Today's Power House efforts :

3 x 10 full squats, with emphasis on speed of lift and a jump with 110kg with 90s recovery.  It's a little over half my partial (quarter, technically) squat weight, and it sure makes you get a pulse.  This is training for power without doing the Olympic snatch which hurts my elbows too much to be able to do regularly at the moment.  Hopefully this weekend's S&C course will give me a chance to check with the instructor there to see what I'm doing wrong with snatches. They shouldn't jam my elbows up, so I'm doing something wrong. The jump squats took about 4 days to recover from when I first did them on Thursday (I'm blaming them for my 0.1s slower flying 100's anyway ... ) but that's all part of the 'shock the body to make it adapt' program.  After 4-6 weeks I'll need a new shocker, but also will be due for a change in emphasis - back to hypertrophy for a block.  Hypertrophy, strength, power, lather, rinse, repeat.  That's the plan anyway.  October should be the end of the next power phase, just in time for the first round of the Summer Sprint Series.

After the jump squats I did some strength maintenance - 2 x max reps at 210kg, I got 3 and then 5 out.  210kg is a new PB for quarter squats.  I may have been able to do another set but this is a maintenance drill now so I'm not worried about it and doing too much increases the risk of back injury as the weight is big and it's easy to lose concentration, arch over and blow a few disks out of the lower back.

Then I did a block of 3 deadlifts, 10 reps at 70, 80 and then 90kg with 90 seconds recovery. This is more for general hypertrophy, already fatigued by this stage so they're not going to be all that good.  Deadlifts aren't considered (as far as I know anyway, if you know better please tell me!) terribly useful for cycling, but as a balance for the squats they're worth doing.  Like arm curls aren't terribly useful but to balance up triceps they have some value.  I did the deadlifts using the Olympic weightlifting grip, it's a bit different to a normal grip on a bar, it's called the 'hook grip' and is best described here.  They're right, it does hurt at first as you basically jam the side of your thumb against the knurling on the bar and your fingers and the bar squash it hard into position.

After that a few bench presses and some pulls just to keep the upper body and core happy, you've got to brace against the bars when hammering the pedals.

Before tonight's spin session I'll have to find an hour to do my own spin sets, max efforts and HCLR's at least, time permitting.  I'm looking forward to getting some assistance at the spin sessions so I can do some of the time there myself on the bike.