Alan H's ON-Season Training Log

[Alan H]

Well, the other thread was my "off-season" log and so this one is going to be the "ON-season" log!

OK, today is Day One of the ".Fast and Strong" program. I'm doing lighter weights, more reps and moving the weight as fast as I can. The only exception to this will be Friday Back Squats, where I'm going to be slowly adding weight. The Goal is two sets of 5 @ 230 pounds by the April 17th.

Todays party 3/15/10

quad and adductor stretch...

Suitcase lift sequence.. 2 x 5 x 70 pounds
place 70 lb dumbells on lowest pylo boxes. Stand between the boxes. Bend down, pick up db in right hand, stand up really fast. Now bend down, leave the right hand db behind, pick up left had db. Stand up really fast. Now bend down and pick up both dumbells (140). Stand up so fast my feet clear the floor (barely). Bend down, put down both db, and stand up emptyhanded. Repeat.

Hip adductor/abductor ... 2 x 10 x 165

front/side bosu lunges ... 4 each side/ 70 lbs

pushups ... 20, feet on 20 inch box, hands on wobble boards

core 1 - situps...19 x 10 lb plate on chest

core 2 - lat pulls on roman chair 2 x 10 x 50 lbs

elliptical - incline/resist @ 15, 10 minutes

[jgorley]

I really like the Suitcase lift. I have not tried them yet, but now it is on my list for the gym!! Still trying to get the speed up on my Hang Snatch. I am strong, just slow in the hips. Keep up the battle!
James

[Alan H]

I really like the Suitcase lift. I have not tried them yet, but now it is on my list for the gym!! Still trying to get the speed up on my Hang Snatch. I am strong, just slow in the hips. Keep up the battle!
James

I just messaged the gym manager to see if maybe they wouldn't purchase a hex bar for shrugs and deadlifts. The Hex bar works like suitcase lifts in that the center of gravity of the load is in line with your bodys main axis. In a normal deadlift, or Romanian Deads (total disaster for me to even think about Romanians...or Good Mornings) the center of gravity of the weight is in front of your shins. A hex bar is <$200 so the gym can afford it, and it's not like setting aside the space for an Olympic lift platform. I don't dare do things like overhead squats, there's no room for them.

[Alan H]

Tuesday throws day:

Hop-Skip warmup...

first turn drills LWFD

HWFD ... first tosses of the season, wow, *sore* and *tired* lower back. I had to rest on the grass for a while before carrying on.

LWFD ... about a dozen full throws, really focusing on hips and keeping a low center of gravity through the first turn and into the sprint phase. I'd just read Dave Browns analysis of the Pros 56 at Pleasanton 2009

Light Hammer ...about 30 winds... 4 sets of 8 winds, more or less.... then 3-4 easy release throws focusing on radius and "the catch" and getting my hips working....then 4 tosses where I really worked on getting my center of gravity down and chest up, hips cranking and went full-on. Got four throws over 80 feet, I'm liking that!

Thursday Throws day (tonight)

Will be doing stones and WOB and hammer winds

probably toeboard drills for stones... some drop and pops....some a-line drills and I will spend a good half-hour seeing how it goes with a full spin with a 14 pound stone. I *might*...maybe maybe maybe do a spin at Ardenwood on April 10th and see how it goes. If I get at least 28 feet andit feels good I might work on that technique for Woodland. I seem to be good at "spinning" throws like hammer and LWFD, not so good at linear throws like WOB and caber, and I have a background with discus, so.... we'll see.

WOB I will go for the body roll and major *pop* from the legs

hammer winds...focus on low center of gravity, chest up, relax the shoulders...

I think I'm going to buy a Masters 50-59 6 kg (13.2 lb) shot put and work with that, a bit.

[Alan H]

...bought the shot put

Last nights throws was AWESOME.... dropped essentially all of my post-warmup Open Stone tosses at 30 feet, which is a huge goal of mine, and I put two stones out at 33.

Once I was done screaming about that, i went over and did some hammer. I did about 50 winds in sets of 8 - 10, then some easy releases that went 74-75 feet. At that point I decided to hunker down, get LOW and cut loose.

Oh, my. OOOOoooooohhhhhh YEAH

90 feet, then two 85-86'ers. My PR is 83.

-----------------------

Friday is legs day for last week, today and the next 3 weeks.

stretch quad, ham back, gracilis

back squats....2 x 5 x 210 yeah! inching up there.

sit ups **fast** with 15 lb plate on my chest..17

incline db press ....8 x 70, 6 x 70

ham curls ...2.x.10x 125

stupid bicep curl machine while I was waiting to get on the incline board again.... 8 x "70", 6 x "70" "on the stack"

russian twists ... 8 lb ball, 2 x 8 each side

leg press ... 2 x 10 x 330 "on the stack"

rowing machine: 9 min 2:20/1500 m, sprint 1 min.

Now off for 5 days of vacation..

[Alan H]

OK, back from 5 days of vacation...we:

ate a little too much
slept a whole lot
and hiked around the desert a lot

SO...back to it!

Thursday Throws.. (last night)

I did a lot of coaching with a new guy, which was fun. A few days ago I measured my hammer handle and discovered it was about 4 inches too long. DANG...so much for that 90 foot toss. So I trimmed it to size. I was expecting disaster, but in fact my tosses were still all over 80 feet, to that's good.

We did Stones...toeboard drills, standing throws, I did a couple drop and pops and I did some grasshopper drills.

LWFD ... spent some time with single spin with both the womens weight and the 28'er...did some line drills and foot position drills.. Then I did about 6-8 two-spin throws.

Light hammer ... just general introduction with emphasis on long arms and not falling on your butt. I did about 50 winds in sets of 8 - 10 and 5-6 full-on release throws that all went 80-81-82 feet..

So a light day for me, but good.

Today in the Gym 3/26/2010

quadriceps and adductor stretch

Back Squats ... 2 x 5 x 200 since right knee wasn't feeling all that great

Hammer wind core crrushers on the Roman Chair ... 2 x 10 x 12 pound ball

lat pulls on the Roman Chair: 15 each side with 55 pounds

Bench rows ... 2 x 8 x 85

bench dips 2 x 15 with 50 pound dumbell in mylap

seated flys on the machine ... 2 x 8 x 190 "on the stack"

leg press ... 2 x 8 x 310 "on the stack"

and no time for cardio today, which sucks.

[Alan H]

All right, here's an update on what I've been doing...

Threw on Sunday the 4th.

Lifted hard, lots of sumo dead lift high pulls and dumbell snatches on Monday the 5th.

Threw HARD on Tuesday the 6th...did a mess of hammer and after the other guys left I just got behind the trig and did open stone after open stone, probably 25-30 of them. I was pretty pumped as I realized that every one of them would have been a new PR. Had a couple of hammer throws over 80-

Rested on Wednesday, really feeling the effects of the last two days.

Threw medium-easy on Thursday with the Stanford guys.

Prepped the field for the Ardenwood Tartan Day Demo on Friday afternoon and eve.

Saturday, threw at the East Bay Scottish Associations Tartan Day Faire. Got PR's in the Braemar and Open Stone, finally cracking the ceiling of 30 feet in the Open Stone. SUCCESS!!!! It's been four long years in coming. I also got some good tips from Eric Youngberg and Jon Sisseck.

I was going to go throw some hammer with Josh Grace on Sunday but hail the size of ping pong balls changed my mind.

Lifted today...

Stretch quads and adductors

front-side bosu lunges ... 5 x 80 lbs.
sumo dead lift high pulls .... 2 x 8 x 110 lbs.
Cable Chops ..hi-lo/lo-hi ... 2 x 8 x 58 lbs (72 chops)
bosu squat jumps .... 2 x 20
hang cleans ... 2 x 5 x 100 ... I tried 150 HA! FAIL
rowing machine ... 11 minutes < 2:30/1500, then 1 minute sprint.

Most all my gym time now is mobility-balance and strength-motion. I'm not going for getting all pumped up, I want to move weight fast.

[Alan H]

Quiet throws day on Tuesday.. Bert was out for 45 minutes, then I was solo for the next hour and a half.

Did some open stone, then after Bert left I just lined it up and did about 20 more. Most all were right at 30 feet, with a couple of the early ones out to 32. So I'm hoping for 31+ at Woodland, which would be another PR.

Did some 42 HWFD, which didn't go so hot. I need to spend time Thurs-Tues-Wed with the 42'er and get that back.

Last up was some hammer. I tossed 6-7 @ 81 feet, which is pretty good for me, especially when I'm tired, and a hell of a lot better than what I posted at Ardenwood last weekend. I know why, though. I need to just do-do-do-do and do some more until I internalize what I need to do in the hammer cage without thinking about it too much.

So the next three throws workouts will be:

Open stone
WOB focusing on hip pop and sitting into it.
LH, focusing on repetition so I don't have to "think" so much
42 HWFD for strength and balance.

I have two lifting workout left before Woodland. I will be doing hang cleans in both of them, for sure.



Wednesday rest ..... needed it.

Yesterday throws Thursday April 15th..

I loaded on another 5 pound plate on my "stacked plate" 42'er and did 5-6-7 tosses. Then moved it down to 28 pounds and did 4-5..went up from there...28 pounds, 33 pounds, 38 pounds, 43 pounds, 48 pounds, working on balance and control. There were three of us, this took about an hour. Forty eight pounds is **heavy**, my legs are sore today, especially the IT bands.

Did some heavy hammer...32 winds, in sets of 8, then 4-5 releases. Then did light hammer 5-6 tosses.

THe other guys knocked off here, so I went and threw Braemar for about a half an hour, probably 15 or so tosses, not going hard but trying to get into position. I wanted some WOB but just simply was out of gas.

Today...Friday 4/16/2010 in the Gym...

BackSquats .... 5 x 210, 5 x 200, 5 x 190 .... I'm off a little on this, haven't been doing them.

Power/Hang cleans 3 x 4 x 120

hanging leg lifts 15, then 10

lat pulls on roman chair ... 2 x 12 x 50 lbs

triceps cable pull-down ... 2 x 8 x 65 "on the stack"

push ups with feet on 24 inch pylo box, hands on wobble boards .... 15, then 10 more. I'm a little off on this but not as much as I thought I'd be.

windmills .... 2 x 10 x 25

rowing machine ....11 minutes <2:30 for 500 m, then 1 minute sprint.

I added something fun to the rowing...just pulled with one hand for ten pulls, keeping the pace to <2:30, then do a few two-handed, then switch to the other hand. Did this back and forth 3x somewhere in the middle of those 12 minutes.

[Alan H]

No throw this weekend, went hiking on Sunday, though! And I spuzzed up my ladies/newbies caber. Legs still tired, still healing/repairing from last week. I will lift hard today, throw overweight Tuesday, then throw light on Wednesday and call it good for this week. Gotta be 100% on Sunday for Woodland.

Todays SlimGym 4/19/2010

Sumo Dead Lift High Pulls ... 2 x 8 x 115 .. didn't feel good, too much back not enough legs

hang/power cleans ...4 x 120 ..tried another set @ 120, lost it on #2, made a lot of embarrassing noise, went down to 110..so 4 x 110, 4 x 110 ....form is getting better, slowly.

Cable chops Hi-Lo/Lo-Hi ... 8 x 58 lbs (32 chops)

low lateral cable pulls ... 8 x 72 lbs, 8 x 78 lbs each direction (32 pulls) never done these before.

hammer wind core crushers on roman chair ... 2 x 10 x 8 lb ball

leg press ... 2 x 10 x 330 (on the stack...only two plates left on the stack!)

Elliptical ... cardio.. 14 or 15 on incline and resistance....14 minutes

[Alan H]

Throws last night...MAN was I hurtin' from Mondays gym time...

8-10 braemar throws with 23 lb rock, not hard, just going for position...

....bit of coaching with some Shinty folks who were at the field....

8 WOB tosses, bar at about 12' 6", going for max *pop* with the hips. Drive the hips UP. I seem to have a problem with throwing the weight straight up and down when I'm doing this...must practice more. Hold on to that thing. When I got it right, the weight just flew.

Some LWFD drills...first spin drills, no-spin-drive-the-hip-to delivery drills, then 8 throws until I got seriously tired and form went to hell.