more punishment last night. I hope he keeps at it anyway, it’s good to have someone to natter along to in between reps, and keep you honest during them.

8x200m was the prescribed session, with <3min break. The times were:
27(mid), 29(low), 29(low), 28(mid), 29(mid), 29(low), 28(low), 28(flat)

I have to be happy with how that went. The breaks were 200m walk jog from the finish back to the 200m start. The consistency was there, even though I’ve added two reps to the last time I did this session. Next time I’ll aim to keep them all under 29s. It was a cool evening with little wind, so not the worst conditions to run in. I’m looking forward to the temperature picking up a bit as it’s much easier to get the legs moving when there’s a bit of heat.

The new guy managed 7 of them, coming in at about 30.5 for most of them, but fading back a little to about 32-33s in the last 2.

Oregano_State

Wednesday 27th Feb – Track

Didn’t get anything done on Tuesday, I’ll call it a rest day and move on. Last night it was back to the track for 10 x 150m off 3mins. I’ve never done this session before, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it beforehand. It was a cold bástard of an evening and during my 3 warm–up laps I could feel stiffness from Monday’s 200s in my calves and ankles. I then did some leg-swings, walking lunges, sumo squats, and form drills before a couple of stride-outs to round off the warm-up.

The low temperature and leg-stiffness prompted me to start off the first few reps with controlled effort, and see where that left me at the back-end of the session.

The times were all around 19s, with the first being 19.1, and the last 18.3. The 2nd to 6th were in the mid to high 19s, and the final 4 were a bit quicker. I kept pretty rigidly to the 3min break throughout.
I'm happy with that consistency, and I only really found the last 3 any bit painful.

ecoli

Super Session man very good running.

Definitely puts my 150s into perspective from last night

Oregano_State

ecoli wrote: »

Super Session man very good running.

Definitely puts my 150s into perspective from last night

Well I didn't do 16x400m the day before! I don't think I'd be able to walk, let alone sprint after a session like that.

Thanks though.

Oregano_State

Saturday 2nd March – Hills
I was down in Cork for the weekend so I took the opportunity to get a work-out done on the hill I used to train on with the UCC/Leevale group. It’s a long, straight slope that’s a little steeper at the bottom than the top. I decided to change the focus a bit from more extensive, shorter recovery to more towards max-effort speed development with longer recovery. With this in mind, I picked a point about 170m up and decided to do 4 reps at 95% with 4mins break.

The times were: 25s (low), 25(high), 26(mid) 27(low).

I was in an absolute heap by the end of this. Walking was very uncomfortable for a good 5 minutes afterwards. I was over a mile away from home, and had to take walking breaks as I jogged back because I was being pummelled with cramps and stitches. I then remembered I had an emergency fiver which I used to get a life-saving Lucozade Sport in a shop I passed. 

Judging by the fall-off in times, the recovery wasn’t long enough. The fact that the slope dropped off a little after the first 60m was interesting in that after driving up the first bit it allowed me to open up into a proper stride, with the caveat that having expended so much energy by that point, it was on tired legs. I found it very difficult to hold the form together over the last 40m on the 3rd and 4th reps.

Monday 4th March – Track
I wasn’t happy with last week’s training as I didn’t get a gym session or a long run in. This was mainly due to bad time-management on my part, but also because of some out-of-the-ordinary things I had to get sorted out last week.

Anyway, a new week brings new opportunities, so it was back to Irishtown for some split 400s. This is more max-effort speed endurance work; 300m at 90%, then straight away jog back down the 100m start and do 100m at the same speed, or faster. Unfortunately I didn’t have my spikes with me last night so I was doing them in trainers, and there was a bit of left-over tightness in my legs from Saturday.

I did 3 reps with 15mins break in between. To any middle/long distance guys reading this, that may sounds like a helluva lot of time to take, but when the focus is on quality, you need that type of break to recover properly.

The times were: 42.3s, 14.4s; 42.1, 13.8s; 41.4, 14.6s

These times mean I was running at 55s pace, which is a little behind where I want to be, but a pretty fair reflection of where I am at the moment, given my recent race time of 54.58s from the 23rd Feb. To be honest, I wanted to get under 40s for the 300m reps, but it wasn’t happening last night. I’ll be doing more speed-oriented sessions as we get closer to the summer, so my speed should pick up as it gets focused on more.

ecoli

Hate them split sessions they are a killer. Bad enough doing split eights but I can only imagine what its like with 400s

Solid going man the fact you were getting faster shows the strength is coming along nicely. The speed will follow

Oregano_State

Tuesday March 5th - Gym
I was in a rush this evening to GTFO and watch the match, but I had my session written on my hand and wasn't leaving until it was done.

Warm Up 5 mins exercise bike.

Power Cleans
20kg x 5
40kg x 3
[50kg x 3] x 3

Pendlay Row
40kg x 5
[50kg x 5] x 3

Split Squat
[17.5kg DBs x 8] x 3

Pull Ups and Reverse Hypers supersets
5 sets of 5 PUs, with 3 sets of 15 RHs /w 10kg plate in between.

Decent enough session. I was feeling pretty tired, but pushed through. The power cleans were awful, never really done them before but I'll have to do a bit of work there.

The pull ups were very good, felt much easier than previous weeks. I was using a different grip though (a bit narrower, with palms facing each other) which probably made them easier. Tried 20kg DBs for the split squats, but felt terrible so went back to the 17.5s.

Oregano_State

Wednesday 6th March - Track
I'm rightfully paying the price for taking a week off doing weights. It's a bit surprising actually, but I suppose I haven't done Power Cleans before, and I hadn't done split squats in a couple of weeks so that might explain it. Thankfully the session last night wasn't too much of a killer.

Warm Up:2 laps of the track, leg swings, hurdle mobility (up a notch from previous weeks), plyos (over 8 small hurdles: 1 leg bounds x 2 each leg, 2 leg bounds x 2), ladder drills, and a stride-out. I was feeling very stiff in my ankles, calves, and quads. This disappeared once I started the intervals for some reason.

The session was 4 x 425m off 4 mins at 70-80% effort. Only the breaks were timed.

The focus was on consistent effort, and I think I achieved that. I went off at what felt like and honest, but not killing-myself sort of pace, but coming into the home straight I was working. The other 3 reps were much the same, but I pushed hard and broke into a sprint for the last 100m of the 4th one. The recoveries were manageable, and I felt like I could have done a 5th and 6th if I really wanted, but with the way I was feeling coming into the session I’m glad I didn’t. I have a hills session planned for Saturday and I’d like to be decently recovered in time for it.

Oregano_State

Thursday March 7th – Gym

It took a fair bit of mental effort and a strong dose of coffee to get myself up off the couch and out the door yesterday evening. Was still feeling DOMmy so I took it pretty easy on the legs.

Warm-Up: 10mins on bike, hip-mobility floor exercises, leg-swings.

Bench Press
20kg x 10
50kg x 5
60kg x 5
70kg x 5
75kg x 4
80kg x 3
85kg x 1

Front Squat
20kg x 5
50kg x 5
(70kg x 5) x 3

Mini-Circuit
Med ball knee-tucks, Plank, Dips
[KT x 20, 30s plank, 10 Dips.] x 2 rounds w/ 90s rest

Pull Ups
4 sets of 5

Little bitta stretching to finish up.

I haven’t benched in aaages, about a year I’d say, so I’m pretty happy with getting 116% of my bodyweight. The front squats were tough enough, the 5th rep on each of the 70kg sets was all over the shop.

Oregano_State

Saturday March 9th - Hills
Went for a hills session this morning in the park. 2 x [2 x 230m] down by the magazine fort. Times were: 46s, 50s, 47s, 47s with 3min, 4min 3min break.

Conditions were slippy underfoot but I kept out of the muck for the most part.

Oregano_State

Sunday March 10th - Recovery Run.
I haven't gone out for an easy jog in a good while, so it was refreshing to be in that zone once again. Conditions were sharp enough, I'm glad I'd put on a hat and gloves, as it took ages to get warmed up properly. I took the pace very handy, as I could feel the week's training in my legs. I ended up doing 7.1km in 36:56, so 5:09/km pace. I'll plan to do a good foam roll and stretch this evening in anticipation of the track session I'll be doing tomorrow.

Oregano_State

Monday 11th March - Track
Freezing 300s tonight into a gale on the back-straight. Between the wind and the cold I found it tough to get the legs moving. The plan was to do 4 reps off 7mins.

Times were: 44.4, 43.6, 46.1 (had to take an enforced bathroom-break after this one...) and finished up with 44.5 (wind was terrible on the last one).

It was not enjoyable training in that weather. Less of that in the future, please.

Oregano_State

Tuesday 12th March - Gym
It was a relief to be in the gym this evening, sheltered from the horribleness outside, although I don't think it was quite as bad today as yesterday. I felt fresh enough today, maybe my body's finally getting to grips with recovering from these tracks sessions.

Warm Up: 5 mins on the bike, hip mobility, leg swings, walking lunges, BW Squats.

Hang Clean
20kg x 8
40kg x 5
55kg x 3
70kg x 1 PB
70kg x 1 [3 x box-squat jumps for height after HC]
70kg x 1 [3 x box-squat jumps, as above]

Back Squat
20kg x 8
70kg x 5
80kg x 5
[95kg x 3] x 3

Split Squat
[15kg DBs x 8] x 3

Conditioning
Mountain-Climbers, Plank, Pull Ups (wider grip than usual)
2 x [MC x 40, 30s Plank, PU x 5]
1 x [MC x 50, 30s Plank, PU x 5]


Happy with the HC. Squats were solid. Good session.

Oregano_State

Wednesday 13th March - Track
It was good to see the last legs of sunlight still in the sky while during the warm-up this evening. My left calf was very tight during the warm-up, might need a bit of TLC over the next few days. Anyway the session tonight was 5 x 200m with 6 mins recovery.

Warm Up: 2 laps jogging, hip-mobility over hurdles, plyos (8 small hurdles): 2 x run-through, 2 x single leg bound, 2 x two legged bound; ladder drills.

Stride-out x 2.

Session
Times were: 26.5, 25.8, 26.8, 26.2, 26.8

These were done at about 90%, so fairly hard. The temperature dropped ridiculously quickly between the 3rd and 4th reps; the track was almost completely glazed in ice by the time we were warming down. This is the fastest set of 200s I've done since I started this log, by a distance, so good news there. I know there's more to come though, as I'm pretty sure there's a few issues with my stride that need to be ironed out. I'll try to do some video-analysis soon.

Just had a quick gander there, and it's 7 weeks exactly to the first graded meet. Gotta keep things going now.

dna_leri

Oregano_State wrote: »

Session
Times were: 26.5, 25.8, 26.8, 26.2, 26.8

.

Impressive !

Oregano_State

Thursday 15th March – Gym
Given the weekend that’s in it, training is probably going to be sparse over the next few days, so I figured I’d get a decent gym session in yesterday evening to round off a solid period of training over the past couple of weeks. I was a bit lazy in motivating myself to get moving though, and ended up with only an hour in which to fit in my written-on-the-back-of-hand gym session.

Warm Up: 5 mins bike, hip mobility floor exercises, leg swings. Bent-Over –Rows /w 10kg DBs, DB Overhead press, DB snatches. A little bit of foam rolling.

Power Clean
20kg x 5
30kg x 5
50kg x 3
[60kg x 3] x 3
(tekkers is still terrible for these, but better than last week, maybe if I keep increasing the weight it will all come together...)

Dead Lift
60kg x 10
90kg x 5
110kg x 5
120kg x 5 (more like 5 singles, I found these a struggle)

Conditioning Circuit
[Hip Thrust x 20, Burpee x 10, Reverse hypers /w 10kg plate x 15, 40s plank] x 2 ,with 1 min plank on the second set to finish off.

I’m not sure what to make of deadlifting. I don’t seem to very good at it. I’m told people with longer legs find it more difficult, so maybe that’s the case. Anyway, I want a 150kg DL soon, so I suppose I’d better work towards that.

Oregano_State

Saturday March 16th – Easy Run, + Very easy run
Considering the few beers I’d had on Friday night at a wedding, as well as the week’s training, I figured some easy running would be good for the legs, the soul, and most importantly, the hangover. I headed out for my usual loop, and took the pace handy enough. I threw in a 150m-ish hill sprint which falls just before the 5km mark, because I don’t like jogging up hills. Total was 6.7km in 35:48, 5:18/km average pace.

I then came home, had a pint of trusty Milk, and headed out again shortly after with the girlfriend on her C25K session. She’s still on week 1, after, well, more than a week, but it was a grand little trot around the local green area all the same. We did 3.7km in total, at 8:08/km average pace. I think I need to start slowing down a bit on my recovery/easy runs, because my legs have felt amazing for the past couple of days since doing this.
So, 10.4km in all for Saturday, not bad.

Tuesday 19th March – Gym
So with Paddy’s day and all that comes with it, I took Sunday and Monday as “rest” days. I had a very long Tuesday, involving a 5am start and a Cork-Dublin work commute, so I took a well needed nap once I got in the door after work, and forced myself out it again just over an hour later, in the direction of the gym.

Warm Up: 5mins rowing machine, managed a tougher-than-necessary 1270m for this. Time was tight so that was it for the warm-up apart from a few leg swings.

Hang Clean
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
50kg x 5
[70kg x1, x1] x 3 w/ 3x squat-jumps for height after each double

Front Squat
20kg x 10
50kg x 5
60kg x 3
[75kg x 5] x 3 PB

Dips and RLE Split-Squat Supersets
[Dips: BW+5kg x 10, SS: 17.5kg DBs x 8] x 3

The gym was closing at that stage so I didn’t have time for the conditioning stuff I wanted to get done but I was happy enough with how everything else went. The Hang Cleans were supposed to be doubles, but I could only manage singles separated by about 20s. My technique still needs some work, but that will come with more practice. For the front squats, I was only supposed to be doing 72.5kg but got my sums wrong and did 75kg unbeknown to myself until I thought back on it afterwards. I’d found 70kg a real struggle the last time I’d done these so I’m pretty happy with my first BW front squats.

The Dips and Split Squats were done without too much hassle, so apparently Paddy’s weekend didn’t ruin me completely. Let’s hope that continues to be the case for my track session later this evening.

Parsley

Oregano_State wrote: »

...the girlfriend on her C25K session...

whuuut. I must commence slagging.

Oregano_State

Parsley wrote: »

whuuut. I must commence slagging.

The lurker reveals himself.

And she'd probably beat you in fairness!:pac:

Oregano_State

Wednesday March 20th - Track
Intensive tempo tonight: 5 x 150m off 6 mins break. The weather was decent, dry and not freezing, and I only had a small bit of DOMs from yesterday.

Warm Up: 2 laps of track, hip mobility over hurdles, plyos, ladder drills.

Times for the reps were: 18.4, 18.2, 17.9, 18.5, 18.1

I'm pretty surprised by these actually, it seems like a big improvement since the last time I did 150s, but they were the times the coach called out so what can I say? We started from the green marks that are half ways around the home bend, which I always assumed to be 150m, but have heard tonight are actually 145m from the finish. Either way, it's still good running, and an improvement, as I've always used those marks when doing 150s.

Happy 'nuff.

RandyMann

Oregano_State wrote: »

Wednesday March 20th - Track
Intensive tempo tonight: 5 x 150m off 6 mins break. The weather was decent, dry and not freezing, and I only had a small bit of DOMs from yesterday.

Warm Up: 2 laps of track, hip mobility over hurdles, plyos, ladder drills.

Times for the reps were: 18.4, 18.2, 17.9, 18.5, 18.1

I'm pretty surprised by these actually, it seems like a big improvement since the last time I did 150s, but they were the times the coach called out so what can I say? We started from the green marks that are half ways around the home bend, which I always assumed to be 150m, but have heard tonight are actually 145m from the finish. Either way, it's still good running, and an improvement, as I've always used those marks when doing 150s.

Happy 'nuff.

Good going. If you did these in Irishtown and you want to know the true 150m, there is a marker that reads "150mL5" on the kerb of lane 8. This means that it indicates where 150m is in lane 5. There is also a marker on the kerb of lane 1.

Oregano_State

Thursday 21st Smarch
Chicago Town pizza and about 70 push ups before bed.
The car was dropped in for a service so I couldn't get to the gym, and I wasn't brave enough to face the hurricane blowing outside.

Friday 22nd March - Hills
Seeing as I'd missed a track session on Monday, I wanted to get a second quality session done before the week was out. The weather had calmed down a bit and was pretty mild apart from a little drizzle. It's an indication of how bad the past week has been when you're delighted to find that you only have to put up with a little rain.

The hill I selected was just under 2km from the house, which served as a decent warm-up. I did a few leg-swings, walking lunges, and a couple of stride-outs to make sure the legs were good to go.

I did 3x3x60m at 95%. I roughly paced out the distance, so in reality it was 60m +/- 10%. I took 1min between reps and 3 min active recovery between sets.

I timed the 1st and 3rd sets, which all came in at 9.1-9.5s. On the second one I tried to concentrate on good form, without the distraction of a watch.
Difficulty-wise, this was definitely the easiest hills session I've ever done. I could have gone for more sets, but I'd say my times would have dropped off pretty quickly. The idea here was to develop acceleration and top speed, where the longer hill sessions are definitely more speed-endurance focused. I would have liked to round it off by doing 2-3x150m, but I was pressed for time. The 2km jog home worked well as a warm-down.

Saturday 23rd March - Home bodyweight circuit.
I won't have the car back until Monday, so decided against trekking to Santry, and made-do at home.

I did the following circuit: 25 push-up variations with my feet on a foam roller, so slight decline (10 standard, 5 staggered, 5 staggered opposite side, 5 almost-diamond); 40s front plank; 30s side plank each side; 50 mountain-climbers; 10 single-leg squats each side.

I did 3 sets of the above, taking 10s between exercises, and 3 mins between sets. It wasn't easy.

Oregano_State

It's been a bit of a mish-mash of a week, training-wise, between the terrible weather and various matters conspiring against me, but it wasn't all bad either. Writing this post is as much a 'what did I actually do?' exercise for me, as a recording for future reference, but, anyway, I better get on with it:

Sunday 24th March - Easy Run
8.1 km @ 5:21/km average pace. Threw in a 250m hill sprint along the way. Cold.

Monday 25th March - Track Fartlek Easy Run
I couldn't make it to Irishtown in time to meet with the club, so I headed out to Santry later on to get the session done on my own. Unbeknownst to me, however, there was a football game being held on the infield. No problem I thought, the plan was 4 x 425m off 10mins break so I'll have the full floodlights run under, and some football of questionable quality to look at during my long breaks.

Unfortunately, I was informed by the staff that because of the soccer game, the track was off-limits "for insurance purposes". "A ball could roll out in front of you, we couldn't be having that..."

I headed home, cursing, and went out to do some fartlek around the loop I usually use near my house. By that stage though it had gotten very very cold, I was absolutely starving, and still very annoyed about having my track session thwarted, so the run ended up being more of an easy session, with a few half-hearted strides thrown in. 6.49km @ 5:39/km avg pace.

Tuesday 26th March - Track
I'd usually do weights on Tuesdays, but wanted to make up for having missed a track session the day before. I also had to be mindful of not doing too much so I'd be recovered for my Wednesday track session. I decided to do 2x425m at 90%. The cold weather and stiff breeze that greeted me when I got out to Morton Stadium meant that again, conditions were far from ideal, so I did my warm-up in the gym.

Warm Up: 5mins bike, hip-mobility floor exercises, leg swings. Threw a jacket, gloves, hat, and spikes on and did a couple of stride-outs.

Session: Times for the reps were 63s, 61s with 11mins break. I headed inside and kept the legs ticking over on the bike during the break. I also did a 10min warm-down. There was a fair bit of lactic build-up after the second one.

Wednesday 27th March - Track
I got a text from the coach on Wednesday afternoon saying that training was off because of the blizzard that was going on outside. Undeterred, I said I'd see what the story was once i was home from work. Sure enough, the sky had cleared up so I headed off to the track. I decided on a pyramid; 150m, 200m, 250m, 250m, 200m, 150m off 4mins break.

I did a similar warm-up to Tuesday's.

I messed up the time for the first 150m (started from 5m behind the green 145m mark), but after that they went 26, 35, DNF, 27, DNS.

The DNF was because a young girl (12-15 estimate age), ran straight into my lane, headed the wrong way down the track, just after I'd entered the home straight. When I saw she was coming towards me, I shouted, and moved in a lane, but she kept coming towards me, so I had to pull up suddenly and grab her to stop her bouncing off me. She was part of a group from Raheeny I think, and was being chased by one of the others in that group. The guy who was coaching the group caught my eye just afterwards but didn't say anything to me, instead choosing to give his usual "watch the track" order to the group.

I didn't do the 150m because I was getting a bit of tightness in my right hamstring and didn't want to risk it in the cold. I'm not sure if pulling up suddenly to avoid the girl had anything to do with the tightness.

Thursday 28th March 1/3 Home bodyweight circuit
One round of: 25 push-ups (3 variants), 40s plank, 30s side-plank each side, 50 mountain-climbers, 20 squats, 10 single-leg squats each side. 10s between exercises.

The plan was 3 sets, but I was rudely interrupted.

Friday 29th March Fartlek run + 2/3 bodyweight circuit
GPS watch wouldn't sync with the satellite for some reason, so no exact distance figures, but roughly 8km in total. I did 10mins-ish easy as a warm-up the 3x20s at 70%, 2x40s at 80%, and 3x20s at 70% with 2mins active recovery in between. I was conscious of going easy on the hammy, I could feel a few minor twinges when walking around during the day, but nothing painful.

I finished off the previous day's circuit when I got home.

Saturday 30th March - cross training
Probably not the best idea to play 5-a-side astro with a hamstring niggle, however small it may be, but I didn't have any trouble with it. My problem was that I was home in the Kingdom, but had left my boots in Dublin so had to resort to wearing an old pair that had never fitted properly. The result was a fair bit of pain in the latter half of the game, and a large blood blister on my right big toe, along with a few smaller blisters and cuts on both heels. Serves me right I'd say!

Oregano_State

Tuesday 2nd April – Gym
Back to the grind yesterday after an easy weekend. I went for a snooze as soon as I got in the door after work, and it was very tough to get out again, with the planned 40 minutes rest ending up at an hour and a half!

Warm Up: 5mins bike, leg swings, BW squats, lunges, DB rows, DB snatches

Hang Clean
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 3
[70kg x 3] x 3 w/ 3x squat-jumps for height after each set

Deadlift
70kg x 5
90kg x 5
[105kg x 5] x 3

Conditioning Circuit
Pull Ups, Reverse Hypers w/ 10kg plate, Med-ball Knee-Tucks, Burpees
2 sets of: [ PUx5, RHx15, KTx20, Bpx10]


Solid. Was caught for time so I left out the split squats I’d planned.