Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Quality AND Quantity

Today was a great day. I slept in and ate a hearty breakfast consisting of 5 eggs, a bowl of oatmeal with 23g of whey protein and a scoop of peanut butter mixed in, an apple, a PBJ and a glass of orange juice. I spent the next couple hours watching Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, currently my favorite show along with re-runs of Las Vegas, and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. Bourdain was on point as usual in his trip to Puerto Rico, love the Caribbean mon! Zimmern on the other hand is getting a raw deal in my opinion, they had the poor guy eating fermented shark (hakarl) in which they bury the shark, ferment it and hang it to dry! Apparently in Iceland it's a big treat along with puffin and some dish similar to haggis. As for me and my house, we'll stick with the McDonalds if we ever find ourselves in Reykjavik!


Breaking News! As I'm writing this I'm watching The Real Housewives of Orange County (don't ask, it's Lauren's fault!) and apparently the young new girl is a Baylor grad with a degree in Child and Family Studies and psychiatry! She says "I went to this school down in Texas called Baylor" excuse me but I hope our reputation precedes us a little more than that! Now they are trying to get the girl to make sure that she gets some dough if her Leukemia-laden fiance passes away! I thought we already talked about sharks!

Training today was very, very good. I started off with some snatches to potentiate the sprints that would follow. Carl is very technical on the lifts and makes sure that I'm in the proper position to apply force correctly. The workout was as follows:
Warm-up:
Shoulder width snatch from knee 4 reps w/5okg
Slighty wider grip from 3-4 inches above knee 4 reps w/50kg
Slighty wider grip from mid thigh 4 reps w/50kg
Normal grip from hip crease 4 reps w/50kg

Work Sets:
Snatch 7x2 w/ 60kg

The weight was not very heavy at all, I've snatched over 200 pounds fairly easily in the past. However the focus was not on load but rather on getting into the correct positions and learning to apply force in those positions. I feel like I made some technical progress since my last session and the workout atmosphere is great with the Olympic lifting club working out tonight at Excel.

Following a protein shake (I'll elaborate on the contents later) we went to the Reggie Lewis Center for sprints. The workout tonight was about 15 full out 10's. The emphasis being on having a good arm split out of the start, maintaining proper shin angles and getting full extension on each stride. Carl is very good at giving me effective cues and Miyagi-like drills ("Wax on, wax off") that bleed into effective sprinting. The proof was in the pudding as the video showed some substantial improvement since my last session. There is still a good deal of room for work but I'm excited about my progress thus far. We finished off the session with 4 sled pulls designed to ingrain optimal acceleration mechanics. The weight isn't heavy at all as we don't want to dampen the elastic properties inherent in sprinting. So forget any illusions of Buck from "The Call of the Wild" or Rocky dragging Uncle Paulie across the Siberian tundra!


Finally we made it back to Excel for a weight workout:
Deep Squat 3x3 w/275 slow eccentric
Reverse Lunge 3x6 w/50 lb. dumbbells
Side Lunge 2x8 w/25 lb. dumbbells

This was a good session, the squats weren't especially heavy at all (I've done singles at 540 and 440x6 in the past) but the purpose isn't to overload with the squat (the sprints provide the specific overload). The purpose is to maintain proper pelvic attitudes and work the glutes. Better activation work than glute bridges!

I followed this session with my standard post-workout shake consisting of the following:
Zero-Carb Isopure Whey Isolate- Protein Pineapple Banana (2 scoops=50g of protein)
Dextrose 1 1/2 scoops
Maltodextrin 1 1/2 scoops
Ice

Besides being absolutely delicious, it is extremely effective. It wasn't until fairly recently that I realized the value of carbs post workout. I now realize that they are absolutely essential, possibly even more important than the protein powder. They help lower cortisol levels and replenish muscle glycogen. Additionally they provide the insulin spike that drives nutrients into the tissue faster. We tend to consume carbs to protein in a 2:1 ratio post-workout and I've found this to work well.

Tomorrow I'll get two massages and work on my upper body pulling muscles. Apparently there is supposed to be a blizzard of sorts, so I'll be anxious to see how that turns out!

I would be a horrible friend if I didn't mention that David Dancer was born 23 years ago today! Dave is one of my best friends, he was in my wedding and he's one of the best men I know. Happy Birthday Dave!


Pictured is Dave hitting one of his trademark slices. Before being sidelined by a string of vicious ankle sprains, David was known to rule the courts at the SLC and Lifetime Fitness (besides being labeled as a mismatch by Michael Irvin), slashing with Steve Nash like precision and draining threes with his trademark left to right jumper. Between me and you, the last two 1 on 1 games we played ended in 11-1 victories for yours truly (although he did stop me from dunking on him with a well timed foul), but that's neither here nor there.


Yes ladies, he is single!



I'll leave you with a picture of the most beautiful girl on the planet!




Until next time,

Thomas

6 comments:

  1. Watched you for many years at BU and loved the way you played the game. Just know many are pulling for you. God Bless and Sic'em.

    Jeff Edwards

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  2. You never cease to amaze me Thomas! You are so talented in so many ways. You make me proud to be your wife!

    Keep up the hard work!

    2 days...

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  3. Thomas - enjoyed meeting you at Baylor football events/games and my two boys look up to you. I wish you only the best as you pursue your dream.

    The Baylor nation contnues to cheer you on. You seem to have a great support structure and a fantastic wife behind you.

    Sic 'em!!

    Jay
    Plano

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  4. JMH- It was always a pleasure running into you at various events, always good to meet a Plano Bear! Thank you for your support and encouragement, as I said earlier, I'll aim to present our fine university in the most positive manner possible.

    God bless,

    Thomas

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  5. I hear Anna's Pizza House close to the Subway on Main Street has good pizza...maybe.

    Stan

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  6. Thomas, I sat next to your uncle at the 2006 A&M game. He remarked how proud of you he was. I thought you were underutilized at Baylor. You had great speed (and better hands than Gettis.) Congrats on that great catch and TD in this years A&M game. That was spectacular. All the best to you and Lauren.

    ReplyDelete