This is long over due. I visit this site just about every day and while I don't participate all that often, I've been here for almost 2 years (including my anonymous lurking time). I think it's time to start a log! I've ordered NROL because everyone seems to be ga-ga over it and I love just about everything by Schuler and Cosgrove so I figured it'd be a good investment. I'm 99% sure that I'll start whatever the book lays out for me but I open to suggestions.
WHERE I AM NOW: Currently I'm finishing up training for the NYC Marathon on November 5. I started this training almost a year ago. Over the winter I worked on my running form and muslce imbalances. In April I started running in earnest which marks the first time I've seriously tackled any distance running. During this time I've followed the CrossFit WOD and mixed that with my running. While my max lifts have certainly suffered, I don't really care. I feel stronger and more "athletic" than I have since high-school. For the record, that was over 20 years ago.
But I'm tired of CrossFit and I feel like I need something with less "randomness" and more structure. I still have another 4 weeks of training before the marathon and I'll continue what I've been doing but I wanted to start the log now to get get some feedback from the community on my goals and how best to acheive them.
MY GOALS: What I need is more flexibility, not necesarily in a yogi-kind-of-rubber-band way but rather in the way an oly lifter is flexible, if you catch my meaning. I want to feel more comfortable performing deads, squats and especially oly lifts. In a word I'm tight, and as a result these movements at any significant weight are ugly and probably just plain dangerous.
Performing well executed olympic lifts is my long-term goal. The technical challege of these lifts really gets my juices flowing but first I recognize the need to improve my ROM. To that end I'm setting a shorter-term goal of doing a perfectly executed pistol, with my butt all the way to my heel and my free leg out straight and parallel to the ground. I believe that if I can do that I should be ready to play with oly lifts and such safely. PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG.
So I'll start by asking, is NROL a good program to use while I'm working on this? I have Magnificent Mobility and a foam roller and work with both of those consistently. I know I will have to figure out how to incorporate some sort of practice for pistols, snatches, cleans, etc. but I'm not smart enough to design my own program around those goals -- that's one thing I am sure of -- so is NROL the right choice for me?
Finally, I should probably make record my stats as well:
- Age: 38
- Height: 5' 10"
- Weight: 165 lbs
- Bodyfat: ~12% -- I never had this measured so it's just an educated guess
I did about six months of the X-Fit WODs and like you just felt the need to do something more structured for a while. I'm currently do S2, my 4th NROL program and think that my strength is improving nicely. I don't see that NRs will do anything for your flexability, I'm actually thinking I'm feeling tighter from the heavy lifting. I've been considering getting MM lately because of it. What do you think of it? There is a lot of unilateral work in NLs, which should help you towards the "pistol goal".
I have to get lifting right now. Good luck with the marathon. I'd appreciate your input on the MM program.
I was wondering when you were going to start a log!! A perfectly executed pistol squat sounds like a great goal, but I don't know that you need to accomplish that before getting more into Oly lifts. You might be better off asking this on the Training forum, if you haven't already.
Bill -- MM is great. It basically lays out 50+ mobility exercises for you. Each individual exercise is shown and carefully explained. They use an anatomical drawing to show you the muscle groups effected by the movement and usually a brief explaination of why you would want to incorporate the movement. All exercises are categorized into three levels (Easy, Intermediate, Advanced) but there is no set routine, you just choose what you need.
At first not having something laid out for me a was a little intimidating but in an hour or so I had a good routine down and have tweeked it over the past couple of months to work on what I need. I have found it to be a great resource.
Bama -- About time is right! I do incorporate oly work into my routines now. I think it'd be impossible to do xfit without them, but in the end my "catch" is nothing more than a slight knee bend, not a nice deep rush to get under the bar. What I'm hoping for the short-term is to increase my ROM then go get some professional coaching to work on my technique. I don't intend on competing as an oly lifter so I'm in no rush.
Today is actually an off day from the gym but I'm chaperoning Jack's (the older of my two boys) class on a hike up Mt. Major in NH. Honestly I have no idea how long the hike is but I figure if the 3rd graders could do it so can I. It's supposed to be in the 50's a partly cloudy today so it should be a great day. Much better than sitting in my office that's for sure.
Nice to have you charting your course in torture with the rest of us in here. The log can be pretty beneficial if you like to blow off a workout now and again. I just hate coming in here and writing down that I stopped short on a run or I skipped a lift. Continued luck with your Marathon training I will be interested in seeing how that ends up for you.
__________________ -50# by 4/1/10 2 down 48 to go.
Eric's article Big Bad Bands has a picture of a band assisted pistol squat. That might be a good way to work up to doing a full ROM pistol on your own.
Quote:
I do incorporate oly work into my routines now. I think it'd be impossible to do xfit without them, but in the end my "catch" is nothing more than a slight knee bend, not a nice deep rush to get under the bar. What I'm hoping for the short-term is to increase my ROM then go get some professional coaching to work on my technique. I don't intend on competing as an oly lifter so I'm in no rush.
My first thought when I read the above was that if you wait to get coaching you will just be ingraining bad habits which you will have to break once you start working with a coach. Why not get a coach from the start?
Thanks GG... I've been very consistent with my workouts lately but with winter coming, along with its cold, dark mornings I'm sure I'll need a kick every now and then to keep up the effort.
Thanks for the article Lisa! That is just what I needed. Believe me all of the bad habits from years of power cleans and snatches are already well ingrained, in fact I'm not sure how it could get any worse . But you are right, I could certainly make use of a coach sooner rather than later but honestly it comes down to time and money at the moment. I work for a startup (just 3 of us right now) so cash-flow is inconsistent and my work schedule is very demanding. However I hope to have my life in better order come spring. At that point I feel I could give the time and effort to really get the most out of one-on-one coaching.
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Did the hike up and down Mt. Major today and it was absolutely perfect weather with near peak foliage over the mountains -- very nice. It was about 4mi round trip with 1,700ft of elevation so it wasn't a terribly difficult hike. The hard part was herding the 9-year-old cats that we chaperoned up and back
This weekend should be interesting. I have an 18 mile run scheduled tomorrow which will be my second go at this distance. I'm not too concerned with the run as I'm going to take it easy and just complete it and I felt strong during my last attempt at this distance. After this run I only have one other long run (a 20 miler) before the marathon so I want to feel good through the entire run to boost my confidence more than meet a particular time. However I am hoping to beat the 2:34 I clocked on the last 18 milers (18.1 actually) since it was raining hard that day.
Where it is going to get interesting is that I'm going camping with the family right after the run. Basically I'm going to run, shower, and grab something to eat as we're climbing into the car to leave. I'm a little worried about my ability to recover but we'll just have to see.
I won't have access to a computer until Sunday night but if you don't hear from me by mid-day Monday it'll mean I didn't make the recovery...
I'm back from camping. Recovery was a bit difficult with all the hiking and biking in the woods but altogether I feel pretty good. My run on Saturday was a bit of a disappointment however. The weather was perfect and I was feeling great. I set out for what I thought was an 18.5 mile run and clocked in an astounding 2:19! The only problem is that I took a turn too soon and only ran 16.7 miles.
On the plus side my pace was around 8:25 per mile which is a little quicker than I was aiming for and I felt really strong through the whole run. Its just that with only one other long run left before my taper I really wanted the full 18. Oh well. I'm looking forward to the 20 miler next week.
Believe it or not we had kids as young as first grade do the hike (with their own packs carrying lunch and water to boot) but despite lots of huffing and puffing even the youngest children stopped to admire the view.
Jeff, sounds like it was a very good long run even if the distance was a little shorter than you had hoped. That was very brave to leave for camping right after a long run!!!
Mobility Stuff
Cat/Camel
Bird Dog
Fire Hydrants
Yoga Twist
Side Lying Trunk Twist
Supine Scorpion
Hip Corrections
Leg Swings
Pull-Back Butt Kicks
Cradle Walks
Reverse Lunge w/ Twist
OH Cross Lunge
Spidermans
Scap Pushups
Squat to Stand
Dislocates
Workout
3 Rounds for time of:
15 reps #95 Overhead Squats
15 reps L-Pullups
15 reps #95 Split Jerk
15 reps Knees-to-Elbows
15 reps #95 Hang Cleans
15 reps Back Extensions w/ #25 plate
34:36
I substituted regular pullups for the L pullups because I knew the knees to elbows would give my abs enough of a workout and I was right. I also scaled the 3rd round back to #65 from #95 because I was feeling pretty spent.
Pistol practice
5 x holding wall mounted bar (each leg)
5 x holding #10 dbs (each leg)
The push jerks really highlighted my shoulder inflexibility. The weight didn't feel that heavy but I didn't feel like I had complete control so I backed off a bit. I definately need more shoulder flexibility. Where I place my hands to comfortably rack the bar (about an inch inside the break in the knurling) is too close to my shoulders to perform the catch and lock out. In other words I can't get my arms back far enough to line the bar up with my hips. I don't have this issue with OHS but my hands are much farther apart on that exercise. This is definately an exercise I'm going to use to measure progress.
The pistols felt pretty good although I'm having some balance issues when I'm on my right leg. Once I get that sorted out I'll start to drop the weight of the dbs.
This is my first run of my training on a treadmill -- WOW did that suck. I'm glad I'll only have to do that a couple more times before the marathon. I usually use this run for tempo and I tried to manage that on the treadmill but my time this week is 4 minutes slower than last week and that is without hills, wind, etc.
Oh well, as a saving grace I felt really strong at the end of the run. I'm going to rest and carb up for the next couple of days and prepare for my 20 mile run this weekend.
Mobility work day. I did about 1/2 hour of mobility work, oly lift practice with an empty bar and more pistol practice. I didn't log anything since I was just working on whatever I felt like but I focused mostly on my shoulders today since the push jerks on Tuesday highlighted problems there.
Treadmills suck. You might not have the elements to deal with but the boredom factor just kills me. I would have troble running 1:09 on a treadmill even if Hollie Berry was running naked in front of me. I would give it a hell of an effort though.
__________________ -50# by 4/1/10 2 down 48 to go.
I've done quite a bit of push-presses but not the jerks. The 175 was a failure and most of the 165s were more of a press. Technically I should be able to do more with the jerk than a press but I can't get under the bar correctly because of the lack of flexiblity with my shoulder. Also, keep in mind there were sets of 1... so those were a true max.
I'm paid up to go to Cressey's Shoulder Saver Seminar in a couple of weeks so hopefully I can get some good info there.
I'm not a very good note-taker and since I'm not a personal trainer I'm probably just going to absorb what's useful to me... OK, now that I've set proper expectations I promise to do my best to report in.
I'm not a very good note-taker and since I'm not a personal trainer I'm probably just going to absorb what's useful to me... OK, now that I've set proper expectations I promise to do my best to report in.
This was my last long run before my taper and I aimed to finish to run feeling like I still had another 6 miles "in the tank" regardless of the pace. I just wanted to know that I could finish the marathon and being the last run I felt like pushing my pace wouldn't necessarily improve anything in the long run. This was to be a mental exercise.
Now that it is over all I can say is HELL YEAH! F*&K YEAH! HOLY S*%T! SAY AMEN BROTHER! Not only was my time only 3 seconds per mile slower than my hope beyond hope goal of finishing the marathon in 3:45 but I definately felt like I had another 6 in me.
I am high as a kite right now. I performed the entire run feeling like I was running at a 9 minute/mile pace and very comfortably, and while I didn't time any splits I felt consistent with my pace through the whole event. I AM READY to run the marathon!
It didn't hurt that is was absolutely perfect today. Temps in the mid-50's, dry, cloudless and only a slight breeze. The beach was empty of tourists and the town was hoping with it's annual Harvest Fest. I even passed a typical little New England chuch thumping with U2 for their "U2-charist." The sign said something like "Come celebrate the ucharist with the music of U2." I passed that at about mile 16 and it brought a huge smile to my face.
Everything seems to have come together for me to make this an perfect run. Now I can look forward to my taper.
"Cindy"
Max number of rounds in 20 minutes
5 Pullups
10 Pushups
15 BW Squats
16 3/4 rounds. I stopped the pushups 3 short of 10 on the last round and jumped to finish the squats. I was hoping to come back and finish the pushups but time ran out. Still a record for me by 3/4 of a round. The pushups have always been my weak point with this workout and today was no exception.
Congrats on the nice little Sunday Cruise. It must feel great to know that you are in the zone for something you have worked so hard for. Enjoy the taper.
Where did you get the Monday Workout? Is this something you dreamed up on your own or read about? It seems very similar to the EDT that I am doing right now.
__________________ -50# by 4/1/10 2 down 48 to go.
I'm really looking forward to the taper. I have one more 8 mile run on the dreaded treadmill this week then everything starts to get easier. It's funny I'm actually stressing more about the treadmill run than I was for the 20 miler.
Cindy is one of the "girl-named" workouts from CrossFit.com. The CF program is very random in what comes up as the Work Out of the Day (WOD) but the girls are a fairly consistent feature. Sometimes the workouts will be like EDT, other times it'll be a simple max-effort workout with only 5 lifts, then at times they'll throw in a 10k run. I've been at it for about a year and I'm a little tired of the randomness of it but I've responded very well to the program.
Work Out
Max Effort Front Squats
5x45
5x95
2x135
3x185
3x205
3x205
This was supposed to be a max effort day but I stopped at 205 since I really wanted to try out some of the techniques I watched last night on the Dan John video from the LA Strength Seminar. So I ended the FS a little early and did some goblet squats, "potato sacks" and just stayed in the down position for a while. I also did some work on the "learning the overhead squat" technique he demonstrated. I then moved on to pistol practice.
5x each leg holding a bar attached to the wall
2x with #10 medicine ball (my balance was not there for these)
5x with bands
The bands were a new addition to the gym. They have a set of bands with different tension that slot into a metal plate against the wall. This setup was perfect for my practice. I anchored the band at about knee height against the wall and used the tension to maintain my position. This allowed me to focus on my side-to-side balance.
Not a hard day altogether but I really felt the "glow" (as Dan John put it) in my hips.
Man, am I glad that next week will only be 5 on the treadmill, and that will be it. I was supposed to do this run yesterday but between Cindy on Monday and way too much squat stuff on Tuesday I was pretty sore and decided to rest. In fact my chest is STILL a bit sore today from Monday -- that workout kills me every time, but all in all other than the tedium of the treadmill the run felt good.
One other thing I should add here... My weight this morning was 159! That is not good in my book. I worked hard through Scrawny To Brawny about a year ago and went from 155 to 170 with little fat gain. I dropped 5 pounds of that over a 6-7 month period, but apparently the running and subsequent lack of lifting has been a detriment to my physique. I know many people struggle to take weight off but I'm the opposite. I have to eat constantly to keep the weight on -- I have obviously neglected to eat enough lately.
Oh well. The marathon is in two weeks and then I'm starting NROL. I'll work on my weight then. Until then I might as well enjoy the benefits of being a lighter runner.
Why Can't I Have A Pistol
. But you are right, I could certainly make use of a coach sooner rather than later but honestly it comes down to time and money at the moment. I work for a startup (just 3 of us right now) so cash-flow is inconsistent and my work schedule is very demanding. However I hope to have my life in better order come spring. At that point I feel I could give the time and effort to really get the most out of one-on-one coaching.
Linear Mode
