Wed 10 August OL based
Spoke with my OL coach at lunchtime told him about my back, chose exercises with him. Found out that I shouldn’t be doing situps with straight legs (I was told to keep legs straight by another lifter).
Snatch: singles up to 85
C&J: singles up to 115 fail (forward)
Clean pulls (with 5 sec eccentric): 4x4x100
Good morning: 3x10x20-30 slow tempo, good rom
Hypers: 1x10
Floor bridges single and double leg: 5 sets of 6, 6secs up 6secs down.
Db Split squats: 2x8x40
Going to do some crunches, stretches and tva work before bed.
Had a little pain in the lower back at work today. Had some small shooting pains in the mid back this evening, got to take it easy on the throws, just some light throws on sat for footwork. I think I was wrong about the lower back, will still stretch it and not try to tighten it. I’m going to try not stretching hamstrings for a bit see if that helps, while hammering the hams in the weightroom.
Thurs 11th Aug: Misc
Back was feeling better today, so I did some squats.
Squat: 2x150, 2x155, 2x150 heels on 2.5k discs, with OL shoes! Felt my hams and glutes working hard
Bench: 2x2x105, 2x2x102.5, 2x2x100
Swiss ball exercises (not for proprioception, for muscle activation)
Bridges (single leg)
Ab roll outs (straight legs)
Jacknifes
Supermans
V-crunches (slow)
My weight was 99.5 before the last training session on weds. Will refeed with carbs for OL comp on Sun, and dehydrate to see how much difference it can make.
My left hip flexors are tighter than my right ones (especially rectus femoris) and my right glute is weaker than my left. Correcting these imbalances is now top priority, as well as fixing the lordosis.
Fri 12th Aug: Misc
Just a quick session
Pulls/Deadlifts: 4x3-5x100-110 slow eccentric
Military Press: 3x60, 1x60, 5x55
Chins: 3,3,2,2,2
Floor bridges (single leg) 3 sets each side
Didn’t feel like doing anything else, tired physically and mentally. Couldn’t do hypers as I was training on my own; we don’t have a machine for them so we use a thing used for situps and hold each other’s legs down.
Sat 13th Aug:
After the 3 hour downpour I went to attempt some throws. Waste of time. Upper body is too tired to throw the 16lb shot, circle too wet to do light throws with discus. I have done enough hard training for my upper body, and will commence the taper for next weekend’s meet. Lower body is relatively fresh, did some overhead shot and got it out to 12.50. I will get some more implements for next season, some cheap shots of 5,6,8 kg, some non-rubber discii, as well as throwing shoes.
I’ve been eating a lot of carbs today and yesterday, couple of litres fizzy drinks and sweets, triple serving for dinner tonight 
. Strict diet will start again tomorrow. I’ve read about 10 articles today (some long ones), as I have started what I will call ‘the knowledge: phase one’, whereby I will scour the internet for any useful articles. Phase two will involve (re)reading texts and studying them this time (instead of just reading them through once). My OL coach is willing to lend me his weightlifting texts which are supposed to be good.
Sun 14th Aug: OL comp (Crystal Palace)
Weighed in at 102.5 after essentially what has been carb loading over the past two days.
Snatch: 82 (PS), 87 (PS) fail (strict judging, arm slightly unlocked), 92 fail behind (locked out just not balanced)
Clean & Jerk: 115, 121, 123 fail jerk behind(twisted torso round too much from poor position of feet)
Dodgy refereeing (inconsistent/bias towards well known lifters attempting to qualify for national meets ) but if there was any unlocking on my snatch then it shouldn’t count.
I pulled all the snatches to no-man’s land height because I’m new to these competitions and inexperienced at tapering so didn’t know what to expect. Could perhaps ride it down to the bottom in the future. Happy overall as it is a pb on the c&j while losing a few kilos.
Cleans were much improved although my pull is weaker, had to drop right to the bottom for all my cleans. Talked to my coach about him designing me a program based on my ideas about my priorities, weaknesses and response to training etc. He also lent me his hard copy of Speed Trap which I didn’t know about! Looking forward to throwing next weekend.
Tues 16th Aug: Throws etc
Quads still tired from OL comp, and generally tired despite extra sleep last night. First time I’ve really had a ‘come down’ from a competition before.
OH shot (6.25): times 5, best 13.80
Hammer (7.26): 8ish throws off 2 turns, best 31m
Disc (1.75): 8ish throws, best 39m, few at 38m
Shot (6.25): 15ish throws, best stand 10.50, best glide about 12.
Suppose it’s alright considering I’m losing weight at a fair rate. Shot not looking too promising. Hopefully I will continue to supercompensate from last week’s training. When I get my taper right I rebound like a pogo stick! I’m sensitive to hard training and tapers.
Gym:
Bench: worked up to attempted double at 115kg, needed help on 2nd rep after bad form on 1st rep and the fact it was too heavy for a double
DB Rows: 2x3x38
Rowing machine (GPP) 5x1min with 2 mins rest. Monitored 500m pace each time, was at 1:43, 1:36, 1:39, 1:38, 1:38 pace for each rep. This idea came from DW.
Lots of food and sleep tonight, followed by many contrast showers over next few days!
Wed 17th Aug: OL session.
Woke up drenched in sweat again this morning, third night running. Possible sign of overtraing or overreaching? Coach thinks not. Have been getting to know about my coach a bit more mainly from another lifter, and it appears he is one of the two best coaches in England for weightlifting. Which is nice. He’s been in the game 40 years man and boy, and is well read in weightlifting material. He wrote me an 8 week program, starting today (not too hard today).
Progressive Week
(Increase weight and reps)
Snatch Balance: up to 3x65
Snatch: up to 3x65
Squat: 6x2x127.5
Clean Pull: 5x3x130
Step ups: 3x30xsmall dbs
Inclined Twisting situps 10,15,15
Back pain has disappeared. Will stop situps if pain returns. Am going to research the research on situps (especially inclined or flat with anchored legs), as I have seen them contraindicated by some people apparently in the know. Would like some good hard evidence or theory before seriously questioning them.
No training today, exhausted. Poor working conditions at work; no air conditioning, very hot today. Underslept slightly last night as well, but I don’t think I will tonight.
Sat 20th Aug: Athletics meet - Southampton
Weather was good, It was an odd day for me performance wise.
Hammer: 2 turns
Warm up - up to 31m
1:25.94
2-5:fouls and 25.xx
6:29.5x
There were two other guys at 25.xx so I was slightly concerned and relieved on the last throw. Won the B string
Shot:
1st Warm up - low 11 putt easy
1:8.8x :o 
2:9.9x :o
had to throw 10.60 to get 3 further throws and avoid total embarassment :rolleyes:
3:11.40
4:11.54
5:foul (tired)
6:11.3x
Two others at 11.79 and 11.75 
Discus:
Warm up - one at 37 and one at 38 (my team mate was standing close to where they were landing)
1:34.xx easy
2: 35.xx easy
I knew this was enough to win the B-string, so I didn’t care enough to focus anymore
3: cage
4: <20 foul (came out wrong)
5: 33.xx
6: dunno
So our team came second out of 5 this meet… Turned out we tied the 6th place team on league points for the whole season (top 5 places get promoted). So to decide who was to be promoted, it went down to who had the most total points from every event in every meet this season… We had the team by 3.5 points out of 7000 odd. :eek: So we got promoted. But next season we don’t have our key team member who does at least 8 events every meet (decathlete). So we’re going to struggle a little. Fun day.
Mon 22nd Aug: OL based
Progressive week
(increase weight and reps)
Weighed in at 101.25 before the session
Hang Clean, Jerk, 2xHang Clean: 1x90, 4x100
Power Jerk: 3x4x75-87.5
Squat: 6x3x127.5
Bench: 5x3x90
Hang Snatch Pulls: 4x90, 3x4x100
Thumbs were damn sore on the snatch pulls despite taping, lowered the weight a bit from the program.
Tues 23rd Aug: Rows and Rowing
DB row: 4x5x36
Rowing machine 5x1min: all 1:40-1:41 500m pace
Wed 24th Aug: OL based
Snatch Balance: 4x4x50-60, 3x70
Snatch: 3x65, 3x70 (1 fail, pulled it too high)
Clean Pulls: 3x120, 5x3x130
Squat: 6x2x127.5
Hanging Pikes: 2x8-10
Weighed in at 101.25 after session.
I did an experiment with my diet last week, I consumed many thousands of extra calories in sweets and ice lollies (as a treat), to see whether I could have them without putting on weight. Turned out I stayed about the same weight, and my waist has slimmed as I’ve gone down another belt notch. Interesting.
I’m going to start counting macronutrients for a week or so, when I get my hands on a book listing them for fruit and veg (my coach has one).
I’ve been thinking about how I might go about starting sprinting again. First I would have to get to around 85 kilos, which isn’t much of a problem with the way I’m eating at the moment, but it will take some time as I want to keep training hard at the same time. Should take 4-6 months.
Second I have to find some facilities. The nearest indoor track appears to be Windsor, which is about 25-30 miles away, but it’s a bitch to get there due to the slowness of the local roads and transport in general in this country. It would take 70-100 minutes to get there in the early evening by my guess. So I would have to move closer (and get a closer job) if I want to use that. I could possibly move next winter.
Third I need to ensure I could get quick access to a good physio. On the NHS it takes weeks to see a physio (and no way of guaranteeing a good one), which will be no good. So I will have to look into getting a good insurance deal.
Fourth I would need to be able to afford massages from a good massage therapist or be able to get them at the club I train at.
So I will have to arrange those three things before seriously considering real sprint training. In the mean time I suppose I can do starts and accels and tempo (when I lose a bit more weight), but no speed or speed endurance at high intensity due to fear of injury. Until I’ve lost enough weight I will carry on training as a weightlifter (with some added GPP) in the hopes that that will improve my power, speed and athleticism for when I eventually can start sprinting. 
How much throwing I will do next season I don’t know yet, it’s been tiring last couple of weeks trying to fit them in as well.
How about doing longer rowing sessions eg 20min + to drop some of the weight?
Yeah I might increase the rowing at some point as long as I’m confident it will not sap my energy for my OLing. Me and my OL coach have a slight conflict of interests as he wants me to do OL comps and perform as well as possible, whereas I’m more interested in losing fat at the moment and not too bothered if my lifts don’t increase much (they should increase a bit regardless). So he’s got me on a demanding OL program. If I lose weight too fast I won’t have the energy for the OL program . I’m trying to keep a balance between his priorities and mine, about halfway between the two.
Thurs 25th Aug: Rows, Rowing & Abs
DB rows: 3x3x38, 3x3x40
Rowing Machine (Concept 2): 5x1min: 4x1:41, 1:38 (500m pace)
Swiss ball roll outs: 2x5ish
‘V-crunches’: 3x3-4
On the last rowing rep I went out fast, down to 1:20 pace, then eased off, to see what difference it would make. I think it made it easier.
The V-crunches where shown to me by a nice gym instructor (mature female, I wouldn’t ask a young instructor for advice ). On these you do a mini crunch while raising your straight legs up. I did them rehab style, 6 seconds up and 6 down, while keeping lower spine close to floor. Felt the pump on these. By the way I completed a 4 week course for gym instruction/personal training, that’s where I got the ideas for swiss ball exercises.
I’ve not stretched for about 10 days now, and the sciatica has not returned, which is puzzling. My knees are sore though (really quad tendon). I’ll restart the stretching as of tonight as my energy levels are back up.
Sat 27th Aug: OL
Moved session from fri-sat - no coach of lifters on fri. Sleep deprived but managed the session ok.
Chins: 5 in a row (strict) PR!
Hang Clean, Jerk, 2x Hang Clean. 90, 2x95, 3x100
Power Jerk: 4x80, 4x85, 4x87.5
Back Squat: 6x4x127.5
Snatch pulls from hang: 4x85, 4x100, 4x4x110
Knee pikes on chin bar: 8, 7, 13
Bench: 4x6x80, 9x80, 7x80
Don’t want to bench heavy as I felt slight pain in intercostal again. Slept 22 hours straight from yesterday afternoon to this afternoon.
I’m on a squat program by Medvedev. Started with a max of 160. Is going ok so far.
Tues 30th Aug: OLs
Impact Week
(Increase total reps and weight)
Bank holiday yesterday, couldn’t do normal session, moved to today. Weighed in at 98.75 before workout.
Chins: 7 strict(PR), 3, 4
Snatch Balance: up to 3x85
Snatch: up to 3x70. Hard not to pull it too high.
Squat: 6x2x127.5
Clean Pull: 3x120, 3x125, 3x127.5, 3x3x130
Bench: 4x5x85
Hanging pikes: 18, 16, 13
Changed the pikes - now doing them as fast as possible, to failure. Will progress to bulk-offs at some point, if can ever do them.
Wed 31st Aug: OLs
6 hours sleep, bit tired. Am increasing carb intake through fruit juices and potatoes, rice etc, to avoid losing weight too fast. I can also afford to add glucose to PWO drink. Squats moved to Friday, as the scheduled sets/reps are hard; 6x6@80% (made harder as I’m fatigued from training)
Hang Clean, Jerk, 2xHang Clean: 90, 100, 100, 102.5, 102.5, 105, 100. 2 failures
Power Jerk: 4x80, 4x85, 4x90, 3x95 not much dip to catch these
Snatch pulls from hang: 4x90, 4x110, 4x115, 4x120
Hanging pikes (knees bent): 18, 9, 10
Trying to speed up the dip and drive in the jerks and power jerks, after watching videos of lifters from the olympics and noting their speed.
I’m going to be experimenting with non-prescription nootropic substances to help with concentration, attention and to help with speech. Don’t know which ones yet.
1st Sept: Rows & Rowing
6 hrs sleep. Weighed 99.5 before.
DB row: 5x3x40
Concept 2: 5x1min 1:39-1:41 pace.
Quad stretches.