Week 7 Summary

Tuesday, Feb 22nd - Off
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Wednesday, Feb 23rd - Fun Time

Headed to the track today and met up with Frankie, Calvin, and Jesse. We got started a bit late at 7:30 because we were paired up and throwing on opposite sides of the field, each pair not knowing the other was there. Brilliant. The track was clearer and became a barren wasteland at 8pm. So relaxing. I ran some unpleasant 300's. Frankie, Cal, and Jesse ran some full speed 60's and 40's with core work during the 3-4 minute breaks between runs. They also helped me down the homestretch of two of my runs (reps #3 and 4), which was great. I timed them on some 40 yard dashes, although it should be mentioned that they had already run 6 or so full-speed sprints by this point. The 3 reps I timed were 4.9, 5.0, and 5.04. These were from a standing start. For my 6x300m workout, the goal was 43-44 seconds. Rest time was full, so between 8 and 10 minutes.

1. 300m - 43-44 sec - 45
2. 300m - 43-44 sec - 43
3. 300m - 43-44 sec - 43
4. 300m - 43-44 sec - 44
5. 300m - 43-44 sec - 44
6. 300m - 43-44 sec - 44

I paced the first rep to a disappointing 45 flat. I picked it up from there on out but could feel from early on that this workout was going to be a tough one. My legs didn't feel great. Having help on #'s 3 and 4 definitely helped, and I pushed hard for the last two...the last one being a complete all-out effort. I put my coat on shortly after finishing (just like I did last week), which my stomach didn't appreciate (just like last week). Something about the quick temperature change really did me in. Duly noted. Felt a headache on the ride back to DC.
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Thursday, Feb 24th - 12x hill runs, explosive plyos

I went over to the hill under the P street bridge after work and ran these hills in the early evening. I focused on leaning forward more at the start and using my arms to power my legs up the hill. Worked on maintaining a fast cadence as well. After finishing, I jogged to the gym for plyos. I did two-legged hops for quickness/explosion (4x12 of each), one-legged hops/running (3x12 each leg), stiff-legged jumping (3x15), depth jumps (4x7 jumps), lunges (2x28), and eccentric calf raises. I love these plyos and want to add some new ones from the Vertical Jump Bible going forward.
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Friday, Feb 25th - Off
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Saturday, Feb 26th - weights

Today was originally supposed to involve a longer conditioning run, but after a late night at Dan's for the Hambone's going away weekend and a large dim sum meal, Laura and I passed out and awoke with just enough time for a rushed gym session. I did squats, squat to push press (thrusters), bench press, overhead squats, standing running arms, abductors, and adductors. May have missed a couple. For squats, I did sets of 7, 5, 6 @ 235 lbs. It felt like my body needed to get used to the higher weight, but the first set felt quite easy. I hope I can continue to improve. I only just learned that increasing 20 lbs like this and decreasing from 10 to 7 reps shouldn't actually be much harder, if at all.
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Sunday, Feb 27th - Ladder Workout: 100m-200m(28)-300m(46)-400m(61)-300m(48)-200m(28)-100m, 5 minute walking recovery

I went out to Banneker with Laura and Salmi today. Everyone had a really good workout. Everyone pushed and was pushed. It was great. Laura, in her first workout like this of the year, ran a solid 60 sec-80 sec-60 sec split for the difficult 300m-400m-300m part of the ladder. Salmi was equally impressive with his 48 sec-63 sec-48 sec splits, which would have been winning times last year.

1. 100m - NA - 14
2. 200m - 28 - 28
3. 300m - 46 - 45
4. 400m - 61 - 57
5. 300m - 48 - 43 or 44
6. 200m - 28 - 28
7. 100m - NA - 13

Again, an encouraging workout all around. I was pleasantly surprised by the 57. Nice to see a time like that for this kind of workout and at this time in the season. Hope I can keep it up.
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Monday, Feb 28th - 45 minutes cross-training, weights

Long workout today. Laura and I met at the gym at 6:40, ran for 20 minutes, biked for 20 minutes, did 10 minutes of abs, and then hit the weights. We did squats together and then I stayed a bit longer and did overhead squats, bench press, bicep to shoulder press, calves, one armed/one legged row, abductors, and adductors. For squats, I did sets of 7, 5 and 5 @ 235 lbs. After Sat and Sun I didn't feel particularly fresh but whatever, it happens. I did 3x10 @ 65 lbs for the overhead squats and they really worked my back. After a few sets of the one-armed rows that followed, I started feeling some back spasms so decided to fore-go my 3rd set. I think that was smart because I woke up Tues morning with a very weak and sore back. I think I got super close to f-ing it up but managed to avoid it. Interestingly, Laura also had an extremely tight back after the Sun/Mon workouts. I ended up working from home Tues morning to ice/take pressure off for the first part of the day. Overhead squats are killer, man. They're killing me, anyway. I also plan to add in some high rep squats...like 15-20 reps @ 135 lbs or something, which I'd fold in towards the end of a workout. I need to work on this kind of strength endurance.
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Fun 80m workout this Sunday. Boom.