Monday, May 27, 2013

A Change in Physiology

Over the past 12 weeks I've focused on getting strong and powerful. Mission accomplished... But something is lacking, at the moment I am not a triple jumper. I am heavy, inelastic and borderline over-trained. Perfect. It is now time to enter the metaphoric cocoon and emerge a specific type of athlete. Over the next three weeks leading into the first real competition of the season, the training volume will be slowly reduced with a pretty big deload during the final week. All the work in the weight-room will be focused on producing force quickly with the occasional heavy lift thrown in for the sole purpose of maintaining strength.
   A week ago I weighed in at a hefty 81kg which is bar far the most I have ever weighed although this week I weighed in again at 80kg. The main focus all season has been to be in peak form for Canada Games in the second week of August but in order to get there I need to make sure that I am at least semi-peaked for the trials in six weeks. I am hoping to compete at around 74kg which will not be an easy task. First, I don't want to lose my strength, or at least as little as possible. Realistically losing 6kg in 6 weeks is not a healthy goal but I feel I have plenty of excess weight to shed. I just cut out creatine last week which means I should continue to lose excess water wight. I can easily cut out 2-3kg of glycogen weight when I reduce my overall caloric intake and taper down the few days before the meet. And of course I can definitely lose another kg or so in the couple days leading into the meet. This means of actual weight lose I only need to lose 1-2kg in six weeks which is a very realistic goal. Say half the weight I lose comes from fat, I will only have to lose about 1kg of excess muscle which I definitely have at the moment, especially in my upper body. My goal is to continue to eat as healthy as possible and make sure the quality of my workouts doesn't decline at this delicate time.