Texas Method Team Training. Week 5.

Intensity Day:
BW - 225

Squat - 325X3
Bench - 215X1, 1, 1
Deadlift - 325X3

Volume Day:
BW - 226

Squat - 265X5, 5, 5
Bench - 190X5, 5, 5
Deadlift - 205X10X2

Recovery Day:
BW - ???

Squat - 235X5, 5
Press - 105X5, 5, 5
Pull-Downs -
X10, 10, 10, 5 (to a top set)
X12 (back-off set)

Started tapering for the meet last week.  Got busy and forgot to record my impressions of the training.
Squat is feeling better.

Bench is still pretty close to limit strength, but my technique is much better.

Deadlift is feeling good.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 4. Recovery Day

BW - 224

Squats - 235X5, 5

Press - 105X5, 5, 5

Pulldowns -
X10, 10, 6 (to a top-set)
X7 (back-off set)

Texas Method Team Training. Week 4. Volume Day

BW - 224

Squats - 270X5X5

Bench - 190X5X5

Deadlift - 195X10X2

Squats moved well.

Bench moved great, and at a heavier weight than my volume days previously on TM.  Updated technique is getting more innate.

Deadlifts are fine.  Main challenge here is not taking the weight for granted and doing everything right.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 4. Intensity Day

BW - 224

Squats - 315X5

Bench -
215X1
205X2

Deadlift - 315X5

Squats were slow, but totally do-able.  Still just fighting around or through lingering strains.

Paused the first rep at 215 and missed the 2nd one just off the chest.  Hit a smooth double at 205 as a back-off.  The 205 felt cleaner this week than last week.  We'll try 215 again next week.

Deadlifts moved better this week than 305 did last week.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 3. Recovery Day and Tempo Run

BW - 224

Squats - 235X5, 5

Press - 105X5, 5, 5

Pulldowns - X10, 10, 10, 10 (to a top set)

Tempo Run - 2.5 miles, 00:27:00 (00:10:43/mile)

All good.  Except I got a stitch in my side on the run starting around minute 23.  Not sure if that's because I've slacking on getting conditioning in more than 1X a week.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 3. Volume Day

BW - 226

Squat - 265X5X5

Bench - 185X5X5

Deadlift - 190X10X2

Everything went well.  Squats are still finding the relatively pain free middle-path between the lingering low-back/left hip strain, and last week's fading ab strain.

Bench is getting further dialed in to the following new cues:
1) Get way up on my traps
2) Don't let breathing cause a loss of tightness between reps
3) Keep the elbows fairly tucked for as long as possible to lock-out
That last is much better on my shoulders.

Deadlift is finding the lowest starting hip position where they don't shoot up and knees don't get in the way.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 3. Intensity Day

BW - 225

Squat - 305X5

Bench - 205X3

Deadlift - 305X5

Squat went better than expected.  Strength is no doubt there, but I have to walk the fine line between and ab and low-back strain.  Still, the work set was better than several of the warm-up sets.

Missed my 4th rep on bench.  Coach said, "Good news!  We're going to triples now."  Haha.

Deadlift also went surprisingly well.  Early on, the low back strain was giving me a lot of trouble.  On the work set, I started the pull with my hips a little lower and was able to get my legs more involved in getting the bar to my knees.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Recovery Day and Tempo Run

BW - 223

Squat - 235X5, 5

Press - 110X5, 5, 5

Pulldowns -
X10, 10, 5 (to a top set)
X8 (back-off, AMRAP set)

Tempo Run - 3 miles @ 00:34:00

Ab strain still making squatting a giant pain in the ass.

I'll probably stay at this press weight for recovery day.  Feels like it's getting a bit hard for this day.

Generally feeling weak on this day.  I was supposed to do 4 sets of pull-downs to a top-set, but only got half way through the 3rd set.

Tempo run went fine, though.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Volume Day

BW - 221

Squats - 260X5X5

Bench - 180X5X5

Deadlift - 185X10X2

Coach had me working on contracting my abs harder to try and help out with the hip/low-back issue.  It worked, BUT on the 3rd rep of my 3rd set of squats, something went POP under a rib on the left side.  Nothing terrible, but made it so I couldn't keep contracting my abs that way.  All I could do was laugh.

Bench went really well.  Tightening up the technique even more.  Today the focus was on staying super tight, up on my traps, and not relaxing at all when I took a breath between reps.  It made the breathing harder, but the lifting stronger.

My hip/low-back thing was bugging me on Speed DL as well.  We tried lowering the starting position for my hips just a bit, and that helped.  We'll have to see how that handles on intensity day.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Intensity Day

BW - 223

Squat - 295X5

Bench - 200X5

Deadlift - 295X5

The lingering strain in my left hip and low back is making squatting harder than it should be.  Strength is there, but everything is tentative working around the hip.

Bench was pretty heavy, but I'm making some modifications to technique that may help.

Deadlift was frustratingly heavy, but we're making some mods here as well.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 1. Recovery Day and Tempo Run

BW - 224

Squats - 230X5, 5

Press - 105X5, 5, 5

Pull-Downs - X10, 10, 10, 8 (to a top set)

Tempo Run - 2.65 miles @ 00:30:00

My intention for this program is to put Tempo Runs the day after Intensity and Volume days.  That didn't work out this week, so I tried doing it after my Recovery work-out.  Proved to be no trouble at all.  I didn't go in with a target pace.  Just wanted to hit a comfortable jog, 15 minutes out and 15 minutes back.  The cool thing is this pace ended up being a little bit faster than my last, sub-race pace runs leading up to the 5K.  And felt easy.