Hybrid Training. Week 10. Intervals

Intervals - 5, 1/2 mile intervals @ ~5:00

Lost count and only did 5 when I was meant for 6.  These were all pretty hard, which doesn't bode great for my race, but I could have done a 6th.

Hybrid Training. Week 9. Tempo Run

Tempo Run: 3.25 miles; 37:40

I came in almost exactly 50 seconds over target here.  Most of that happened in the first half mile where I got behind by 20 seconds.  It took me a long time to settle into a pace close to target.  Finding pace continues to be the biggest challenge for the tempo runs.

I've got one more tempo run next week, shooting for 2.5 miles as race pace (so 25 min.) and then I'll taper for the race at the end of September.

Hybrid Training. Week 8. Intervals and Heavy Lower

Saturday:
Intervals - 4, 1/2 mile intervals @ ~5:00

Sunday:
BW - 225

Squat -
up to 325X2, 3
then 257.5X5, 5

Deadlift -
265X3, 3
315X1
325X1
335X1

Hanging Legs - X8, 8, 8

Jumped up to 1/2 mile intervals at target pace.  I probably could have gone for at least one more, but since I don't need to really do more than 6, there was no point in killing myself while I've still got a few weeks until the race.

On my first squat set of 325, I got over my toes on the 3rd rep and missed it.  Had no concerns about getting it on the 2nd set.  Felt pretty solid all around.  I probably could have gone for a 3rd set, but I still needed to hit back-off sets and deadlift.

For deadlift, I'd only programmed in to go up to the squat back-off weight, 257.5, but I just went to 265.  After a couple of sets, I still felt pretty good, so I did a few fatigue singles a la Paul Carter to see how things were feeling ahead of heavy deadlifts next week.  The top single felt pretty slow.  Maybe not so bad for a fatigued state.  Next week, I'm looking to pull a few singles at 342.5 fresh.  That should be do-able.

Hybrid Training. Week 7. Tempo Run

Tempo Run: 3.5 miles; 45 minutes

That's gotta be both a time and distance PR for non-stop running.  Now it's time to start progressing it.  I will reset to 2.5 miles.  I'm going to make a bigger jump than I would have expected, but based on some articles I've found on runners world, etc., it may be in range of what is recommended.  I'm going to jump from a ~00:12:50 mile pace to a ~00:11:25 miles pace.  Progress distance from 2.5 to 3.5 miles at that pace, and if that works out, I should be in range to jump to my goal of a 5K in 30 minutes.

We'll just have to see how the pace jump works for me.  For theses first weeks when progression was focused solely on distance, I forced myself to keep to about the slowest possible pace without walking.  There were often times 1/2 way through a run when I felt like I could have still increased the pace, so we'll see.

Hybrid Training. Week 7. Heavy Upper and Intervals

BW - 227

Bench -
up to 185X5, 5
then 155X10

JM Press - 95X5, 5, 5 (slow concentric, slight pause)

CG Pulldowns - X10, 8, 7 (straight-weight)

T-Bar Rows - 115X6, 4

Chest-Supported T-Bar Retractions - 90X15, 15

Intervals - 8, 1/4 mile intervals @ ~2:30

 Had a consult this week with a coach from Complete Human Performance, the company founded by the author of the Hybrid Training program.  Some of the new info gleaned went into this session.

I did a second top set of 5 at 185.  These were do-able but getting difficult.  I felt a 3rd set may have been overkill on this day.

I went for a rep out on one back-off set, instead of doing multiple sets for proscribed reps.

I tried JM Presses for the first time here as another heavy, triceps option.  The movement was much more difficult at much lighter weight than I expected.  Good.

I hit some pulldown and row variations.

The coach from CHP mentioned that he'd had great luck bringing up his upper back with chest-supported scapula retractions.  Never done this kind of thing before, but my upper back was really tired, and fried feeling after this.

Did intervals a couple of days later.  The coach said the important thing is to start getting the combined interval distance to match the race distance and at race pace.  So I added a couple of intervals here, and will look to add two intervals a week until I hit 12 quarter-miles, and then drop down to half-miles and work up to 6.

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Tempo Run and Light Upper

Saturday:

Tempo Run - 3 miles @ 00:37:00

Sunday:

BW - 225

Bench - up to 175X2, 2

CG Bench, TUT (5/0/0) - 155X4, 4, 4

Rope Face-Pulls - X20, 15, 15 (straight-weight)

super-set with

Rope Stiff-Arm Pushdowns - X20, 15, 11 (straight-weight)

BB Drag Curls - up to 70X5, 4

Hit my distance on the tempo run this weekend, which is great.  Next week I'll push to 3.5 miles, and then look to reset to 2.5 miles and start increasing pace.

Bar moved pretty well with 175 on speed bench.  Final rep was probably too slow.

Tried the TUT close-grips with an explosive concentric; similar to what I did in Columbus with Matt Wenning.  Felt good.  Final reps on each set were getting pretty hard.

Supersetting the facepulls with straight-arm pushdowns using the rope attachment for both and the same weight was interesting.  Pre-fatiguing the rear delts, I discovered I could "feel" them in the pushdowns, and with a slight alteration I could "remove" them from the movement which also made the movement more difficult.  I'll look to keep this one in the rotation and see what pans out.

I guess I did drag curls a couple of times in 2011.  That must have been when I first started and was doing the DeFranco program.  I found this a challenging movement to get down.  Focused on keeping the shoulders down so that I wasn't doing a shrug/row hybrid.  By the end, it started to feel close to right.

Hybrid Training. Week 5. Intervals

Intervals - 4, 1/4 mile runs @ 2:10 - 20

Hybrid Training. Week 0. Heavy Lower and Tempo Run

Friday:
BW - 229

Squats -
up to 305X2
then 255X6, 6

RDL - up to 225X5, 5, 5

Hanging Legs -
BicyleX10
Knee RaiseX10
Bent Leg RaiseX10

Sunday:
Tempo Run - 1.3 miles @ 20 min.

Squats all moved well.

I was very, very careful with the RDLs as I've aggravated my low back issues being too aggressive with them in the past.  I walked them out instead of picking them up, and I was facing a mirror so I could keep an eye on my chest position.  After the 2nd set, I felt a kind of pulsing feeling around where I've had issues, so I did one more set and quit while I was ahead.  No lingering back issues afterwards.

In the past, I've tried to jump right into full, straight-leg hanging leg raises and been frustrated.  So I'm going to do a bit more of a progression here and try to work up to a quality straight-leg raise.

The tempo runs are supposed to be "slightly sub-pace," and varying between under- and over-distance.  I haven't done any running besides intervals since June of 2014, and until this week, I hadn't even done intervals since August of '15.  So I don't know what my pace is, and under-distance is my max without walking.  I decided to get in the water "a toe at a time," and just did a loop around the park with the slowest possible gait that wasn't walking.  Frankly, that I did it without having to stop and walk seems like an achievement.

My plan for this day right now is to alternate increasing the distance with increasing the speed.  The "race pace" I will likely shoot for is a basic 10 min. mile.  My best ever 1 mile time is 7:58.  That was in 2012 @ ~205 BW.  So I will work first on getting to 2 miles at a non-stop shuffle alternated with getting my mile pace closer to 10.  Then I will put those together, and when I can get 2 miles in 21-25 minutes, I will start on increasing distance at that pace.