The Year of the Mouche

[mouche]

Thursday 21st June
Another ridiculously late night in the office. Just managed to slip into the gym at home before it shut, just needed to get the blood pumping again.

15mins x-trainer ( 10mins level 6, 5mins level 8 ) about 130-140spm

Swiss ball abs (15 reps)
8 x 30 abs

5mins recline bike level 6

Glutes and triceps actually a little bit sore from yesterday's little workout which is actually quite pleasing.

[mouche]

Friday 22nd June
Again, just didn't make it to the gym and didn't have much time.

20mins x-trainer ( 10mins level 6, 5mins level 7, 5mins level 8 )

12, 10, 6 assisted chin-ups

To save time, stuck all my circuits together back-to-back and just did one set of the whole thing:
original leg crank (20/20/20/10)
hip bridge circuit (10/10/10)
press-up circuit ( 8/8/8/8 )
abs (8 x 30)

5mins stepper level 10

Lats and forearms actually surprisingly tired today (Sunday)!

[mouche]

Sunday 24th June
Continuing the theme of the week, I had to work so missed out on the strength&conditioning class and just made it in time to do a bit of lifting before the gym shut.

Deadlift:
3 x 40kg, 2 x 60, 2 x 70, 2 x 80 (I think), 1 x 90, 1 x 100

Plus: because it was the only training I was doing today, I had a good chance to psyche myself up for deadlift and nothing but deadlift - so felt very strong, very determined, took my time preparing each lift as if it were my max, and everything felt light. 90kg felt ridiculously light!
Minus: locked my knees out too much on the lighter lifts, lifted way too energetically! Also still a little problem with confidence, but hopefully now that I've lifted 100kg twice that will start to sort itself out.

[mouche]

Monday 25th June
Finally back at the gym!

Beginners' MMA
Drill: chimora, chimora sweep
Sparring: 3 rounds, no taps either way

Woo: none of the guys could break my guard, almost caught a few triangles, tried to go for an armbar, caught a couple of chimora sweeps, shrimped my way from being mounted into half-guard then into full guard, got into mount at one point
Boo: couldn't quite push off the hip to get my angle right to finish those triangles, got swept when I got into mount, and everything started to gas out quite noticeably!

[mouche]

Wednesday 27th June
On holiday!

Holiday workout #1
AM: 8 x 30 abs
PM: pressups - 10 narrow, 15 normal, 20 wide, 10 mountain climbers, 10 walkarounds, 10 wall-touches
abs: leg progression with a couple of extras that I had forgotten to do in my last workouts (20 of everything)
cardio: treading water in the pool - 5mins legs only, 5mins arms only, 5mins arms and legs, 1min rest in between each (took a few breaks in the arms only part to - narrowly - avoid drowning)

[mouche]

Thursday 28th June
Holiday workout #2
AM: 8 x 30 abs
PM: pressups - 10 down to 1 with 5 hand clenches front, 5 hand clenches side
abs - 3 x 15 lean-backs, 20 slow crunches with holds, 15 sitting leg raises, 5 left/right/both leg extensions
pool - 100 straight leg kicks, 1min rest, 100 frog kicks, 1min rest, 60 straight leg kicks, 60 frog kicks, then some aimless swimming and splashing around, and finally 10 get-outs

Abs were a killer today, don't think I've ever worked my abs that hard!

[mouche]

Friday 29th June
Holiday workout #3
AM: pressups to fatigue - 42
8 x 30 abs
PM: told to rest

[mouche]

Saturday 30th June
Holiday workout #4
AM: pressups to fatigue - 44 (Ben says he'll let me have the 45th as I could have cheated and completed it, but I don't need charity)
8 x 30 abs
PM: was allowed to try a running session, to experience the sense of running fast for the first time in my life:
3 x 120m approx. on a fairly steep hill, starting out at about 25° incline then shifting to about 35° incline halfway up
Decent recovery in between then a slow jog back down.

Felt good to try and run fast, surprised at how much I actually struck with the ball of my foot. However, can't get my left arm to work properly - rep 1 was clenched, rep 2 was relaxed but not short enough, rep 3 was too short. Also apparently drop my hips and slump my chest. Usual problem for me of not quite giving everything I've got when I try something new, still holding on to emergency reserves, and didn't engage glutes at all judging by how they felt afterwards. Still pleased for my first attempt though.

[mouche]

Sunday 1st July
Holiday workout #5
AM: pressups to fatigue - 46
8 x 30 abs
PM: nothing as we had just come back from a catamaran cruise and had dinner coming up, and were both just feeling quite chilled (and sore from Saturday's running!)

[mouche]

Monday 2nd July
Holiday workout #6
AM: pressups to fatigue - 51 (PB)
8 x 30 abs but did the routine backwards
pressups to fatigue - 40
Probably could have squeezed out another one but just got lazy.
Nothing this evening because once again, we are quite lazy! This whole "holiday" thing is finally starting to sink in... Just in time to leave tomorrow!

[mouche]

Tuesday 3rd July
Holiday workout #7
AM: pressups to fatigue - 53 (PB)
8 x 30 abs backwards again

That was it for the holiday - not much, but enough to keep everything ticking over hopefully, and some very definite improvement over the week so I am more than happy.

[mouche]

Wednesday 4th July
Back in London, back in the gym!

Warm-up (5mins stepper, 3 x 20 long slow rope pulls)

Deadlifts: 3 x 40, 2 x 60, bunch of doubles at 70
Just working technique, need to keep my chest up and my hips down, so concentrating on driving my hips forward and squeezing my glutes through the lift.

5mins recline bike and stretching before class

Beginners' MMA
Drill: armbar from side control
Sparring: 3 rounds, 2 taps (triangle and armbar on a beginner), didn't get tapped though did get caught twice with an ankle lock which my partner had the sense not to try and finish
The good: felt like my hips were moving better, felt very switched on
The bad: got a little bit lazy, had a few moments when I probably could have tried harder to get out of side control
The ugly: legs pretty much gassed at the end, had I not been rolling with the new girl I would have been in trouble

Strength & Conditioning
Warm-up: standard squats/presses plus some get-ups and some squat jumps
Lifting technique: snatch balance, hang snatch
Lifting matrix: block 1 (straight-leg deadlift, shrug, clean, press), block 2 (2 pressups on bar, jump legs in to deadlift, deadlift, two bent-over rows)
5 reps block 1, rest, 5 reps block 2
5 reps block 1, 5 reps block 2
6 reps block 1, 6 reps block 2 (only did 1 pressup)
4 reps block 1, 4 reps block 2, 4 reps block 1, 4 reps block 2 (slight break in the middle as my grip was dying and I wasn't too confident cleaning the bar with no grip)
Pressups: 10 pressups down to 1, 6 mountain-climbers in between each, rest, 1 pressup up to 5, 6 mountain-climbers in between each
Abs: 3 minutes to do 330 reps (speed abs, butterflies, prayers) - completed in 2:30 approx.
The good: lifting was really strong, pressups felt stronger than I am used to, abs are still good
The bad: grip gone after a week without grip work, took numerous breaks on the first pressup circuit (but only 1-2secs each time, usually in the transition to/after mountain-climbers)
The ugly: let out a very weird growling noise about halfway through pressup set - got reprimanded by Ben for making noises!

Good first session back.

[mouche]

Thursday 5th July
Didn't get out of work in time for the beginners' MMA class but was allowed to jump in for the rolling at the end (3 x 3min rounds)
Round 1: guy spent his whole time in my guard, pummeling for double underhooks - very boring but couldn't do much
Round 2: pretty decent guy, grappled for position and he eventually got me with an armbar
Round 3: pretty much the same deal, got my back taken almost immediately but defended any chokes pretty well and eventually wriggled out, escaped an armbar but eventually got caught

Abs class
Didn't really give me any trouble but good to do some different abs every now and then.

Then got out because I had friends to meet and I was pretty damn sore from yesterday.

[mouche]

Friday 6th July
5mins x-trainer warmup, some stretching

5mins hand crank level 2
- minute 1 at 105-110rpm
- minute 2-3.30 at 95-100rpm
- minute 3.30-4 at 90-95rpm
- minute 4-5 at 100-105rpm
Max speed 119rpm

Jogged to upright bike
10mins level 2
- 1km in 3:50
- 2km in 7:47
Can't remember anything else

Jogged to x-trainer
5mins level 8
- 0.68miles

10 x 10 rope pulls with 10secs recovery in between
8 x 30 abs

Disgusting session. Hand crank was probably a PB overall, never gone that fast for that long even at level 2. Expected maybe a minute of respite when changing to next exercise, but there was no such thing. Just disgusting pain and weakness all the way through.

Felt like just what I needed though!

[mouche]

Sunday 8th July
Strength and conditioning
3 x original leg crank with increased squat jumps (20)
3 x 10 get-ups with recovery in between sets
9 x 10 pushups - 1 set narrow, 1 set normal, 1 set wide - with recovery in between sets
Pushups to fatigue - 31
Timed ab work

Very straightforward, nowhere to hide, but felt very determined and focussed and Ben believes it was the best session he has ever seen me do.