The Perfect Storm - Round 3

It's here. There's always a time I feel true preparation for the next season begins. I can never see it coming but I always know it's arrived after the fact. In the past it's been when I stop eating a ton of garbage and ride my bike as hard as I can, blistering lungs and all. This usually has taken place shortly after the new year. Last year was different as we started with the TotalCyclist indoor sessions in early November making the new year giddy up a little easier. That was a pretty good wake up. This year I did it Kane Training style, but first, an update on plan 'x'.

Since the last blog I've transitioned to the gym, added some nice workout "pairings" and have made some ground on the strength/balance side of plan 'x'. Sure there are some typical type moves that one might see as u special, but it's the way we execute that makes them very specific and extremely effective. Wanna do pull ups? Well, you gotta make sure you go all the way down on each rep, do them slowly and don't let your body sway at all. Much harder than the way we did them in the infantry (well, the non-rucksack ones anyway). Paired with this is an elevated split squat. The elevated foot is resting on the toes so stability is low. In fact that's the common thread in all that I've done with Mark: work an area but work in a way that increases strength AND stability. One of my favorites is an inverted row that's very unstable and then paired with a single leg dead lift.

Now for the crazy and where I left off describing the season 'opener'. Last night was our first team training session with Mark. All of us were the except for Cricket who is still working on knee rehab. Mark set up a circiut of 10 exercises we'd do for a minute and then rotate to the next one. There were a couple typical ones like the pushup but most of them were in keeping with the specificity of strength and stability that I'm used to from him. My favorite? It's the ball slam (take a weighted ball that barley bounces and, from overhead, slam it into the ground has hard as you can. Catch it with just one bounce. Repeat). Or maybe it's the rope. Take a gym rope and, in a stable athletic position, create waves using only your lower arms. Not so bad? This will smoke your bags after 30 seconds! Need less to say, the team got a workout and our usual joking members all fell silent by the second rotation. By the end most were worked and dripping wet while a large feeling of satisfaction filled the room. Scott said he'd rather do 30 second intervals at 600 watts for an hour than do that again. Well, Scott, week one of 16 is in the books. Just 15 left.

Check out all that Mark has to offer at www.kanetraining.com.

C