This week in training I learned that it is indeed possible for something to add up to more than just the sum of the parts. I scored no more than a B/C in everything I attempted but at the end of the week I am still scoring myself an A, for effort.

Let’s stop trash-talking ourselves and actually reflect on what we have done – this cataloguing of achievements is not being egotistical, it actually helps to build confidence and thus helps build future success, for sure. Doing something difficult when you know you have completed hard stuff previously is so much less daunting but we hardly ever stop to list to ourselves quite how much we have managed to do in our lives. Every time I am about to do something difficult I have a little roll call in my mind of difficult things that I managed to do (this includes, by the way, giving up smoking and giving birth!!) to quiet the inner voice of doubt.

In my gym, Origin Athletic in Bristol, I am more than averagely uncoordinated, I have amnesia every time I try and do any powerlift, sorting out my left from my right is an issue, I am never going to be the fastest, strongest, or most powerful but I have decided that that’s ok, I still wouldn’t swap. What I have developed in myself is a certain amount of grit and determination and this is exactly the part of the process that is absolutely within our power to control.

Back to the Perfectly Imperfect Week…

A recap of the goal, was that I asked to have a training week put together by my coach which would help me be the fittest, strongest and springiest version of me that I could be (NB we are learning and so I am not comparing myself to anyone else here).

We are in Week 2 now and there are no amazing times, personal bests or particularly heavy weights. Each individual element that I undertook was either average or below average – but the thing is that I strung it all together over 6 days whilst managing to keep other aspects of life going. So by the end I still felt this amazing sense of achievement for keeping on, keeping on.

HERE’S THE WEEK:

Day 1: Monday: Max heart rate plus upper strength

• Assault bike 25 second sprints x5 (yuck). Followed by:
• Bench – 6 sets of 5 @40-43kg
• Pull ups (banded) – many
• Seated row machine
• Seated shoulder press supersets with,
• Lateral raises
• Finally, Bicep curls
• A lovely start to the week. All the things I love to do, with the exception of the pull ups and the assault bike. Feeling kinda strong. Which is good because then we go into…..

Day 2: Tuesday: Hoppy, Squatty, Starfish
(aka Plyometrics, Back squat, Overhead squat)

• PT session where I am trying to leap, bound, jump etc. sometimes on one leg. I have never less springy but apparently there is hope
• Then I am trying to learn how to overhead squat which is one of the scariest things ever but is very very enjoyable at the same time (because it’s scary) and y’know, even though the weights are light executing this makes me feel amazing
• Finally we finish off with 5 sets of 10 back squats. By now I am pretty tired but sort of on a roll so this is just about manageable and I leave the gym feeling, again, quite good.

Day 3: Wednesday: Jog

• Hahahahahahaahahaha, I am so BAD at running. I tell myself I am going to complete 5km, even if slowly
• I make it to a very slow 3.3km before the voice in my head responds to the feeling of general pain in the legs by Giving Up
• This is barely even a pass score but at least I went out and tried
• Courage!  Something else to work on. And we know intellectually that running fitness does eventually come…

Day 4: Thursday: Deadlifts and weighted lunges

• An intended shock to the system in PT where I ended up doing sets of 4 deadlifts 110kg, at 85% of my max
• I had indeed been phoning in sets of 100kg in the preceding weeks and therefore my form had gotten very lazy
• So this was a bit of a shock to the system to make me pay attention to using my legs
• More to work on then. Legs and butt now feeling very sorry for themselves.

Day 5: Friday: Conditioning/Pump Workout

Oh yes, back to ok/good again as I slowly bash out the following for 40 minutes with no rest:

• Sled pull 30 secs
• Gorilla rows x16
• Shoulder press x12
• Concept 2 bike 1 min
• Russian KB twists x16
• Rinse and repeat 8 times

I always feel like a rusty but trusty old tractor when I am doing this sort of stuff (in a good way) Like it takes me a while to get going but once I am up and running I just keep plodding on.

Day 6: Saturday: VO2 Max training: 4 minutes run/3 minutes walk x4, Core

• By now I am feeling somewhat ragged, but still determined
• So having said to myself that I don’t have to run if I am not up to it I do still do the 4×4 minute runs around Queen Square
• I decide that Garmin watches obviously don’t work well for short distance because no one can be running at 80% effort that slowly
• But I still did the dosage and surely it must be helping…
• I follow this with some fuckabout-ery with core things in the gym trying to improve my dragon flag
• And that’s it for the week.

Reverse psychology never works (apart from when it does)
When we were discussing a ‘perfect training week’ and coach Chris suggested some caution and that it would perhaps be a bit of a stretch to keep this going this instantly seemed like a challenge worth pursuing, and also a bit of an ‘I’ll show you’ opportunity which of course to me is as irresistible as any red rag.

Luckily for me though he wrote the whole programme and is by now very aware of how much my body can do, so the dosages have been well measured.

But I am indeed finding out that it is quite hard to try and train all the things at once but the challenge is very invigorating. Only time will tell, but I have now done another week fitting in pretty much all of the things we discussed.

What I am hoping for now is some very quick adaptation to this as the new norm. It’s rest day now and I have to say, I feel fine.

I have the utmost respect for CrossFitters who do this as an ongoing ‘lifestyle’ but at an insanely more intense and skilled level than this.

Almost ready to go again tomorrow….