the road to 250/510 & 1:59.........

[800man]

Maybe you should give some previous personal bests.

lol.

computer playing up.

yesterday session. (03/11/05)

military 42.5x28
incline bench 60x24
bhn chin bwx21 (1 rep pb)
front squat 125 (attempted a pb of 130, missed)
standing sit ups 40x30
pronated 14" row 50x30

played around with a few olympic lifts, I havent done these in a few months so im planning to ease back in each day. The general idea was to work up to a daily maximum in 2 different varations. Since it was my first time back I was a little eager to try a few more so I did heres what I did:

hang clean; 90kg (real easy, way off my best of 110 barely rebended knees, good explosion)

clean 100kg (again, nice & easy, barely pulled, didnt need any real speed, just pulled it comfortably & jumped underneath, form actually felt good considering it was the first time in 4-5 months)

hang snatch 77.5kg (with 5kg of my best, felt smooth & powerful, I can see this jumping to 90kg very soon)

snatch 77.5kg (didnt feel too good with these, im weak from the floor the same as my deadlift so I need to get that grip & rip mentality back )

didnt try any jerks as I wana really start light & work on my form, im gunning for a deep split this year, I usually power jerk the same or slightly more than I split

finished off with a few tib raises (iso-holds) & 3x60s@45s on the rower, help to maintain some conditioning so I dont suck big gas when I get back to running.

shin splints are healing up, still a little achey, hoping to get to the track soon & log a few 5k's, build that fitness & hit those 800m's!

 

[suckamc44]

800m is a pretty grueling run. Good luck!

 

[800man]

800m is a pretty grueling run. Good luck!

true!

I would like to move up to 400m eventually as my main event but I think im way off that at the moment, I want the endurance for the longer distances first as I suck at endurance. I've definitely got the bodytype for it the shorter events, I have to fight to lose every ounce & lb of muscle, I dont tend to put on alot of fat when I put on weight its mainly muscle & considering my diet consists of meat, fat & chocolate bars I suppose im quite lucky! Maybe I should of been a body builder...........

yesterdays session (04/11/05)

could tell straight away I had olympic lifted the day before, callous with a small blisters underneath, made it quite differcult to lift with light weight from the start - lovely!

clean 20/30/40/50/60/70/80x3, 90/95x1, 105x3 misses

Tried to jump 5kg from yesterday, had my 3 misses (daily maximum i allow myself 3 misses) & left it. Sad to say but after so long without olympic lifting my second pull is terrible & im pretty scared to jump under a weight fast, im confident this will pass in the coming weeks though. I definitely pulled the weights very high so I suppose its not all bad!

hang clean same warm up - 90x1 - 95x3 misses

same problem, not so great extension from second pull at all, pulled the weight real high though, rode it down & fell forward in the bottom. I think its more of a posture problem with the front squat, the powers there from the pull, when I come down the back just caves & I fall forward, I guess alot more hypers/power gm's are on the way so I can keep a tight arch. funny thing is, before I used to be able to clean & jerk 107.5, then not clean 110kg, so my pull was pathetic before, now (even though my strength is down) my pull is much better & my squat sucks nuts (form wise anyway). great stuff.

jack knife gm's 90x13 (these are rounded back stiff leg gm's, way past parallel, I get some lovely looks with this one )

pronated row 65x21.

military 14" 60x5. not too bad for 3 minutes. my military is the same as my bhn press so I really wana up those front delts/triceps, probably start with some heavy dips later in the week to supplement this.

close grip bench 70x17 first time i've done this in absolutely ages. Triceps are way down (I use a wide grip when benching) i'd like to get this up to 100kg by xmas, then my illegal wide would be close to what I wana do in competition. (115kg)

no abs or pull up as my abs are very sore (even as stabilizers during pull ups suprisingly enough) so I left it. upper back was slightly sore from the clean/snatches yesterday anyway.

messed around with a few back squats, trying to keep a real tight arch, just finished up with a 125x5, my strength isnt down as much as I thought (I had a serious accident & havent been able to lift seriously for close to 3 months, just a little running which I consequently over did) its more of a mental thing I think, getting back to grinding up those weights

Was feeling confident so I though i'd run a quick 5k, did it in just over 25 minutes (25.02) which I er, wasnt very pleased with but i've gota build a base so its a start! Shins ever so slightly aching so it looks like i'll be off for another 2-3 weeks before its fully healed. I guess the rower is about as much as I can do at the moment, which friggin sucks.

 

[800man]

yesterdays session (05/11/05)

hang clean warm up 90/92.5/95/97.5! (7.5kg pb)

back within 12.5kg of my best hang clean, slowly getting the form back, 3-4 weeks & I should smoke 112.5kg for a record. nice easy pull, better explosion but still no quick transition from pull to catch. I jump real wide into the front squat to catch, this is a small problem as im not extending back at all.

hang snatch 77.5kg (equals best, 5kg off all time)

wasnt really feeling going for 80kg so left it there.

back squat (ATG) 80x30

since im on a 3 minute time limit I only rack the bar twice, thought it'll give me the conditioning I need, my best 20rep squat (old school olympic routine for size/strength gains) is 115x20, which was just after my 150x3 so i'll be looking to get back to that soonish (1-2 months).

illegal wide bench 82.5x13 (2.5kg + 1 rep pb!)

happy with this one, im new to benching compared to the rest of my lifts so im hoping 115kg will come sharpish.

straight arm pull down 7x15

this is tough! im not sure the weight on the machine, I think it goes up in 5kg increments. Was gona hit up some chins but decided against it, I need to isolate the lats for abit, my biceps are somewhat stronger than my triceps so I took them out of the lift with the straight bar.

reverse grip military 40x30

dropping this exercise, hit the front delts well but seems to make me lean back alittle more, triceps dont seems to respond aswell either. hit some semi supinated grip db's 2mrw instead.

finished up with some scapular shrugs on the lat pulldown (my scap retraction & depression is not so hot, hypertonic traps is not nice when running!) & a few tib raises. Added triceps pushdowns, just for fun!

no abs or rows again, abs are still sore & did a few minutes on the rower which should tie me over.

ran another 5k, shins felt nothing once they were warm, push alittle at the end, ran 24.48 so 14s faster than yesterday. felt a breeze today, Heart rate held at 160-170 from 2-4k & then jumped to 174 at the end. hopefully i'll continue to push the pace & get in good shape before I go back to some sprint work.

once I feel my shins are good to go ima hit some interval work & run a few 200-400-600-800's to build up my speed endurance. been reading a fair bit from cylde hart (michael johnsons coach) & the training of seb coe (all time 800m no. 3 with 1:42) hopefully this'll help me break that 1:59 by the summer. I need to drop a ton of weight if im gona do this, last two days ate over 6000kcal & 500g carbs per day (chocolate & pizza!) this is gona kill me if im not careful, i've got to drop down to atleast 79kg if I want to be any decent sort of runner. back to the low carbs grind...............

 

[800man]

yesterday session (06/11/05)


olympic lifts;

snatch 70kg (bout 90%)

clean 90kg

powered em up & left it there, I wanted to hit some heavy gm's.

rack good morning; 50/60/80x2, 105x1, 120x miss.

this would of been a 5kg record, broke it off the pins but not happening, gona go light in the coming week & build up a bit of volume on these as these are weak, I want a 150kg gm!!!

14" bench 70x21 (4 rep pb from last week)

bench seems to be coming along nicely, daily gains is what I like!

straight arm pulldown 6x30

hit these again, gains seem to be slowing alittle, be looking to go back to some behind neck chins or wide grip chins later in the week & smoke a pb. (or two)!

supa close military 50x12

these are inside 14", friggin tough with a light weight. building up those triceps fairly quickly though.

did a few light 1leg hypers (20 rep set with bodyweight) just to get used alittle extra work for my legs in for the day. these frigging trash the lower back & glute/ham fold! Its funny cos normal hypers only seems to really affect my hamstrings (which are screaming after a high rep set) but 1leg hypers its the lower back even though the loading is higher on each leg. Lower back is doing twice the load though so it makes sense. Did a few leg raises just to ease the lower back out, I really need to hit some abs heavy this week, i've missed a few sessions due to soreness.

no rows (again) slacking like mad on these, missed like 2-3 days, need to hit these hard for the rest of the week.

finished up with a few iso-scarecrows which are basically static holds for the external rotators.


800m training:

5k @ 12.2 - 24:36! 12 second pb!

ran another 5k, could barely feel my shins the last two sessions, maybe in a few weeks i'll be good to get out on the track & hit some serious anaerobic sessions . pushed it up again, for some reason alot harder even though I only pushed it up one notch today, maybe its 3 days consecutive, i'll have a easy day when the gains start to slow

hopefully by xmas i'll be fully healed & ready to do some serious damage out on the track, I hate running indoors!

 

[800man]

heres a few goals by christmas;

bodyweight; 79.5kg (current 83kg)

this is essential is I wish to run fast over 800m! most 800m runners are around 160-165lbs at my height, similar to jaime wariner (400m sprinter) who in my opinion looks like a rake but hey, the demands of the sport.......

height; 190cm (do you think i'll still grow at 22 lol) j/k

snatch 90kg

to get back to my old pb would be nice, anything above that will be a bonus

clean & jerk 107.5kg

same here

back squat 152.5x3

not expecting much gains here, 175kg for a single (at around 80kg) is about 4-5 months away I think. i'll have to see with the bodyweight loss, this is gona be tough!

front squat 132.5kg (up 5kg)

want my recovery from the clean a peice of cake!

rack good morning 120kg (up 5kg)

huge gm's are something I dream of, you dont see very many 800m runners doing these suckas!

deadlift 215kg (up 10kg)

these will jump when I my hyper/abs/gm's move, so I better get cracking!

bhn press 75kg (up 5kg)

general strength gains, a behind neck press with bodyweight would be nice eventually though!

bench 107.5kg (up 7.5kg)

can see this happening quite easily, bench is rocking at the moment (mainly cos I suck at it) but im sure in a few months that'll be all different.

bent over row 105kg (up 15kg)

I want that upper back! nuff said!

behind neck chin bwx25kg (up 5kg)

I would like to eventually work up to a ton of weight with these, but who doesnt?!


think i've covered the main ones, any remedial exercises will jump with these anyway.


I think the stress of trying to sort out my still terrible eating habits & lose weight is gona be real rough on my lifts, I dont fair well with a clean diet! at the moment im expending enough kcal with 5k running daily & weights to occasionally have really bad days like the last few but if im not careful the weight will start to creep up again.

When I was 98.5kg eating 4000kcal in one sitting was like nothing to me & racking up 6500kcal a day was the norm. (needless to say, eating is something I do as a response to everything, if I have a good lifting day, a bad day in general, whatever) I have to stick pretty stick to my 2000kcal & 50g carbs through the week if I want to drop this, I can deal with the lifts sticking but i dont really want anything more than a 5% drop off, otherwise I will be pissed!

 

[800man]

yesterday session (07/11/05)

played a local league basketball game (evening)

Not smart as the shins are aching again now.

Felt real sick before the game as I always do, no matter how bad or good the team I lack any sort of energy & end up sitting majority of warm ups on the bench.

warming up I barely miss & explosion felt quite nice, very light on my feet considering all this long distance running, despite of this I still dont feel confident & head to the bench.

Once we get into the game im fine, the game takes the queezyness away & I drop 3 threes straight & 1 and 1, total 18 points in the first quarter so im on considering I havent touched a ball in 2 weeks. Nobody wants to play defense so I take advantage & we jump out to a 34-16 lead.

This was possibly the worst team we have played maybe bar 1, they were quite young so all full of streetballers, best thing is, all these dudes can handle like mad on the sidelines, once we get to tip off all they seem to do is turn the ball over, I guess this is why you never see them in the national league!

after the first quarter it was pretty much over, we held pretty steady score wise after jumping out to 50-24 at half time & that was it! I sat out the 2 & 4th quarters, ended up with 34 points, puts my average at 29.2ppg, not sure where this is in the league, probably 2-3rd in scoring, last week we played a latvian former pro who drop 47ppts on us in a 85-100 loss, which was nice

the standards of this league isnt too bad, a few former england players who are old now (in there early 40's) & a couple of former national league players (me included) so its actually quite fun. im not into anything serious anymore, I havent got the mentallity to be agressive out on court anymore, weights take too much out of me

This puts us at 2-3, (we got whooped by 44 last week as we only had a squad of 6 for a long away game!) probably about mid table but its early days. probably wont be playing too many games now with work comittments. shins are playing up, all the sharp short sprint & decelerations are not kind so its probably for the best anway.

one of the guys who just joined the team is a track member near where I live (well 40 miles, theres nothing round here) he recently went to the under 21's champoinships & ran 21.7 in the 200m (electronic timed!!!) so once im healed up ima go train with there group, he said theres a few 400-800m runners which is ideal, I can go there a get a good whooping every week

Suprised how bad the training is in england though, no wonder we dont produce any real athletes! this guy barely does any weight training, he said

"ye sometimes I go to the gym, they can make you a program if you really want it"

WTF!!! no talent really being developed. you can definitely tell though, he first step is not great but once he gets going thats it, its immaterial with basketball though, short sprints are king!

todays session (8/11/05)

shins achey this morning, feeling pretty good apart from that, a day off weights has got me ready to hit some pb's!

realised unless I really rest this these shins up im not even gona get to run, so I decided to just hit the rower for 30 minutes, I friggin hate this as the cardio benefits are nowhere near as good, lactic acid in the glutes & biceps stop me from really getting any serious lung benefits, untill 200m intervals where your sucking down gas right from the start

gona lift later 2day, probably skip the rows again as theres no way im gona make any progress after this, vertical plane pulling will get hit hard though.