Gritty kettlebell class tonight.

After a warm up lap, we did a ladder of 5/10/15/20/25/20/15/10/5
swings (16kg & 24kg) alternating w/ 5 burpees.

4x 1 min 5 1H swing/snatch, 1 min rest. 20kg.

Double 16kg: 5x;
5 swing,
5 high pull,
5 snatch,
5 seesaw press,
5 front squat.

Farmer's walk w/ 24kg & 20kg.

Goblet squat w/20kg.
15 seconds in ATG position 15 seconds off x8 rounds.

Friday's weather made the day a bust.

Saturday: 35 mile ride with Jim.

Sunday: 42 miles with Jim and Shye.

Monday: Legs hurting, 45 minute easy spin.
Hard kettlebell class.

200m run, 2 sets ball slams/burpees
2 hand swings. 10/10/15/20/25 with 24kg

Practice rack position with tension, L and R multiple sets.

3 rounds of
25x 2 H swings
clean and press 5L/5R
25x 2 H swings
clean and front squat 5L/5R
25x 2 H swings
snatch
25x 2 H swings

mostly w/ a 20kg bell. Did 1st round swings with 24kg bell.

Tuesday: 20 miler at the campus. Beautiful but windy. Lots of talkative new faces.

Wednesday: Great BodyPump class.
Squat: 25kg, felt ok,probably could've gone heavier.
Chest: 25kg, felt ok, had more left in the tank than the past 3 weeks.
Back/Glutes/Hams:30kg, struggled, hands could barely hold on.
Triceps:20kg, not as good as last 3 weeks, couldn't finish all reps.
Biceps:15kg, struggled, but finished.
Lunges:15kg, not bad
Shoulders:20kg, yikes
Abs:----

Wednesday's BodyPump session felt pretty good after taking Tuesday entirely off. I might have gone to yoga had I not been at work until 6.

I went back to 45kg for the squat track and although it was challenging, I got in all the reps and didn't suffer too badly.
Also used 45kg for the chest track and although I did get through it with all reps, the suffering was great.
Stuck with 45 kg for the back/glute/ham track and got through it ok. We were doing the version w/ 2 push presses after the clean and press and I don't think I could've handled more weight.
I used 20kg again for the tricep track and it isn't getting any easier. We did the ultra-challenging bicep track and I started with 15kg, I went down to 12kg at one of the breaks.
No options for the shoulder track, for lunges I used the same 12kg setup I finished biceps with. No options for the ab track.

Thursday kettlebells.
Started with a lap then a set of 300 swings. Got them all in 1 set with a 16kg bell. Used the same bell until we got into clean & press. Next we did a bunch of tabata rounds;
1 arm swings-10 rep goal for 20 seconds,
exchanges-10 rep goal for 20 seconds,
2H swings-12 rep goal for 20 seconds.

Clean and press 1- 5 - 1 R & L (20kg),
Clean and front squat 1 - 5 - 1 R&L (20kg).

Farmers walk - 2 bells (1 lap)
Waiters hold 1 bell (1 lap) (20kg)

Goblet squats, 15 seconds on/off.

40 minutes of spinning.

Freaking rain! It's been raining (mostly on) and off since Saturday night and it's supposed to keep right on until next Saturday. I managed to get in a short spin at the campus Saturday afternoon but it wasn't fun. The wind was strong and it rained on and off. I would rather ride in the rain than deal with high winds. After calling it quits I went over to the club and did some clean and presses. 5 ladders of 4 to 1 rungs R and L with my 20 kg bell.

I took yesterday entirely off to rest my legs.

Got a late start out of the office and so did not start spinning until almost 5:20. Maintained an easy spin until 6, then headed off to kettlebell class.

Warm up:
12 tabata rounds of 2H swings with a 53# bell.
4 tabata rounds of goblet squats. - 53#
8 tabata rounds of clean and front squat (4R/4L) -53#
6 tabata rounds of reverse lunges (3R/3L) 1st 4 w/53#, then 20kg.

finished with 2 rounds of farmers walks/2H swings with partners.

Feels like spring.

Beautiful day today, I wish I could have spent it outdoors. Got about 9 hours of sleep last night and that felt damn good. My legs still felt like lead all day. Started my spin around 5:15 and kept it very relaxed. Was a bit surprised that my ass didn't ache from the last few days of riding. Quit at 6 and headed to kettlebell class.

Warm up was 1 lap run, 1 backwards. 5 double clean and front squat, 5 double snatch, 5 double clean and press.

1st workout was 15/12/9/6/3 2 hand swings, R & L snatch, goblet squat.

missing something here...

Finished off with 2 rounds of farmer's walk and kb burpees. Used 16kgs and did the overhead carry. 2nd trip around was much harder and I only made it about 1/4 of the way around before dropping to a regular carry.

My chain has been looking pretty nasty and I picked up a new Park chain cleaner over the weekend. Spent some time tonight before bed cleaning up my gummy drivetrain, now the chain, cogs and rings are all shiny and smell like citrus.

5 weeks until the TdC

A couple of weeks ago I signed up to ride the Tour de Cure in Saratoga with a few members of The Court Club (my gym). My brother Jim is riding on the team, having just bought a new road bike. We've decided to do the 50 mile route which I find preferable to a century this early in the season.

I'm not doing much today as Iain's confirmation is scheduled for 1:30. I just made a pot of coffee and am getting caught up here, which is easier than doing any of the real chores I had thought I might get to this morning. Sandy and I are taking Bri, Iain, his sponsor George and George's wife to an early dinner after the Mass and if I'm home early enough and not too stuffed I may head over to the campus for a quick spin.

This week was pretty tough as far as training goes. I packed in 4 strength workouts but minimal cardio, not exactly optimal for my short and long term goals, besides, it kind of hurt. In retrospect I did not need the extra kettlebell workout last Saturday as we hit the upper body hard on Monday. I was still feeling it on Wednesday at BodyPump and during Thursday's kettlebell workout as well.

I had to skip yoga on Tuesday as I had to travel for work, probably just as well too. So that brings us to Friday, which is turning into ride day with Jim. Although the weather had been forecast to include some sun what I mostly experienced was wind and rain. Nice and sunny out right now, probably because I can't go out and ride...

Anyway we got in a nice enough, if not plodding 25 miles and some hilly terrain (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/82367472)

I still see encouraging power numbers but I'll wait until I get a ride with a low VI to make any more quotations.

Up until recently I've been fortunate not to have the calluses give way from cleans/snatches/etc. Saturday's workout with a competition-style bell ended that through a combination of moist skin, too little chalk and the very smooth finish on the painted horn.

Tonight's workout didn't help matters very much. I had a shorter warm up than is usual for a Monday as I got to the club late. I still managed about 45 minutes of spinning before heading into the kb workout.

Kb warm up was 40 2 handed swings, then 50 one handed swings, exchanging on every swing, then 50 one handed swings with 1 exchange swing in between.

Then on to the killer.

5 double cleans: 15 sec rest,
4 double overhead press: 15 second rest,
4 double push press: 15 second rest,
4 double jerk-push press: 15 second rest,
10 snatches.

repeat, add 2 snatches.
until we get to 20. (6 sets).

Learned a valuable tidbit when swinging 1 handed: if your low back starts to hurt (and mine was) you're dropping the bell too low. Concentrate on back instead of down. Thanks Viv!