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 19 – 3/3/2014
Monday and Tuesday were non-weight days because of my work schedule for the week. I did manage to get some good quality non-loading work done, which was something my body really needed. I did four fifteen-minute rolling sessions, along with two stretching sessions of about twenty minutes. Those sessions were done either first thing in the morning or just before bed.
Wednesday’s training was done during the break between split shifts at the university where I coach. I decided to work on snatches, as they don’t take as much time as clean and jerks and I only had an hour and a half before the next team showed up. For this session I did a pull, a power snatch, a snatch, a pull, and a snatch for a total of five reps. I started with 40kg and did two sets, then moved to 50kg and did another two sets. 60kg, 70kg, 80kg, and 90kg were all done for one set each. I switched up the rep sequence by dropping the final two reps, doing 95kg for two sets and then 100kg for three sets. The last exercise was snatch pull. I did 125kg for four sets of four reps, with the last two reps in the last set done as slow pulls. I finished just as the women’s hockey team came through the doors.
Thursday was a repeat of Monday and Tuesday.
Friday I had more opportunity to get some work done, so I planned on doing two workouts. As always, the first workout was the circuit, and I wheezed and gasped my way through the hardest forty minutes of my life. After that I thought maybe two workouts was not such a good idea. I came in for the second session and spent about an hour on my warm up, trying to get my right leg to function. It was a success, and the mobility was beginning to surface. I had clean and jerks, so the sequence went as follows:
- Power clean
- Speed clean
- Power clean
- Jerk
- Full clean and jerk
Man, that was a lot of reps. I did 40kg for two sets and 50kg, 60kg, 70kg, 80kg, 90kg, and 100kg, all for one set. For the 110kg set I did a power clean, speed clean, front squat, jerk, and a clean and jerk. My last set with 120kg was much less strenuous with only a power clean, front squat, and jerk. Two sessions wasn’t a bad idea after all.
On Sunday I felt a little fatigued and decided to stick with doing snatch lifts instead of hitting squats. Snatches take less energy and I can get quality work done even when I’m tired, as the weights don’t have to be heavy to work on technique. I decided to do combo work similar to Wednesday’s session. I took 40kg and 50kg for two sets, then 60kg, 70kg, 80kg, and 90kg for one set. Each set was a power snatch, snatch, pull, pull, and snatch for a total of five reps in each set.
The last set of 90kg was well done, so I jumped to 100kg and wanted to repeat the same work as I did on Wednesday. I only managed a pull and full snatch. I jumped to 105kg and did the same rep combo, but really bottomed out in the catch position and tweaked my groin. No more snatches for me today. I switched to clean pulls instead, taking 130kg for two sets of four reps and then 160kg for two sets of four reps. The last two sets were pretty good, and I left feeling satisfied with my results.
And speaking of results, the volleyball team I coach just took first place in the Canadian championships! Congratulations to everyone on the team.
