The comeback trail?

[Day 55]

Lol I love how I have basically made a saga of my trainer struggles at this point. Well today is the first high point in the adventure, so I guess I don't mind too much. Taking steps in the right direction! But let's start with where the day started.

Today's AM Workout: Gym sesh! (~1:25)
Summary:

• Back squats: WU 12 @ 75#, 8 @ 105#, 2 x 6 @ 115#, 2 x 8 @ 105#
• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 55#, 4 x 8/8/6/6 @ 85#
• Deadlifts: 3 x 8 @ 135# (I only did this weight because it was already on the bar and I was too lazy to change it)
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12 @ 7 plates, alternating wide/narrow grip
• Superset: 4 rounds of
• Lunge hops: 20 total alternating 5/side, focusing on HEIGHT (and stability on the landing, which still needs some amount of work)
• Band squats (bodyweight): 15 (20 on the last round)
• Superset: 3 x 
• Seated DB shoulder press: 7 @ 30#/side, 12 @ 25#/side, 10 @ 25#/side
• Single arm DB row: 12/side @ 40#
• Incline bench: 3 x 12 @ 55#

Hit Rate: 59/64 (92.1%)

Notes/thoughts:

• Squats: I wanted to play with the big weight because now that I'm above 100 lbs I'm constantly like, AHHH IF I GET A BIT STRONGER I'LL BE WORKING WITH BODYWEIGHT, which strictly speaking is not even that true because 25 lbs is a long ways to go, but you know. Psychological heuristics don't always speak reason. Anyways, in reality, I need to get back to sets of 12 instead of sets of 8. I was doing the 8 getting back into the gym to try and protect my back. I've done a good job of it, I'm stronger now, I need to get back to doing sets of 12. That having been said, 8 is so much easier than 12 so I've been real lazy about trying to do this. No 115 next time, just straight 105 sets and the goal is more reps!
• Bench: Didn't feel as strong as I did last time I was at the gym. Probably because this was thing number 2 instead of thing number 1? I know some people think it doesn't make a difference because thing number 1 was a leg thing and there are no shared muscles but uh, you would be wrong. I'm always strongest at what I do first. In any case, went for an extra set today because why not. I kind of like doing more than 3 sets of things, maybe this will be something I do more often.
• Deads: Weight wasn't that bad, definitely came down with less control but the reps were mostly pretty solid. Last two-ish on each set tended to be a bit sketchy. No pain though so I think we're all clear. Also, BIG PLATES. 
• Pulldowns: Took probs more rest than I needed to between sets but I hit them all today without having to let go which was new. I was counting in sets of four, so I was trying to trick my mind into thinking it was doing 3 reps instead of 12, and weirdly enough I think it kinda worked. 
• Leg superset: Didn't want to blow my legs out too much before the ride today so did some more accessory work. Lunge hops are surprisingly hard to do right. Especially towards the end. 
• Push/pull superset: Lol um so tried the 30s for shoulder press, it was okay but not great, probably better off doing straight sets of 12s @ 25 for now until I get a bit stronger (in place of the 8/8 drop sets) so I can work up to being able to hit entire sets of 8 @ 30. Single arm rows felt great today, didn't have any of the issues I had last time I went for the 40 so I'm real happy about that. 
• Incline bench: Opted for less weight and more reps on this compared to last week because I didn't take any time after the other arm things so I didn't know where my shoulders were gonna be. Felt strong, would be happy going back up to 65 next time. 
• Wow I had a lot of thoughts today. Weird.

Today's PM Workout: Trainer ride, 115 mins (yeah, I know, I opted not to go for the 5 bs minutes to get me to 2 hours, whatever)

Summary:

• WU: 
• 10 mins easy 
• 8 x :30/:30 spin ups 
• 2 mins easy 
• Main Set: 
• 5/5/5 @ 80-85/85-90/90-95 rpm 
• 2 mins easy 
• 3/3/3 same pattern 
• 2 mins easy 
• 2/2/2 same pattern 
• 2 mins easy 
• 1/1/1 same pattern 
• 4 mins easy 
• 3 x 5/2 @ 80-85/85-90/90-95 rpm by set 
• 2 extra minutes easy 
• Sprints: 2 x (6 x :45/:45 MAX sprints at base +1 over 100 rpm, 2 mins recovery) 
• WD: ~10 mins easy for a total of 115 mins 
• Totals: 27.63 mi, 1:56:47, 14.2 mph average

Hit Rate: 60/65 (92.3%)

Notes/thoughts:

• I was actually super freaked out about doing this but it went great. The 5/5/5 was tough towards the end but nowhere near as hard as it felt last week (I think I'm more rested) and neither was the split 3 x 5/2 at the end so either progress is being made or I'm feeling more rested. 
• I really liked getting to work with the pattern but in shorter intervals, I think I got a good workout and a confidence boost with regards to handling the workout intensity. I'm still trying to work through being really intimidated by this particular set and I think every time I take a step in the right direction it gives me a little more confidence in myself. 
• I killed the sprints today. The pace was so on point (see the Garmin file if you care), I was really happy with that. 
• It's worth noting I took about an hour nap before I did this workout, so maybe that played a role too? Idk. 
• I haven't decided what the progression is going to look like for next week...I will figure it out eventually lol.

AM swim tomorrow and that's it! It snowed today so I'm a little bit worried about ice on the trip out to the pool, but hopefully things will be okay (I have to bike out there tomorrow). Gotta study for that microbiology quiz now. Happy Wednesday! (:

Much love,

Jess

Mixing it up with friends! (And the weekly recap!)

[Day 23]

I didn't go swimming in the morning. I woke up around 5 am and realized I didn't get nearly enough work done yesterday to be able to spend my extra time in the pool, so I used the time to get some work done instead (and was actually fairly productive, so it was time well spent). Just stuck to the original plan of hitting the gym w/ Fay and doing a leg day. I tried things out her way today, which was a lot more volume than I'm used to (even though she typically goes even more volume heavy than this - I now totally understand why Henry gets disgruntled about volume when he's working out with me). I had a ton of fun though, even though that first giant set was killer tough. It was nice just to like go to the gym and mix it up and do something new for a change. Everyone can use a change of pace every once in a while. (Isolation work? What even is isolation work?) We also met a dude at the gym who talked to me about music briefly and let me put on a playlist based around the latest Bring Me The Horizon album off of some cool app he had on his phone and I got to rock out while working out which was pretty awesome. (Also meeting new people was pretty cool. All in all, was a pretty cool morning.)

Today's Workout: AM Gym Sesh w/ Fay! (Yay workout buddies!)
Summary:

• Giant set: 3 x 
• 15 back squats @ 75#
• 15/side split squats @ 30# (DB)
• 15/side reverse lunges @ 30# (DB)
• Leg extensions: 3 x 12/12 drop sets of 90/50#
• Seated hamstring curls: 3 x 15 @ 70#
• Leg press: 3 x 15 @ 130/150/150#
• Not super strict about rests/pauses/etc.

Hit Rate: 23/24 (95.8%)

I have no important notes or thoughts lol. I think I was having too much fun maybe. xD I just kept wanting to like jump up and grab pull up bars and just hang off of things and do handstands. It was silly. It wasn't like my legs weren't hurting or I wasn't actually working or whatever, I just had a lot of energy and was having a really good time. (Maybe it was because it was a 9 am workout so I got to eat breakfast a couple hours before and energy stores were looking good? Hmmmmm...I wonder. But also maybe because friends make everything happier? Hmmmmmmmm...more wondering.) Things feel good now, legs are a bit tired but definitely doing okay. Will try to maybe do some core work tonight and will definitely be stretching. 

The week in review!

• 1 run, 2 lifts, 2 dryland sessions (circuit + rowing, just rowing), 2 trainer rides, and 1 swim for a total of ~9:15 (8 sessions total)
• It's been a weird week. I guess that's what happens when you get injured. I sort of thought I would end up upping the swims and bikes more to compensate for running less but I guess I just went the "go to the gym more" route. Which is fun, and this wasn't yet a serious week, so I have no qualms about it being just fun.
• Next week gets more serious though, that's sort of what I consider my first week into a real block of training. The block will be focused on quality riding and swimming but the first week will really just be an ease into it kind of week. I'm going to take tomorrow (Sunday) off and the Saturday at the end of the week off to get back on my Saturdays off schedule, so it'll only be a five day training week (yaaaaas) but I'm still going to try and get 8 workouts in so we'll see how that goes. The breakdown as of right now is 3 swims (praying for not super freezing weather so I can bike out to practices), 2 trainer rides, 1 gym sesh, and hopefully 2 short runs to get back to running (first one on Wednesday, fingers crossed that the IT band holds out!). I think the overall breakdown of number of workouts will be comparable in the next few weeks as they had been in the past two weeks, I'll just shift my focus a little bit to cater more to the "important" days (and of course many of those workouts will be seeing increases in length...yay...).

In completely unrelated news, I bought myself two massive tubs of ice cream after the health screening today, so I should have enough ice cream to last me the remainder of my lifetime. Awwwwwww yeah.

More med school learnings time now!

Much love,

Jess

My legs are slowly coming back to life...

My legs had a really hard time yesterday. I made the decision to push back the bike trainer workout by a day in order to give my legs a little bit of extra rest. It seems to have helped a lot, although I also worked them pretty hard today so they're definitely not feeling too hot still. Nonetheless, it seems like the lifting pain is lightening and it's being replaced with a different kind of fatigue, so I'll call it progress.

Today started with a run in the morning before my volunteering session and I took the make up bike trainer session in the afternoon.

Today's AM Workout: Base run, Forest Park.
Summary: 7.04 mi, 1:13:10, 10:24 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 10:35, 10:52, 10:36, 10:40, 10:00, 10:09, 9:56, 9:18.
Hit rate: 32/34 (94.1%)

Mornings are nice because it's not too hot. It was very humid today though, but my body handled that fine. I ran the route counterclockwise, which is the opposite of what I usually do, so it put the hills first (which explains the nice negative splitting). The run felt pretty easy on my cardiovascular system but was brutal on the legs. They hurt with every step the first 1-1.5 miles and then lightened up to just aches in specific areas for the rest. It's good to know that I can finish a run of that distance on really blown out legs though. Interestingly enough, when I ran this route in the other direction exactly a week ago after having had my legs pretty thoroughly wrecked by biking workouts, I ran a 1:13:09. The consistency astounds me. The effort was slow, but I'm happy enough with it, just proud I got out there and did what I had to do. (It was an early morning I really wasn't feeling, but I'm glad I did it.)

Today's PM Workout: Trainer ride
Summary: 18.6 mi, 1:16:22, 14.6 mph.

• WU: 8 mins easy, 2 mins base of a hill
• Main Set: bike sprints to failure, 5 x (6 min efforts, 2 min recovery)
• Broken as: 2 min 85% (base @ 100 rpm), 2 min 100% (+1, 90+ rpm), 1 min 110% (+2, 90+ rpm), 1 min 120% (+2, 100 rpm)
• 1 extra minute recovery
• Big gear: 4 x (2 mins steady state seated climb, 55-65 rpm, 1 min standing climb (biggest gear, c+3), 1 min recovery)
• WD: 9 mins at steady state then easy.

Speed splits: 14.1, 15.9, 14.9, 13.4.
Hit rate: 33/35 (94.2%)

The trainer ride was pretty solid all in all. I think I moderated the effort well, the last two repeats of the sprint set were tough but manageable (some pace slip off towards the end though). Big gear work is a must, will keep trying to get through that. The trainer workouts are tough but I'm sure they do wonders for fitness. We'll let the bike see the outdoors tomorrow and hopefully that'll be a good time. As of right now, my legs are still weak and hurting a bit, so I'm going to take some time to stretch and hopefully put them in the best possible position for tomorrow. Yay!

Much love,
Jess