There have
been things besides the typical swim, bike, and run workouts that have been
making a big difference, and will contribute to making this season a game-changer. Lately I’ve been focusing a lot more on the
following: lifting, chiropractic care, hip exercises, sleep, and refueling. I’ll address all but the last one here. Next week I’ll talk about my personal
experiences with nutrition and refueling lately.
I got into
lifting weights while competing in Track & Field in college. I wish I had pushed myself even more back
then though. I was timid when I did
cleans and some lifts, and I feel like I could have improved a lot more than
what I did. After college, Andy and I
still liked to lift, and then we got into P90x with the crazy amount of
pull-ups and push-ups. Now I do an
off-season weight room program with my student-athletes 3 days/week, and I also
do P90x at the end of the sessions with a few of them. It takes me about an hour each time. Our favorite week is max week of course, and
we are continuously pushing ourselves, and each other, to keep getting better
and stronger. I quit doing back squat
since I’ve been dealing with back pain, but here are my
current maxes….
- Front Squat: 4x135
- Bench: 2x120
- Clean: 110
- Snatch: 2x85
- Incline Bench: 3x95
- Chin-ups: 29
As a result, I’m feeling way stronger in the pool and
putting down times that I haven’t seen in years!
In part of
Alan Webb’s session at the Track Coaches’ Clinic in Madison, he talked about
the value of his attention to the details.
For example, he believed he needed 9 hours of sleep to perform his best. So he diligently made sure he went to bed
early so he could get enough sleep. If
he fell short, he would try to make up for it with a nap. He explained that there are a lot of
similarly talented people out there, but doing the little things is what puts
you over the edge and ahead of your competition. If you have the same capabilities as the
person toeing the line next to you, done all of the same workouts, but one has
been more attentive to taking care of the other stuff (the mental, the food,
the sleep, the recovery), then that one will be the one who pulls ahead. Speaking of sleep, boy what a difference it
is on the days that I have gotten good sleep the night before!
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