This goes up:

This goes down:

Moody and Neil’s mate Andrew Downie joined us for a 2.5 hour joyride from the bottom of the Stockyards, up over the ever-awesome link track to swoop and giggle our way speeder-bike style through the pencily gums. We took a small break to fool around on a newly discovered pump track, teased the roadies among us about their cautious attitude toward puddles and generally had a rockin’ good time.

Oh, did I mention that Ryan had done a 1.5 hour trail run before meeting us and still spanked me good, with 26 less gears? Good.

Pics co-opted from Nell’s Flickr.

5 pushups
10 situps
15 squats
x3 rounds

Dynamic stretches

Workout

5 Thrusters
7 Hang power cleans
9 SDPH
All at 30kg

AMRAP in 20 min = 5 and three thrusters

20 Deck squats

5 push-ups
10 sit-ups
15 squats
x3

Workout

50 Bastards
= 16:12

5 Press @ 35kg

Notes

Not a blazing time, but sleep was lacking last night with Claire getting up three times, once at 3:30 for about 40 minutes. Happy just to soldier through the 50 at a consistent pace and feel better afterward than before. At around the 40-mark some guy came through the gym, stopped and watched me before commenting, ‘That’s the most evil burpee I’ve ever seen.’

Monday’s WOD took a few days to recover from, but that’s to be expected. Both components were hard and heavy.

On the food front I’m trying to tighten up the paleo again and be more observant about eating when hungry and only to satiety (vs the gainer-style ‘when in doubt: eat’ ethos).

Food

• 3 eggs in butter, 1 carrot, 1 apple, handful of almonds
• Double cappuccino
• Big chicken salad w avocado and pesto
• Double cappuccino
• Handful of mixed nuts
• Cordon bleu w veggies and olive oil
• Handful of almonds
• 1 slice hazelnut-butter loaf (it’s literally hazelnut meal and butter)
• 1 cup blueberries
• Tea

Skip 3 min
20 Deck squats

Deadlift: 5 @ 55kg, 100kg

Workout

5-3-1 Deadlift @ 105, 115, 125 kg

Then:
21-15-9
KB Swings @ 28kg
Step-ups (e.s.) @ 40kg (2x 20kg DBs)
Power clean and Jerk @ 35kg
=  26:15

Food

• 3 eggs in butter, 3 strawberries
• Strong cappuccino
• Pear, mixed nuts
• Left over beef pie w hazelnut pastry
• Strong cappuccino
• Beef stir-fry w a little rice
• Tea

4x15m Lunge + 15m Bear Crawl

Workout

Barbell Triplet: Clean/ Front Squat/ Jerk
2x 5/5/3 @ 40% (of Jerk 1RM) = 35kg
2x 4/4/2 @ 50% = 40kg
2x 3/3/3 @ 60% = 45kg

Then:
Dynamic Isometric Squat @ 35kg (fat bar for comfort)
Slow descent holding for 5 seconds @ 160, 140, 120 & 90 degrees
When finished holding at 90 degrees explode upwards, feet should leave the ground

Then:
4×1 Dynamic-Isometric Back Squat @ 35kg (variation)
Hold 5-seconds @ 160 degrees & full Squat Jump +
Hold 5-seconds @ 140 degrees & full Squat Jump +
Hold 5-seconds @ 120 degrees & full Squat Jump +
Hold 5-seconds @ 90 degrees & full Squat Jump +
This completes one rep, do 4x total
Rest 1-2 min between reps

Then:
10x DB Push Press @ 20-25# DBs +
60-second Row/Ski/AirDyne 10/50 (10-sec sprint, 50-sec recovery)
5 rounds, switch positions as fast as possible – no rest!

Then:
Cool down and stretch

Throw medicine balls

Workout

1:00 Row
1:00 HSPU (partial ROM for me)
1:00 SDHP @ 28kg KB
1:00 Rest
x4 rounds, not scored

Food

• 3 eggs in butter, handful of almonds, two strawberries, one pear
• Strong cappuccino
• Fruit, muesli and yoghurt
• Pear, almonds (post-WOD)
• Chicken soup w/extra chicken
• 3 sausage rolls
• 3-egg chicken omelette w silver-beet and avocado
• Tea

I went to bed a cough and that getting-a-cold feeling and just put it in the back of my mind. I’d been looking forward to this race for a few months now and the night before a race is not the time to pull the pin on an old racing partner. I woke up with the same cough, took a couple of cold and flu tabs, got my gear ready and jumped in the car when Neil arrived. He was developing a similar complaint but had some insanely nice wheels to make up for it.

We got a rushed recce lap in (just) before race start. I was feeling good up until I stopped to wait for Neil, who’d dabbed on a trick rock section and realised that I was breathing with almost race-pace heft. Just the warm-up limiter. No biggie.

Neil put down a solid first lap for the amount of traffic he had to contend with, putting me out into 12th place. I was happy enough to be behind the really fast guys because I wasn’t firing on all cylinders anyway. It’s one thing to be detuned, but it’s another thing altogether to be riding feeling like your tyres are flat. Lap one felt ok, but sitting down after tagging Nell, I just wanted to sleep. Lap two was a fight, lap three a struggle, and the final outing – after a double rest – is best described as ‘limp’.

I didn’t lack the will, it didn’t hurt, I didn’t pop and barely suffered. I just had zero gas. Couldn’t spin the cranks quick enough to make anything else fire up. I rode through treacle to just barely get back in under 45 minutes and send Neil out for a quick final lap which nabbed us 8th in the pairs.

Thinking about how I’d sum up the race on the way home, I felt like this was the kind of race that’s best forgotten. The post-race feeling is the one that makes you wonder what’s good about this, and the training that opens the door to good time racing just seems like a fat, selfish waste of time. It’s only fifteen years of riding and racing that provides the wisdom required to see those thoughts, and to let them go.

It’s now Tuesday night. I have a few bruises that don’t do any justice to the pain that bumping bone on granite produces and I’ve been sick for two whole days. I’m tired and sick of it. And the only thing I can think of that I’d really like to do is hop on a bike, turn the cranks over smoothly and just let all the good times buffered up in that machine flow back up into me.

Dynamic stretches

15 Squats
10 Sit-ups
5 Push-ups
x3

Power snatch 35kg
Over head squat
x 3

Workout

10 Thrusters @ 30kg
10 Push-ups
x10 rounds

= 19:24

Notes

Hard and fast. Well, harder than fast. Or as Pete put it “That didn’t look like fun.” Burpees almost would have been a better sub for the push-ups because I was pushing up at burpee pace, and the reduced tempo – single and doubles on the edge of failure from about round four on – blunted the sheer metcon sledgehammer that this WOD is probably supposed to be. Not that I didn’t start to get threats of return from what should have been a well and truly digested breakfast.

Thrusters were better than expected. Even towards the end they never broke down much further than 5 + 5. Push-ups however … I’m practically resigned to them sucking forever.

Food

• 3 eggs in butter, carrot, coconut cream
• Double cappuccino
• Apple, carrot
• Coconut cream
• Chicken salad w/olive oil
• Small tin of salmon
• 3 x chicken wraps (tortillas)
• Tea
• Hot cocoa