EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the athlete journal of Terry Hadlow. Terry got started in Olympic weightlifting in 1970 and is the only Canadian to have competed in senior nationals in five different decades – 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. Follow Terry’s journal here to learn about his approach to training and competing
Athlete Journal Entry 8 – 12/9/2013
Monday: Snatch Day
The first day of week two is again snatch day. Thankfully this workout followed a decent front squat workout that fired up my nervous system. I started as usual with speed snatch. The weight is finally starting to feel light, even though it is light. It’s nice to feel like I’m the one in control and it’s me flinging the weight around and not the other way around.
- Speed snatch: 45x6x2
- 55x6x2 – I felt my confidence grow on these. Power snatch from the hang: 55x6x2 sets 65x6x2 – again, effortless.
- Power snatch from the floor: 65x6x2
- 75x6x2 – these were a little more difficult, but not by much.
My fitness is really starting to pay off. I was feeling fairly proud of myself, so to not burst my bubble I decided to forgo the full snatch. I hope that decision won’t come back and haunt me.
Tuesday: Upper Body
Tuesday’s upper body work was done with a little more aggressiveness. During the second phase, I’m picking up the tempo to press the fitness side of the workout. I do this by cutting down the time for the workout, but keep the weights the same as previous upper body work. I could feel my muscles fatigue faster, but I’m not sure the exact cause. It could be the reduced time or the workout yesterday.
Wednesday: Back Squats
Back squats: the day I dread. I know somewhere along the way I’m going to hurt. I began with a warm up for about ten minutes longer than normal. I started with the bar and I could feel my groin already – ugh! I stayed with the bar for about six more sets and it wasn’t getting better, so I stopped. I decided to make a jump just to see, so I went to 70kg. It felt no different than the bar, which was a glimmer of hope. I jumped to 100kg again, which wasn’t much different. Was it a false alarm? I went to the projected weight for the day: 120x6x4 sets. They went up with a little struggle, but better than the week before, even though I was a little more cautious with my movements than I would like to be. My groin started biting at the fourth rep of the last two sets, but I was so close to finishing I did the last two reps of each set anyway. No speed or stop squats – lucky – to not make it worse.
Thursday: Clean Day
Thursday is clean day. I’m gaining confidence in my shoulders, so I knew I would be adding jerks to the workout.
- Speed cleans: 65x6x2 sets – felt like Mondays snatch day, I’m in control.
- 75x6x2. The power cleans from the hang were done with the 2-3sec hold at the knee and were done easily
- 85x6x2. I could feel the fitness exerting itself.
- Power cleans from the floor 85x6x2 – went well
- 95x6x2 sets – with each set of cleans I did a jerk so I could move into the clean and jerk right away.
- 100kg and do 4 sets of 1 and 1 – these were pretty easy, as they should be, since I had just power cleaned 95 for sets of six.
Friday: Circuit Day
Friday’s long circuit doesn’t scare me anymore. My fitness is well on its way to being where I think it should be. I did forty minutes of 35 seconds on and 25 seconds off. Hardly broke a sweat.
Saturday
Today I took off from loading and spent some time unloading. I did some stretching and rolling and after about thirty minutes I felt like a million bucks. It was good to spend some quality time with my roller.
Sunday: Front Squat
Front squats are one of the days I really enjoy. The satisfaction I obtain from this workout usually carries me through the week. My warm up went well and unlike back squat day, my groin was never a factor. I did 100kg for 6, 4, 2 stop squats x 3 for a total of 36 reps. The time frame to do the work was thirty minutes, and I got the work done with a few minutes to spare. A price was payed though – my erectors are still on fire.
My body weight is steady at about 178-179lbs and the chubby guy in the mirror is fading away. I’m starting to see abs again. My eating is getting steady so the low blood sugar level episodes are further apart. Not quite perfect, but I’m getting there.
