After Lucie and I spent a very relaxing weekend at Bonnie Doon, planting trees and burning weeds, no bikes, no Internet, no weights ... It was back to it yesterday.  I got a bit carried away in the 'Haus, and did 3 sets of 5 squats at 165kg, the last two of the third set were really really hard!  I had to sit down for some time to recover!  It's not often I see 157bpm or more when doing strength work.  Finished off with three sets of three cleans at 60kg.  Pretty weak, but I was well shattered from the squats.  My form was ok, they were definitely power cleans, not squat cleans!  Throw the bar up, there's no way I'm going to squat to get under it, if it doesn't get to sternum-height, it can just hit the floor...  Oh, it's 5:15pm, I start spin at 7 ... Um ... Food, fast!  Bolted down some chocolate Big-M.  Ok ....

Bev picked me up at 6 as usual, we loaded the car and I was lethargic indeed.  Very dead legs.  A slow start, at 6:30 there was just a few people, but by 6:40 we had 18 people packing the rooms, not including Ratty Rattus, who has found a home in the kitchen, it seems.  Warmup started at a shade before 7 so about 10 mins of E1, then a couple of 5s HCLR's on the minute to get the legs moving.  Ok, they went alright.  The next block was 3 x 10s big gear sprints from a very slow start on 5 minute blocks.  The first one, 1471 watts.  Ok!  After the heavy squats I thought I'd be lucky to crack 1400, but 1471, I'm happy with that.  The next two were a bit weaker, 1413 and 1369, so the squats and power cleans had some some damage, but that's ok.  Quality's dropping off, time to change exercises.  The next effort was a chunder-drill, a 30 second sprint.  These are spectacularly painful.  Phosphagen runs out after 6-8 seconds, fast glycolysis at around 25 seconds, the last 5 seconds is desperate indeed.  Only the one to do, and I got it, started at 1158 watts, by the end of the 30 seconds, down to 610! HR up to 182bpm though.  Ouch.  Big time.  Last effort for the night is a pair of 15 second HCLRs just to do a bit of final leg speed stuff.  They're not too bad.  Happy with the night's work. 

I'm supposed to squat heavy again today.   Um ... maybe!  Going for a swim at lunchtime to see if that opens things up a bit first!

For anyone curious, here's the 30 second max effort graph :

I wasn't watching the Roubaux last night, I was sleeping.  I woke up at about 2am, with a very painful left elbow. Painful enough to wake me up and I sleep through anything!  Huh?  I don't remember hitting it on anything or doing anything odd or unusual.  The kayaking wasn't hard and doesn't involve much elbow bending anyway.  It felt like a nasty bruise on the outside of my elbow (the bit you can't see).  It was hot and very tender to touch, and no matter how I moved it would not stop hurting.  Hrm.  Got up, checked the 'net for a local doctor who was open on a public holiday. While I was at it I checked cyclingnews for the result, no luck again for Big George Hincapie, but Tom Boonen ... wow.  Three wins for Tom. This morning I trundled off to see the local quack (open on a public holiday, good-o).  He takes one look at it and says 'Bursitis'.  Huh?  What's that?  He gave me a script for some anti inflams and an antibiotic (the heat, probably an infection).  It's ok to use it, he says, but not if it's painful, and it should be ok in a week.

Not a bad time to get an injury I guess, next weekend I'm going to take photos at the Baw Baw and this is mainly a strength phase of training and I think I'll be able to squat and deadlift without too much trouble. It's more annoying than anything.  On the way back from the quack Lucie and I stopped in at the local stupormarket and grabbed the ingredients for tomorrow night's first spin of the winter.  The clubrooms are probably still jam packed with junk that we'll need to move out to make room for everyone. At least with a dodgey elbow I can get everyone else to move things!  Small victories .... Ha!

After an aborted training session on Sunday, I got back into the gym this arvo, 5 x 5 @ 145kg deep squats (3,625kg total), then after an hour, Alex came over and we did a sprint ergo session. I managed to push out 1362 watts in one effort, peak 5s was 1311 watts which I'm very pleased with, not far off my best over the last few months, and given the fatigue from the squats, I'm happy with that.  My right knee (the reconstructed one) is quite swolen and stiff, so it's icepacks and rest for a few hours to stabilise it tonight.  Waiting to get a report from the crew racing at DISC tonight.  It'd be hot and sticky in there tonight.

I had two people pull out of the climbing camp, I was prepared to run it at a loss, but not a huge loss, it looks like I'll have to cancel this camp unless I get a few more keen to come in the next couple of days, which is a bummer.  I think November is just too full this year.  We'll run one in February....

I was caught up in work stuff, so had to have a very short session in the Powerhaus just before heading in to the last aboc Spin Session for 2008.  I did squats only, 5 x 5 @ 150kg, for a tonnage of 3,750kg. I'm really feeling 150kg, it's bloody heavy!

Then it was a quick grab of everything before scooting in to the last spin session we're running this year.  A good turnout of 18 people, which was great, we threw on a free session and a BBQ afterwards.  The sprinters did :

2 x 10s max sprints (big gear, low speed start) on the 5

4 x 30s sprints (medium gear) on the 5.

Then we're done ... after the 30 second efforts everyone wants to lie down and crawl into a hole for a bit. The KK trainers really make you work very hard indeed and the power meter keeps riders honest!

My peak power was down a bit, 1331 watts, but interestingly over the last 4 weeks, my 5s power has been gradually creeping up, which is a good sign. I haven't hit the magical 1400 watts yet, but I think that's not too far off, if I do a test without heavy squats first!

We're all fired up and dead-keen for round one this Sunday! Bring your racing legs, lads, it's ON!

Tonight's drills : 10s max sprint in a big gear (53x12) from a slow rolling start, then 2 x 15s HCLR on the two minutes, then 4 by 30s sprints on the 5 minute. I wasn't feeling too good for the max effort and only managed 1341 watts, after heavy squats earlier in the day, but the HCLRs I was happy with, the powertap reporting a peak of 198 rpm.  That'll do.  The 30 second efforts are just horrible to do, the last couple are nausea-town, but we all got through them ok.

Next week is the last ergo session aboc is running for the winter, free BBQ and free entry to all who've come through the year to thank you all for your support and patronage.  It's been a very successful winter and everyone who's come along is part of that success.

I'm not training for olympic weightlifting or 'power'lifting, but for track sprinting - I do quite enjoy weight training and learning olympic lifts is challenging and fun and I've found I like lifting properly (after years of the wrong sort of training when playing rugby etc, if I'd known then what I know now .... ).  That being the case, the real goal is faster sprinting and a better jump.  Ie: peak watts and peak torque on the bike. Along the way I'm now qualifed as a strength & conditioning coach, and am working with athletes in at the Victorian weightlifting center (Mermet). It's been a lot of fun and very rewarding.

So just how strong is strong enough?  I just did 3 sets of 5 lifts squatting 150kg (proper full squats, or as full as I can on a rebuilt knee anyway).  I've built a lot of strength over the last 6 months, given that I started training in the Powerhaus way back in February or March and have been in it three times a week without interuption since, focussing on the big core lifts, mainly the squat.  My legs are bigger and stronger, that's for sure, and if you poke them they're rock-hard.  I'm also heavier by a few kilos, but not that much, about 108kg at the moment, I was around 100kg late last year I think.  I'm certainly not lean, but I don't think I'm carrying much more fat than I was then.  Just, bigger legs and upper body.

I think it'll be interesting to have a chat to some of the riders who come along to the sprint series and see what they're lifting, just to get a rough idea, I'm interested in Fast Eddie and Big Jeremy in particular, but it'll be worth talking to John Beasley and Rick Leonard if I get a chance in the not too distant future also, and next time I run into Brad Robins I'll pick his brains also.

Until then .. we're three weeks out from the first round, and it's time to really get into power and speed-endurance stuff - tonight we'll be doing one 10 second max sprint effort, then 5 30 second efforts.  Vomit-time!

In other news, I spoke to the concreters today, and assuming we get the go-ahead on Friday, they'll have the two big holes in the track fixed by round 1!