Today I was working with my Army Reserve unit, so my hours and training were a little bound by what I could manage. Nonetheless, I hit a 45-minute session that I'm more than happy with, and enjoyed more than I thought I would. Ordinarily, I tweak my Wednesday sessions if I need to train there, but today my plan fell through having planned on training at my own gym earlier in the day. By the time I trained it was around 3:30pm.
Warm-up
5 Minutes of hip openers, squat holds, t-lunges and kang squats.
4 Rounds:
10 Single Leg RDL per Leg 10kg
5 ATG Split Squats Per Leg - 50kg for 3 sets, 70kg for one. Watching the video back the 70kg wasn't the best form, and is a little too heavy for now!
4 Rounds:
10 KOT Tib Raises - these were more of an experiment than anything else. Ideally, they should have been at the start of the session. Real potential here for a pre-run movement that targets the tibialis anterior in the short-range.
3 Pause Front Squats 80-100kg
Wide Stance Good Morning
40 Reps - stance widens every 10. The last 10 of these hurt!
Jefferson Curl
3x5 - 15kg
As short and simple as that!
Equipment isn't worth listing today, since none of it is branded as such. Food is laid out below:
1pm I had 2 chicken thighs and a sausage with a side salad.
At 7:45pm I had macaroni cheese and apple crumble with custard.
At 9:30pm I had grapes, berries and yoghurt.
Food is always bizarre on TA days. I used to take prepared food a few years ago, and this is something I'm considering doing again. I miss having control over my food intake on such a regular - and ultimately avoidable - basis.
Having had a couple of enormous highs; having the world record verified by Guinness and winning the British Championships for my age and weight category, I'm now in the post-competition lull. I won't lie, I struggle here. I struggle for motivation, but also for spark. I struggle to be imaginative with my training, and often cruise through workouts without really committing, or being present. I've learned a bit about this process over the past decade though, and the two most critical takeaways I have discovered are, firstly, turn up and move anyway. You're keeping routines and habits that serve you well physiologically and psychologically and, secondly, all programmes should be flexible. As an example, I was supposed to do cleans today. I knew it wasn't smart, and my body would have underperformed, so I stuck to the less complex stuff, and got through it. There's no rush, no requirement to always be on top form, and no external pressure. Imposing these unrealistic standards only creates problems that don't need to exist. Right now training is simply me looking after my health and wellbeing. When it feels right to push and target performance again, I will. And I have just the challenge to train for:
"Mountain Murph"
This summer, I will attempt to complete the 3 peaks; Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon, in under 24 hours, with a big twist - I'll ascend and descend each peak wearing a 20lb vest, performing the reps from the classic CrossFit workout "Murph" at the top on each occasion. That's 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups and 300 squats while still wearing the vest! Full details will be released soon!
The weight vest I'll be wearing is this one. Click to purchase and use TH5 at checkout to save!
