Gillman's Folly of Enthusiasm

[idlehands]

yahtzee!

[mkgillman]

Bike work today and I just realized that I am only a month out from my singlespeed race and have a long race-ish type thing on the 30th, so I better pay attention to what I'm doing. Since the weather is less terrible lately and the roads aren't super icy, I moved from the cadence work to tempo/endurance workouts for the mid-week training. The idea behind these rides is to stay in a fairly narrow heart rate (HR) range, 150-155 BPM, for a set period of time, riding in the drops or as aerodynamically as possible, and increase the target time by 5:00 every week. Started this week with 15:00 work interval for a couple of reasons: 1. it conveniently works out to 30:00 before the race and 2. I knew I could do 15:00 without dying.

Tempo Ride

7:00 warm up, 15:00, AVG HR 152, AVG SPD 19.4 mpg, AVG Cadence 96 rpm, ride home easy - 9.4 miles, 30:34 total. - This workout is about as bad a I remembered. The first five minutes are kind of unpleasant while settling into the groove, then it is just a matter of keeping up the pace. I'm going to try and keep the route consistent from week to week so the overall numbers are comparable.

That having been said, I rode for just a bit over half an hour and was almost bitten by a rat dog on a leash and missed getting hit at an intersection by less than 18". Man, I missed riding in Massachusetts.

Strava link

[mkgillman]

13Mar2014

Bench
45x5x2, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x1, 245x1, 262.5x5 - Didn't feel like I got a great set up on the workset today and it was little awkward. Didn't make a huge impact on the reps though.

Press
45x5x2, 95x5x2, 115x2, 135x8x3 - Set up the work set and attacked the bar today. Tried to keep the reps as quick as possible with good form and it seemed to work better for the rep scheme

LTE Complex
95x10x3

L Chins
3x6

Got in early and got it done.

[idlehands]

OH man. I need to up my Press. I can't be doing only 10lbs more than you. Time for me to #htfu

[mkgillman]

14Mar2014

Squats
45x5x3, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2, 275x1, 315x1, 335x1, 365x5, 280x5x3 Paused - 365 wasn't necessarily as perfect as I would have liked. There were little wiggles in form that I really need to lock down, but hammered every rep and not too bad for my first set of heavier 5s in awhile. Paused squats felt really good. Worked at hitting the bottom in perfect balance and coming up straight with the hips. These are feeling very good.

Deadlift
135x5, 225x3, 315x2, 395x5x2 - First set kind of dragged and I really wanted to hit the second one harder. Surfed around on the music until I hit some just right and came up with "Bring The Noise." Perfect. Ripped every single rep.

Cable Row
170x10x3

Long bike ride tomorrow on the road. Some climbing and probably a little dirt. Should be an interesting test.

[Fino]

Hey MK some impressive work here. How tall are you and how long have you been lifting for?

[mkgillman]

I'm 5'9" and have been doing barbell lifts for about 3.5 years now, though the first 2 years were largely misguided attempts to support my rather scant 170 lbs cycling aspirations. The last 18 months I've gotten more serious about getting stronger, though it is surprising how often I am still taking misguided ways of getting there...

[mkgillman]

Long ride for the week was pretty fun today. Had a couple of friends join me for 45.8 miles, 3 hr 24 min, 2100' of vert on pavement, snowmobile trails, and dirt/mud. All of it on road bikes. Everything felt really good today. Legs were solid, no lower back issues, neck was a little tired by the end, but no problems. I've been loading my water bottles up with Scivation Xtend and Beta A and that combination has been decent on the stomach with very little cramping issues, so it appears to be helping.

Strava Link

And a goofy picture of me riding on the snowmobile trails.

[mkgillman]

16Mar2014

Prowler
12 reps, 110 lbs added, 100', 0:45 rest between reps - Forgot to log this yesterday. It was a prowler workout, kind of uncomfortable, but done quickly.

[mkgillman]

17Mar2014

Bench
45x5x2, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x1, 245x5x5 - This kind of sucked today. Felt sluggish and couldn't get a good feel on my setup on the bench again. I kept hitting the hooks during the set or was feeling like the bar path was inconsistent. It kind of all built up to the fourth set being just garbage and that got me good and angry. Was aggressive in my setup on the fifth set and went into it with an all out mentality. And it worked, really well actually. That last set felt far and away the best of any today even with the built up fatigue. Just further evidence that mental state plays a gigantic role in this stuff.

CG Bench
135x5, 220x5x3 - Pretty certain this puts me into PR-landia for 5 rep sets with close grip. These felt pretty good today, bar path and speed were solid on every rep for all the sets.

Tri Pulldown
130x15x3

BB Curlz
105x5x3

Funniest thing about today is there are two older women who train together everyday at the about the same time as I do. One of them will frequently talk to me between sets, but always times it just perfectly, never interrupts set up or focus. They started in on tri pulldowns right after I finished my first set and timed it absolutely perfectly that we were all working in on the equipment with no discussion or hitch in flow. I love the fact that the best lifting etiquette I've ever seen at this gym is from two 50+ women.