This past week was a tough one. Mentally, I struggled in places that I haven’t before. The snow and ice meant that the girls were at home most of the week. The only day they went to in-person learning was Friday. It is hard for me to concentrate with them here, even when they are quiet. Not sure why. It just is.
Shoveling the driveway three times was not necessarily the cardio that I wanted for the week, either.
PZP Week 5
This week has been the most challenging thus far and week 6 and 7 are said to be even more intense. So basically I am preparing to die.
Core Ride: W5R1
Accelerator Ride
Core Ride: W5R2
Core Ride: W5R3
The second core ride was a choice between a 45-minute ride and a 60-minute ride. I made the mistake of doing the 60-minute option thinking it would be mostly zone 2 and zone 3. It was not. This ride began with an 8-minute zone 4 interval and from that point on, I was defeated.
8 min zone 4
3 min zone 2
8 min zone 4
3 min zone 2
6 min zone 4
3 min zone 2
6 min zone 4
3 min zone 2
3 min zone 4
2 min zone 2
3 min zone 4
When I got into the last 6-minute interval, I was out of the saddle nearly the entire time. All of the zone 4 efforts were that way. I just had nothing left in my legs to push. I thought so many times about just quitting the ride. I thought so many times about quitting the challenge. I was trying to come up with excuses as to why I could bow out and would then do the rides that I wanted to do. Popping out of the saddle when it was tough was the only way I finished.
By the time Saturday rolled around, I knew that we had another tough ride ahead. I knew it would not be an “endurance” ride, but another 60-minute “power zone” ride. I got my mind right and tackled that ride far better than the Wednesday ride. I never felt defeated nor did I want to quit. I was able to handle the zones as they were programmed. Though my output graph is not super smooth, it was volumes better than what happened on Wednesday. I also fueled a little differently. I took plenty of water, a banana, and tossed in some electrolytes in one of my water bottles.
Juggernaut
Clearly I need to work on my lifting face.
Overall, the week went pretty well. I believe that I am not giving the spreadsheet enough feedback to make adjustments as this final week felt too similar to what I did before with the exception of a few of the main lifts. I took some time yesterday to input numbers and make changes and I think this coming week should be a lot more different based on that.
Of note, I pulled 402 for 5 singles on deadlift. That has been the heaviest DL for me in quite a while and they all felt great, even the dropsets. I ended up skipping the back squats given the 60-minute ride that was coming later in the day, but other than that, I have been feeling rather good in the gym compared to where I was. I have shifted some of my focus with this, but the split is still with the majority powerlifting and the rest focused on bodybuilding.