Strength Training

Last December, I decided I needed a more structured weight training program.  Just kind of doing everything rather spontaneous and with whatever effort I felt like is better than nothing!  But it isn't going to get me the results I desire.  There are two books I consulted with:

I used Joe Friel's book to sketch an annual training plan and learn how to structure my training better.  There's a short section on weight training and I liked it okay, but I really felt like I needed something deeper especially since I was coming off of illness (and losing >10lbs of muscle due to illness).  So I turned to Patrick Hagerman's book.

I read and reread Hagerman's book and kept cross referencing with Friel's.  Finally I decided to create three groups of exercises, or "3 Days," and follow a 12 week series.  The three groups are mostly made up of suggestions from the book, but I also included some that Doc recommends for physical therapy reasons.

Yeah.  A lot of shoulder work is there.  However, that is where a lot of my injury is and Doc needs me to strengthen what he's repaired.  Plus upper body fatigue is a race killer in all three sports.

I found a pre-made 12 week program in the Strength Training for Triathletes and kind of based what I'm doing off that.  My goal was so improve my sprint times to 1:10:00-1:20:00 range.  Preferable around 1:15:00.  Then I wanted to go head first into the olympic distance with doing the best time I can do.  Granted...  I never did an actual olympic race last year.  First one had bad storms, so they cancelled the swim.  The second one is a long story, but let's just say I never made it there to start.  So I figured if I did something more for the olympic, then it would obviously help my sprint game tremendously.

So I took the 12 week periodization plan found on page 84, and modified it.  I kind of threw in some of Friel's perspective.  If I totally bombed this, I'll find out after 12 weeks; I'm on week 8, and I'm seeing quite a lot of results already.

So when I mentioned I was on Week 8, that means I'm on "Mesocycle 2: Week 2."  Today was Day 1 of 3.  I started adding more core work today just to see if I can.  I started second guessing myself on whether I was doing enough core.  God knows it helps with my back injuries, so I figured it couldn't be all that bad to add some more.

I will say, it sure is nice not to have to grab the 5 & 8 lb dumbbells anymore.  I'm using 12-40 lb dumbbells.  Makes me feel rather... Confident. :)  Yeah....  We like this idea of confidence.