Attila Matyas Micro Thread

Attila Matyas

Trying to get back on the horse:

I had a series of changes and setbacks earlier this season that have resulted in me not doing anything endurance based since May. 

The first was a change in my work life responsibilities that forced me to make a choice of doing fun stuff like training for and going to Camp Al or paying the mortgage, I chose the latter.  Once the work stuff died down a little then the kids swim season, house and life quickly filled the extra time I spent working.  I also somehow lost the focus and any drive I had to pick-up the training.  It has become increasingly easy to justify especially not getting on the bike which has always been my first love but I’ve ignored the run and swim as well.

When my work crunch started and I had less time I started doing weight training 3 days a week and have kept that up and now really enjoy it a lot.  It has been very satisfying as I make novice gains doing the Mark Rippetoe starting strength program.  As I go deeper down this rabbit hole I find it even harder to get back on the basement trainer or ride the same 2 road loops I have available to me.  I’m now setting strength goals for the squat, deadlift, press and bench instead.

I had a small setback with work that shouldn’t have spiraled out of control so I don’t know if I’m just burned out, sick of my limited places to ride or something else. 

My kids swim season is over this weekend and the following week I’m going on vacation to Turks and Caicos for a week. I’m a little lost looking for a direction to get back.  I want to be able to keep going with the weight training but get some motivation/direction to jump back to some endurance training as well.  For goals I’d like to still tackle the fall CX season which is always ultra-fun for me beyond that I put a deposit on Mallorca and if schedules permit maybe do a later season IM next year but just not sure today.

Thanks for your help and sorry for the long winded narrative.

Attila

Coach Patrick

@Attila Matyas -  thanks for the update, and I appreciate the detail. I fully understand what you mean, sometimes you just need a break. It sounds like rather than the typical injury I experience, you had different constraints that force you to change your focus. I think it's valuable to have a seasonal variety in your training, and doing periods of strength training is a perfect counterpoint for all the volume we do aerobically. 

 For example, I really love strength training in the winter but I only do it from December through March before getting back on the volume horse.

At the end of the day, only you know what motivation really fits. If you love getting out of bed and lifting right now, I see you roll with it.

Since you also Enjoy CX  it only makes sense that we start spending some time on the bike to get you ready for that. If you don't already have Zwift, I strongly encourage you to get it. It has actually made indoor riding fun for me again especially since I can do a lot of it with the team. 
 That could be a nice complement to the work that you're already doing on your limited roads.

At the end of the day it really only matters what you want to do. Everything follow from that. I am confident that we can adjust your strength program to include room for some cycling, and I'm ready when you are.

I think the first step is to have you outline what you do on a weekly strength basis and then I can see where we can fit stuff in. Deal?

Attila Matyas

Thanks for the quick reply I appreciate it!

I will try zwift for sure.  I've always done a ton on the trainer and never really had issues even doing race rehearsals on the trainer but somehow it has lost its luster as well.  Maybe switching it up from watching the trainer road graphs and netflix will be a welcome change.  Living where I live in NJ the road riding is just awful, not safe and just boring as sin.  I think going to Al's camp and Rich's ToCA camp have ruined me permanetly ; )  I will suck it up though and do at least one day outdoors if that's what the plan calls for.

My weekly lifts are Monday, Wednesday and Friday though sometimes that gets pushed around to Tuesday Thursday and Saturday.  This just depends on family activity schedules but always a day of recovery between lifts.

Lifts are linear progression until I start to fail which I'm getting close to at this point.  So 5 pounds added to each lift per workout done as workout A and B with the B workout alternating between deadlift and power cleans.  After failing 3 times for that specific lift you do a reset of 10% and just start building back up again.

Goals for the lifts are 300 squat; 155 press; 400 dead; 225 bench and then either keep going or call that good. It will take a long time as progression slows and stops and I'm good with that.

So currently it's:

Workout A  <<<< This is what I'm doing this evening
Low Bar Squat: 5 warm-up sets starting with the bar working up to just below work set weight.
Workset is 3X5 with 255

Press: 5 warm-up sets starting with the bar working up to just below work set weight
Workset is 3X5 with 115

Deadlift: 5 warm-up sets starting with the bar working up to just below work set weight
Workset is 1X5 with 260

Farmer walks with 45lbs plates up and down driveway 3 sets. Each set is just walk out and back in driveway 3 times. I ordered farmer bar handles so I can add more weight to these versus just carrying plates.

Workout B
Low Bar Squat: 5 warm-up sets starting with the bar working up to just below work set weight.
Workset is 3X5 with 260  <<< adding 5lbs

Bench Press: 5 warm-up sets starting with the bar working up to just below work set weight
Workset is 3X5 with 165

Power Clean: 5 warm-up sets starting with the bar working up to just below work set weight
Workset is 3X5 with 95

Farmer walks with 45lbs plates up and down driveway 3 sets.  Each set is just walk out and back in driveway 3 times.

Coach Patrick

@Attila Matyas -  wow, that is some serious work! I hear you are in other venues ruining you for cycling… The curse of having cool friends who live in great places. :-)

I like the idea of you doing that weight progression Monday Wednesday Friday. Then on Tuesday and Thursday we can interject just a steady state right on Swift. Even 45 minutes to an hour in zone two would be great. It won't really interfere with the weights and it will keep you lose and "cycling ready."

Then on Saturday I would have your "hit out ride."  This is the one bike session where you get after it and do some more work, or a BP style. This could also be contained to an hour maybe 90 minutes for the warm-up. Then Sunday is off.

I'm not really worried about the running at this point in time. If you want to incorporate that, maybe it's a 1 to 2 mile jog before each a lift to get loose?

my thought here is that as long as we keep you functionally engaged in cycling, you're lifting can really only help. Thoughts?

Attila Matyas

@Coach Patrick This sounds great!  I'll re-up the swift plan and get everything ready to go so I'm ready to ride when I get back from vacation.  Start week will the week of Aug 7th.  

I will probably do the jogs on my lunch hour for the Mon, Wed, Fri since the weight workouts are already taking around 90 minutes.  I'm lifting in the evening and then make dinner etc. so time is always crunched.  In the morning I get up and work with my son teaching him the barbell movements, bands etc. to get him ready for his new junior elite swim group in the fall. 

I also have a Vasa coming after the vacation to help him with his swim but obviously I can also jump on that for some strength work maybe use that as a quick warm-up before the bike rides, what do you think?

Got the farmer walk bars in so I can start adding weight to the wko finishing sets of walks, pretty excited to try these out.




Thanks again for your help.

Attila

Coach Patrick

@Attila Matyas -  perfect! I think we can deathly find a happy medium. The way I see it playing out is we just figure out the ebon flow between the prioritization of your workouts. Sometimes it will be more about the strength and sometimes I'll be more about the aerobic stuff.

As long as you have a good baseline level of fitness I think you'll be pleased in both categories. It's when you want extreme results in either that we would have to figure out some form of a sacrifice or change.

 I think you will like them awesome as it's a very effective tool and easy to use. He might even enjoy warming up before lifting with it. I hadn't swimming so long, I forgot how much working on my upper body helps me to get fit and lose weight. 

 It's like weightlifting for skinny people! 

 whatever you do, please make sure you continue to track your training whether it's in Strava or TrainingPeaks so we can follow your progression and I can jump in and help as needed.

Game on!