Today the Lord saw it fit to test my patience... Woke up, usually thing sat on the edge of the bed and prayed for a minute or two, it's the best way. Necked my pint of water and headed downstairs to get some calories on board. 110g of corn flakes plus a toasted bagel with some marmite. Today I got up slightly earlier with the hope of smashing out some time in the free weights rooms before the pool opens.
I left my flat at around 6:40 AM and got to the gym at around 6:50 AM. When I arrived I looked through one of the windows into the weights rooms. Usually its pretty empty with only a couple of people, but it was heaving. Everyone seemed to decide to train early today which is unusual...no free squat rack in site. The plan was to smash out some heavy front squats and deadlifts. So I figured I'd just hang about until the pool opened at 7:15.
7:10 came around after waiting around so buzzed in and changed into my swim gear, and headed over to the pool. To my absolute horror it was heaving. Normally there are three other people who rock up to the pool at this time of day. Two hardcore triathletes who I knick name "team titanic" because they produce a huge wake and massive waves when they cruise past at speed, they consist of a middle aged bloke called Frederico and some other woman who's name I don't know, but her arms and shoulders are SWOLE. In addition there is usually an elderly dude who just cruises up and down for about 15 minutes then leaves. The pool on campus is only about 25m with about 6 lanes so when there is more than 10 people its almost impossible do a speedy 180 at the end of each length without having a head on collision with someone.
For some reason there were about 18 people this morning. This has never happened before. I swam a grand total of 125m before abandoning my session. Was pretty flipped off... but eh, I'll come back late.
So I head over to my girlfriends house and sleep for another couple of hours and wake up at around 10 am, no lectures today.
I get up again, have something to eat and go and re attempt what I intended to do this morning. The pool was basically empty. So the session consisted of the following:
100m - warm up
50m - full gas x 4 10 seconds recovery between each set (Without losing good form)
200m - easy
50m - full gas x 4 10 seconds recovery between each set (Without losing good form)
200m - easy
50m - full gas x 4 10 seconds recovery between each set (Without losing good form)
200m - easy
50m - full gas x 4 10 seconds recovery between each set (Without losing good form)
Its a short but intense session. Again like Monday's session I used a pull buoy to keep my hips up and keep my legs out the equation. Generally when you race in a triathlon you're almost always wearing a wetsuit which keeps you buoyant meaning you don't need to do much with your legs to keep you stable, save them for the bike and run.
After that I rehydrated and head into the free weights room to my delight I found a free squat rack and started to bang out some front squats. I do these as a sort of means of injury prevention. Front squats are good for your core and are probably one of the best weighted exercises you can do next to the deadlift. They also help with your sprint power on the bike or if you have to grind up short steep gradients when can't maintain a good cadence because you don't have the right gearing.
The session was made up of:
5 x 1 - Front Squat (Just the bar alone, no added weight)
10 x 3 - Front Squat (40kg going as deep as possible)
5 x 2 - Front Squat (50kg)
2 x 10 - Deadlift (50kg)
3 x 8 - Deadlift (70kg)
Beyond that not a lot happened training wise. I'm dieting at present, I'm only in a 250 calorie deficit as I write this this evening but I am REALLY hungry. Didn't help I ate mostly calorie dense foods today because I expected to do a bike session today also but rescheduled for later in the week. Plus a run as well but its blowing consistent wind speeds here of +35mph and gusting at 60 to 70mph so no thank you.
Tomorrow is a cheat day food wise, I have two cheesecakes in the fridge which I intent to demolish during movie night which is held every Thursday night at my girlfriend's house. Its also the day she makes chicken burgers and my my, this girl knows how to make a good chicken burger.
Stay tuned for tomorrow. Peace.
