@LoRez Thanks man! At least it was transparent, haha.
It’s been a full day. Got in my morning push ups and squats, Valkyrie made me a perfect Father’s Day Breakfast, then I took out the yoke
Zercher carries, did 2 full runs (there and back) unloaded (160lbs), then 2 full runs with 250lbs, then 1 length (there, not back) with 340lbs, which is 60lbs off of comp weight. It was ROUGH, but I DID make it there. New variable introduced was that I found myself leaning back to counter-balance the weight, and it meant my elbow rubbed against my belt for the whole walk, so I road rashed on that when I was done. I may actually wear my elbow sleeves next time to avoid that. Lessons learned there. Finished off with 1 more full run of 250, and then 3 lengths unbroken of 160. Really feels good to get in the practice on this.
Immediately after that, family went on a 5.5 mile walk, and then we hit up Texas De Brazil for a big midday meal. I ate well, but NOT like an a-hole, which is probably the first time I’ve done that there. Came out very satiated and happy but not uncomfortably full.
Came home and mowed the lawn for an hour. Wanted to get in some post dinner walking and sweating and that answered the mail there.
Round 1: SSB Front Squat w/260lb (sets of 3 for the first 5 rounds, sets of 2 for last 5)
Round 2: 1x185lb log clean and push press (missed last round)
Round 3: 62.5lb NG chins (sets of 3 for first 5 rounds, sets of 2 for final 5)
ASSISTANCE
3x10 standing ab wheel
50 band pull aparts
16 axle shrugs w/strong bands
100 Poundstone Curls
50 band pushdowns w/light band
BREAKFAST
Moderate walk w/dog
Notes:
Heat index was the biggest factor in today’s training. I was legit sweating simply walking downstairs from the bedroom this morning, and my garage was like an oven. Yesterday we hit triple digits, and that heat doesn’t dissipate in the garage so early in the morning. I was able to wring out my clothes once the workout was over, and you can see how I’m just pouring sweat through it all. It’s why my assistance work was so paltry: once the main work was done, I was done. It is what I dig about this approach though: 30 minutes of hard work, then scale the assistance based off what I can do.
If you didn’t believe in miracles before, that first front squat should make you a believer, because if you saw how 205 went in my warm-ups you’d never believe it was possible. My lower back remains sufficiently fried, as that heavy yoke yesterday most likely torched it. Aside from that, all of the walking out in the sun had me pretty dehydrated, and though eating about 300g of protein in one sitting at Texas De Brazil was enjoyable, training the next day is always interesting, as I’m still feeling quite full by the time the morning shows up. But, on the plus side, I was mowing without my shirt yesterday and my Valkyrie told me “Only you could eat 1/3 of a cow and still look incredible”. That’s gotta be the most anabolic compliment I’ve ever received.
I am quite excited about that log performance. That’s 5lbs away from competition weight. My last comp, I never came close to comp weight in training, and come comp day I completely biffed. Considering I’m hitting the log each round AFTER heavy front squats, with no belt or elbow sleeves, and being on a timer, this bodes well. Being able to set myself up beforehand and have all my tools is going to make the event a lot more tolerable.
Dog and I barely dodged the rainstorm, which is what had us bring our walk in a little earlier. On this note, family is looking to welcome a boxer puppy into our tribe at the beginning of August, if all goes well. Will mean even more walking in my future. We may need to legit get a dog stroller to bring our pug along with us.
@FlatsFarmer I’m really excited to have a buddy for longer walks, and as my kid gets older, it’ll be nice to have a bigger dog at the house when they’re home alone.
@The_Myth She’ll be a wolf again come my next Cimmerian Chronicle… But these days she’s just a princess, haha.
That’s awesome. We love boxers at our house, we’ve had 3 or 4 in a row now. Going on walks and hanging around super close with people are their favorites things to do. It should be a great fit.
@Flatsfarmer We’re excited for sure. We’ve only ever had pugs. I had a Dalmatian growing up, and my grandpa had Brazilian Mastiffs that were just terrifying, but I’ve never really had anything sporting like this.
AM WORKOUT (0410 wake up via alarm)
PHYREXIAN DREADNOUGHT Week 3, Workout 2 (out of sequence)
30 minute EMOM
Round 1: 3x205 axle zercher squat from floor
Round 2: 3x110lb weighted dip
Round 3: 62.5lb weighted chin (2 on the first round, 3 on the second, then 2 with 2 bodyweight for remainder of workout)
Repeat
12x405 low handle trap bar lift (had to reset on rep 7 due to handles going forward
Ran the workouts two days in a row due to schedule. Valkyrie and I both get Juneteenth off, and I want to be able to sleep in with her tomorrow rather than get up at o’dark stupid on a day off, so this afforded me that opportunity. Thankfully, the movements are varied enough that there wasn’t a significant fatigue variable to mitigate.
Zerchers were much smoother this time. Picking up the skill of the lift. In turn, I most likely could have gone heavier than just a 5lb increase, but this may bode well from a recovery standpoint. It was reflected in the post EMOM trap bar pull, because I was significantly less fatigued and far more powerful on that. Had I not needed to reset on rep 7, I imagine I would have seen even more reps there, but even the warm-ups felt better this time around. I DID have to work around the road rash I have on both elbows: it might be worth my consideration to get some loose elbow sleeves.
On the topic of elbow sleeves, I didn’t use any for the dips. Part of that was logistics, as it would have eaten into too much time in the EMOM, but I also know taking them off and putting them on a bunch of times would be like putting my open wound through a cheese grater. No issues to speak of training without them though: still came through strong. Once again: just a big fan of weighted dips.
Chins were struggling today, so came up with the idea to chase the weighted work with unweighted work just to get in a little extra volume. In general, my chins just aren’t what they used to be: I probably need to go through a block where I prioritize them.
Decent enough assistance work. I wasn’t totally wasted, but still pretty wiped out training in the heat. Getting those 35 GHRs was hard fought.
First of 3 sparring nights in Tang Soo Do tonight. Should be a decent workout. As my Valkyrie improves, I get to open up more and try out new tricks.
Apparently Chaos remains the plan, because I signed up for another grappling competition. 31 Aug, men’s white belt (no longer a novice) 171-185lb division. I do have up to one month before the comp to cancel, if something comes up, but this seems exciting.
Awesome day. Slept in, Valkyrie made me a light breakfast of 3 fried eggs and a grilled chicken patty, went to the “Amazing Pizza Machine”, which is a pizza buffet/arcade/funcenter with the family and DIDN’T eat like an a-hole (stuck with the hardboiled eggs at the salad bar and a few bits of meat and cheese), got in a fair amount of steps while I was there, then we got to Tang Soo Do and I ended up at the Dojang sparring champion of the night, narrowly edging out the Valkyrie in a sudden death square off, scoring with a combination hook kick and roundhouse to the head. We hugged afterwards and thanked each other for a great match. Also got to free spar the senior student, and in a similar way we thanked each other after the match…no hugging here.
Also some highlights: out shopping today and my kiddo found this for me…I was so touched
In general, I’m really just feeling awesome. More aggressive, more alive, more myself, more excited. I wonder if it’s related to bringing down the food intake and focusing on meat vs dairy. The dairy was meeting a purpose in getting me more energy to build on DoggCrapp, but perhaps there’s a lesson to be taken from there.
@taylortooswift Knowing you’re out at sea right now, I imagine that killing would look a little like this
But get yourself to Omaha sometime and we’ll make it happen!
…the food that is. Please don’t stab me.
@kleinhound Quite the high praise from an unkillable one like yourself! I used to play that song while training in my garage in the summer, as the heat index creeped into the triple digits. Helped center me, haha.
AM WORKOUT (0410 wake up via alarm)
Prowler
Bear crawl down, low handle back unloaded
Same w/50lbs loaded
Bear crawl down, high handle back w/90lb loaded
Same with 140lb loaded
Same unloaded
90x230lb reverse hyper
BREAKFAST
2-ish mile walk w/dog
Notes:
I actually have the day off work, but the Valkyrie didn’t, but she DOES get to telework, so I got in my training at the usual time so I could just hang out with her at home. And since I didn’t do my hypers yesterday, I slotted them in here. Really a pretty solid training effort. The prowler workout was 45 minutes total, resting 2 minutes between rounds.
Tried to really focus on short, choppy steps with my feet pointing forward and my toes digging in with the prowler. Want this to carry over to the truck pull as much as I can. The bear crawling is doing an excellent job in reinforcing keeping my hips and shoulders low, and it’s really just an excellent way to make prowler work even more miserable.
Conditioning is coming back quite quickly, which is nice, and to be expected. Outside of how well I felt on the prowler and my ability to push beyond discomfort, I also saw it last night at Tang Soo Do, as I just kept doing round after round of sparring, whereas in previous weeks I was feeling uncharacteristically fatigued.
Still need to fill my throwbag. I have everything I need to accomplish that…except for the will to sit down and do it apparently. But ideally I’ll have it ready for this weekend so I can get in some reps.
Despite being leaner, eating less and feeling better, my weight was up rather substantially this morning at 82.8kg. I DID feast at Texas de Brazil on father’s day, and yesterday’s buffet fair was most likely salt laden, so I’m not going to freak out and attempt to course correct. I’m sticking with the protocol and assuming that this is the effect of a sodium bloat. I have the tools I need to make 181 on 13 Jul if it comes down to that, but ideally I can just cruise there. Which, on that note, our plans for a cruise at the end of July fell through, which gives me less incentive to get stupid lean, but in general I’m enjoying this period of leaning out. I feel like it will put me in a good place to gain during the fall. But I still intend to enjoy the BBQ season as well: just means I don’t need to gorge myself at lunches.
Because we ducked out of TSD on Tuesday due to a storm, last night was night 1 of 3 for sparring. We’ll do another night tonight, and then a morning session on Saturday to get in our 3 this week. Mrs. and I got complimented on our match last night by the senior black belt: held up as an example of a strong defense.
I am not sure what it means to be a texture guy honestly. The octopus was chewy for sure. Egg whites not so much. I eat with chopsticks, so I was having individual pieces, rather than chewing forkfulls.
