2025 Training Log Part 19

On the stereo today- Royskopp

I haven’t been very diligent about updating this blog the past few weeks. I’ve recorded the sessions just fin but haven’t had as much time each Monday to put any time into it. I’ve got 20 minutes now, so I’ll get a bit nittier and grittier today.

Monday

Run 3k. “Hey Barry!”, I hear you ask, “What’s with all of the running! I thought you hated running!”

Yeah you’re right. I hate it. And it’s bad for me. I’m 93kgs and not a very elegant runner. Imagine an upside down pear with 2 cocktail sticks for legs, falling forwards but just about managing to catch itself before it falls. That’s my “technique”. I run a little bit like a Minecraft character.

But my daughter scoots to school, and every morning I say “I’ll just let her go ahead and I’ll walk with the dog and catch her at the lights”, but then she goes, and the dog wants to run, so I run. My pace is about 5.15/km. So not fast, and to be honest it’s a nice start to the day when the weather is good.

1. Decline Bench- 5×5
2. Dumbell Row 5×5
3. Incline Frog Push Ups 5×12
4. T-Bar Row 3×10
5. Ab circuit x3 rounds
6. Cable hammer curls 3×12
7. Single Arm pushdowns 3×20

No rounds that night.

Tuesday

Run 3k.

Lower Body Day was mainly yoga style movements. Not much doing, very busy day of meetings and coaching.

Wednesday

Run- 3k

Some light rounds. I think I did 6 but I wasn’t keeping track. Wednesday nights are good fun.

Thursday

Run 3k.

Morning Jiu Jitsu for once. I didn’t do much. I was teaching a class for the Garda Jiu Jitsu club, so did I think 5 rounds. Messing about with most of them. And lo, I got rolled back on my foot as I was pricking around. Stupidity.

Friday

Pump Club

1. Decline bench 5×8
2. Ring Push Up/Fly 5×12
3. Close Grip bench 3×15
4. Single arm cable row 3×10
5. Ab work
6. Lateral Raises 3×12
7. Cable press 3×15
8. Overhead tri extensions 3×15
9. Ez Curl 3×15

Since my injury in February my chest has been lagging. Left side is taking ages to recover fully, so these sessions are more about getting the muscles back working in an orderly fashion rather than getting size.

Saturday

3 positional blocks. 10mins guard dominant grips. 10 mins bottom/top mount. 10 minutes top dominant grips. The 3x7min rounds.

Good training is about stimulus exposure. That’s my mantra. This session for me was about survival. I woke up feeling the effects of poor sleep, then struggled through an hour of coaching with a muggy headache. I coughed up maybe 5 soft scores in the positional sparring, and then really struggled in the rounds.

2/10 session. So you take the lessons you can from it and move on.

Training Thoughts of the Week

I am feeling pretty good despite the end to the week. I have a target of 7 hours sleep a night, but last week I definitely didn’t get that on a regular basis. Why not? Well, the stupidest reason imaginable- I am reading a good book. Power of the Dog by Don Wimslow. It’s about a DEA agent operating in Mexico in the 70s and 80s. More in the below…

Non-Training Thoughts of the Week

When I was a kid, I had 3 torches. And I would stash them around my room. When I went to bed, my Ma used to go around looking for them. She knew if she didn’t find them, I’d use one of them after lights out to read under the covers. I’m laughing thinking of it now. But I’m precisely the same now, except I can read all night if I want to! I’m all growed up! And here’s the irony- I can’t sleep if I don’t read. And I don’t sleep if I get a good book!

Reminds me of thing I overheard in a shop a few years back. A woman was on her phone complaining about her teenage son. “Books! He just buys books, books, and more books! Every time he goes out he seems to come back with something to read! I’ve warned him!”

That, I thought, is a lady in need of some perspective.

See you on the mat!

Barry