Mind Requires Warmup
This morning, for the first time in the past eight weeks, I was not feeling top shape heading into a workout.
Perhaps it was the heavy volume week last week or the sprints yesterday with CJ but I woke up sluggish and was not 100% “there” when I arrived at VC for this morning’s loaded power session.
My solution: super ultra extended warmup.
Brock and I were outside on the field / track for over an hour doing warmup drills, cals, laps, turn cables and even snuck in a couple practice skate starts to get the body and mind jacked up. That seemed to do the trick as I was ready to go once we hit the gym. This acted as a good lesson for future, just keep grinding until you wake yourself up. By the end I was literally running out of drills to do - credit to Brock for his patience.
Today’s session was identical to last week’s Tuesday weight session: dumbbell jump squats (at 40% body weight), full squats (5 sets x 6 reps), barbell lunges (4 x 5 x 2 each leg), middle grip bench (4 x 8), chin ups (3 x max) and dumbbell clamshells (3 x 10 each leg).
The goal of this portion of the program is to build strength in the speed skating basic position (i.e. “sitting on the chair”).
In the end, got a good lift in and feel strong heading into this afternoon’s bike ride. Program calls for a 70+ min bike ride with six 1 minute max efforts (with 1 minute rest) halfway through the program. Gets the anaerobic energy system firing.
Note: In the background of the dumbbell jump squats video you can see incoming Vancouver College senior Christian Covington. I spoke with Christian, son of CFL legend Grover Covington, and he said he has received a full athletic scholarship to Eastern Washington University and is receiving plenty of interest from Pac 10 schools. Christian continues a long line VC players who make the leap to the NCAA from VC thanks in large part to VC head coach Todd Bernett. Good luck Christian!
Here is a quick clip from yesterday's sprints session with CJ Stephenson. Thanks for coming out CJ - much appreciated!!
For those of you scoring at home, I took the first race, 2nd was a dead heat and 3 and 4 went to CJ. Until next week...
