Monday, February 17, 2014

The 4HB "5K to 50K" 12 Week Program - Week 4

Week Four was great with only one notable exception. (More on that later.) The workouts remain fairly quick and clean. Few significant surprises.

Been sleeping so well that it borders on unbelievable. In fact Saturday's workout exhausted me to the point of getting 10 hours of sleep that night. Something that hasn't happen in many years.

Eating like a bear but losing weight! Pants fitting differently. Shirts fitting differently. Waistline dropping back down. All around: significant levels of happiness!

If it hasn't been said previously, please allow me to stress: DO NOT TRY THIS UNSUPERVISED! Your interpretation of the 4HB Challenge may differ from mine, but my reading gives me the impression that anyone should be able to do it on their own. That's so far from the truth that suggesting it  pushes the book towards the fantasy genre. Your Humble Narrator is fortunate enough to be wed to a highly trained medical professional. My power lifting is directly supervised by a trained professional. And all of my workouts are done in a controlled, professional environment. It continues to be my opinion that only people in excellent physical condition should attempt these workouts. At a minimum, each workout should be personally adjusted to your specific abilities, rarely taken at face value. Some of them are significantly beyond my abilities and have to be throttle back to more reasonable limits. Your mileage may vary, but consider yourself warned.

How about the specific workouts for Week Four? Here are the highlights:

  • Monday - Front squats, one on the minute for 5 minutes, then deadlifts on the minute for 8 minutes. Really wild because my legs and back were terrible when starting the workout but felt 900% better by the end of it. Very doped up on adrenaline and awesome sauce after this one.
  • Tuesday - 7 Rounds of 7 hang cleans + 7 handstand pushups. Brutal and sweaty and very barbaric. Wanted to crush my enemies before me after finishing.
  • Wednesday - OH NOES! Totally craptacular run. Worst in many moons. Supposed to do 5 miles and could barely do 3. Very depressing and had to eat mac and cheese to cheer up.
  • Thursday - 1200 meter swim. Hate to say this but swimming is nearly effortless, now. Perhaps my pace needs to increase? Not sure but did 24 laps without getting winded. Supposed to do Tabata Runs on the treadmill, but skipped it after the terrible performance Weds.
  • Friday - 6 rounds of 5 power snatch + 200m rows. Quick and sweaty. Actually enjoy rowing!
  • Saturday - Ladder! Deadlifts then cleans then floor presses. 1 round x 10, 1 round x 9, 1 round x 8, all the way down to 1. Took 22:48 and felt like two hours. One of the longest workouts yet!
Being a middle aged Super Nerd is not conducive to power lifting. Squats do NOT come naturally to me. My coach politely yells at me all the time. But it is getting better. And the mechanics are slowly becoming natural. There's literally a complex, very specific science to it. Thrust with the hips, shrug the shoulders, pull up but close to your body, don't pull too soon, don't pull to far out, just as your momentum stops... ...slip UNDER the bar, land with your knees out, land on your heels, land with your butt out, land with your chest up... and all of this takes place in a split second. If you have not grown up with it, it isn't pretty and it isn't easy.

But here comes Week 5!

No comments: