That sucks about the lockdown. Today's .com WOD is made for you.

For time:
Row 500 meters
30 bodyweight bench presses
Row 1,000 meters
20 bodyweight bench presses
Row 2,000 meters
10 bodyweight bench presses

I’d like it but not totally suited to me - that’s a bench press workout tbh. Would be interesting to try but my guess would be that I’d struggle with the first two sets of benches.

My wheelhouse was mid weight, high rep, low skill stuff. KBs, burpees, overhead squats, power cleans, push press etc

Lol lockdown July 2021

AUS power rating down again.

It’s ridiculous. Less than 100 cases in 14 days and they’ve locked down 8 million people

4x1000m 5mins rest

first time doing this for 5 weeks and I was taken aback by how much it hurt....maybe the last 3 days of drinking and bad sleeps had something to do with it??

Legs felt a little heavy throughout and chest felt a little tight, but we persisted and got through a good session

3.27.6 (30)
3.27.4 (29)
3.27.1 (29)
3.27.1 (30)

average 3.27.3 1.43.6/500m...an improvement of 1.5secs per interval or 0.75/500m

very happy with the improvement...particularly after the weekend of excess. Interested to note that my stroke rate was slightly higher than last time out...perhaps that's linked to the heavy legs and chest.

Fitbit appeared to give me relatively accurate HR readings after the second and thirs intervals 164 and then 172?

we'll see - I'll be buying a Polar strap in a few weeks so I'll be able to get and use some accurate heart rate dats

Plan from here is weights tomorrow, long hardish row Weds, rest day Thurs and then a 1k time trial Friday

3 weeks ish left til my birthday and I want to attempt a 1k, 2k and 5k before the landmark, to log as fast times as I can in the 40-49 yr old age group before I move into Official Old Man territory

Lockdown Weights in the home gym

3x5 Bench -90kg
3x5 DB Press - 22.5kg
3x9 Close Grip Press - 70kg
3x10 Bent over row - 70kg
3x5 Deadlift - 120kg
3x15 Hammer Curl - 12.5kg DBs

Meh, fine.

10k slow row

41.30.9 which is 2.04.5/500, ave s/r 20

really enjoyed it. had a great podcast to listen to and just got into an easy rhythm. didn't warm up, so it was a negative split and getting faster and I could have kept the pace for another 10k.

i think that's 7 days in a row, so I might take a day off tomorrow and then attempt a 1k time trial on Friday if I'm feeling up to it

1k time trial

I'd committed to this time trial a week ago because I'm trying to squeeze all distances in before my 50th birthday in two weeks and because I won't get a chance to do it over the weekend.

probably not ideal circumstances after I only got a few hours sleep last night - wife woke me up at 1.30am to tell my my 15 year old daughter wasn't in her bed/the house. it took us a while to discover she'd snuck out and gone down to the beach with friends and was smoking cones in the dunes.

wife was delighted and it was Armageddon once I brought her home. Wife's birthday today too!

busy day at work and I hadn't eaten much and really didn't feel up to it. plenty of negative mental talk while i was in my 3k warm up. eventually i put on some fast house music and stopped pussying out.

previous PR was 3.13.4 and the goal was to try to get in the 3.11s...so 1.35.5-1.35.9/500ave.

Plan was to start hard and slowly get into a rhythm and to go through half way in 1.35.9 and then try to hold on before an acceleration at the end.

To be honest, I was bang on plan - you'll see the 200 splits below, but I went through 500 in 1.35.8 and then was 1.35.9 at 600 before I managed to ramp it up and go a little quicker. I had visions of something in the mid 3.11s, but my legs just ran out of co-ordination and power with about 150 to go. My foot strap came loose and i lost my strength and I had to speed up my stroke to attempt to compensate.

managed to hold it together to the end but the pace slowed and i finished in

3.12.1 for a PR by 1.4 seconds 1.36.0/500m average

definitely an RPE 10 and I had no more in the tank...just didn't quite have enough inside me to hold the pace all the way in.

can't be upset with the PR tho.

Currently this time is

69th in the world (out of 1405 men)
10th in Australia
19th in the 40-49 category in the world (337 men)
it would be 6th in the 50-59 category I'll soon be moving into (353 men)

Congrats! 1.4 seconds is a pretty big chunk off a 1000m PR!

I can relate to so much of your preworkout mental struggles. It's this weird thing for me where I love training, but I hate starting. So I constantly try to put it off even though I know I am 100% going to do it. That's why I like having a time slot at a gym and not just workout whenever at home.

yeah, the fear I fee before the start of something I know is gonna suck, can be huge

I did a **** and about 4 nervous pisses

Bench 5x4-95kg
DB Flye/Bench super set 3x8/8-22.5kg DB
Close Grip Bench 3x8-75kg
Bent over row 4x8-75kg

was going to do DL and then some DB press, but had to finish early to collect my son, so will do tomorrow after my row session

row training today...

2x5k, 2 mins rest.

^was gonna be a 10k but needed a pee!

row 1 2.07.0/500 sr 18
row 2 2.02.2/500 sr 19

nice easy hit out

monthly review June

decent month, particularly given I had a 3 day boys weekend which was super excessive and required a lot of recovery

25 training days
all 30 days I did 10k + steps
18 alcohol free days

my 50th is in a few weeks...hoping to record a 2k and 5k time trial before then and also potentially get a DEXA and a blood test. TO be honest, my nutrition hasn't been good but I'll just take an honest one to see where I'm at. likewise the blood test...would be good to check in and be able to do a full SitRep before the big birthday
1 proper PR (the 1k) and 1 meh PR, the 10k, which was my best ewver effort but not a max effort

1500m warm up then....

3x1500m 5r - 1.51.2/500m ave

1.53.3/500
1.51.0/500
1.49.2/500

was supposed to be 3000, 2500, 2000 intervals 5r at 1.53/500 average but I got 1k into the 1st interval and realised I didn't have my mojo at all. I ate my first meal of the day at 2.30pm and had already been for a 45 min walk and I hardly had any energy at all - three fairly boozy nights in succession didn't help.

I'm annoyed with myself for letting go of the discipline the past week or two and this was the first time in a long time I've quit on a session. I'm training 6 days per week and pushing quite hard and at 49.95 years, if I'm not eating and drinking right and not getting the right amount of rest, it's not gonna work for long.

still...I did get a reasonable session in, nonetheless and this speed bump has fired me up to get back on the clean living.

Training today

4x6 Bench - 90kg
4x6 Seated DB Press (horizontal bench) - 22.5kg DB
3x4 Deadlift - 125kg ( finished after 2 reps on set 3 after minor back tweak)
3x9 Bent over Barbell Row 75kg
3x superset 9 Barbell Curl 42.5kg/12 Hammer Curl 12.5kg DB

took 80 mins, which is too long - didn't eat enough today and didn't have my pre workout coffee because it was too late in the day and as a result, I took too long between sets. Still getting used to the rhythm and effort of all body workouts

Not nearly as much fun training in my home gym...particularly not being able to do standing Press, plus no dips and only 2 sets of DBs to muddle along with but...we got her done.

Your self-awareness and consistency wrt this H&F journey is admirable, sir.

Keep it up! Lfg

great to know someone is still reading!

thank you

50 mins slow row 11755m at 2.07.6/500

I’m learning to enjoy the longer rows. I was tired and stressed when I got on the rower and felt energised and positive after I got off.

Once I’d finished, I played around with some very quick rows at higher drag factors. I’m tempted to try a fast 500 at some point just to see what I’ve got and there’s no way that my 110 drag will be high enough

I put the drag up to 138 and averaged 1.26/500 for 200m, even with a slow start and after the 50 min row. Might trial a few more short bursts like this over the next few weeks

Hmm, it's almost like train right feels right.

Tellmemore.jpeg

Just listened to this podcast with this bloke Tom George who is an Olympic rower for GB. Did 5:40 2k on the erg and is apparently 1 of only 10 to do so.

Didn't necessarily follow all the rowing lingo but was interesting nontheless.

Dude sounds like a machine

That is exceptional - truly scary to contemplate 4 consecutive 500a at 1.25/500.

Almost certainly a giant as well as a weapon.
I’m doing a fair amount of conversing on the concept 2 message board these days and all the guys with crazy times are 6-4+

Having said that, being on there makes me realise there’s a lot more improvement if I stay focused, particularly on the longer rows

I believe he said 193cm tall which seems like a made up measurement IMO

I believe that is 6-4 in civilised countries

stage 2 of my '3 time trials in 10 days to finish my 40s' insanity

5k row 18.28.3 at 1.50.8/500m sr 26....a 4 second PR

plan was to go out just a little slower than my PR pace time (previous PR pace 1.51.2/500) and stay there for the first 4k and then slowly ramp it up and see what I had left in the final 700...and that was pretty much how I went, albeit I didn't have much left in my lungs for a final push at all

pace splits were

1.51.2
1.51.7
1.51.5
1.50.8
1.49.0

the longer time trials really are an exercise in mental strength and how prepared you are to maintain your pace despite growing pain. I definitely think I am above average at that, but that I haven't yet been able to totally release any semblance of fear in the 5k in the same way that I do in the 1k

first 1500 is absolutely fine and then the pain starts.
by 2k I'm trying to meditate around my stroke and think about anything other than maintaining the pace.
all of a sudden though, it's 3.5k and just as I'm thinking I'm in great shape, the lungs start really heating up and contracting and I think I'm going to have an asthma attack
the chest contraction doesn't disappear but doesn't get much worse and I attempted to ramp it up with 800 to go, but it felt like too far out to really go balls out, so I kept turning it up slowly and then only really managed a proper acceleration at about 200 to go

very happy with the PR in by far my least favourite of the 3 'events'. really don't enjoy this distance at all and I would honestly 'retire' it as something to row fast, if I didn't believe that improving it is critical to improving my 2k, which is my primary goal over the coming 6 months.