Heatwave13's coming back to the track.....

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81

I’m really hitting the weights hard this week; by that I mean very heavy weights and low reps. By keeping the volume low, I’m able to work on increasing max. strength while staying relatively fresh. This is done by lifting with low reps (under 5) at around 80% of max., eventually moving up to 90% of max. My pet lift will be the deadlift since it, arguably, works more muscle than any other single lift and is a true test of one’s strength. I’m going to try to beat my best mark of 425 lbs., but I’m going to have to really get after it. If you want to be strong, I suggest you become a dedicated deadlifter. Heavy deadlifts will totally work your lower back, glutes, hamstrings, and core area in addition to your grip.

Today:

–Deadlifts–2 sets of 5 reps
–Overhead Side Press-- 2 sets of 5 reps

I do the side press with a 45 lb. olympic barbell and lift it overhead like you would a dumbell. Lifting with the olympic bar is a lot harder to control and helps develop balance. Plates are added as needed to increase weight.

–Abs were smoked hard today as well.

82

Yesterday was supposed to be my “hill day” but those plans worked about as well as a two-dollar watch, so I lifted instead.

Today I did some plyometrics and overhead squats. I know I preach the gospel of overhead squats often but they are great for strength AND FLEXIBILITY. Touching your toes or throwing your leg up on a hurdle is not the kind of dynamic flexibility you need for track and field. Instead, you need to challenge, shape, stretch, pull, groove, and move all at the same time…as often as possible.

I try to do the best I can with searching the forum for training ideas, then glean what I can and create something that fits my schedule and improves my weak points. This is not always a “cookie-cutter” training program because, sometimes, you have to have the courage and confidence to explore other ways to get past what you or others (coaches included?) think is possible.

–Plyometrics—jumps onto my 36" and 41" ledges–a few sets of 3 jumps in succession.

–overhead squats–a few sets of 3.
–Yes, I did some more ab work. What more can I do for my abs? I’m at the point where I can break bricks on my stomach.

I felt like a beast after the jumps. I’m not really a beast by Mr. Shumon Cool’s standards, but I felt like it today. I think the dynamic stretching and plyo effect give me a rush. I’m hard, muscled, rugged, lean, and ready to press forward to whatever goals I have, be it the 100m, long jump, or to just be in shape to look nice for the ladies. :slight_smile:

later

“…don’t call my name out your window when I’m a leavin’, I won’t even turn my head. Don’t send your kinfolk to give me no talkin’, I’ll be gone like I said…”

83

I’m going to hit the town tonight with my woman so I’m going to have to make the workout very brief.

–warm up a little bit
–Heavy Deadlifts!!! 2 sets of 5 reps
–Heavy Overhead presses 2 sets of 5

All these are done using the irridiation concept. What’s that, you may ask? It is simply the method that the body employs to deal with tension. When one muscle is being asked to work, the surrounding muscles begin to tense up, making the original muscle actually work harder and stronger. If you get into an arm wrestling match at a party and wrap your legs around the table and squeeze, you discover more strength than if you just let the legs float around. Or, in the squat, instead of just going down and up again, try to purposefully tense your lower back, squeeze the barbell hard, and tense your abs on the way up; brace your whole body and you’ll see that you can instantly lift more weight.

I would encourage anyone to apply this to the big lifts like squats and deadlifts because the more muscles you involve in a lift, the faster you will meet your fitness goals.

Think about it… :wink:

“Just a couple hard-drivin’ rough necks…Down Hazzard County way…They don’t want no trouble…They just want to play”

84

I just want to take a moment and thank all ya’ll for the support and encouragement you provide; it helps me to stay focused. I’m feeling pretty good today even after a late night last night.

–800m warmp as usual
–5x30m
–7x120m
–stretching, cool down, etc.
–After this second “minor” gpp, I’m going to start working on long jump along with continuing the speed work.

Me and my woman have another hot date later tonight and am looking forward to continuing this wild weekend. Good thing tomorrow will be an off day… :slight_smile:

“Just a couple hard-drivin’ rough necks…Down Hazzard County way…They don’t want no trouble…They just want to play”

85

I’m still feeling a little sore from Saturday’s workout. Hip flexors, hamstrings, and even my groin area is really fried for some reason. Anyway, I decided to go ahead with my lifting.

–Abs with resistance
–Overhead presses
–Deadlifts
–Stretching

All of this was done with moderate weight. After the new year, once I narrow my focus and “tighten” the training a little, I’ll make a more dramatic increase in weight poundage.

“Just a couple hard-drivin’ rough necks…Down Hazzard County way…They don’t want no trouble…They just want to play”

86

12-6-05

Not much time again today, I’ve got sick children, full time job, and a wife that needs some “attention”…you know what I’m saying?

–warm up a little bit
–kettlebell snatches–3 sets of 7 reps
–5x30m
–10x60m
–jumps
36" ledge–2 sets of 3
41" ledge–2 sets of 3

All those sprints were done uphill and they felt like crap because it was kinda cool outside, I was slightly sore in the groin/hamstrings and I just couldn’t get warmed up. It’s ironic that the jumps felt effortless and explosive. I exploded off the ground and landed like a cat onto my ledges (Mr. Shumon Cool, explosive, I know you’ll appreciate that!).

I realize that I do much less volume than most of you, but that’s just how I’ve learned to train my body. I seem to thrive on short (but intense) workouts. Quality reps rather than just grinding away with fatigue. The idea is to train as heavy as possible, as often as possible, while staying as fresh as possible. It’s a thin line, but I’ve learned that low volume helps.

Thank you for your support…

87

I see your reasoning behind this and its an ok point but if i was you id not do regular deadlifts so much. they really tax your CNS when working them at high %'s or 1rm.
I find doing Power clean and 1 leg SLDL’s with DBs have improved my hamstring strength enormously and i’ve had none of the fatigue in lower back and headaches i used to get from conventional deadlifts.
I dont know its up to you but if you are finding yourself beat up after these sessions then it may be a good idea to look elsewhere for a similiar benefit without the drawbacks

88

Hey, thanks for the comments. Very true, deadlifts can wipe you out and suck the energy right out of you. Before, when I did deadlifts four days per week, I was not doing sprint training. Now, I’m testing the waters to see if I can have regular deadlift days and regular sprint training days and still have enough energy to do each of them justice.

I suppose one thing in my favor for doing heavy deadlifts so frequently is the fact that my overall volume is very low. I have been doing 2 sets of 5 reps. First set is at 80% of max, second set is at 70% of max–throw in an overhead press and some odd kettlebell lifts and that’s it! I’m still experimenting and I’ll let you all know if it seems to be effective. Previously, I was doing plenty of power cleans, which, actually, seemed to work well for me.

On a side note, one reason for me choosing deadlifts is that squats were making my legs grow like crazy for some reason. I’m an easy gainer and can grow just by watching others lift!

89

Today, I should have taken the day off since wifey kept me up late last night. No matter how much I tell myself I’m going to do it, I just can’t seem to get in bed at a decent time. I got maybe 5 hours of sleep and I was dragging around all day. Anyway, I decided to do a brief weight workout.

–Deadlifts–just a couple of light sets with around 300lbs. Nothing special.

–Overhead press–two sets of five.
–The usual stretching

I’m experimenting with doing deadlifts combined with my track training. One thing Joconner mentioned was the high CNS usage of the deadlifts and I see what he means. I’m going to have to really monitor how I feel and, if needbe, I’ll reduce the frequency of deadlifting and replace with some power cleans.

Tomorrow may have to be an off day–at least from any kind of training.

Georgia Bulldogs–2005 SEC Football Champions!!

90

I seldom remember a dream but recently I had one I will remember and so will my poor wife. If anyone can help tell me what this means, we BOTH would appreciate it.

Here it is:

In my dream, a large alligator attacked me and had a grip on my right arm. He was literally trying to rip it to shreds. As I tried to pull away the gator still had my right hand but I finally broke free. A thought entered my mind and I was scared that he would go for my throat so I have to kill him first. Then this happened.

I rose in the bed, grabbed my poor sleeping wife and bit her in the back of the neck. Of course she awoke and screamed out “what are doing to me?!” I finally became composed enough to realize what I was doing and of course I apologized profusely.

If you know my wife you know, in addition to all her other attributes, she has a good sense of humor (after all she has hung around me for these 10 years) and her response was “heatwave, you’ve lost it this time, but at least I know that if you’re attacked, you’ll put up a fight.” That is comforting I suppose.

The scary part of all this is that she sleeps with a thick metal bar near her nightstand. I am fortunate that I am not on the 6:00 news tonight. “Man bites wife in the middle of the night and gets beaten into oblivion.”

Do we have any psychologist on board who can interpret this dream? Come on, Joseph, are you there?

Anyway, my workout today:

–warm up with some kettlebell stuff
–Overhead squats
–Power cleans
–overhead presses
–stretching

I’m still just dinking around with some light to moderate (85kg cleans, 300lb deadlifts) weight, nothing too heavy right now. Later on, I’ll dazzle ya’ll with my super-sized lifting. Man, lately things have been really crazy around here and I just haven’t had the time to get out to the track as much as I need to. Responsibilities and life get in the way, you know what I’m saying? It’s been cold down here this week and it may not even reach 50 degrees today. That’s just insane, how do you northerners do this stuff when it’s cold?

Thank you for your support…

91

Well, I guess nobody could help me with that bad dream, so I’ll just be left to wonderin’

Today, I did a badly needed track workout. Things have been so hectic for me lately and I just haven’t been able to get out and practice as much as I would like.

It is cold today, right at 50 degrees and windy, so I felt like I just couldn’t get warmed up enough.

–800m warm up
–stretch out all my impressive muscles

–10x120m; nothing too great. Times ranged from 12.9–13.7.

–300m warm down
–more stretch

I’m feeling some pain in my left knee, right below the knee cap. It’s like the mobility is gone and it’s not moving freely enough with my strides. It’s not really a sharp pain, but more of a dull, achy feeling.

Next week it will be hard to get out to the track much. My woman has to go over to Montgomery, Alabama for a business trip all week, so it’ll be just me and my two boyz. So, I’ll be sleepin’ alone all week… :frowning:

As always, thank you for reading and thanks for your continued support.

92

as a psychology major I’ll admit I did consider the dream… but of course freud would have you go all the way back to when you were a little tot and were struggling with your oedipal complex and whatnot and i really couldn’t posit anything without knowing this important information :stuck_out_tongue:

Knee sounds like it could be some tendinitis, I would throw some ice on it and take a couple advils and see how it responds. Generally, pain that occurs UNDER the kneecap would be a bit more concerning.

50 degrees… it is 34 here right now and feels positively balmy after the past couple days of wind chill temps in the single digits! good luck, keep up the good work!

93

that’s a crazy dream man… you’re wife sleep on the right of you though? If she’s on the left, then there are some serious issues (you had to choose to roll over to bite her, even on a subconscious level)… if she’s on the right, well, I wouldn’t eat whatever you ate that close to bed again.

94

Hey, thanks for the insight on my weird dream. I’m just glad my woman didn’t react and beat me over the head with that bar. I rarely have dreams that I remember, so I’ll just write this one off as a bad dream and forget it.

Knee sounds like it could be some tendinitis, I would throw some ice on it and take a couple advils and see how it responds. Generally, pain that occurs UNDER the kneecap would be a bit more concerning.

About 13 years ago, I severed the cartilidge right behind that knee. It was a bizarre accident. I was talking on the phone with my girlfriend (now wife) and I was sitting on my knees, if that makes any sense. I reached around to get some thing and I felt and heard this loud, POP! sound. I tried to get up and it just felt like my left leg, below the knee, was just dangling there. I couldn’t put any weight on it for about three weeks; then I went on a rehab program and it still, to this day, gives me trouble. I tell my wife that it’s her fault :stuck_out_tongue: . Now, the pain is gone for the most part, but it still feels like there is a lack of mobility around that knee. Heat really helps, but fortunately, it’s not behind the knee cap, but rather, just under. I’ll just have to monitor it as I go along.

95

A little bit of a tangent from the line of discussion here, but did you have any purpose in mind for the 10x120 in the 12.9-13.7 range? Surely this is too fast to be tempo, but not enough recovery for it to be true speed endurance. Was it just to get in shape and work hard? To me, that kind of workout with such a high volume at that speed seems like an injury waiting to happen, and that would be bad.

96

Hey Mr. C, thanks for the post.

I made an error there. Those times were hand timed as I crossed the 100m mark, NOT 120m. Yes, these reps are too fast for a typical tempo workout and I suppose my purpose is just to get in shape and get used to running fast again (fast being a relative term of course).

Right after the new year, I’m going to refine the plan a little. Up to this point, I’ve just been trying to get back in shape for hard running. I’m trying to un-do 15 years of zero sprinting. As for injury, since I have a history of problems with my left leg, I’m going to have to closely monitor it. When I do workouts like the one listed above, the possibility of injury is just around the corner.

Please feel free to offer training ideas for my 100m and long jump focus. I’ll try about anything.

97

Heatwave what inspired you to come back to track, what sudden all them years later hit you, or gave you motivation. Is it the feeling of unfinished buisness, or fun.

but deep down have you got unfinished buisness, something to prove to yourself.

and when you said Carl Lewis acted strange, in you story blog, in what way was Lewis strange.

thanks

98

Mr. Cool,

I’ll add this to the “the way it was” stories if you all want. I don’t even know if anybody is reading that anyway, so it may be a waste of time to write all that stuff, but I’ll write more about why, etc.

The short answer is that I just like the training as opposed to just becoming a “jogger” like so many folks do. This type of explosive training goes hand-in-hand with my olympic lifting and it keeps me young as well. I look, feel, and act like I did when I was 21.

As for Carl, it’s not at all like he was bad or anything, it was more of a vibe that he put out ( I hope he’s not reading this). I don’t remember the year exactly but I think it was 1988 or 1989 and I was an impressionable 16-17 year old teenager who really was impressed by world famous athletes like him, until I met him briefly. He just seemed to be very condescending and put out the vibe in a way that made me believe he didn’t care about the public. I could be wrong though; maybe he had a long day, I don’t know. He also seemed kinda effiminate acting as well, very in touch with his “soft” side, if ya know what I’m saying. It’s tough to put into words. But, whatever, different strokes for differnt folks, I guess.

99

He also seemed kinda effiminate acting as well, very in touch with his “soft” side, if ya know what I’m saying. It’s tough to put into words. But, whatever, different strokes for differnt folks, I guess.

He he…No comment:D

100

This week is going to be crazy, so there ain’t gonna be much time for workouts, but I’ll do what I can. Something is better than nothing, right?

–A little warm up with some kettlebell one-arm snatches (24kg).

–5x30m up slight hill
–5x60m up slight hill
–These shorter sprints felt great.
–jumps onto my 36" and 41" ledges (good for long jump prep?). Explosive, powerful, stong.

–I’m going to start searching for some long jump training info; hopefully some info on Jonathan Edwards or Dwight Phillips.

–As always, thank you for your support

“There was ole Bobby Lee, stickin’ out like a whiskey bottle at a country revival.”