She feels the same way, hence why we’re not spending €20,000 on a party for 150 people. Which would have had to have been cancelled now, which would have REALLY put a downer on it!
I’m travelling from Northern Ireland to Scotland, so it’s only overseas in the literal sense. It could get to the stage where domestic UK travel is shut down, but that would be pretty bad.
Thanks!
Lá fhéile Phadraig shona daoibh, a chairde 
Weighed in at 233.4 today. New scales have a body fat measurement as well which I know will be fairly useless but it generously put me at 21.5%.
Gym officially closed now so looks like I’m doing the 10,000 Kettlebell Swing Challenge.
Went out to get the above today. Vest is only 10kg (22lb) but it should provide enough resistance for feet-elevated pushups to be effective. Kettlebell is 16kg (35lb) which should be hard but doable for the swings.
Also keeping up the running, which is pretty autoregulated so should be OK. We’re also well stocked up on food so recovery won’t be an issue.
I may really regret this but sure we’ll see how it goes.
It’s a pig, but like all Dan John challenges, incredibly satisfying once done.
Enjoy it.
I most assuredly will not.
@flappinit might have some advice to spare your grip.
Yeah I just finished reading through his log of it. I don’t think I’ll be hitting a 20m time for it, even with a KB 2/3 the weight he used.
“Don’t misread the program and do five days in a row” seems like his best advice, haha.
Do enough push ups every day and you might surprise yourself when you bench again !!
Down to 232.2 today.
1 mile in 10:44, which is sadly a PR.
Program I’m on has me increasing mileage 10-20% each week, with a minimum daily dose. This week the minimum is 0.95 miles but that’s silly so obviously I’m making it a mile. I’ve done one 3-miler and two singles this week now. I’m also meant to go really, really slowly - my 5K was 37m, so mission fucking accomplished there!
All done with a 16kg (35lb) KB.
Misc/Warmup
200 band pullaparts - figure it can’t hurt to give my rear delts some lovin’
Cluster 1
10 swings
1 chinup
15 swings
2 chinups
25 swings
3 chinups
50 swings (unbroken - surprised myself)
Cluster 2
10 swings
1 chinup
15 swings
2 chinups
25 swings
3 chinups
50 swings (unbroken - hands shaking)
Cluster 3
10 swings
1 chinup
15 swings
2 chinups (these aren’t easy anymore)
25 swings
3 chinups
50 swings (At this point, every downswing hurt as my inflamed forearms hit my thighs. Shocked this isn’t a cluster set or rest-paused yet.)
Cluster 4
10 swings
1 chinup (ow my forearms)
15 swings
2 chinups
25 swings
3 chinups (more like three singles at this stage)
50 swings (this was not fun)
Cluster 5
10 swings
1 chinup
15 swings
2 chinups
25 swings
3 chinups (2+1 really)
50 swings (ambitious aim was to get all 5 sets of 50 unbroken and I cannot believe I managed to)
Time: 51m (not counting pullaparts)
For the first one, I decided I wouldn’t go balls to the wall and I took the full prescribed rest periods - even the ones I didn’t need, like the 60s after the first swing/chinup pairing. This was both because I didn’t know how well I’d handle the session, and also because it gives me more room to smash the time by workout 20.
This was HARD, but a great lesson in pushing through limits. I massively do not want to do another 19 of these, though.
Fantastic work man.
@dagill2 thanks mate. It was no fun at all.
Up to 234.4 today but we had a big Thai takeaway last night so unsurprising. Fuelled today’s training nicely, though.
All done with a 16kg (35lb) KB.
Misc/Warmup
200 band pullaparts
Cluster 1
10 swings
1 single-arm KB press (each arm)
15 swings
2 single-arm KB press (each arm)
25 swings
3 single-arm KB press (each arm)
50 swings
Cluster 2
10 swings
1 single-arm KB press (each arm)
15 swings
2 single-arm KB press (each arm)
25 swings
3 single-arm KB press (each arm)
50 swings
Cluster 3
10 swings
1 single-arm KB press (each arm)
15 swings
2 single-arm KB press (each arm)
25 swings
3 single-arm KB press (each arm)
50 swings
Cluster 4
10 swings
1 single-arm KB press (each arm)
15 swings
2 single-arm KB press (each arm)
25 swings
3 single-arm KB press (each arm)
50 swings
Cluster 5
10 swings
1 single-arm KB press (each arm)
15 swings
2 single-arm KB press (each arm)
25 swings
3 single-arm KB press (each arm)
50 swings
Time: 39m (not counting pullaparts)
This was more of a “natural” time, in that I wasn’t going as fast as possible but I wasn’t taking full rest when I didn’t need to. The only concession to speed that I made was not resting between the 15 and 25-rep supersets in Cluster #5, because I wanted to hit sub-40.
Significantly easier than yesterday, thanks to dinner. Who knew that eating made training better?
We’ve postponed the family dinner we had planned for 4 April. My family are all self-isolating for two weeks because my mum has symptoms, and my grandparents won’t be able to travel for months.
The party we had planned is also postponed. We may end up cancelling it and eating the £300 deposit loss if nothing dies down sufficiently by August.
The actual wedding was planned for 28 March, and we were worried about getting to Scotland for it if travel became more restrictive. Fortunately, we’ve managed to move everything forward a week which means I squeezed in that workout in between packing because we’re off to get married this weekend instead. Happy days!
I’m banking on the hotel gym having a 16kg kettlebell. Doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
Big congratulations on the wedding my friend. Big day.
Shame that the world had to mess around with it.
On the other hand in 10 years you’ll look back and remember it very well.
Nice session smashing it, end goal sub 30 minutes.
Congratulations on getting married! Nice to celebrate something so lovely in these rather dark times.
Thanks @mortdk @Koestrizer.
We had to cut the trip shorter than we expected as the hotel/restaurant we planned to stay at wound up closing but we managed to get the ceremony we wanted and got lucky enough to have a private dining setup at another hotel. We also smashed several bottles of wine after the stress of rearranging everything (twice).
Some pics on Insta for those who have me there. Home now and self-isolating for two weeks as we left the island.
No weigh-in today. Downloaded a pair of apps to progress chinups and pressups. Hilariously both are made by a dev called Corona.
Medium Run
2 miles
22m26s
Not too awful
Max Chinups: 6 (fat PR; think I’ve done 8-10 at 10kg/22lbs less heavy)
Max Pressups: 20
Resuming the KB challenge tomorrow.
Congratulations man.
@dagill2 thanks mate.
Weighed in around 235 today, which isn’t bad going for a post-wedding weigh-in.
Taking advantage of our current fortnight of self-isolation and a likely UK-style lockdown to really focus on losing weight now; the kettlebell I’m using for Dan John’s challenge is a bit too light and besides that I’m just doing easy runs and bodyweight work, so recovery shouldn’t be much of an issue as I cut calories.
With our original wedding date and plans, we were going to have receptions and family dinners and a Paris holiday and extra time away that would have seen me restricted in what I could do diet/training-wise until the last week of April.
Now, I could theoretically be >10lbs lighter and much better-conditioned by then instead. Every cloud, etc.
50 Chinups Progression
2x
3x
2x
2x
3x
100 Pressups Progression
12x
14x
12x
12x
14x
All done with a 16kg (35lb) KB.
Cluster 1
10 swings
1 goblet squat
15 swings
2 goblet squat
25 swings
3 goblet squat
50 swings
Cluster 2
10 swings
1 goblet squat
15 swings
2 goblet squat
25 swings
3 goblet squat
50 swings
Cluster 3
10 swings
1 goblet squat
15 swings
2 goblet squat
25 swings
3 goblet squat
50 swings (dislike)
Cluster 4
10 swings
1 goblet squat
15 swings
2 goblet squat
25 swings
3 goblet squat
50 swings (started getting super hard around halfway through)
Cluster 5
10 swings
1 goblet squat
15 swings
2 goblet squat
25 swings
3 goblet squat
50 swings (hardest set yet)
Time: 38m
Swings: 1,500/10,000
This was the first workout where I did some supersets/shortened rest periods to get as fast as I could, but while I blew through clusters 1-3 in about 20m, I started getting really worn down in the last pair. Still a one-minute PB, though - not bad considering my legs never got a break.
If you fancy upping the challenge without increasing the weight, you could try focussing on pushing the “hardstyle” swings. Focus on the catch portion at the top and really pulling the bell back down to the hinge position at the bottom. It definitely ramps up the difficulty.
Quality getting the wedding and dining sorted out and done.
Deserved the extra bottles of wine Matt, hope you enjoyed it despite everything.
Hope the KB challenge will do you good.
Weighed in at 235.4 today. Would like to be sub-220 by the end of April, but I’ve never met a weight loss goal before so I’ve no reason to think that this time will be any different.
50 Chinups Progression
2x
3x
2x
2x
5x
Run
Hard, thanks to the KB session yesterday. Also our water has been out all morning (fixed now) so I’m sure dehydration played a part.
1.5 miles
Shade under 17m
Bleh
What’s the idea behind those progressions? You give yourself, for example, 5 sets to work up to 50 pullups and just try to improve over time til you hit 50?
