Weekly Training Blog Week 6: Muscle Doesn't Float

I finished a very hungover and slow 10 mile run after last week’s blog. With no football for the first time since September (no, the Pro Bowl doesn’t count!), it was an a much needed early night’s sleep.

It was also a 5 am Monday morning start which threaten to ruin the routine of the week…

Monday, February 7th
After a few hours shift in the morning, it was straight into an upper body session at 8am. With having pull up and push up goals, one thing I am trying to include a lot into my upper body sessions in band pull aparts and YWT Holds. Working on upper back muscles can help improve posture and help keep your shoulders healthy. Especially if you do a lot of push work and pull ups. They can take a lot of volume too so 15-20 reps it is. Bench felt good today, 7 reps at 80kg before dropping the weight twice and going for an AMRAP…. probably wasn’t the smartest decision with a 10am swimming lesson coming up…

After the warm ups, where we’ve always gone a certain distance in the pool before it goes deeper, the instructor tells me and two other lads in the group that we can swim the length of the pool if we want? I’m very confused. The whole length? But, I can’t do… actually, maybe I can. Forget waiting until right before my 34th birthday. I’m doing this today!

My name gets called to go next. It may as well have been an olympic gun going off to signal the final race. I’m swimming this length today! I can swim. Six strokes of my arms and two massive gulps of water, I’m down. Barely making the sign that non swimmers are not meant to cross… not today I guess. At leat we would have a few more attempts to practice. Or so I thought. The last 15 minutes is spent doing backwards strokes. As I am watching the movement being demonstrated I think to myself, I don’t know if I have the co-ordination to do that with my arms out of the water.

Unfortunately, I’m right.

I throw myself back and sink straight into the water. Second go around I ease back, hips up, arms fail and sink again. “What happened there”, asks the instructor. “Well, I sank!” was all I could reply. “Muscle doesn’t help with floating and you have a bit of it” she replied. I found the compliment in there even if it is detrimental to my swimming goals right now.

Tuesday, February 8th

I really have to start labelling my Strava runs. Tuesday I attempted a 1 min on/1 min off x10. I kept a 4 min/km pace but it was a struggle. I needed to slow down after every minute. With a week to go until the Streets of Clane 5k, the sub 20min dream is probably dead. With 650 people doing it, it will probably be a slow start anyway, I am telling myself. But I still think I can beat my 5k PB of 21:55. After this 7am run, I was back in that afternoon for a lower body day… which I definitely over did after this run!

With the lower body workout, I went straight from barbell RDLs to Kettlebell Swings. I recognise that my hamstrings are weaker than they should be. But the explosiveness and too may reps of the swings probably contributed to the tenderness I felt in the back of my hamstrings, particularly my left one, for the rest of the week.

I am still stuck at 60kg on barbell squats. Very paranoid about my back and I feel like I don’t get a great leg workout from them because of this. I struggle to hold the weight. So after getting my usual 5-6 reps, I play it safe with feet elevated goblet squats. To push myself on this finish, I start heavy for a set of 10 reps and then reduce the reps and keep going for 4 sets.

It’s not hard to see where the Barbell Squats fit in here before the Goblet Squat Finisher. On a workout, hitting green is pretty high for me!

Wednesday, February 9th

I find myself back in the pool, attempting to swim my first length again. Unsuccessful. I feel like I am going backwards. Having missed the session the previous week and not been in the pool for a two-week gap, I have no one else to blame. The one length in one month is not looking likely. A swimmer in the actual swimming lane notices my struggles. “Try taking shorter breathes out with each stroke” is his recommendation. I think about it. Am I actually breathing out at all as I swim? Was I supposed to? I was so busy trying to get the three strokes in (they are called strokes, right?), that I think I was holding my breath the whole time and not needing air when I went up, hence the open mouth and insert pool water. It would also explain how I am not relaxed because how can you be relaxed exercising and holding your breath?! Maybe I’m not that muscly and can float?!?!

So, I try again.

Short breaths out with every stroke. I get up to 8 before losing form and needing to stop. Progress. A few minutes later I barely get 9. Having been in the pool for 40 minutes at this stage and feeling tired, I hit the sauna with the 5k goal also in the back of my mind.

An easy run followed that evening before heading off to Boot Camp. Not so easy says my Garmin as I suddenly go from “productive” to “unproductive”. Bastard

So much for never regretting a run, huh?

Thursday, February 10th

With Tuesday’s intervals bothering me, I set up the treadmill for the first time in months and aim for 1km at 15.1km/h (just under 4min/km pace). I get two and a bit rounds in before I get really conscious of my hamstrings that have been bothering me the whole time. I ease up on the third km attempt and decide to finish with a slow jog. The whole thing takes only 20 minutes but I’m not tired. I felt like I could have kept going. Yes, resistance on the treadmill is different to on the road. But I take the positives.

Friday, February 11th

A rare Friday morning in work (and evening), has me doing my lower body session at 8 am. I stick with the trap bar for deadlifts to keep the hamstrings in an easier starting position. I also keep it relatively light in effort, putting more strength focus on the eccentric Bulgarian split squats that follow. They hurt like a mother m’fer! I get through the rest of the workout and finish with 5 rounds of wall sits for 45 seconds followed by flutter kicks for 60 on each leg. The legs do be visibly shaking by the 30-second mark, after the workout leading up to that point but the finisher is a mental battle to keep going as much as it is physical. After the 5 rounds, I am truly done.

Until I end up walking for the best part of 90 minutes after, looking for the dog around the farm!

Friday night has me working and then straight to my friend, Elaine’s house in Trim to bake for the night. Yep, you heard the right. Baking for the Saturday ABC RunClub as well as those attending the nutrition talk after

Saturday, February 12th

Nobody believes that I baked! Having been up until 2 am on Friday night and getting 4 hours of sleep (not bad training for 4 x 4 x 48), I’m pretty hurt! Ok… it’s very believable that I didn’t bake these. Let’s just say I was well supervised. But I still baked them.

Just remembering this is a training blog, not a bake-off!

Being the Saturday before the 5k event and being a little short on time with a lot of the runners wanting to stick around for nutrition after, I tell them to do the first loop of the village at a steady pace and the second at their race pace goal for Tuesday. Chasing them around the loop to check how everyone is getting on, I glance down at my watch to see that I am running a 3:50km pace. I maintain it for the best part of two minutes before meeting a runner and turning back on myself to pace them for 20-30 seconds. I felt relaxed. No niggles in the calves, Achilles or hamstrings.

I’m not saying sub 20 is on… but maybe sub 21 min? I ponder that as I avoid the protein balls and go straight for the Rice Krispy mars bars and watch the nutrition talk.

A week before an event is supposed to be the week you pull back. Kind of like cramming knowledge right before an exam it’s not that beneficial. Well, I know both and I crammed at the last minute. I also decided to push a little more on the cardio for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday night was back on the AirDyne bike for 70 minutes, 10 minutes warm-up followed by 10-minute intervals with the aim to work towards my threshold rate and then recover for 5 minutes in between each of the 4 x 10-minute blocks. 70 minutes straight of Rocky music was more than necessary.

Sunday, February 13th

Superbowl Sunday… and that’s the only acknowledgement of that event, which I had so much more planned for today. Instead, upped the long run to 20km. Without the hangover, I was 5 minutes faster after the first 10 miles without trying. Kept the heart rate pretty low. Niggling pains but hoping not too serious and I can make a good attempt of this 5k come Tuesday.

My hope is, like the 90s, fanny packs become a thing again. I somehow doubt it will be me that leads this rightful charge! So handy, you can’t deny them!