My quest for 6.7

I’ve got the breakdown in an excel spreadsheet. Its 2500-2800. The almonds and cheese help to boost things considerably without the massive quantities of food.

Today:

hills
3x60m 3min/6min
3x50m
4x40m
1x100m

Plyo circuit
2x20 ankle hops
2x14 tuck jumps
2x10 low depth jumps
4x12 tuck forward
4x12 alternate leg bounding for height
4x10 large amplitude jumps

Throws
6x5 Vertical throws

3x5 banded box squats

Today: Lower CNS stress day and a down week

2x120m with 1:40s break @ 14s pace
8 min break
3x100m with 1:15s break @ 12.2s pace

3x8 incline bench
3x8 decline dumbbell shoulder press
3x8 double leg hamstring curls
3x10 pull ups

Also been following a planche lever progression for core but I do it at home. It involves an accumulation of 60s holds every 2nd day.

Half Volume workout

4xflying 60m @ 90%
2x5 vertical throws
3x5 hurdle hops

4x5 light cleans @ 155lbs
3x8 declined shoulder press

Long workout today:

hills
1x80m 4min
3x60m 2min/8min
4x50m
4x40m

Plyo circuit

2x20 ankle hops
2x14 tuck jumps
3x10 depth jumps from a low box
2x14 tuck forward jumps
2x14 alternating leg bounds
2x10 continuous vertical jumps

10x back throws with the shot

3x5 banded box squats

Thanksgiving turkey time

Last day of hills:

2x2x100m walkback recovery and 8 mins between sets

4x70m with 1.15min break

3x8 incline bench
3x8 declined shoulder press

Happy Birthday Charlie
Love Ange and James

Today:

6x60m, technical cues set up at certain intervals. First day we started to crank up the speed a little. Top end felt good.

The speed drained me more than I would have thought, first real speed day, and I attempted to test SLJ afterwards. It was a complete garbage lol. So I wont even post it. Reminder for next time, test jumps before starting practice.

10x vertical throws with 8kg

5x4 cleans working on good technique, worked up to 185.

Big testing day today:

3x touch pad 30m
3.89s, 3.86s, 3.82s (pb)

2x flying 30m
2.88s (pb), 2.94s

The way our facility is set up our straights come off a curve, so the way we run these is 25-30m run in on the curve, hit the straight and the timer for a pure 30m fly from the curve. So I’m confident these can be faster. I was also getting really tired after these, very taxing.

All round good testing day. Personal bests in both and its only October.My weight today was 189, post cheat day i’m always retaining and pumped up about 4-5lbs and it drops off quickly throughout the week. I’ve hit 184lbs, and can still lose a few. I plan on being at a race weight of 180lbs, so that alone should make some more of a difference.

Also timed a 200m, which was painful. No SE built up yet so died really hard at the end. 22.86s electric.

Plyo circuit
2x20 ankle hops
2x14 tuck jumps
2x10 depth jumps
2x14 tuck forwards
3x10 bounds
2x10 split squat jumps on each leg

3x5 banded box squats

Very fried today so the workout was fairly light on the CNS

1x150m @19s
6min
2x120m @ 14.5s with 1:45s rest
6min
1x120@14.5s 1:45 rest
1x100m@ 12.5s
8min
3x100m @12s with 1:45 rest

3x8 incline bench press
3x5 declined shoulder press
3x10 hanging leg raises

Thurs Oct. 21st

4x15m falling starts
3x20m 3pt starts
4x30m sleds with 25lbs
2x30m sleds with 20lbs

3x10 depth jumps measured contact time with jump mat, average was .22s. My reactive strength always has been low. Triple jumper on the team was at 0.18s consistently.

6x3 cleans, still working up from a light weight while working on form. Once I hit 225lbs with perfect form I will switch to snatch and work on it the same.

Sun. Oct 24th
6x flying 50’s
Electronically timed and done in sets of 2. Starting @ 90% then 95 then 98 by time. By the time 98 rolled around I was quite tired and was running them full out but was tired to the point that they were at 98%.

Plyo circuit (biggest one yet)
2x14 ankle hops
2x14 tuck jumps
3x12 split leg jumps
5x14 tuck forwards
3x16 bounds
4x8 bounds for distance
3x12 large amplitude jumps

3x5 banded box squats

Tues Oct 26th

3x3x100m @12.1s with 1:30 rest between reps and 8 mins between sets

3x8 incline bench
3x8 declined shoulder press

60s total hanging gymnastics exercise

Thurs Oct 28th.

3x15m falling starts
3x15m 3pt starts

2x30m with 25lb sled
2x30m with 20lb sled

4x25m block starts

First block session of the season, felt pretty good. Was coming out at a lower angle than usual. First was too high, second was too low, third and fourth was just right.

2x10 depth jumps
3x12 high knee bounds
2x12 single leg bounds on each leg

6x3 cleans

Still working on progressing my clean form from a low weight. Made my way back to 190lbs with good form. Once I hit 225 for 3 with the current form I’ll do the same with snatch.

Sun Oct 31st.

Flat as a pancake today. No drive, no CNS followed me to practice today. I started off fairly flat and the runs just got worst the more I got into it. Its probably a combination of a few things. Its the last day of the cycle before the recovery week. I went to bed late last night and ate and drank too much. Had some stressful emotional shit happen today which completely killed any willingness to train I had. So overall the makings for a terrible practice.

3x60m timed with touch pad
Terrible times and they only got worse so I called it quits after half the work.

Plyo circuit (also cut in half)
2x14 ankle hops
1x14 tuck jumps
1x16 high split jumps
2x14 tuck forward
2x16 high knee bounds
2x8 bounds for distance

1x3 squat after a couple warm up sets

This workout was depressing. Luckily, this is a down week and will take advantage of the extra recovery. I’ve got a testing session next sunday so hopefully the drop in volume this week will help me feel fresh for that day.

Tue. Nov 2nd

Taking a low volume week, and starting to feel much better already

1x250m @ 32s
10min
1x200m @ 24s

3x8 bench press
Started benching again and my shoulder feels so much better. Time to rebuild my bench press back to where it was when I initially was before I hurt it.
3x8 declined shoulder press

Ice tub

Tue. Nov 2nd

Taking a low volume week, and starting to feel much better already

1x250m @ 32s
10min
1x200m @ 24s

3x8 bench press
Started benching again and my shoulder feels so much better. Time to rebuild my bench press back to where it was when I initially was before I hurt it.
3x8 declined shoulder press

Ice tub

Thurs. Nov 4th
2x15m falling start
2x20m 3pt
2x30m with 25lbs sled
3x20m block starts
Blocks need some good technical work

2x14 tuck jumps
1x6 vertical jumps on the mat (got 36.5" without cheating and 38" by cheating and bending my legs on the way down)
2x10 high knee bounds

3x3 cleans, a little warm up and 1 set at 205.

Thurs. Nov 4th
2x15m falling start
2x20m 3pt
2x30m with 25lbs sled
3x20m block starts
Blocks need some good technical work

2x14 tuck jumps
1x6 vertical jumps on the mat (got 36.5" without cheating and 38" by cheating and bending my legs on the way down)
2x10 high knee bounds

3x3 cleans, a little warm up and 1 set at 205.

Sun. Nov 7th

Interesting testing day today

Hit a new low weight of 182lbs. Which marks the end of my calorie deficient eating and am now raising to maintenance levels. I think that my calorie intake has been hampering my recovery times, so hopefully this will help things out. I’m going to raise the weekly average by 300cals/day, but put 600 cals on training days and keep current cals the same on off days. I’ll switch to this for the next 2 weeks and see how my weight responds and how my recovery is affected.

3x30m touchpad
3.85, 3.86,3.89

Pretty close to my personal best, probably physically better just technically worse. I find that when I go from block starts back to standing 4pt starts I tend to stumble slightly more. Nothing to worry about here, my 35m is good.

3xflying 30m
missed the first one, someone crossed the beam as I ran through
2.94s, 3s

I was pissed that the first one wasnt timed, it felt really good. The thing with me during testing is that fatigue starts to hit me after 3-4 reps, and I can feel it during the run. The 2nd and 3rd runs did not feel nearly as good as the first flying run. Anyway, I can only speculate. Last testing session my drop off was 0.06s, so I was probably fairly close to my previous best.

Ran a 200m indoor again: 22.83s,0.03s faster than last time

Tested 8 bound performance from a 10m run in ( a weak area of mine previously, so its good that I’m working on it). Did about 6 of these until performance dropped. Hit 25.5m, about a .7m personal best.

Did a couple easy sets of squats, even though I was fried, just wanted to hit the movement to prevent soreness next time.

I’m glad I had this testing session today, my first meet is in 2 weeks and this will hopefully help me prepare a little better. My last hard session was 10 days ago and since then I’ve taken half volume workouts. What I’ve found, time and time again, is that I perform the best after a 3-5 day taper period. Charlie was so right about the taper periods of lower level athletes. It amazes me, no matter how loaded my body gets under stress, it really doesnt take as long as I think to bounce back. I think this speaks to the amazing capabilities of the human body. Although I dont push it too far down, I’ve got to keep this in mind.

Seeing as 2 thursdays ago was my last hard workout, had a bad workout on sunday and cut that volume in half and was feeling good by tuesday again, thats about the 5 day mark. Although I still felt good after that period, its probably getting out of the optimal range. Although its probably not awful to allow that to happen between training cycles, its an important consideration for performance.

-My calories are back to maintenance which will help overall adaptation
-3-5 day tapers are optimal for me depending on how loaded I am