On the Grind: My Endless Pursuit of Athletic Aspiration

Warmup (light jog, light static stretch, sprint drills)

Spent one hour doing route running, catching, and 1on1 drills

I hate to write about this but I jammed my pinky on the last pass that was going to be thrown to me today. I’m icing it a lot right now. Bad thing now is that I won’t be able to grip stuff in the weight room. The dude that was throwing to me was this baseball player who could throw missiles. I barely caught most of his passes as I simply wasn’t used to it.

Damn man you may have to take up a different sport, maybe bobsledding like RJ.

I have ~4 months to get into top notch condition. It’s better to struggle now than later on. I will be practicing cornerback as well, so I have a plan B if wideout doesn’t work out.

I wouldn’t have a chance at bobsledding. I’m nowhere near big, fast, or strong enough to compete in that sport!

Warmup (5min incline walk on treadmill)

Isolateral Decline Press - 3 x 12
Nautilus Chest Press - 3 x 10
Machine Bicep Curl - 3 x 8
Elbow Lateral Raise Machine - 4 x 10
Dips Machine - 4 x 10

Abs ~ 100reps

Wasn’t able to grip anything so I did the best I could using my palms with the machines.

Long Warmup (light foam roll, hip mobility, activation exercises, light jog, sprint drills, MB throws, 2 x buildups)

Speed Work:
1 x 10yds, 1.66 fastest
2 x 40yds, 4.90 fastest
5 x 20yds, 2.62 fastest, PB
*wasn’t expecting anything good since I’ve been so inconsistent with speed work and the hip flexor strain.

MT (Bomb) - 3 x

45 Degree Hyperextention - BW x 10, 25 x 8, 35 x 8, 45 x 8, 45 x 8
SL RDL - 2 x 8
Landmines - 45 x 10, 55 x 10, 55 x 10
Planks - 2 x 60sec holds

Felt terrible out there today, I’ve been extremely tight in my thoracic and lumbar area, I even spent 3 days hammering those areas with self massage and still felt bad. I extended the warmup to about 50min which is 20min more than I usually do. During the first sprints, my hip flexor felt weird but towards the end with the 20’s I felt pretty good. My jammed finger is almost better, I’ve been soaking it every hour. With thanksgiving ahead, I’m hoping to get some rest, massage, and acupuncture possibly. It just doesn’t make sense how tight I am after doing very little work over the past 2 weeks.

The splits don’t make sense unless you are absolutely dropping anchor after 20 yards, you split .96 from 10-20 but 2.28 from 20-40. Expecting to split 2.0 from 20-40 is fairly conservative actually, so either you are having big issues with your body or your timer is woefully inaccurate.

These aren’t splits, I’m timing each sprint separately. I just posted the fastest time I had for the day. These are all done on some low quality grass as well.

Warmup (light static stretch, light jog, hip mobility, sprint drills, MB throws, buildups) - Lasted over an hour because of my training partner.

3 x 40yds, fastest was 4.85
4 x 20yds, fastest was 2.65

MB Throws:
1 Hop w/ Vertical OHB x 3
1 Hop w/ BLF x 3
Vertical OHB x 3
BLF x 3

RDL - 95 x 8, 95 x 8, 135 x 8, 155 x 8, 185 x 6 (form started breaking down)
Landmines - 3 x 10, 55lbs

Very off day today, my training partner still isn’t back from his groin injury. I think I may have found my issue on why I can’t get loose in my warmups. After watching one of CF’s DVDs, he mentions that you don’t have to warm up to warm up. I’ve been real anal and intense during my warmups, and I realized that I just need to relax more. Overall I felt very loose today and it’s probably from taking 5 days off from Thanksgiving.

An hour warming up in Texas?

Are you sure he says that you have to warm up to warm up? I thought that he was talking about the PROBLEM with certain warmups was that you have to warm up to warm up…

I edited my last post, I left out an important word! But the key thing I took from this is that I’m working too hard in the warmup…

And RB34, it was 46 degrees here yesterday.

Warmup (light static stretch, hip mobility, light jog)

Weighted Chin-ups - BW x 5, BW x 5, 5 x 5 w/ 35lbs
Bench - 135 x 5, 155 x 5, 185 x 5, 205 x 5
Chest Supported Row - 3 x 8
Pushups - 2 x 20

Ab work

I’m no longer going to follow an upper-lower split. Hoping to take tomorrow off and just do all core lifts on my speed work days.

Warmup (light static stretch, long jog, hip mobility, sprint drills)

Speed work: Done indoors on a hard rubber surface. 3pts were too slippery so I did mostly falling starts.

3 x 10yds, fastest was 1.62
3 x 20yds, fastest was 2.69
3 x 40yds, fastest was 4.72
2 x flying 20yds, fastest was 2.23

It’s supposed to rain heavy and snow here the next two days so I decided to train today. I started to do RDLs but my back felt a little weird. Which after running on a hard surface, I was expecting it to feel weird. But now I’m starting to wonder when am I ever going to feel good enough to do an exercise with spinal loading? How am I going to find a way to supplement my sprint work? I’m going to drop the RDLs and probably try front squats. Maybe go back to bulgarians. And with the sprints today, I was disappointed with my flying 20yd time. Next session I plan to get some sprints video recorded.

Warmup (light jog on treadmill)

Weighted Chin-ups - BW x 5, BW x 5, 5 x 5 w/ 40lbs
Bench - 135 x 5, 155 x 5, 185 x 5, 210 x 5
Landmines - 45 x 10, 50 x 10, 55 x 10, 55 x 10
ABS~100

Taking tomorrow off and plan to run on field turf Saturday.

Warmup (light jog, hip mobility, light static stretch, sprint drills, MB throws, buildups)

4 x 10yds, 1.59
4 x 20yds, 2.69
4 x 40yds, 4.85
*We raced at the 4th sprint of each distance.

Gym was closed so I didn’t get to do any weights. After the speed work I started to do MB throws but I couldn’t even throw over 16 yards in an OHB. I beat my partner on the 20 but not on the 40. I’m really getting pissed at the stopwatch lately as I am running slower than ever. For the next two weeks that I have with my partner, we will forget the stopwatch and simply race eachother for the remaining speed sessions we have left.

Warmup (light static stretch, light jog, hip mobility, sprint drills, buildups, MB throws)

Sled Sprints - 3 x 20yds w/ 15lbs, 3 x 20yds w/ 25lbs
Normal Sprints - 6 x 20yds
*Raced eachother on every sprint despite only having one sled.
2 x 40yds, Won the first but lost the second.
Pause Jumps Squats - 5 x 5

Front Squat Progressions(Poliquin technique) - Bar x 8, 65 x 8, 85 x 8, 95 x 8, 115 x 8
Bulgarian Split Squat Progressions - 27.5’s x 5, 40’s x 5

Isometric Leg Raises - 4 x 30sec
Eccentric Leg raises - 2 x 20
Deadbugs - 3 x 25

Had fun racing today, a lot better than competing against a stopwatch. I decided that I’m going to stay with the upper lower split. I may make some changes for next semester.

I think you could probably benefit from upping the volume of your sprints, especially if there is no testing or tryouts in the immediate future. I would aim for at least 900-1000 yards of high quality speed work each week. I think a lot of people make the mistake of running far too little, remember you are looking for some form of overload to cause adaptation. I think people read Charlie and assume “less is more” means 4x40 when in reality he goes up to 24x60!

What would the effort be, near max speed min effort or max speed max effort

I always go by Bud Winter’s 7/8th’s effort rule. It’s always worked well for me.

Warmup (light static stretch, 600yd jog, hip mobility, activation exercises)

Weighted Chin-ups - BW x 5, BW x 5, 4 x 5 w/ 45lbs
Bench - 135 x 5, 155 x 5, 185 x 5, 210 x 5
*Just to clarify: On Bench I always keep my back flat on bench and activate the abs. Not trying to lift the most weight.

Pedestal - x 10
Ab Bicycles - 2 x 25
Lying Leg Raises - 3 x 15
Hanging Leg Raises - 3 x 10

So far my ES and QL have not gotten tight and I hope it stays this way.