Texas Method Team Training. Week 0 (Race Week Taper). Session 2

BW - 226

Squats - up to 215X3, 3, 3

Bench - up to 175X3, 3, 3

Pull-downs - 3 sets of 8

Hybrid Training. Week 11. Short Tempo Run (Race Week Taper)

Tempo Run: 1 mile; 8:53

Last, race pace run before the race.  Went short distance, and slightly above pace.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 0 (Race Week Taper). Session 1

BW - 225

Squat - up to 205X3, 3, 3

Press - up to 120X3, 3, 3

Pulldowns - 3 sets of 8 to a top set

Started a group training program that will be the Texas Method. Really light this week because of the 5K this weekend.

Hybrid Training. Week 10. Heavy Lower

BW - 226

Squat -
up to 317.5X5, 5
247.5X6, 6

Deadlift - 247.5X5, 5

Hanging Legs - BWX8, 8, 8

Not great but not terrible.  My heaviest, consecutive sets of 5 was with 325 on the Novice LP back in January, but it took me three sessions of trying to hit that before I finally did.  After that, I switched to the TM and never did multiple heavy sets of 5 again.

Obviously, I'm not stoked about being about as strong in September as I was in January.  That's not progress.  It seems pretty clear that the higher rep work I did in March, April, and May likely didn't set the table for me to recover from meet prep and roar back to be stronger than ever.  Not sure how much I want to blame the current programming as it took me a while to iron it out and land on the 5/3/1 style progression for the main lifts that I'm currently employing.

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 10. Heavy Upper

BW - 226

Warm-up -
Rope Pushdowns - X15
Rope Stiff-arm Pushdowns - X10

Bench -
up to 187.5X5, 5
then 147.5X12, 8

CG, Reverse Cambered Bar -
165X5
175X5
185X5
195X5
205X5
215X5

WG, Pulldowns -
Straight Weight X10, 8
Drop-Set X8, 6, 5, 6

DB Rows -
80sX10, 10
Drop-Set - 70sX10, 60sX5, 50sX5

Kind of a long session, but I just seemed to have the energy for it.

Sets of 5 on bench were a bit heavier than I expected.  I've got one more heavy session before I taper lifting a bit for my 5K.  We'll see how heavy triples feel next week.

Brought back the reverse cambered bar to see how they would feel for some extra triceps volume.  The trick here, with such a short stroke, seems to be making sure the elbows don't flare as you start to overload.  Keep it in the triceps.  I'll try 'em out again next week.

Shoulders felt too achy to want to do chin-ups, so I went with pulldowns so I could get more reps in.  Decided to go to DB rows even though they've been "light" day work.

Hybrid Training. Week 9. Light Lower, and LSR

Saturday:
BW - 225

Squats - 265X2, 2, 2, 2, 2

Pause Squats - 255X2, 2, 2, 2

 Deadlift, 3 sec. pause at knee on eccentric -
245X2, 2, 2, 2, 2

GHR Hypers - BW+45X20, 18, 10*
super-set with
GHR Sit-Ups - BWX20, 18, 15

Sunday:
Long Slow "Run" - 45 minutes walking with a 15 lb. pack.

Okay session.  A lot of tightness in the back of my left hip, so I had to be more careful on the speed squats.  It was especially tender on the Unrack, Lockout, and releasing after the Rack.

Pause Squats were all good, though.

Same with paused DLs.

I've been doing the hypers with a 45 held to my chest.  After my 2nd set, a guy worked in with me that held it above (not behind) his head.  I tried that on my last set.  I knew it would be a lot harder, and I'm actually pretty happy that I got 10!  I'll keep that approach for a while.

For the LSR day, I've been having a hell of a time motivating myself to go to the gym for incline treadmill walking, so instead I pulled some of the weight packets out of my old weighted vest, threw them in a cinched-down backpack, and took a long, brisk walk down to the beach.  So much better than being on a treadmill in a basement gym.