I haven’t trained in 3-4 weeks, and honestly, I have no idea what happened in there. It’s like a black hole. But, back at it! I hit the squat rack last week. Holy hell my stuff was sore after. Before I stumbled I was at:
Squats: 3×5×185lbs
Bench: 3×5×155lbs
Overhead Press: 3×5×100lbs
Deadlift: 1×5×185lbs
Power Clean: 5×3×95lbs
Going in to week 8, I’ve injured my elbow. Nothing major. I believe I stressed my wrist flexors doing power cleans, not during the lift, but in dropping the bar from the rack position to the hang clean position. “Halting” the bar in the hang clean position before putting it back down on the floor seems to have been the problem. Taking some time off. No reason not to do my squats though …
Currently:
Squats: 3×5x180lbs
Bench: 3×5x145lbs
Overhead Press: 3×5x100lbs
Deadlift: 1×5x175lbs
Power Clean: 5×3x95lbs
Almost done week 4. Consistently down 2-3 lbs, and I feel much leaner. Looking forward to week 12! Current stats:
Squatting 3×5x135lbs (still very easy)
Benching 3×5x135lbs (stalled @140lbs)
Overhead Pressing 3×5x90lbs (stalled @95lbs)
Deadlifting 1×5x150lbs
Power Cleaning 5×3x65lbs
Following my physio’s advice, I’ve changed gears and started focusing on strength training and I’m relying mostly on spin classes for my cardio work. I’m following the beginner’s strength program in Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength”. Running is on the back-burner for now, including the 10K I was going to run in the fall, but I’m still planning to run the Half next January. So the plan is to focus on strength training + spin classes until I need to start base training for the Half, at which point I’ll swap out spin classes for running again.
Initial goals are to get all my basic lifts up to my bodyweight (~175lbs). My squat and deadlift will get there first, inside this first 12 weeks of training. Bench press will be next, the OH press, both in the second round of 12 weeks of training. Power Clean will come last.
Once I hit 1X bodyweight, I’ll just keep going. The end target is 1.5X bodyweight, but I’ll be happy with 1.2-1.3X.
