So Far So Good

I ran my first 10 X 50m sled/hills yesterday and was able to get up to about 60% with absolutely no groin discomfort. That's a really good sign I think. I was pretty sore after my first hard cardio sessions on Sunday so I expected to have to be really careful. Today, after my 2nd cardio session, everything feels even better.

A couple of revelations - 1) I'm in pretty good shape. Having done zero cardio for a few years I never even broke a sweat on the stairs or the bike even though I got near the edge of being winded. That surprised me. 2) I have gotten pretty strong. I normally lift 8,6,4 one day and 6,4,2 the other day for my main exercises, and 18 and 12 for my secondary exercises. This combination of strength and endurance has kept my weights up pretty high as I have switched to sets of 8,8,6,6.

When I was a lead instructor for the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles for 11 years(Legacy of the 1984 Olympics), I was given lots of study projects, the results became classes that I taught to high school coaches through a program offered by the AAF. One of them was that you can lift sets of 10 forever and not do much to improve your 1 RM (1 Rep Max). BUT, you can greatly increase your 10 reps by how much you can lift for 1 rep. As an experiment I put 165 on the bench for my 8 set and was able to do 22 reps. I remember a couple of years ago I was excited I could do 8 X 155. I got there by the 8,6,4 and 6,4,2. I kept the conditioning from the 18 one day, and 12 on the next.

The down side of this is that when I went from the cardio to the legs the weights felt much heavier because I was fatigued. I'm guessing that if I leave my weights at their regular levels and lift this way, than when I am fresh, I will get much stronger. BTW - because I do bars each day, I have ankle weights on when I'm doing the stairs so this is extra work for the hamstrings, hip flexors and groin. I like it.

That's it for today. I'm sure it will feel like a grind soon but right now it's a breath of fresh air to have new challenges. Thanks for tuning in. Less than four weeks to Reno! Speaking of Reno I've asked to be put on "Masters Pit 2" to avoid having to start at such a high level that I could jar what I hope will be a completely healed groin. Have a great day!! Bubba