rogue leader...

is anyone ever both? can an accountant learn to become an animal?

I think I should train while Iā€™m watching the footy. that usually makes me pretty mad. whenever my team loses a close match I deal with it by smashing myself with weights until I can hardly moveā€¦

sunday
sled, 10kg - 4x30m
block starts - 3x30m

the sled is working for me. I felt more powerful after each rep, then the block starts felt effortless. Iā€™m feeling a bit bunched up, though. I might have to tinker with my settings a little bit before pan pacsā€¦

tuesday
muscle therapy - back and shoulder

wednesday
1x120, 1x80, 1x60 (flat out)

ran really well today. I always run well the day after a lot of therapy (Iā€™m starting to really consider the role of the fascia in the big picture). the 80 felt particularly good.

had a chat with the coach. he is encouraging me to get my own coaching qualifications. I might consider it.

my right butt is still quite sore. itā€™s not really stopping me from running but it is stopping me from doing a lot of strength work that I would otherwise be doing. I think I will get it looked at in the holidaysā€¦

I hope you do get your own coaching qualifications. You train yourself, plus you seem to have really high interest levels in how to put a sensible training program together. You could help a LOT of young athletes!

thanks, T. I will certainly consider it.

saturday
SL bulgarian squat (left only) - 1:5 26kg, 5:1 52kg

I decided to give my right leg a break this weekend. I suspect it is the quadratus femoris muscle that is playing up. whatever it is, itā€™s only leg adduction that itā€™s used for, so it actually hasnā€™t really stopped me running, because once I warm up I canā€™t feel it anymore. however, it is stopping me from doing my strength work, so I want it to get fixed. it has gradually been receding into the background (today I could hardly feel it), so a bit of rest right now might pretty much make it gone.

Iā€™ll be having my first race on tuesday evening. itā€™s been a while, so I have no idea what sort of time I am going to post. unfortunately, the race will be hand timed, so I still wonā€™t have any idea. itā€™ll be good to get some competitive action again, though. Iā€™m looking forward to itā€¦

Sorry Rogue

Can someone explain this to me?

PS - be nice to accountants, it pays my way to coach :wink:

I think he means that the accountant style will carefully count and measure every aspect of their training, while the animal just blasts everything as hard as they canā€¦

Cheers :slight_smile:

Would have thought that was more an Actuary :wink: but it makes sense

I find iā€™m an Animal when it comes to being an accountantā€¦
eg
If i want to do say 6 x 200ā€™s in Sub 25sec each with 2min recoveryā€™s - Thatā€™s very accountant - but, Iā€™ll pass out attempting it as itā€™s currently out of reach.
If i find it gets easy, or if somebody passes me - screw the planned 25secā€¦ Iā€™ll go faster :slight_smile: - Even if it means I lactate out and only finish 4 repsā€¦

I see accountants in the Gym all the time - their plan says, 3 sets of 10ā€¦ 6 months later, they still suckā€¦

tuesday
afternoon
slow jog
2x20m accel

evening
warm up + accels
100m - 12.12h
ice/heat

reasonably happy with my first outing, although the blocks sort of rolled back when I pushed off them. it nearly made me fall over and would have cost me a fair bit of power. I went back and looked at them later andif you put pressure on the top edge of the foot pad it just lifts and flops backwards. seems like a pretty ordinary design, if you ask me. Iā€™ll have to make sure I use a different model next time.

still getting that butt soreness. I can feel it at the start of the warm up and once Iā€™ve cooled down, but any time in between itā€™s fine. Iā€™m not too sure how concerned I should be about it. Iā€™ve started doing hot/cold treatment on it. hopefully that will help it out a bitā€¦

wednesday morning
back ext (left leg only) - 2:5 BW
hip thrust - 2:30 30

wednesday evening
6x20/40
10x15m reactive starts

I remember years ago reading an article written by a body builder. he said that one of the key components of his success was learning how to train whilst injured. I have found that the hip thrusts are something that I can do at the moment without aggravating (what I currently believe to be) my hammy tendonitis. in fact, the only time itā€™s not feeling sore is when Iā€™m training, so why not keep training?

I had a brilliant session in the evening. ran really well. the flying 40ā€™s were pretty much standard, but the reactive starts went really well. still going on the animal vs accountant theme, so I decided to go animal on them by getting angry and aggressive (didnā€™t charlie say that ben was extremely aggressive?). the difference was remarkable and extremely encouraging. I felt like I was tearing up the track like I havenā€™t done for years.

discussed tuesdayā€™s race with an onlooker. the winner had a time of 22.44 and I was only a little bit behind him with a time of 12.12. on the other hand, the onlooker said his dad (who was in the race) finished well behind me and got a time of 12.2! Iā€™m guessing that the first guy, who is apparently quite a good athlete, probably ran about 11.6-11.8 and I was more like 11.8-12.0, according to the feedback. still, the moral of the story is that you just canā€™t put any stock what-so-ever in handtimed resultsā€¦

friday morning
accupuncture

friday evening
bulgarian squats (left only) - 5:5 26

had some accupuncture done on my right hamstring tendon. this time around she put an electric current through which nearly knocked my head off it was so painful. seems to have had a pretty good impact, though. I can barely feel any soreness there at allā€¦

Sunday
6x100 @ 75%

Iā€™ve been taking my 5 year old to the track with me a few times. She has been running a few lots of 100m as well as joining me in my drills. Last week I thought Iā€™d track her progress, so I timed her for 20m. I will make an effort record her results alongside mine. Last week she did 7.1s and today was 6.9s.

Iā€™ve got a 60 and a 200 coming up on Tuesday. Iā€™ll be meeting up with a mate of mine who is going to the gold coast with me next monthā€¦

Monday
Hip thrusts - 2:20 40

Tuesday
60m - 7.49h
200m - 27.1h

Ran really well in the 60, but waited around for ages for the 200. I had cooled down and stiffened up a fair bit, and I didnā€™t get much of a chance to get ready. Still, pretty happyā€¦

Wednesday
4x150 - 26, 22, 23, 24
Stairs, high knees - 6x32
Eccentric back extensions - 5:3

Done a bit of reading and it seems I have hamstring tendonosis. As far as I can tell, the best remedy for this is eccentric exercises. I was dubious at first, assuming it would just make it much worse, because my instinct is to protect the area. However, a few sets and I actually feel a lot better.

Suits me better than rest, ice, heat. Iā€™m still hitting the trackā€¦

Hard to explain,
1, use a 1:25kg weight disk
2, sit on either a hard chair or on the floor against a wall
3, holding disk upright on floor, place leg ontop of said disk.
4, move leg side to side over disk, looking for tight / sore spots
5, hold position once found until pain subsides
6, repeat till hammie feels pain free
7, 30-60 sec stretch
8, do other leg.
9, can take 10-15+ min per leg
10, its easy to add leverage n increase weight on disk and get in very deep.
11, you can use 2.5 or even 5kg disk, see which works best for you.

I have not come across anything better. Even a massage doesnt get in this deep (unless they are really good, but, where are theyā€¦)
Afterwards, you can use your Cups to help things along.
Normally, if a tendon is sore, its due to excessive muscle tension over a long time. The short periods you train wont do it.

I remember when I did it. I made a sudden increase to the load in my hamstring exercises. Afterwards I could feel a sore spot right up in the origin. So high I thought it was my glutes. Since then it has been the first thing I felt every morning. However, after just one session of eccentrics, this morning I woke up and was almost entirely pain free.

Itā€™s almost like the problem was caused by a hard concentric contraction that bunched up the fibres, but the eccentric stress has stretched them out again.

I canā€™t believe how well and quickly it has workedā€¦

What type of eccentric stretches did you do as I have a similar issue in my hamstring. I will also be going to the pan pacs but I am in the 45-49 age group.

I sustained the injury doing back extensions, so I did eccentric back extensions. I held myself up with my hands, then slowly lowered myself all the way down. I also did them by standing and simply lowering my upper body. the difference between the two was that with the back extensions the stress on the tendon was more at the start of the movement, while for the standing stretches it was at the end of the movement. I think I got better results from the BEā€™s, thoughā€¦

Thanks for the tip on the eccentrics, they do work well. Cheers