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41

3rd Sept: Nothing

13 hours sleep last night. Moved squats to tomorrow morning, skipping an OL session (no training partner available today). Will also do some climbing with my partner tomorrow before squats.

I’m going to spice up my journal a bit by writing some of the things I’m reading about and doing, to make it more like a diary as I can’t be bothered keeping a diary at home.

This week I have read some random stuff including;
University library; parts of DSMIV, an introduction to psychopharmacology, abnormal psychology.

3 nutrition for sport/applied physiology books (they only had 3 with useful info) looking for calcium recommendations. Peak performance (book).

While bored at work; searched for many terms on an online encyclopedia including;
Renaissance, Baroque period, Enlightenment, Revolution, Big Lie theory. Chemical Imbalance Theory, about Psychoses, about Neuroses, Benzos, Nootropics, Psychotropics. Leonardo Da Vinci. Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis. The Tempest.

I’m interested in studying and working in the field(s) of one of counselling, psychotherapy, psychiatry, clinical psychology. Can’t decide which one(s) yet, so I will do some research in all of these areas first (I’ve already done a bit through studying psychology at a basic level).

42

4th Sept:

1 hour climing, made it up one wall once :o . Weak fingers and forearms.

Bench Press: 5x3x95
DB Rows: 5x38, 5x36, 5x34… tired from climbing?
Squats: 6x6x127.5

Weight 99.75

I learned yesterday just how bad things are in the hurricane hit states. Sickening stories surfaced yesterday of rape and murder of young children etc. My thoughts are with those caught up in this calamity.

43

Mon 5th Sept: OLs

Recovery Week
Reduced reps and weight.

8 hours sleep. Yay. Wrist/hand/finger muscles trashed from climbing.

Chins: 8 (PR)
Snatch Balance: 6x60, 4x70, 4x65, 4x70, 3x75. 1 fail @ 70
Clean Pull: 4x90, 4x110, 2x4x125, 4x120
Pikes: 20, 21, 12

I have learnt that I am not built for sprinting due to wrong calf insertion (from another OLer). That sucks. I may try anyway just for fun. Something to do to keep me in shape.

Been reading about literary genres, poets, novelists, mythology, along with the interesting case of Kim Peek memory extrodinaire. I have a renewed interest in highbrow literature, as I can’t afford any other hobbies at the moment, and tv bores me.

44

Wed 7th Sept: OLs

Almost 8 hours sleep. Weight 99.5 before workout.

H.Clean, Jerk, HC, HC: 90, 95, 100, 95
Power Jerk: 4x75, 4x80, 4x85, some pressouts
Hang Snatch Pulls: 4x85, 4x100, 4x110, 4x110
Squat: 6x2x127.5

Was wondering why everything felt so heavy then I realised I’m still drained from the squats.

Reducing carbs some because now I’m not losing weight, and workouts are shorter this week. Target weight for the end of the month is 97.0kg. I’m worried that Im not going to improve with this program, it’s certainly different from how I would do it left to my own devices. I’ll see.

I’m stacking suggested nootropics now - Ginko Biloba, Tyrosine and Caffeine (100mg), to descatter my brain. Will try for two weeks then stop and see if there are any differences. Getting 8 hours sleep is probably more important though.

Last couple of days I have read about types and subtypes of fiction, ancient cultures and mythology, religious texts and other ancient texts. My coach lent me ‘A Textbook on Weightlifting by Prof. Dr. A.N. Vorobyev’. I’m also reading ‘Prozac Nation’ at the moment. Next week I’m probably going to join the Uni Library, so I can take out some books about the mind.

45

Sat 10th Sept: OLs

9 hours sleep.

Snatch balance: 8x3x60-70
Snatch: up to 3x60
Squat: 6x2x125
Bench: max out, up to 105

Training is not going well, as you can see. I forgot to drink any water in the morning and was probably dehydrated as well. I have two annoying training partners, and my patience is starting to wear thin. The most annoying and patronising one is going back to university though, so I will have some respite. I may take a break from lifting at the club though if it carries on this way, and if this training program does not produce results.

I’m starting to think about going back to university, and I’ve been researching counselling.

46

I’d probably drop the caffine pills, I don’t think they’re doing you any favours whatsoever. If you feel tired nothing will cure that but a proper night’s sleep, and that’s pretty difficult if you’re stacking up on stimulants. Consistent niggling injuries, as well as the poor sleep and irritability are also a sure sign of over-training. If you are feeling physically f**ked before a session, how do you think you’ll feel after it?

Give your body time to recover between sessions and you’ll notice a stark improvement both physically and mentally, otherwise you’re just digging yourself into a deeper hole. Good luck.

47

Thanks for your advice. I’m trying to be more careful with the caffeine - from now on I’ll only take 100mg a day at most. My sleep has been much better the last week. What you don’t know is that I’m on some medication that seems to mess with sleep, at least in the short term.

I am not aware that ginko and tyrosine were stimulants, I do not expect them to interfere with sleep at all (especially if I take them in the morning). I will keep my eye out for any info saying otherwise.

I feel well rested this evening and I’m ready to go for this week’s training. I’ll try not forget to drink lots of water from now on, I’ve been getting lax.

P.S on sat I was not tired, but just kind of dizzy, until I drank some water.

48

Mon 12th Sept: Waste of time.

7 hours sleep. Slight insomnia last night. Felt tiredness in quads all day, a bad sign.

Weighed 98.2 before workout

Hang clean, Jerk, Hang Clean, Hang Clean. 90, 100, then fell apart, lots of failures. Started getting dizzy every lift, and felt very flat. Aborted workout.

Perhaps did not eat enough today. Hard to know quantities of food to eat when you haven’t got a clue how many calories you are taking in. Woke up late and did not have a fibrous breakfast. Hopefully I have lost some fat though.

49

Tues 13th Sept: Bench, Chins, Rowing

7 hours sleep, didn’t feel as tired as yesterday during the day.

Bench: 3x3x90, 3x95, 3x90
Chins: 5,4,3,3
Rowing: 5x1min, 1:41-1:43 pace. Got as low as 1:16 on third rep at start.

Felt slightly light headed at work this morning. Snowed under with work, hard day, but felt ok during the workout. I’m going to add a protein milkshake to my diet around 11am, and water with glucose powder to use before and during hard workouts.

Going to talk to coach about program outside training time. It’s slightly unfortunate for me that my coach has very little time for me now, as he now has a 10-year old keeping him busy all the time I’m working out, so he has virtually no time to coach me or see how I’m doing. This kid is obviously his priority, because he sees potential in him, wants him to go to the olympics. I’m not going to focus on OLs past Jan/Feb anyway so it’s not that big of a deal.

In non lifting news; I’m thinking of training as a counsellor at some point, I already work as a helpline volunteer and would like to be better. I’ve learnt there are about 40 different kinds of counselling and therapy. I’m going to try research them all to some extent. At the moment I’m reading an introduction to counselling textbook for background. Longer term I would like to go to university to get a degree in psychology, not for a few years yet though.

50

Wed 14th Sept: OLs

IMPACT WEEK

7 hours sleep.

HC,Jerk,HC,HC: 90, 95, 100, 105, 107.5(1,fail,fail,n/a)
Power Jerk: 4x80, 4x85, 3x90, 3x95, 2x100(pressouts)
Squat: 5x5x135 hard, not too strict
No pulls due to very sore hands
Military Press: 5x50, 7x50, 3x55, 6x50

Got a little dizzy right towards the end of the workout, but I think the glucose helped (50g). My wife has had flu since saturday and told me about it monday night, and someone in my office also had a dizzy spell, so I possibly picked up the bug.

51

Thurs 15th Sept: Bench, Row, Rowing

7 hours sleep

Bench: 4x5x85
DB Row: 5x3x40
Rowing Machine: 5x1 min: 1:28.6 , 1:41, 1:42, 1:43, 1:40. Got it down to 1:15 first rep. 1st rep was max effort, timed the ‘sprint finish’ a bit late.

Feeling good about life for the first time in a long time. Got the cardio high.

52

Wed 21 sept: Upper Body

Bad news: 1 - my sciatica has returned with avengeance. I will start stretching again and hopefully it will go again. It happened following some ab work that I did last week, but it was a delayed effect as it started hurting on Sunday.
2 - my PC broke down and had to use recovery disk and reinstall everything.

Positive news: I have decided to go back to University to study something that I will actually enjoy: Applied Psychology and Sociology, ‘joint honours’, at my local University, where the departments for these subjects are supposed to be good. I will hopefully start a year from now if the financial side of things are ok. I did not realise until recently that I could get another loan to study, I thought you only really got one chance.

I’ll restart OLs from next week as my leg should have calmed down enough by then. From now on I’m going to work hard on my tightness and imbalanced ‘anterior chain’ to sort my back out. Last workout:

Bench: 3x90, 6x3x95, 3x100
Chins: 5,4,3,3,3
Military Press: 2x6x50, 5x55, 6x50
Rows: 4x5-6x36

Will do same exercises on Sat.

53

Mon 26th Sep: OLs

Got out the wrong side of bed this morning, overslept, 5 mins late for work, bit miserable. Felt better as the day went on. Sleep has been better last week, but slept too long on Sat night - 13 hours.

Sciatica has disappeared though I only stretched once. Like my surgeon said when I asked about my knee pain after surgery - ‘Don’t ask me mate, the human body is a mysterious thing’ or something like that anyway.

Anyway,

Pre comp, high volume

Hang Clean & Jerk: 3x90, 3x100, 2x112.5, 120, 125, 120f (clean), 110.
Snatch from waist: 2x5x20, 3x30
Snatch from mid thigh: 3x50, 3x60, 3x72.5
Snatch: 3x72.5, 2x2x72.5, 80, 90f, 90f, 90, 95f, 95f, 95f.
Halting Clean Pulls: 4x90, 4x110, 4x127, 3x142.5, 2x150.
Bench: 4x5x90
Pikes: 3x10
V-crunch: 1x6 (6u/6d)

2 PBs - C&J by 4kg, Snatch by 4kg. I felt tired in my quads all day, until I started snatching. Was most likely from too much sleep.

I didn’t finish the rest of the c&jerks, as I didn’t see them on the program. I wasn’t supposed to max out on snatch either but I wanted to test it as I was fresh.

From now on my squats are going to be on tues, thurs, sat to give me extra rest for them.

I watched a rather depressing film last night; ‘Girl, Interrupted’, which may have triggered my miserableness this morning. That and/or some subconscious inferiority complex themed dreams. hmm…

54

From the session posted above I developed some large blisters on my thumbs which took a week to heal well enough to lift. Then I got ill on Sunday with flu type symptoms for a couple of days. I started lifting again on wed, abandoning the schedule until my coach gets back from his holiday in 2-3 weeks.

Medium week - building up volume, avoiding soreness.

Wed 5th Oct: OL

Max squat test (v. strict on depth): 175
Snatch: 2x75, 4x2x80 Technique is solid, only problem is not extending fully 2nd pull.
Clean and Jerk: 2x100, 2x110, 3x2x105 (1 fail last jerk)
Clean and Power Jerk: 2x2x105 (failed 2nd jerk both times).
Squat: 4,4,3x140

My jerk is a bit iffy, feet aren’t quite hitting a stable position, a bit off balance to the side. Power jerk my feet are splitting too wide and I’m not strong/stable in the quarter squat position. But I haven’t had much practice at the power jerk.

I’ve been thinking about what I want to do sportingwise as I do not have the potential to be a great sprinter, I will aim to compete in a variety of events at a club level; throws, sprints and jumps. I believe I can compete in all three in a couple of years with decent training and a fair run without injuries. I don’t want to compete in OLs at a national level for a certain reason which I will not expound on.

I’m busy trying to read around sociolgy for my uni interview for the course mentioned above. Read most of an introduction on Marx, which was pretty interesting, some crazy stuff in there. Now reading a very short intdroduction to sociology specifically.

55

Sat 8th Oct: OL + bench

Snatch: up to 2x82.5, failed 2nd. I was put off by my taping coming loose, aborted snatches then, until my thumbs recover.
Power Jerk: 3x2x100, couple of failures
Jerk: 5x2x100
Bench: 4x5x85

56

On a side note I ordered the GPP dvd last night, hopefully will help me with GPP for next season’s athletics. :slight_smile:

57

Mon 10th Oct: OL + Bench

Medium Week

Snatch: 5x2x80 Had this funky thing going on where my right heel was off the ground in the bottom of the squat receiving position. This was because I wasn’t pulling it far enough back, coupled with my limited calf flexibility.
Clean & Jerk: 2x105 (1 fail too heavy) 2x2x90, 3x2x95
Hang Snatch Pulls: 2x3x90, 4x3x100
Front Squat: 4x110, 2x5x110, 6x110
Bench: 4x5x90

Good to be back training properly again, hopefully will have a clean run until next comp at the beginning of December in London.

58

Wed 12th Oct: OL + MP

Snatch: 7x2x75
Clean & Jerk: 2x2x100, 4x3x90
Hang Snatch Pulls: 3x110, 2x4x115, 4x120
Back Squat: 4x140, 3x5x140
Military Press: 8,8,6,5x50

Dropped the weight today to focus on technique. Improved snatch, although still pulling it a bit in front. Slightly improved the jerk. I’m almost certain now that I’m going to do my own workouts now, as there are too many things I don’t like about my coach’s (especially exercise selection and way of changing volume and intensity), and also lack of contact with coach - there is almost no time to discuss program while I’m working out and I don’t feel comfortable phoning him up really.

I got another painful blister, this time at the base of my middle finger on my right hand. Until it heals I will do some short sprints and plyos in place of OLs. I should have done that last time as well.

59

Had a pain in groin since last wednesday, and had an eye infection since sunday, so no training. I’m drawing up a GPP plan now, which will start asap… will note the plan when I’m done.

60

GPP phase 2005-2006[SIZE=3]

Duration: Oct – Jan = 14 weeks

Aims:
1- lose body fat, weight down to 9?kg
2- improve general fitness (and work capacity)
3- improve OLs to 230 total end Jan
4- improve upper body strength 15-20%
5- improve max squat up to 10%

Split
Mon: OLs, bench, rows
Tues: fitness
Wed: OLs, speed bench, military press, chins
Thurs: fitness
Fri: fitness, bench, rows
Sat: track+squats, military press, chins
Sun: rest or fitness

OLs: Snatch, Clean&Jerk(s), Pull, Squat, Hyper
Fitness workouts:
1: Medball throws end-to-end of field. Run after ball when thrown one way, walk after it on the way back. Exercises: throw for height 10m forward. Chest pass. Throw from shoulder. Overhead toss for distance. Rugby pass. Football throw. Workout lasts 30mins, high quality.
2: Circuits – lunges/step-ups/press-ups/rows 3-4x5mins
3: Swims – intervals breaststroke, crawl, back, backfrog
4: Tempo runs 10-20x100m quality over quantity
5: Medball throws (add on to all the workouts, or separate workout) 1000 throws? 20 sets of 50
6: Rowing Machine – intervals 5x1 min.
Track: Starts/Hills (10x20-30) + plyos/explosive throws (tba)

Wks 1-6:
Focus on improving snatch (to 100), front squat (to 160), and upper body strength (bench 120)
Maintain clean and jerk (120), back squat (175)
Weights: medium,hard,taper repeated twice.
Build volume of fitness work.
Target weight ?

Wks 7-10:
Improve both OLs to (102.5/122.5), squats (165/182.5), upper body strength (125).
Weights: hard,medium,harder,taper.
Increase volume of fitness to peak, improve quality 5kg med ball.
Target weight ?

Wks 11-14:
Improve both OLs (105/125), squats (170/190), upper body (130)
Weights: hard,medium,harder,taper.
Decrease volume of fitness work slightly, improve quality 7kg med ball.
Target weight ?

SPP = Feb/Mar/Apr – Aims tba. Comp period = May – Aug.

I’m hoping to do some 4x1 relays next season for the athletics team, as well as hammer, shot and discus. Not planning on anything more than that yet. I am going to put OLs on the back burner while focusing on athletics for at least one season. I have an OL comp on 4th Dec where I would like to snatch 100kgs, that’s why the focus is on the snatch for the first 6 weeks.