Squats!

Yesterday was a travel day, all went smoothly but it's a long day....

Had a good squats workout just now at World Gym - Josh gave it to me to do while I was here. It is good: I am always a slight bit homesick when I'm in Cayman, with chief things I miss (not necessarily in this order) being NYC weather/park running, cats, library access and the powerlifting club. We had a good lunchtime visit from Max's cat Miss Roxy and then I felt much at home at the gym doing my squats, even if it's a little different (the rack here faces a mirror, it is distracting for me to see how red my face gets when I squat!).

squats: 3 x 3 x 140

pause squats: 4 x 4 x 95 (4-second pause)

Bulgarian split squats: 3 x 5 x 20lbs

cooldown spin

:45 lower body

Bench!

Inching up there - got a decent new PR today of 130. Got my eye on the big wheels!

I am much more endurance athlete than weight-lifter temperamentally, a workout day like this makes me glad I already ran earlier - it is over much too soon!

3 x 1 @ 120, 125, 130

close grip: 2 x 10 x 85

100 shrugs (42.5)

100 cable rope pulldown

about 50 minutes total
10mi bike

Run!

Oh dear - both yesterday and today I did get out for my "morning" run but only at the expense of the person I had my next appointment with! Need to get myself out the door more expeditiously rather than leaving it to the last possible moment and then running ten minutes late for whatever my next campus obligation is (fortunately today's student was stuck on the subway and was even a little more late than I was!).

Weather continues PERFECT. This is my good season for running and I intend to take advantage of that. The post-deadlift tendonitisy feeling in right glute-hamstring attachment continues troublesome - I had a long dinner last night and I couldn't find a comfortable position to sit in without it feeling really rather sore, not painful as such but distinctly uncomfortable - need to think about this. Anyway:

10min warmup

then 7 x 3min with rest as :30, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00

38:30 total (not sure I counted this one quite right!)

Deadlifts

No exclamation points left in me - a nice day, but so much too long (I have only just now gotten home at 11:15pm) that I am ready to weep with fatigue! (I guess I eked out one after all.))

The workout earlier was very good.

Work set: 5 x 2 x 226

Deficits: 2 x 1 x 226

Circuit x 4

25 hip thrusts with band

25 banded abs

35 shrugs

Run!

I was determined to make this happen, although in the end it meant going in running clothes to meeting #1 and being rather late to meeting #2 - ah, if only I could get up in the morning without such a struggle! But the weather is gorgeous, and it was really worth getting out there....

:22 with 6 x 10-second strides

Run!

Yesterday was a wash - I had a much-needed Very Long Sleep, the afternoon passed without anything happening other than minor errands, I had a nice late-afternoon visit from a friend and then it was evening and I still had two TRAC chair reports that I couldn't write Friday afternoon because of my colloquium commitment! Got those done, happily, but couldn't drag myself out of bed this morning to run, and then had family commitment downtown midday and a meetup with a former student to talk about a letter of recommendation.

However it turned into the most beautiful day, and I was determined not to just flop on the couch - I got out the door a little late as the sun was already setting, but it was an absolutely lovely run, even running straight into the wind on the way home. Glorious!

Wanted less walking and more work than the spreadsheet workout had me doing (it was just the ladder down from 6 to 1 with equal parts rest), so I did it as follows:

10min warmup
2 x (6r/2w/5r/2w/4r/2w/3r/2w/2r/2w/1r/2w)

Running is feeling really good right now - still woefully slow of course, as I weigh too many pounds, but I'm not thinking about that for now, just enjoying the feeling of strength/power and not being too hot!

1.25hr total

Remote spin!

Nothing too intense, but always nice to catch up with L. I seem to have had an absolutely exhausting week, I'm totally tapped out....

:40 with high-cadence intervals

3 x :30 on, :30 recovery
2:00 set rest
3 x 1:00 on, 1:00 recovery
2:00 set rest
3 x 1:30 on, 1:30 recovery
2:00 set rest
6 x :30 on, :30 recovery

Squats!

It's funny, Josh has been saying all along that as a powerlifter, you will have a different favorite lift in each cycle, and a different one you're hating. The discrepancy between my bench/deadlift on the one hand and squat on the other made that hard for me to believe, it seemed like the squat would always be my least favorite of the three lifts! However I am getting a good glimpse in this training cycle of the possibility that it will beccome a strength rather than a weakness - this is very enjoyable....

5 x 2 x 125

2 x 10 x 95

3 x 8 x walking lunges (25s)

3 x 8 dumbbell hamstring curl (37.5)

1hr lower body

Happy run!

OK, that was better than yesterday - not quite as hot/hazy, legs not full of vim but neither absolutely dead. Nice one:

10min warmup

then 3 x (3min run, 1min walk, 2min run, 1min walk, 1min run, 2min walk)

40min total

Mini-run

Took a mental health morning to sort out my apartment and do errands. Was a bit late getting out the door for my run, still intended to do the workout but combination of tight schedule and absolutely dead legs made me decide just to do a token run today and leave the "real" workout for tomorrow morning.

:20 as 4:1

Bench!

Hahahaha, slightly self-defeating workout in several respects, though I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. I was doing things too quickly today earlier (partly due to compressed scheduling, also I think as lag from a very demanding day yesterday). Threw gym things into bag and rushed to an appointment; got to gym and found I had left my asthma inhaler at home. So, no swim - I can get away with a strength workout with no albuterol, especially upper-body, but it is just foolhardy to do a hard aerobic workout without it. Then I went to get changed and realized I had packed sports bra and 2 pairs of pants instead of one pants and one shirt! (Fortunately the t-shirt I was already wearing was suitable for lifting, but I have nothing dry to change into now.) Then, most foolishly, I overdid my warmup and used up too much of vim before work set (that said, it was an ambitious percentage, and none of us did the full projected maximum of 2-4 x 3-5. ANYWAY....

Note to self: don't take 8 reps warmup at 95, it's something like 80% of max!!!

4 sets at 115: 5, 3, 3, 2

close-grip: 2 x 10 @ 85

incline row: 5 x 10 x 42.5s

front raise: 3 x 10 x 5s

130 abs with band

Anyway, very nice, probably by not swimming this evening I will have a higher-quality run in the morning anyway...

Run!

Did get out in time to run, didn't have time to blog it! Utterly gorgeous weather, could not be nicer - warmer than over the weekend, very little wind, sunny....

10 x 1min hard, 1.5min recovery

:40 total

Spin!

That wasn't bad. Will think about how to incorporate regular evening stuff at the gym post-lifting now that I'm not riding bike down and trying to ride home before dark. Shooting to go to masters swim tomorrow if I can make myself stick around for it! (6:30 start time more realistic than 7 I fear, but we will see.)

1hr spin

DL! Heavy singles edition

I have to confess that as an endurance athlete, I really prefer the days when we do massive volume sets. There is far too much waiting around on a day like this!

(That said, I have just eaten two hard-boiled eggs and a toasted bialy with butter and will go to 6:30pm spin class to get my cardio fix and give myself some slight desensitization to the discomfort of next weekend's very warm sprint triathlon!)

We warm up first at 5 x 135, then at triples for 155 and 185, then switching to singles.

My work set:

1 x 245
1 x 255
1 x 265

Woo-hoo, good 20-pound PR! I gave Tabbitha's 285 a pop but though I got it well off the ground, my hips flew up and I stalled out mid-calf - still got to keep working, the number starting with a three is not yet within my reach but I think it will be some months from now. T. got a nice 305 for her third and final lift, that was very good!

Megan's hills!

Much more enjoyable than in summer months!

Temperature topped out this afternoon in the high 40s, it's windier than yesterday but still absolutely gorgeous - I love running in this weather.

Warmup: 15min (4:1)

10 x 1min hill, c. 1:40 walking recovery

Cooldown: 10min (4:1)

:55 total