So week 1 is officially in the bag and I am now ready for 2 days weekend rest (mental note to self – do not train tomorrow even when you start pacing around the house!)
All in all with starting the new job and the new training programme it has been a successful week. I am pretty tired due to the long commute and early start but it allows me to train twice a day (once at 7 and again at 1). The first few sessions felt very foreign and although my CV fitness is up there I tired quickly and had to focus on form. I was disappointed, angry, put off (every emotion possible that is negative!) when I found out that 2.01/2.02 is my UT2 pace now, as opposed to 1.54/1.53 when I finished at the beginning of the year. That said, today’s session was the best and felt smooth even though I was tired before starting and felt lethargic.
I have focused on low rate sessions in the UT2 band to build up nice and slow and to see if I can remember what I am doing! These were HR capped at 145 BPM. (Well, the first session was, but then I managed to forget my HR monitor everyday so settled for the pace dictated from the first session!) 1 more up tempo session was thrown in on Wednesday to see how it felt – it wasn’t particularly unpleasant, just rather unfamiliar! On Thursday I decided that my back was a little too tight to sit on the erg for 50 mins or so and went for a 60 min UT2 on the stationary bike (my legs didn’t thank me for this but I kept it HR capped).
3 weights sessions all at 50-60% (I call this a conditioning phase) to bring back some muscle memory and to remind tendons and ligaments of their job and to see how much strength I have lost in the basic compound lifts – shocker, nuff said! I steered away from anything that would result in DOMS at this stage and will so for the next few weeks while my body adapts, only then will I lift to muscular failure.
As for next week, much the same, increase the distance on Fridays row and introduce a power day (cleans snatches etc – again all very light.)
I even managed 2 whole sessions dedicated to flexibility – check me out!! Made a lot of difference to my lower back (glutes and hamstrings) along with stretching a few times a day when I had a spare 5 mins.
I have managed around 7 feeds a day, 2 of which come in the form of post exercise shakes. My weight has been between 97.2kg – 97.8kg.
Sat pm -12k (2x6k) @ 18 (HR capped at 145) (2.01) 90 secs rest
Mon am – weights
Mon pm – 12k (2x6k) @ 18 (2.01) 90 secs rest
Tue am – flexibility
Tue pm – 12k (2x6k) @ 18 (2.01) 90 secs rest
Wed am – weights
Wed pm – 2x2k @ 26 (1.44) 4 min rest
Thu am – flexibility
Thu pm – bike 60 mins (HR capped 137-145)
Fri am – weights
Fri pm – 12k (2x6k) @ 18 (2.01) 90 secs rest
Looking forward to next week, have a good weekend all.