Another busy week with plenty of training to move my fitness forward. It started with a strength testing session with Kutz on Monday and finished with a run on Mother’s day with my partner and her children.
The session started as per normal and included rowing and mobilities. After the warm up I did as many Pull Ups as I could – a set of 14 (up 3 from three weeks ago). Next up was a test to see how many reps of the Seated Row I could complete, adding a bit more weight each set, trying to find my 3RM (3 Repetition Maximum). I built up from 94.5kg and added 2.5kg each set, in the fourth set I completed 3 reps of 102kg (compared with 87kg three weeks ago). The next exercise was a Lat Pull Down. I set it up extra heavy with 112kg and got three reps out, then set up for 114.5kg but only managed to get 2 reps out (compared with 102kg for 2 reps three weeks ago). The focused strength training made some big changes to my upper body strength.
Tuesday saw me get out on my bike and do a few laps of the Wither Hills MtB park. I had a bit of fun and claimed another three more Strava PRs.
On Wednesday I took the opportunity to join a group of colleagues who were going on a Coasteering Expedition from White’s Bay back to Rarangi. Coasteering is a physical activity that encompasses movement along the intertidal zone of a rocky coastline on foot or by swimming, without the aid of boats, surf boards or other craft. It is difficult to define the precise boundaries between, for example, rockpooling and ocean swimming. Whilst on this adventure we took the opportunity to do a few rock jumps from 10-12m up into the sea as well as exploring a couple of caves.
On Thursday I went for a run to test out my fitness with a Running Power test. I wrote a blog article about this 3min/9min Power Test:
The test didn’t go totally smoothly. I sometimes suffer from runners trots and during the recovery intervals after the 3min Time Trial I felt the rumblings coming on. Conveniently during one of the 5min walks as part of the recovery coincided with when I got close to a toilet so I took the opportunity to empty my bladder in an appropriate location, before getting into the rest of the test. This was one tough test but not as tough as last weeks power test.
On Friday I completed a fitness test involving Pull Ups, the Multi-Stage Fitness Test (MSFT or Beep Test) then Press Ups, then completed a few short sprints afterwards. I only completed 13 Pull Ups, before 12.02 on the MSFT and then 33 Press Ups.
On Saturday I had a busy day and completed a set of stretching for 25min. As Ultraman had started in Australia where I had two athletes competing, my session got interrupted with Skype and phone calls from Australia to chat with my athletes.
On Mother’s Day my partner and her children and I went for a run, with the kids on their bikes. This was a great day to go for a run with nice clear skies and we all enjoyed being out in the sunshine.
Although this week was a little lighter than last week, this saw my Chronic Training Load drop slightly to 59.8 (form 63.2), the easier week also meant that my fatigue levels dropped in half from 171.4 to 85.6 TSS/day and my form rose nearly 90 points.
PREVIOUS WEEKS TRAINING
Here is a link to last weeks Coach Ray’s Suffering:
Previous weeks of Coach Ray’s Suffering can be found here.
https://www.coachray.nz/category/adventures/coach-rays-sufferings/