Cal's Big Log II: The Revenge

Training
821

Woke up at 5am to see two young foxes playing on the lawn outside. Very sweet but I don’t think my downstairs neighbours will be thrilled about the holes they dug…

My elbow, though not 100%, is feeling a bit better and there’s no doubt the rest has helped. I decided to attempt a training session to put it through its paces. I went very light.

All bars are empty. Dumbells are 2kg (4.4lbs) each. Girly shit.

Warm-up (just because I’m training upper doesn’t mean my glute dysfunction gets ignored):

20 hypers (bum clenching ones)
20 reverse hypers with V at top
20 clams (per leg)
20 single leg hip thrusters (foot on high bench) (per leg)
20 bosu ball squat/sit up combo thing

4 x Triset:

Millies x 10
Lateral Raises x 20
Dumbell Curls x 20

Avoided locking out on all these.

4 x Supserset:

Bench Press x 10
Bent Over Row x 10

4 x Triset:

RDLs x 10
Sumo Deadlift x 10
Bent over DB raises x 10

The Sumos bother my left ITB somewhat (even with no weight on the bar) so I’ll probably just give 'em a miss from now on. Always preferred conventional anyway.

4 x Superset:

EZ Bar Extension x 20
Hammer curls x 20

1 x Superset:

Lat Pulldowns (20kg) x 30
Straight(ish) Arm Pulldowns (10kg) x 20

Then did a few handstands and headstands but was starving so went home. Just finished a very posh breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs with asparagus. I can’t afford to eat like that but what the hell.

For the record, elbow feels fine now, but the test is whether it’ll still be good tomorrow.

822

breakfast sounds delish - we have to live it up once in a while.

glad the elbow is feeling ok and keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way…

823

Cal: glad that elbow is finally feeling better. Hope it holds up.

824

Just checking in on our favorite limey over here. :wink:

YUM! about the smoked salmon, eggs and asparagus! That’s a breakfast.

Glad the elbow is cooperating enough to do handstands. That says something right there.

I’m liking all your glute activation/ rehab moves up there. Snap a pic of the foxes next time for us.

825

Thanks ladies. You wouldn’t believe the DOMS after that last workout. I feel so lame to be having such wicked DOMS after lifting empty bars and 2kg dumbells, but never mind. I think those muscles were just a bit shocked at having to do something for a change!

826

When you have my skin color, those reverse. North=nice, South=not-so-much. Haha

Love that you took it easy in the workout. Aside from the DOMS, your elbow still feels good?

827

Yeah, you may have a point there, Nikki.

Elbow is nowhere near 100% but it feels better than it did. Considerably.

828

I promised I’d put some stats up this weekend. I’m not in my best shape right now but here goes.

Neck: 13.75
Shoulders: 42.5
Chest (above boobs): 37 (relaxed)
Ribcage (below boobs): 32.5
Natural waist: 28.5
Hip (greater trochanter): 39.5
Thigh: 25.5
Calf: 14.75
Bicep: 12.25

Height: 5 foot 7 (and a bit)/171cm
Weight: 155lbs/70.2kg

829

I keep waking up at stupid o’clock. This morning it was around 4am. And I mean properly awake - brain chugging around, no chance of getting back to sleep. Damn it.

Despite this I hit the gym around 7.30am, which is when it opens. As I wanted to run tomorrow, I decided to train upper body - that’s to say, do my rehab. The good news is that my elbow continues to improve. The bad news is my left shoulder is now hurting like a bitch. I’m reminding myself of a car one of my boyfriends bought back when I lived with him. It was quite old, and every month, without fail, something would go wrong. He’d pay for it to be fixed and then, like clockwork, something else would break. Eventually the gearbox siezed and he got rid of it. Unfortunately I can’t do that with my body. I keep having to fix the shit that breaks and it’s driving me nuts.

Anyway, this is what I did:

Warm-up/glute 'hab:

20 hypers
20 reverse hypers with V at top
20 clams (per leg)
20 side leg raises (per leg)
20 single leg hip thrusters (foot on high bench) (per leg)
15 split squats (back foot on high bench) (per leg)
20 bosu ball squat/sit up combo thing

Upper body/shoulder warm-up (using 2kg dumbells):

20 lateral raises
20 front raises
20 overhead presses
20 dumbell curls
20 hammer curls

No rest between those. Lots of lactic.

Millies:

Bar x 15
25kg x 8

My left shoulder twinged on the 25kg set. It’s behind the shoulder - probably supra or infraspinatus I’m guessing. It didn’t feel too bad at that point but I stopped doing the millies and moved on.

Superset:

Bench/Barbell Row

Bar x 20/20
2 x 30kg x 15/15

Superset:

EZ bar lying tricep extension (empty bar)/hammer curls (4kg)
2 x 20/20

Triset (one only):

Lat Pulldowns (25kg)/Straight arm pulldowns (10kg)/Scap pulldowns (40kg): 15/15/15

Did some handstands (probably a mistake, given the shoulder) and some stretching.

Going to slap my TENS on it in a while and take some ibuprofen. I fucking hope it’s just a niggle and not an injury.

Lateral Raises x 20
Dumbell Curls x 20

Avoided locking out on all these.

4 x Supserset:

Bench Press x 10
Bent Over Row x 10

4 x Triset:

RDLs x 10
Sumo Deadlift x 10
Bent over DB raises x 10

The Sumos bother my left ITB somewhat (even with no weight on the bar) so I’ll probably just give 'em a miss from now on. Always preferred conventional anyway.

4 x Superset:

EZ Bar Extension x 20
Hammer curls x 20

1 x Superset:

Lat Pulldowns (20kg) x 30
Straight(ish) Arm Pulldowns (10kg) x 20

830

About waking up way too early…welcome to my world! I’m one sleep disordered chick. Case in point, it’s 2:45 in the morning here.

I was wondering why my shoulder was hurting yesterday…until I remembered I’d just had a tetanus shot. I’m assuming that isn’t your problem? LOL!

That looks like a great workout up there, Cal. I like all your glute and upperbody warmup. I need to spend a little more time on that stuff.

831

I had a great run today (and so I should - yesterday I ate enough to feed a family of four. I’m not shitting you).

Woke up at 4.30am, but managed to go back to sleep for an hour. When I woke up again it was pissing with rain. Not the nice light summer stuff - this was hard. So I had a cuppa and waited…then another cuppa, and finally it stopped and the sun came out.

I’d determined that I was going to go back to Streatham Common (the one with the horrible hills and, usually, all the mud, only it’s been so dry lately the mud has gone) and see if I could get three laps of it without stopping. This was the one where I did the embarrassing cross country race last September where I had to stop and walk several times. Since then I’ve been back a few times with the intention of conquering those blasted hills.

Today I got all three laps without walking (the lack of mud helped, obviously), plus the there and back. Total was around 9.5 miles. I didn’t time myself but I felt strong.

The hills were hardest on the first lap, oddly enough - my breathing was like sawing wood - but obviously that cleared out my windpipe and I coped better second and third times around. My arse grumbled a lot. The sciatica doesn’t like hills much, but tough shit. Funny thing is, even after three laps, I felt strong and was able to do the homeward stretch (via Tooting Common) at a fair old clip by my standards.

I’m contemplating a 10K on the 5th June but just waiting to hear from my prodigal boyfriend as to whether I can go and visit him during that week, since it’s half term (schools get a week’s holiday halfway through each term, or semester as you yanks call it(. He’s waiting on job offer so he may have to start the job that week if he gets it. I’m crossing my fingers for him because he needs this badly.

832

With running, my legs can keep going but my breathing sucks…

does that getter as you run more often do you think?

I don’t plan on going on long runs forever. I’m just trying to work into a 1.5 mile just to say that I can.

Take care!!!

833

I’m the opposite. Heart and lungs can go all day (unless I’m doing sprints or hills, or hill sprints) but my legs get fatigued (although I’m talking 8 miles + before they start to tie up, and judging by today, I think I’ve pushed them beyond that now).

Cardiovascular fitness improves pretty quickly, so yes, you’ll be running 1.5 before you know it. I’ve built up a good level of cardiovascular fitness so even if I stopped running for six months I’d be able to go straight out and run three miles, no problem. However, high level aerobic conditioning is the first thing to go (that’s to say, how fast you can run a mile or how quickly you can recover during intervals and so forth).

Just got a call from his lordship and he got the job, which is terrific news for him as he’s been out of work for a good while now. But it does mean I don’t get to visit him in half term as he’ll be working. Still, I’m pleased he got a job finally. That’s the main thing.

834

Cal–sounds like your running is really picking up–and that you’re enjoying it. And you’re getting your rehab shit done–nice.

835

freakin volume upper body day.

the run sounded quite beautiful and yeah for lordship getting some income.

what is his feild of study?

836

Funny that your ITB niggles you on sumo deadlifts. Even at its worst, sumo never bothered my wonky knee. Bodies are so different.

I hope that the shoulder thing is just a momentary twinge. It really is SO unfair that stuff keeps breaking seriatum. Makes one think about throwing in the towel (but of course that’s impossible).

Your running is doing great! 9.5 miles is a strong, strong effort especially at a good clip.

837

Congrats to the boyfriend getting a job but too bad you can’t visit him now.
Your running makes me tired, the equivalent for me would be walking, I can walk for hours and not get bored. Have you seen “Yes Man”? that’s a Jim Carry movie, in it he takes a running/photography class, you have to take photos while running. lol

838

I always thought it would be nice to video a run but then I think of my shitty upload speed, heh. Of course I’d need a headcam, too.

Frenchie - He was a games journalist, like me (in fact we met on a press trip to Edinburgh) but then I went into games recruitment (and then teaching) and he went into development as a producer. He tried running his own company for a couple of years but it went under when his publisher wouldn’t pay up (which meant he couldn’t pay his staff). So he’s been looking for a producer role in another company for quite a few months now. Hopefully this one will be relatively stable.

Kimba - shoulder doesn’t feel great, to be honest, but it hurts in a different place than I’m used to and the brachialis doesn’t feel right. Thing is, this is the left arm - the brachialis tendonitis I’ve been suffering from is on the right. What’s up with my friggin’ brachialis muscles? Grrr.

839

wow, thats some volume. nice rehab work, training, running.

840

Leg day. I was a little concerned that my legs wouldn’t be able to hack a workout after my long hilly run yesterday, but they coped pretty well.

Warm-up (glute activation)

20 hypers
20 reverse hypers with V at top
20 clams (per leg)
20 single leg hip thrusters (foot on high bench) (per leg)
20 side leg raises (per leg)
20 bosu ball squat/sit up combo thingy

100 step-ups (50 per leg, alternating; step + 8 risers)

These fuckers don’t get any easier.

3 x 15 bulgarian split squats (per leg)

Added reps. I really felt these in my quads.

Box Squat (6 risers plus a 15kg plate)

Bar x 20
30kg x 10
5 x 40kg x 5 (added two sets)

The first couple of reps with the 40kg feel easy. The other three I’m gritting my teeth and grunting. I wonder how it goes from easy to hard in one rep? I really like the idea of doing more reps but I know my form breaks down pretty quickly so, for now, it’s easier to add sets.

Leg Extension
25kg x 10
27.5kg x 10
30kg x 10

Couldn’t face the suicide leg extensions so I just did them straight up. I suppose that’s because I did these after squats, rather than before. My quads were already pretty fried.

Single leg curls (Cybex kneeling leg curl machine)
20kg x 12
2 x 25kg x 8

Man those 25kg sets were hard!

I did some more handstand work (in spite of the dodgy shoulder) which went moderately well. I’m still a long way from being able to hold at vertical without a wall but I’m getting more control.

Stretching.

And that’s all she wrote.