Well, football season ended for me 2 weeks ago and now after taking a 2 week break for recovery (somewhat), it is time for track season. I've decided to keep a workout log this season in order to track all of my progress in hopes for my best season yet and a conference championship in the 55m hurdles (indoor) and 110m hurdles (outdoor). I have placed 3rd in both races a couple times and 4th once (if my memory serves me correctly). This year is my senior season so it is now or never and I am ready for the challenge. I run for a division III program in NY and as a team we have high hopes for this season (both indoor and outdoor). Just wanted to welcome and thank you to anyone who decides to read or follow my journal, feel free to say something . And here..we...GO
Just a small Bio on myself:
Height: 5'11"
Weight (as of today): 190 lbs
Year in School: Senior
Best times (fully automatic timing):
55 meter hurdles: 7.98 seconds
110 meter hurdles: 15.40 seconds
Goals: To get into the best shape of my life and to win the conference championship in the 55 and 110 meter high hurdles
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Today was my first practice of the season. The team has been practicing since september. All we did today was an 800 meter warm-up, stretch and finish with sprint drills. Sadly enough, I felt way too winded for the amount of work we did. In past seasons I have been in better shape to start the track season only to fatigue to near burnout by the end of outdoor in May. So i'm hoping this year to be strong to close the season. Following this light workout, I went to the weightroom:
Power snatch: 5 sets of 3 reps, 95lbs
Squats: 10 sets of 10 reps, 155lbs
superset with:
Stiff-leg Deadlifts: 6 sets of 10 reps, 65 lbs
Calf Raises: 3 sets of 8 reps
Abs
I am experimenting this season with a new workout regimen. The first couple weeks are for general conditioning to lead up to more power/ explosion lifts (olympic lifts). This workout was brutal on me (the superset, anyway). I only made it through 7 sets of squats and 5 sets of deadlifts before I cramped up in my hips (for the first time in my life) and lower back. I actually began to cramp up in the 3rd set and tried to power my way through the workout but did not succeed. Next time I dont know if I will be supersetting the squats and deadlifts.
This was my first time doing power snatches and I found them to be not only a challenge but also to be quite enjoyable. I love explosive/powerful movements.
The objective of this workout is to use light weights with pretty solid volume (all of the weights I used were only about 50% of my max). The reason for this is to provide a base for the workouts for the remainder of the season and also to help and injure-proof my body. We will see if it pays off . I also wouldn't mind gaining some size as the season goes on. I weighed myself at 190lbs today for the first time in my life, which I normally would be happy about..but not this time because I know it is from Turkey break and is excess fat. I am confident that I will burn this off pretty easily though so no worries here.
As per my diet, I am either going to shoot for a either a 50-30-20 split or a 40-40-20 split (carb-protein-fat). I'm guessing I will probably end up leaning more towards the 40-40-20 because I am a sprinter/jumper and so will not need to carb-up quite as much as a middle or long distance runner and also because my body will need the extra protein for repair and recovery. I am also experimenting with chocolate milk intake after my workouts for muscle recovery and repair. Overall I am going to start with between 3100-3300 cals a day and adjust from their.
So not a bad day, but need to cut down the fat a bit (shooting to keep it under about 90 grams). I was going to list all my food that I ate but after spending the last half hour on fitday I dont feel like repeating myself, at least not for the time-being haha.
Overall, walking away from today I am feeling like I need a lot of work, but more importantly I am feeling very hopeful and enthusiastic for the months to come. Time to get after it.
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Wow did I wake up SORE today, and wow do I love it. 8-) Had class this morning and already worked out. I have some downtime right now so I figured I might as well log my workout.
Today's workout:
Barbell Bench Press: 8 sets, 10 reps, 135lbs
Incline dumbell speed bench: 3 sets 8 reps, 35lbs
Close Grip Bench press: 2 sets 6 reps, 115lbs
Biceps: 21's 4 sets, 75, 75, 65, 65, 55, 55lbs
Triceps: Skullcrushers 50lbs+ EZcurl bar (not sure how much they weigh i just realized haha) 3 sets, 6 reps
Abs
The objectives of this workout are the same as yesterday. I gotta say I thought using only 50% of my max weight for bench (and squat yesterday) was going to be cake, but so far this has been the most challenging workout I've ever done. I've also never gotten a postworkout pump like I've gotten. I'm pretty excited to see the type of progress I've made in a couple months time.
Later on I will post my nutrition for the day. Stay posted
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Again, my fat intake was higher than I woulda liked (126 grams).. Guess I should stop cooking with so much canola/ olive oil haha.
Looking back on Day 2: I am still really sore in my legs, tomorrow is my off day from lifting but I'm guessing it will be a pretty hard training day on the track. We'll see, I'll keep ya posted.
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Didnt get a chance to post an update yesterday. I was pretty busy with schoolwork and a few other things. Yesterday was an offday in the weightroom. On the track, it was a good workout, pretty challenging. We did a 10 min fartlek, or interval run, which was made up of periods of jogging, up-tempo running, and sprinting. I felt it pretty good. Was my first real track workout of the season and I was happy with how I ended up doing.
As for today, I didnt get much sleep last night..only about 5 hours. I was up finishing a presentation that I had this morning for a class. I'm upset I didnt get the proper recovery time in for my body but am not overly worried about it. Again, we only did a warm up and stretch at practice. In the weightroom my workout was as follows:
Drop Snatch, 5 sets of 3: 95 lbs
Pull ups (alternating wide/ narrow grip to failure) 5 sets
Still leg deadlift (slow reps): 4 sets of 7, 135lbs
Barbell Bentover rows: 4 sets of 8, 135lbs
Lat-Pulldowns: 6 sets of 10, 97.5lbs first 2 sets; 90lbs on the rest
Abs
I enjoyed todays workout a lot. Mainly because of the drop snatches. I've never done them before but I loved them. I'm a sucker for power/explosive movements (as I might have already said haha) and these were a nice challenge. My form is nowhere near perfect, of course, but I felt I did pretty well for a first timer. Looking forward to tomorrows workout as well, I get to try my hand at the clean and jerk .
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
All done working out for the day. Yesterday was the last day of classes . Hell yeah. I still have finals and a **** ton of work to do but that'll get done.
Woke up with a pounding headache but went away before practice which was good. Running and working out with a headache sucks. Practice was awesome today. I got to do some hurdle work! Ahhh nothing like hurdles 8). Just did some flexibility drills and walkovers. I'm a little rusty but all in all it was a great first day. After the hurdle stuff I did 8 55 meter sprints. Those got better as I went which was good. My sprint form felt pretty solid and I was feeling smooth.
As for the weightlifting, as I said yesterday, I got to try my hand at the clean and jerk. It was excellent. I was working with light weights to work on form but I think it sorta threw me off because I could clean the weight pretty much without having to go to far into a squat. I know when the weight gets heavier I am going to have to get a good deep front squat in order to be able to get under the bar. But overall I thought it was a great first day. Just wish I had a coach to critique. I also was supposed to to clean pulls today but ended up doing hanging high pulls because I wasnt 100% sure what a clean pull was, but now I know and will fix it for next week. My workout was as follows:
Clean & Jerk:
115lbs x 3
115lbs x 3
115lbs x 3
115lbs x 3
95lbs x 5
95lbs x 5
95lbs x 5
95lbs x 5
High Pulls:
135lbs x 4
135lbs x 4
135lbs x 4
135lbs x 4
135lbs x 4
DB shoulder press:
40lbs x 10
40lbs x 10
40lbs x 10
Tricep Cable pressdowns: 3 sets of 7, 80lbs
ABS
So overall today was great. My entire body is sore as hell right now from this week's activities. I cant believe my legs are still sore haha. I'm usually only sore for a couple days so I know I shocked my body. My chest is more sore than it's ever been as well as my back. I think i'm going to see lots of improvement as the time goes on.
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Whew, been over a week since I've updated this, my apologies. Last week was finals week and I had a lot of studying/ papers to do on top of practice and the workouts so I decided to focus on that. To generalize, last week went similar to week one, with a few adjustments/ new exercises here or there but nothing too noteworthy. Felt some improvements in my olympic lifts so that was awesome. It's still weird not lifting with heavy weights for pure stength (especially bench and squat), but I have just have to have confidence and faith that it is all in preparation for where I want to be in a couple months.
As for running last week, it was a good week of workouts. Did some hurdling stuff on Monday as well as some starting block work. Did some bleacher runs on tuesday. Had a 20 minute run on Wed (about 2.5 miles). On thursday, along with the hurdle work, did some 55m sprints. And on friday just did a light warm up and some sprint drills. Enough about last week though.
Today I did a light hurdle workout (basically just some drills) but I'll call it a workout because I went over a few hurdles. In the weightroom:
Dumbell Bench Press:
50lbs x 10
50lbs x 10
50lbs x 10
50lbs x 10
45lbs x 10
45lbs x 10
45lbs x 10
40lbs x 10 (decline)
40lbs x 10 (decline)
40lbs x 10 (decline)
Dumbell Incline Bench
40lbs x 6
40lbs x 6
40lbs x 6
Closegrip bench
117 x 6
117 x 6
117 x 6
Tricep 21's (skullcrushers, close grip bench, wide grip bench; 7 reps each)
EZ bar+ 40lbs x 4 sets
Bicep 21's
60lbs
50lbs x 2 sets
40lbs
Abs (on stability ball) 3sets x10 reps of each
Crunches with 18lbs medcine ball
Trunk twists (dunno the name of the exercise)
Jacknifes
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Been a couple days again, I need to start updating this daily to make it easier on myself. I had tix to see a sneak premier of Yes Man with Jim Carrey on Tuesday and tix to see 7 pounds with Will Smith last night, my two favortie actors. I thought both movies were great and would recommend them.
Anyway, back to the stuff that matters. On tuesday, we did 10-12 minutes of bleacher runs again. I love running stairs, I dont know why lol. It was a great workout and my body is feeling really good. In the weightroom, it was basically a back day:
Lat. Pull Downs
105x10, 105x10, 105x10, 95x10, 95x10, 95x10
DB One Arm Rows
45x8, 45x8, 45x8, 45x8
Leg Curls (on glute-ham machine)(super-set with pull-ups)
Bodyweight, 3 sets of 7 (slow reps)
On Wed. I did 3 starts out of the block over a mini hurdle. I'm gonna resist my urge to go over a hurdle at normal height for a couple more weeks. I want to make sure that my hip flexors and groin are properly conditioned to minimize risk of energy. I also want to work on my quickness over and between hurdles which is another reason to keep the hurdles lower than race height. I also did a 20 min hill run on the treadmill which was a good sweat. It was an off day in the weightroom but I did a leg adductors and abductors to help strengthen and condition my groin and hips. I also did some hip strenghtening exercises with the cable machine. I made the exercise up so I dunno if there is a name for it. But basically you put the cable at the lowes height with the ring attachment, put your foot in it and lift your leg as if in a running motion. Did 3 sets of this, same with the adductor and abductor.
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Today was another great workout. On the track: did 6 160 meter sprints (well at about 85% full speed) with 2 minutes rest inbetween. I really concentrated on my form during the runs. The weightroom:
Hip Circuit (just a few exercises to stengthin my hips for the hurdles)
Again, the workout felt great. My body is feeling pretty well. My shoulder/back is still sore and giving me minor problems at times (from my rhomboid strain during the football season) but nothing that is hindering me too much. Looking forward to tomorrows workout, leg day: always a tough one.
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Now that I'm between semesters, I have a lot of time on my hand. Stumbled across some good reading last night while searching the internet. It's a book on Sports Physiology. I read a few sections last night and plan on reading the rest in the next few days. Here's the link if anyone is interested:
Well, I tried to get into the gym on friday but it closed early due to the big snow storm that we got hit with. Luckily it let up enough for me to get in the gym yesterday for my Leg day. My hamstrings are sore today so that's cool haha 8-). It was another really good workout, felt great and felt like I pushed myself ideally. Here was the workout.
I also did some cable stuff for my hips as well as finished with abs. To explain my routine for standing calf raises, I do 5 reps slow and 5 reps fast (for ten total). I start by raising up on my toes and hold it for as long as I can, letting gravity/ fatigue lower the weight and the push back up (that's one rep) and then repeat for 5 reps. Then I do 5 reps as fast as possible to finish.
All of my rest intervals between sets today was one minute. I warmed up with a ten minute jog on the treadmill and did some static and dynamic stretches and then warmed-down on the bike after my lift for about 6 minutes and did some static stretching.
The next two-weeks the gym is only open Mon, Tues, and Sat due to the holidays so I will have to modify my workout a little bit to compensate. I don't anticipate it being too big a problem though.
Just to comment on how I'm feeling after three weeks of this program: Like I said at the beginning, the first few weeks are to help injure-proof my body by conditioning my ligaments and tendons through light weights and moderate volume. It is also set up to prepare me for the olympic lifting that will increase as the weeks go on. Next week will be my final week of this initial prep phase. Using such lightweight took some getting used to at first but I still feel like I'm busting my ass everyday at the gym. My body feels great and I'm feeling very explosive already. I can't wait to start hitting the olympic lifts hard.
As for the track, I'm excited to start increasing my workload; both for speed endurance, but more importantly for hurdling. I can't wait haha :-D. There's nothing like sprinting over a hurdle.
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Well it's been a week since I've updated. Been busy with Christmas and was only able to get in the gym twice last week because it was closed due to the holiday.
Last week ended cycle one of my three-cycle program. Ideally I would like to have been able to spend more time on the cycles, but I'm abrreviating my plan because I want to peak in about 9 or 10 weeks.
Cycle two will be emphasizing the power lifts as well as continuing Olympic lift progression and, at the same time, increasing muscle strength.
Today's workout:
Drop Snatch:
95lbs x 4, 95lbs x 4, 95lbs x 4
Squat:
165lbs x 10, 180lbs x 10, 195lbs x 10
Leg Curls (on glute-ham machine)
Bodyweight x 10, Bodyweight x 10
Stiff Leg Deadlift (SLDL)
80lbs x 10, 90lbs x 10, 80lbs x 10, 80lbs x 10
Seated Calf Raise (superset with SLDL)
65lbs x 10, 65lbs x 10, 65lbs x 10
Stability Ball Crunches
16lbs x 15, 16lbs x 15
Cable Obliques
50lbs x 10, 50lbs x 10, 50lbs x 10
Hanging Abs
Bodyweight x 10, Bodyweight x 10, Bodyweight x 10
Today's workout went pretty well, I think I should have done more weight for the SLDL's and will make note of this for next time. I'm pissed I was only able to get in the weightroom twice last week and havent been able to get on the track in about 10 days. I did another run on the treadmill (10 min hill workout) but am going to try and get over some hurdles tomorrow (if my school's track is open). The holidays are really getting in the way haha, but I'm not going to sweat it, I'm confident I won't lose a step. 8-)
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Yesterdays workout was great because I was able to get on the track and do some hurdles! It was a hurdle endurance day and my technique wasn't very good but I'm glad I got some volume in (which is what I need right now). I have a video of that which I will post here shortly.
First, I'll post my weight lifting from yesterday.
Snatch
95lbs x 3, 115lbs x 3, 115lbs x 3
Hang Clean
115lbs x 3, 115lbs x 3, 115lbs x 3
Incline Barbell Bench
125lbs x 10, 125lbs x 12, 125lbs x 14
Barbell Shrugs
115lbs x 8, 115lbs x 8, 115lbs x 8
Decline Barbell Bench
135lbs x 10, 135lbs x 12, 135lbs x 14
Close Grip Bench
135lbs x 6, 135lbs x 6, 135lbs x 6
Dumbbell Flat Bench
35lbs x 10, 35lbs x 10, 35lbs x 10
Standing Cable Crunches
70lbs x 10, 70lbs x 10
Decline Medicine Ball Crunches (with twist)
18lbs x 8, 18lbs x 8
Stability Ball Roll Outs
2 sets of 10
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Alright, now for some hurdling footage. I'm gonna post these every so often in order to see my progress in technique and in order to see what I need to fix. I would say I'm posting for all of you to see, but no one is following along with my journal ...sadly. Haha anyway, the workout was two sets of 5 hurdles. The first set was 5 times over the hurdles (my recovery being the time it took me to walk back to the starting line. And the second set was 4 times(I stopped then because I felt one more set and I might hurt myself lol). Inbetween the two sets was a 5 minute rest.
The video shows all 9 passes over the hurdles. The first 3 passes on the video show me going over the first three hurdles. The next two passes on the video is a side view of the 3rd hurdle. The last 4 passes on the video is a view of all 5 hurdles. I did a total of 40 hurdles, and of those 40 I would say I was happy with about 10 of them technique-wise. I had too much hang time over just about all of them, but again, I was more focused on getting some volume in. Plus it was my first hurdle workout since May. Here's the video:
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Incline Barbell Bench
135lbs x 10, 135lbs x 10, 135lbs x 10
Barbell Shrugs
135lbs x 8, 135lbs x 8
Dumbbell Flat Bench
40lbs x 8, 40 lbs x 8
Closegrip Bench
135lbs x 6, 135lbs x 6, 135lbs x 6, 135lbs x 6
Two Handed Standing Overhead Tricep Extensions (superset with closegrip bench)
50lbs x 6, 50lbs x 6, 50lbs x 6
Was also scheduled to do Power Snatch and Cleans but decided to hold off until today to give my body a little extra rest. Did another hurdle workout yesterday. 2 sets of 5 passes over 5 hurdles. Went a lot better than last week when it comes to technique. This week I focused on two things; not bringing my lead arm across my body (which i don't know when i picked up this habit haha) and just RUNNING through all the hurdles and not worrying about my rhythm so much in between. This helped out a lot and the rhythm took care of itself, sometime you just gotta stop over analyzing and do what you know. This helped me stay fast between the hurdles but more importantly, I was faster over the hurdles.
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
-named this part 2 because it is the olympic lifting I didnt get around to doing yesterday. Did it yesterday so that my body was feeling a little more fresh. Which actually might not have been the case because I strained my hip flexor going over some hurdles yesterday.
I did block starts over the hurdles. I wanted to do 3 sets of the first hurdle, 2 sets of the first two, 1 set of the first three and then work my way back to the first hurdle again. I only got through the first and second hurdle though because I ended up straining my right hip flexor. I probably coulda done more but decided it wasn't worth it to aggravate it even more. I was going to do 200's today but again, I think it wont be worth it. It's a little painful (nothing I haven't experienced before) but it's feeling better, so I'm gonna ice it down and see how it feels tomorrow.
So for the weightlifting:
Power Snatch
85lbs x 3, 85lbs x3, 85lbs x 3, 85lbs x 3
Competition Cleans
125lbs x 3, 125lbs x 3, 125lbs x 3, 125lbs x 3
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
hit my legs yesterday. My hip flexor felt better, didnt do any running and iced it after my lift. Today, so far, it feels at about 90%, I'm gonna try and do some running today and assess it from there.
Front Squat
135lbs x 5, 135lbs x 5, 135lbs x 5, 135lbs x 5
Jump Squat
95lbs x 4, 95lbs x 4, 95lbs x 4, 95lbs x 4
Deadlift
145lbs x 7, 160lbs x 5, 160lbs x 5, 155lbs x 6, 145lbs x 6
Stiff Leg Deadlift
100lbs x 7, 100lbs x 7, 100lbs x 7
Seated Leg Curls (one at a time)
60lbs 2 sets of 10
Abs
Did some stuff with the cables
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Well, wasnt able to get on the track yesterday, there was a basketball game so the bleachers were covering the track. Hip flexor is feeling great though, I did some exercises for it today.
Yesterdays workout:
Dumbell Clean & Jerk
45lbs x 3, 50lbs x 3, 50lbs x 3
Barbell Bench
165lbs x 8, 165lbs x 8, 165lbs x 8
DB Incline
30lbs x 8, 30lbs x 8, 30lbs x 12
Pull Ups
6, 8, 6, 5
Flat DB Flys
20lbs x 10, 20lbs x 10, 20lbs x10
Tricep 21's
3 sets of 55lbs
Hammer Curls
40lbs x 6, 40lbs x 6, 40lbs x 6
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
What a great Monday so far, nothing special about it but just in a better mood than usual and loving life a little bit more today. Today's workout was awesome, was primarily a leg day. I also did some hurdle walkovers and my hip flexor cramped up so bad haha. O well, got in some quality drills anyway so can't be too upset. Here is my workout from today:
Drop Snatch
95 x 4, 95 x 4, 95 x 4
Squats
215 x 8, 245 x 6, 270 x 5, 250 x 6, 250 x 6
Deadlift
240 x 4, 240 x 4, 240 x 4
Stiff Leg Deadlift
125 x 7, 125 x 7, 125 x 7
Glute-ham leg curls
2 sets of 10
Calf Raises (standing)
195 x 10, 175 x 10, 175 x 10 (feet rotated in), 175 x 10 (feet rotated out)
Reverse crunches w/ twist
3 sets of 15 (with 20lb medicine ball)
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
Whohoo, another great day today. Did some stadiums stairs in our schools hockey rink (12minutes), always a great workout. My hip flexor, albeit I didnt ask too much from it today, felt great..no cramping today haha. After the stairs, went into the weightroom for my lift. Today was an olympic lift and bench day..here it is:
Snatch
95 x 5, 95 x 5, 95 x 5, 95 x 5
Hang Clean
115 x 5, 115 x 5, 115 x 5, 115 x 5
Incline Barbell Bench Press
145 x 8, 145 x 8, 145 x 8
Barbell Shrugs
145 x 8, 145 x 8, 145 x 8
Dumbbell Flat Bench Press (speed)
40 x 10, 40 x 10, 40 x 10
Decline Barbell Bench Press
160 x 8, 160 x 8, 160 x 8
Close Grip Bench Press
135 x 7, 135 x 6, 135 x 6, 135 x 6
Standing Overhead Dumbbell Extension
55 x 6, 55 x 6, 55 x 6
Ab work
POW!
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
yesterday was an off day. Today I attempted at hurdling again. Everything went well at first, but then I aggrivated my damn hip flexor again! Guess I'll have to give it some more rest this time. Probably wont try and go over another hurdle until at least next wednesday. First meet is next saturday so I'm hoping I'll be alright to hurdle by then..but if not, I won't push it. Here is today's lift:
Front Squats
205 x 5, 205 x 5, 205 x 5
Deadlift
240 x 4, 240 x 4, 240 x 4
Jump Squats
125 x 4, 125 x 4, 125 x 4, 125 x 4
Leg Curls (one leg at a time)
75 x 10, 65 x 10
After my lift, biked for ten minutes as a cool down and put some ice on my hip flexor. Back at it again tomorrow
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It's pronounced Canada, and no I haven't
. And here..we...GO
Week 3, Day 4
...sadly. Haha anyway, the workout was two sets of 5 hurdles. The first set was 5 times over the hurdles (my recovery being the time it took me to walk back to the starting line. And the second set was 4 times(I stopped then because I felt one more set and I might hurt myself lol). Inbetween the two sets was a 5 minute rest. 
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