Day 56 - The Week 9 Intensification Process!

Not Long Now...

Yo! How ya going? What an amazing Monday. I thought it would be a great idea to give week 9 an injection of energy, focus and well, something a little more intensive. Plus, I'm highly motivated by the simple fact that I am going home to my wonderful wifey this weekend... 4 More Sleeps :)

How exciting....

Intensification

So, in an effort to up the stakes on this my 56th day, after such a big weekend of achievements I decided to do a morning workout that meant very little breaks and a whole other level of work.

Last week's back workout, although tough, seemed a little like it needed more. So, I decided to couple it with abdominals. How's that any different? Well, instead of back, back, back then abs...I decided to go back, abs, back, abs...no breaks. So after each set of back, I threw in a set of abs. Just because.....

I did a little research on back exercise routines last night, and decided to revamp the whole routine. I started with four sets of axle dead lifts to warm up, I managed to get to 55kg on the bar (75kg total)... After I got stuck into the new plan, with reverse grip bent over rows (with the barbell), with roller abs using the same barbell between sets. I did 4 sets of 8 reps of each, increasing the weight each time to a maximum of 30kg (until I get my technique perfect) - this is actually much harder than it reads....

I set the barbell up using the floor plate (landmine), then conducted sets of T-bar rows, with Landmine 180's between sets. I needed to drop the weight each time for the land mines, but got to 45kg with the rows, and was working up a sweat on the land mines on 30kg! 4 Sets of each later...I was feeling the burn!

I continued with Lat Pull downs - wide grip and narrow, before moving onto the cage farmers walks - today my farmer's walks reached 110kg (new PB). To finish my workout, and since time was getting sparse, I knocked out back hyperextensions, coupled with leg raises and knee crunches. I then punched out 4 chin ups, before moving into the hanging knee crunches and retractors to finish... all 4 sets of 8 reps each... Boom, another 75minute burnout! 

Not to be out done by this morning's effort, I wanted this evening's workout (predominantly cardio based) to challenge me. Subsequently I opted to do a 30 minute leg workout. I incorporated Smith Squats, Leg Press, Hack Squats, and Calf Raises.. I felt a little twinge in my calf so moved to the cardio part.... Incidentally, I PB'd on leg press tonight (180kg), which is another indication that my endurance and strength are really improving....yay for me!

Bricks

So, as you know, one of the new training tools to help me train for triathlons, is the brick session. So, I decided to do an out of sequence Bike then Swim. Since my pride and joy is packed for her trip home, I opted for a 30 minute spin, followed by an attempt at a speedy swim...

So, after a little leg stretching I jumped on the spin bike. 30 minutes later, feeling very comfortable I pulled up having travelled 15km. Nice. I quickly got changed and jumped in the pool. Now, I wanted to work my speed so I thought, hmm a snappy 500m to finish? I was aiming to finish in 15 minutes or less.... However, with my arms burning, and perhaps a little additional blood flowing in my legs I worked particularly hard to complete the swim. When I touched the poolside and stopped the clock, it read 09:52, my fastest lap was 01:06, and 01:58 per lap average. How funny, my best ever!