Training Log Archive: Becks

Warm up jog to the col between the Seat and Whinny Hill, while Eleanor walked up to the top.

14 minutes of high tempo doing controls 3 to something of the green course from the Big Weekend. Ran hard, pushed up the hills, was dead by the end, after climbing back to the top of Whinny Hill. Good session.

Warm down jog to finish the course and meet back up with Eleanor.

Two hours of surprisingly deep snowy fun in the Pentlands with Eleanor, and a last minute welcome addition from AliC! Incredible views to the Ochils and beyond, but snow too dry for sledging on bags. Booo!

Into the lab. I made it eventually, after about an hour of procrastinating and being a baby.

Only to find that all my neurons had died, there would be no assay today, and I burst into tears, wrote a huge e mail to my supervisors that I could no longer manage this directionless piece of crap that's supposed to get me a PhD in 8 months, carefully setting out all the strands of my experiments and the limitations and problem with all of them, got told I was over reacting despite the fact I actually physically couldn't make it out of my pyjamas yesterday because of the lab fear and only have a single experiment result to write up after 2.5 years, and that we would meet in two weeks to discuss an action plan. Two weeks. So I went RAH, stormed out, Rob followed me, and then we went for a jog and I calmed down. And then I went for coffee and cake with Mhairi (beetroot and chocolate, surprisingly ace), and felt a lot better. But I need to sort out this PhD. Because it is making me a mental. And eat too much cake. But cake is great. Like, really, really great. And syrup waffles. Mmm...syrup waffles.

ARGH!!!

After yesterday's day from hell at work, I woke up still feeling completely mental about my PhD and with a sore throat with nice inflammation on it to boot. So I'm staying in bed with a book all day.

Short basic plyos session before work. Warm up with hurdle mobility drills, then ladder agility work, then power skips, hurdle jumps, long jumps, box jump marches, split squats, followed by some accelerations and standing starts on the track. Felt a bit tight in the first jumps but eased in - not a huge fan of doing this stuff in the morning. Also not a huge fan of the horrible gurning men and the ones doing plyometrics with dreadful landings that were so stupidly loud that my ears hurt. I don't like the Pleasance now it's stupidly busy.

Into work from the gym. Gorgeous morning, freezing but lots of sunshine.

Jog down to Inverleith and 2 sets of strides. Hamstrings feeling bit tight but actually generally feeling a lot better than I expected. Hopefully the Tuesday curse is broken!

The business end. Plan was 2 x 200, 3 x 800, 2 x 200. And it worked well! It felt uber tough, although I maintained the speed through all three (had to ease off very slightly for two very irritating small dogs!). I think this is the component I've lost most - the speed endurance. I still seem to have quick bursts, and I can run for ages, but the middle ground is not so good!

0.30 (not quite long enough 200!) (75)
0.33 (180)
2.59 (60)
2.58 (60)
3.01 (180)
0.33 (75)
0.33

Recovery between reps and a jog afterwards - bumped into Ellen halfway back and so did an extra lap of Inverleith Park so we could have a good gossip. Turned out to be a beautiful evening, glad I waited to get out there!

Cycle home.

Early morning weights session, having cycled through the snow to reach St Leonards. Although legs felt tight when I started it was a good session.

Back squats WU 30kg 3 x 10 45, 45, 47.5
OH Press WU 15kg 3 x 10 20kg
Romanian Deadlift WU 35kg 3 x 10 45kg
Lat pull downs WU 25kg 3 x 10 35kg
Roll outs 3 x 8 35kg

Battled through the blizzard to make it into the lab.

Short recovery from the Western to try and kick the major Monday blues, having had an uber unproductive day. Felt dreadful at the start, tight from weights and yesterday's cycling, but once I got onto the Water of Leith loosened up, then it started snowing, then I got blizzarded on, and it was much more fun. I want more snow though, we still just have slushy rubbish!