Adarq.org

Bodyweight(AM): 82.7kg (2 Jan)
Diet compliance: 2/2 days
Daily Squat: 46/46 days
Daily Run: 46/46 days
Basketball skill work: 

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Morning:

  Fast TM run 5km, 24:36 (PR), 4:55/km)

Noon:

  BS 4x120, 2x140, 1x147.5, 7x127.5(PR), 8x122.5(PR)
  Back Xtn 17x60kg(bands; PR) 

Evening:

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Notes:

• So far new year training has been good, gym's been fine. Maybe my mental attitude was unnnecessarily antagonist after all. Just doing work, not  destroying myself by pushing limit reps/weights anymore (as of today lol)
• Was running late, didn't have time for a long run or even a medium one. Went for a 5km time trial aiming to go sub 25min. Got it.. Next up is the 22:30 milestone. The fitness is def coming along, much more managable to run this PR than the time i went for sub 28" and almost killed myself every second of the way.  I did push the speed to max on the last 500m otherwise i was just going to break 25 (maybe 6-10s under).
• As much as i loved track work in the evening - after running those strides i could not sleep the entire night. CNS must have been too jacked up. So i dont think i'll be doing any sprinting in teh evening. Which means if i do sprinting it will be after squatting IF i still have some energy/time left and the weather permits. That's a probable no. Also im old and my body is struggling with 3-a-day training so im just gonna stick to 2 sessions for the foreseeable future if im being honest.
• If KF reads this, daily squatting and that part of the back where the bar rests - mine is kinda swollen now (day 46 of daily squatting) - does it .. uh get better? for a while it actually legit hurt but now it's just a bit swollen not so painful.

you can definitely bump it way up by then. consistent mileage will do it.

the highest i got mine (on my garmin), was 69 - RHR was also low 30's around then, bodyweight ~138-140 lb. Was putting in ~100 miles a week around that time. After that, transitioned into peak speed and PR'd 400m, 800m, 1km, mile, and 2 mile.. all vo2max related. Generally, the watch wasn't lying. My vo2max went from ~55 to 69 in about 10 months.

Those are really nice improvements. Good stuff. I too believe the watch. For the reason that ive read someone doing a proper lab study and comparing it with the garmin and they were very close. And also for training sake it's enough just like you said, to see relative improvement regardless of the error. Wonder how close i can get to 61 by end of summer (around 55 days).  My comp is in 100 days so i have time but i dont want to be working on fitness  (or strength or athleticism) after summer, just ball.

yea 100m shouldn't feel long.. i mean at max effort, yes, but not at stride effort etc (which is more basketball specific - never hitting an ME sprint like that on a basketball court lol).

I think even running tempos i struggled the last 20-30m in teh pst. But my memory might be faulty. So im not saying i was doing ME before and im not doing ME now. Well who knows, im self reporting which is always going to be suspect - but also it might be the wind. I will find out as we go thru summer whether or not im actually fitter at 100m (or shorter or longer distances) which is exciting for me cos ive done zero work at shorter distances and to see the CARRY over from the longer runs, that's really EXCITING i must admit.

arms are extremely important for speed. over-striding is always the devil.

my glute pain is pretty much fixed now that ive focused on form (cadence seems to put everything else in order automatically). I think when my R leg gets lazy (from fatigue) i start messing up stride (longer and longer) and that smashes my glute. I did find that when i came off those runs and did hip flexor stretches it made it feel better too, so between form changes and fitness, im pretty confident i can start doing faster runs. See my next log ..

Maybe i shud just embrace it, do my training harder and then when it comes time to PR i'll move to more forgiving conditions and get some notable results!

as for which of the 3 goals to knock off first, i'd say 5k & squat - you can do both. those will both help the rec league lebron james goal. the 40" vert goal will "interfere" with everything, since it will need all the attention. if you can get your RVJ up to 35" more frequently, while still improving your fitness/strength, it'll be better than going for the 40". get there first, then re-evaluate when to attack 40" etc.

Def think the 40" is the most out there of these goals. To jump well, from what i've read (working thru charlie francis book atm) you need to have periods of rest/recovery and then it just 'happens' .. but with my training load it's prob going to be a miracle to do it just as part of training along the way. You're right 35" while fit/strong is actually a better goal for me. I just wrote 40" cos it's just one of those holy grail things you think would be nice to have but my emotional attachment isn't all there, and actually just needing 22" to dunk, i don't need 40" - a good reserve is important so i can be fatigued etc and still pull of a game time dunk - of course. It's true 35" will prob be better for rec league lebron james if it means i don't need to specialise only on vertical at the detriment of strength and fitness.

Ok i'm talking too much and not doing enough, time to just put in the work.

Looking into the vo2 max of basketball players, it ranges from 50-60. I'm off the charts in a bad way. I need to be on the other side though, and by that i mean over 60 to have some sort of reserve to make up for my natural limitations. If my garmin is reporting 49 then i need it to show 61 sometime this summer. it might coincide when i get all my goal ducks in a row.

Well if you look at my log ive been doing 10+km running a day for a while now. it's only been split over 2 session (morning and evening) - but nevertheless that's the volume ive been working with. 15km in one session would be crazy if i just decided to do it off the bat but ive been building up to it. Having said that, you're right i need to make sure i don't get carried away and get hurt. But i don't also wanna spend over a month getting up to 15km, need to do it soonish and then i can change up focus cos i still haven't really touched a basketball since last summer (that's what 9 months ago?) so im not gna become a ful time runner and take it slow and steady either. Need a plan. My last long IRL run was 7km at 6:01 pace and i prob cud maintain that for a another km or two but to double my distance is a bit of an ask. Might have a better chance to do it on the TM tho cos it takes pacing out of it. When i did that 7km run i went close to 7min pace for the first (3.5km) lap and then as it got dark and i was hearing kangaroos scurriying around in the dark i went sub 6 on the return lap which was not great from an injury prevention perspective (form sucks when i go faster for longer runs). But it's pretty crazy cos i i dont even look at my watch while doing the run and at the end my pace was IDENTICAL to the 6.5km run i did before the 7km (a day earlier).

I have 3 disparate and competing goals: (5km sub 20, 170kg bs @ 85kg bw, 40" vertical) and the one i havent mentioned explicitly but is the whole underlying point of all of this - to become the rec league lebron james.  Still a fat skinny dude so im not gna get any of those until i get in shape i must confess. not many out of shape guys get any of these goals at my height weight - im undermuscled, overfat, over-tall for my bw.  On the court im usually the least fit guy so my fitness has always been a problem. My intuition tells me to knock of one or two of these goals then put them on maintenance and focus on the remaining one (or vice versa - knock out one, then maintain and focus on the other two).

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Interesting to see this from my Garmin Connect app:


maybe this isn't so interesting after all, we're all relatively better than the average (sedentary?) person.. that's not who you shud compare with. still, wonder what everyone else here thinks about that ^

Bodyweight(AM): 82.5kg (29 dec)
Diet compliance: 5/5 days
Daily Squat: 42/42 days
Daily Run: 42/42 days
Basketball skill work: 

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Morning:

  TM Long Run - 9.38km, 62:30, 06:40 pace (PR; distance, time) 

Noon:

  BS 3x120, 2x140, 2x140, 2x140, Belt BS 2x142.5, 2x142.5, 2x142.5
  OHP 6x40, 6x50, 3Fx60, 5x57.5, 6x55 
  Chinup 5x10kg, 6x8kg 
  Back Xtn 6x100kg(no band)

Evening:

  Track Run - 6km, 37:26, 6:13 pace

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Notes:

• I prob ended up eating less carbs than i should have yesterday. had really bad sleep and throughout the night my left knee was hurting when i got up to walk to the bathroom like 3-4 times. that's carb related cos if i dont get enough my sleep quality deteriorates since my body is used to a baseline amount of carbs for energy thru sleep. 
• So decided not to go to the park run cos i didn't feel my knee was right for running on the road today.
• When i straighten my leg in a seated position i feel pain at the bottom of my knee joint. Google seems to think it's jumpers knee or something?
• Did some foam rolling nonsense etc but once i started warming up for my run it felt okay. weird, so yea just tightness?

Bodyweight(AM): 82.9kg (28 dec)
Diet compliance: 4/4 days
Daily Squat: 41/41 days
Daily Run: 41/41 days
Basketball skill work: 

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Morning:

TM 5k time trial - 26:06, 05:13 pace(PR) 

Noon:

BS 3x120, 2x140, 1x140, Belt BS 1x142.5, 1x145, 1x150, 2x142.5, 2x142.5
Back Xtn 12x(60kg, band)

Evening:

Run 1.53km, 9:20, 6:06/km

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Notes:

• Lol. Just when i think i've made some progress and got an e1rm of 2xbw my bw goes up like a kilo overnight. Alright bro.
• I am not sure if i want to treat tmr park run as a race. Ended up doing the morning run as a time trial even tho i meant to do a taper and go easy today but i started doing a hill at 4deg for the first km, 3 deg for the 2nd km and then 1 for the next one. Did the last 2km with a zero incline just to see but i cranked the speed up a little to simulate a race. It wasn't an easy run as a result but it's okay. I'll prob skip the evening one now and just race tmr.

It's a bit disingenuous to claim  a 137.5kg triple is a PR just cos i did the first rep paused lol. But it's not really possible to compare past PRs anyway. cos the past ones i did at my old gym, the older ones, were done on a (really great, solid, firm) platform but latter ones were done on gym rubber flooring. Whereas at my new gym all my lifts are done on a hard platform. That's one variable. Another is the older ones were done sans knee sleeves (or belt) and subsequent ones were done with knee sleeves. And some PRs were with a belt, on the platform and others were with a belt and no platform. Other variables are i did some of them at a bw of 89-92kg .. and i weigh 10kg less now. Another variable is im doing daily training whereas back then i was prob only doing 1 or two hard squat workouts a week etc. Yet another variable is i did zero cardio probably for the majority of my past training and now im doing lots of running, esp before lifting. So the line is blurry if you're trying to fairly compare old PRs and current lifts. Nevertheless here is a rough list of notable PRs that i'd like to surpass:

BS 10 sets of 5x137.5kg @ 87.8kg
BS 6 sets of 5x140kg @ 89.3kg
BS 160kg single @ 89.1kg (no sleeves, no belt, platform)
BS 170kg single @ 89.3kg (sleeves, belt, platform)
BS 6x137.5kg @ 91.3kg (sleeves, no belt,, no platform)
BS 6x147.5kg @ 91.6kg (belt, sleeves, no platform)
BS 8x142.5kg @ 91.3kg (belt, sleeves, platform)
BS 7 doubles at 150kg @ 89.2kg (no belt, no sleeves)
BS 6 triples of 150kg @ 90.2kg (belt, platform)
BS 10x135kg @ 91kg (belt, sleeves, no platform)
BS 3x160kg @ 92.4kg (belt, sleeves, no platform)

The closest one im at currently is prob the beltless 6x137.5kg .. which is kind of a meh PR anyway lol. But i'd like to get it soonish.

Bodyweight(AM): 82.3kg (25 dec)
Diet compliance: 1/1 days
Daily Squat: 38/38 days
Daily Run: 38/38 days
Basketball skill work: 

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Morning:

TM Hill Run 6km - 3°x10min, 4°x10min, 5°x10min

Noon:

BS 5x135, 1x140, Belted BS 3x140, 5x135
Back Xtn 17x(40kg, band)

Evening:

 No run - had to go to a xmas thing (sad)  

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Notes:
I was getting bored of the same old thing every day so i decided to change the incline variable. No reason why TM training can't actually be harder or better than real world training if you use it properly. I always use an incline of 1 but today i went up to 5 and then in 2.5min intervals, dropped down to 0 while increasing speed up to 12km/hr (from an initial 7km/hr), for the last 2.5 mins just to see how it 'felt'. If i was going to go for a TM PR i'd prob struggle to get it at speeds over 12km/hr. Not sure if that's because i'm not fast enough OR if my TM is not really good at speeds higher than 12km/hr (sub 25 pace), cos my feet start slipping. Might be shoes or the motor struggling (it's just a home one not a fancy commercial one). Tbh it would be a good idea to one day do a run on the gym treadmill just to see how different it is, it may be i'm capable of more than i am at home.

Some other observations and thoughts from the TM hill run:
1- dropping from 5° to 4° felt so much easier than subsequent changes although i was obviously then increasing speed more so that might have something to do with it
2. If there is some kind of limit to my TM around 12km/hr then maybe instead of trying to get faster i should try to do more work at speeds around 11km/hr but with greater and greater inclines? That might translate to more training effect than trying to get to 15km/hr (4:00 pace) on this treadmill. However i may just be unfit/slow as a possiblity, im not sure
3. Watched a video on TM/RL running and the person claimed wind resistance becomes an issue at higher speeds IRL whereas on a TM you don't have that problem. The wind resistance is greater for taller guys than smaller ones. Maybe i shud aim for a sub 20 on the TM first, possibly on another TM tho. My old gym had those natural ones but whenever i tried them i found them very difficult lol so i never liked them for some reason

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I realised last night ive ran 25km in the last 48hrs which is prob more than i had in my entire lifetime before this daily training experiment started. The 'gains' have been incredible, albeit not the PR kind (yet). I wake up feeling refreshed and energetic, recovery is nothing short of amazing. In the past after a 'hard' workout, i'd be completely destroyed for the rest of the week. Now it's just almost if it didn't happen because it's a daily occurrence so the body just deals with it as per normal. Not having the distinction between 'rest' days and 'workout' days has some downsides (in lifestyle terms) but in terms of effectiveness, it's nothing short of amazing. As i do more running my body comp seems to be improving as well, something to watch. It kind of makes sense tho, whenever i started playing basketball after a break, the first few weeks/months always saw rapid changes to body comp which i now understand is prob from being 'active' for a couple of hours at a time, albeit at a low pickup intensity, which is where my running seems to be heading lately. Maybe mimicking that same effect. Having said that, im not sure if the longer, slower runs ive been doing will actually help me achieve my running goal (sub 20 5k) .. i could be just wasting my time doing lots of slow kms for all i know. May need to do at least one or two hard runs in a week to just make sure i'm still making progress on that front. Thinking of possibly doing a saturday park run this weekend to find out but idk if it's worth it at my present stage of fitness.