new cycle

5/5/5 this week. Yesterday was OH press. S'posed to be 130, 140 and 145; but i did 135 instead of 130 'cuz i got to use bigger plates. Did some DB OHs supersetted with lateral flyes. Kinda want to add in some posterior delt work, but i don't want to screw my back up for deads. Not sure how to work that. Maybe i'll be more inspired next week. How's the 4th tier of hell treating you? Warmer there?

Reload

i think i ended up doing a total of one of the deload workouts last week. Mostly i slept poorly, ate poorly, and generally had no time. Friday the gym had an informal comp, but i didn't get to compete. i ran in after work to finish a route that'd been haunting me for a few days, but they'd already replaced everything and had all the bouldering areas closed for the comp. So i went in yesterday, and then again today with the eldest. It's a li'l overwhelming to go in just after they've replaced all the routes at the same time. It's like being a crack addict in a huge warehouse full o' free crack. It's hard to focus on where to start, so i flutter around like a butterfly kinda piddling with projects. Today was a little higher-quality pulling. The first begotten went with, so i was forced to take some lengthy rests--which i think worked out to be a good thing. i'd work my proj for 30 or 40 secs, then she'd need me to watch her for 30 or 40 burns. m' hands still feel arthritic, but it's 'cuz i pulled down some hardcore schmidt, and not 'cuz i pinballed to too many routes. Nothing has a rating on it yet, but i got some stiff problems out of the way. Be interesting to see what they call some of 'em. And i came out of it with a tic-list that's got me amped. i felt the texture on the finish hold of a problem that i'd venture so far as to say might have a 6 on it when the ratings get doled. i think i'll have that one on the next fresh day.

And 5/5/5 week ensues, inexorable as a freight train. i think i bumped my maxes up in everything but bench. It's gunna suck pow'rful, but i 'spect i'll be more of a man on the other side of it.

deload

Definitely a down week here. i'm only happy that nothing heavy is being demanded of me this week. Climbed yesterday. It...it hurt. One of those inexplicable days where normal things just hurt. There's a comp this friday, so they're gunna yank down most of my projectos whether i go to it or not. i thought i'd go tag this v5 i'd nurly got last time in. But from the first sloper i felt weak and torn down. It didn't go so well. i took several drops off the last move, and i managed to actually hurt my hip. And my shoulder. Like, i didn't do anything to 'em; they just hurt anyway. And i'd finish a burn and be huffing like i had emphysema. Then i failed to go in and do deads. i'd kinda like to go pick up some weight just to keep the ol' back limbered up, but i don't think it'll do any real harm if i skip it. i think i need to man up and go for a run or something.

bloodflow

Shoulders tonight. Put 100ish on the rack and did 4 sets of 10ish overhead press. Then some lateral flyes. Then i left. Never actually do these de-load weeks. But i wouldn't mind keeping an upward trajectory. i sorta feel bad when i go in and don't push hard.

But there's a comp at the climbgym this friday. i doubt i'l get to do it, but it could happen. And i'd love to have a good session of it if i get to go. Freshly resoled Miuras came back from the shop today, so i'm jonesing to have a go at some elusive projects. They're so sticky. And i can heel hook in 'em. i've ripped my foot out o' the Optimus Primes more times than i can count. we'll see.

Shrugging with Atlas

Thesis done. That's happy juice. A veritable world off'n the shoulders there. Now it's just trying not to look like too big an idiot and jump through all the remaining hoops to get to the end.

Friday i did bench. 5/3/1 day. It was a workout. 185, 210, and 235. i got 'em all, but it was a non-inspired session. Did 3 sets of 15 on dips 'stead of 4 x 10. They're getting nominally easier. i just started out with no triceps. Started doing some incline bench, but i nearly dropped the bar on myself so i stopped that. Did some flyes. Inclines are weird. Funny how different the movement is.

Saturday i climbed a while before heading to the dungeon and chaining myself to my paper. Climbing went just pretty darn well. Flashed a few 4s, kept missing the last move on a fun v5. i'm hoping to rectify that on wednesday. Vamos a ver. Ended up doing quite a lot of climbing for a good workout. Nicest bit was i kept hitting this shallow two-finger pocket on the 5 and i had no tendon pain. It's been a while since i've been able to pull pockets without fear. It'd be nice to declare my pingers healed for a while.

Deeds

Just for the record:

5/3/1 day on deads. 345, 395, and then got 3 with 440. So i tried 460 and got it for a new pr. i did this last cycle on a 460 max anyhow, so i might bump 'er up to 470 and see how 5/5/5 feels.

Props to Jack Lalane

Once i heard the Guru on television dissing the idea of warming up and stretching before working out. His thought was that lions don't stretch before they take off at 35mph chasing down a zebra, ergo the warmup is superfluous. That was just before he took off swimming across Manhattan Bay or some place hauling 70-some boats to commemorate his 70-somethingth birthday. i scoffed, with images of ruptured quads. But there is a tiny possibility i got it all wrong.

On saturday i got shut down on a v3. i was climbing like a septic platypus, but it was a v3. i worked the finish out finally, but i was too tired to send. That sort of failure haunts my dreams. So i sloped off to the gym last night after work with the intent of crushing and leaving. i untucked my shirt, cracked my knuckles, and send i did. But i didn't leave. i thought i'd ride the wave a li'l further. Retro-flashed a v4ish thing i'd totally floundered on last go round. Then re-sent a v5ish thing and another couple of v3s. Then i went downstairs and got that v6 again. All without any serious arm-swinging or a pre-route pullup. Maybe Jack had it right after all. But i didn't get to shoulders. Planning on doing that tonight. If it works out, i might have just bumbled onto a climbing cycle that actually fits into the iron schedule. That'd be just fine.

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Toozdy:

Yessiree, Bob! This just might work! That was an odd workout. 5/3/1 day on overhead press. So i did my 30 or so with just the bar to get the blood flowing, then i put 135 on to warm up. i totally spaced what lift i was doing. Cranked out 5, then looked at my paper. S'posed to be 120, 140, and 155. So i added on the five mo' lbs and did the set of 3. Then i figured i'd stay consistent and not max, 'cuz i wanted to rep out and make it hurt on the last set. Ended up getting 4 with the 155 (which did, indeed, hurt). Then i thought i'd try to max anyhow 'cuz why not?--i was already toasty and had nothing to lose. So i got 170 for a new pr. And i'm gunna say that was as heavy as i could'a gone right then. i got the bar halfway up, and stalled. Nearly lowered it, and i thought What are you doing?! It's nearly there. Just keep pushing you sad moron! and it crept up to the lockout. That's a pretty happy feeling. And thanks for the cheering there, bro. i needed that. :-)

weekend

Thurs i did nothing. At all. No, false! i played some Pokemon. Made some real progress there with my Emboar. He's like a level 54 now.

Friday i benched. Not exactly an inspired workout, but it felt heavy to me. 3/3/3 day with 200, 210, and 225. i got 2 with 225. Could'a used a spot on that last one. Then dips, flyes, triceps pressouts, and straight leg raises. i'm getting my abs back in better shape. Need to add more ab work though.

Saturday i climbed. Terrible session, numbers-wise. i finally worked all the moves out on a v3. Funny sport, (just to wax philosophical for a sec) but every climb is different, so it's hard to tell if i'm just having a sickly, weakaxed day, or if the climb is seriously sandbagged. i know i was climbing sub-par, and had flowering, fulminant tendonitis bilateral upper extremities, but if that's really a v3, that is one stiff v3. V3/4+. ish. i think if you dabble in v10, maybe there's no meaningful difference, but i wish they'd let fatter people write the rating on the tape. It kills my morale. Bleh. i'm planning on sneaking in for 15mins after work today to link that in my Earth shoes and blue jeans.

Today it's shoulders. Results ensue.

A bad place for diarrhea

Today it was 3/3/3 for back work. Started with deads. 370, 395, and 415. i got a 4th one with 415, sampled a fifth well up my shins, and decided it wasn't worth the prolapsed rectum. But i got a couple of guys in on it cheering me on. That was a nice touch. Then it was p'lups. Here the tendonitis was a real limiter. Basically got 3 with 90#, but it was sketchy enough to know 95 and 100 weren't gonna happen, so i dropped to 80, and 85. Still hurt. i climbed yesterday, so i don't feel too terrible about a poor performance through the biceps. Then did bent o'er BB rows: a set of 12 with 135, then 2 x 6 x 185. Then good-mornings: 4 x 12 x 115. Presently i don't show that i'm crippled whilst walking if i keep my spine balanced perfectly over my pelvis and take little steps.

Yesterday (as noted above) i clumb. This was a bad idea for many reasons. i did send that v6 again, but i couldn't get anything else. Very sad session, and it added greatly to my inflammation pool. Should'a just gone home. Anyhow, no more climbing planned 'til sat or sun.

Monday was shoulders. Good sesh, really. 3/3/3 day with 130, 140, and 145. Got 'em all. i threw around the idear of a fourth rep with 145, but as it got to the bottom of numma 3 my shoulder said Nopers. That'll 'bout do it. So i racked it. Then supersetted DB militaries and lateral DB raises. Quick session. Got the job done.

Now i'm working on my thesis, and'm generally up for doing anything but putting more effort into the daffy thing. i think i'll go have a beer now. That should make me feel better about accomplishing nothing.

Sports Psychology

Went climbing today with the singular goal of not being in the house for a while in order to regain a modicum of sanity. But i hadn't climbed since thursday (if a brutha could consider that climbing), so the mitts'd had a li'l time to re-knit. Paid off, 'cuz i got that v6 i'd been working on last session. Very hard to say if it's really v6, but i'm taking it. Kind of a one move problem, but the one move took me a whole buncha burns to 1) do, then 2) repeat/link through. Big pull-through from under a roof with the right hand on a pinch and the left foot way back under the roof toe-hooking the start. When i finally got it from the crux, it felt fairly easy, but then i could not repeat it for some reason. Finally i'd nearly given up on it 'cuz my hand was exhausted from the pinch, and i got distracted by some hoser waiting on a climb behind me, and suddenly i'd linked through the move. i snapped back to, and realized it was very important that i not fall on the finish moves. Kinda trippy, really. Funny how failing can be purely in yer head.

So to celebrate, i went upstairs to the cave, and got a v5 second try. That, i'm fairly confident, was not seriously a 5. Fatboy doesn't second-try 5s. But it sho was a nice feeling. And i was needing a nice feeling after flailing through the last week. Beautiful way to start the week.

a week back in it

The mantra of the week is Prophylactic Ibuprofening.

 i am a wrecked shell-- the empty hull of what i was before. i do think i've purged most of the poisons i took aboard over the last couple of weeks. But i'd lost a lot of fitness, and several different breeds of fitness. Being back home, it's been like being in a candy store. And i've basically climbed myself into a hole. Been trying to climb like i was climbing pre-Farmtown, and i'm not there yet. Power-wise, i'm in pretty good shape--no real loss there. Enduro-wise, i'm a fat guy trying to climb on li'l girl arms.

So the 5/5/5 deads took their toll. i went in yesterday for p'lups. S'posed to be 5/5/5 with 85, 90, and 95. i got 4.5 with 85 and couldn't lock out a fifth. So i dropped to 80, and failed solidly on number 4. So i went climbing instead. Took my harness with me to just do laps on routes, and i took homework so i could take long breaks 'tween burns. But i spent the lion's share of the session working all the moves out on a v6. Didn't link, but that'll go on a fresher day. i did do some routes, i was fried on a 5.10, and totally melted off of an 11. This was on autobelay, mind, so i weighed probably 10-15 lbs less.

Today it's bench. Results pending.

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Yeah...

...i am mostly inflamed tendons. i could'a used a spot--or at least someone yelling at me-- on bench today. 5/5/5 with 185, 200, and 210. i got 3 with 210, but i had to will it up there. i would definitely have tried the last two if i'd have had a spot. Also did some DB flyes, dips, and cable press-downs. i feel kinda ill now. i have that feeling of poisonous tendonitis starting at the deltoid tuberosity, wrapping 'round the inside of biceps,  spreading across the back of the forearms, and ending kinda at the base of the thumbs. Both arms. i can't figure out what to rub or stretch. It's just everywhere. Maybe some light jogging this weekend?

But that climb is so doable! It is like a drug.

New Year's DPI

Last friday i posted. i went to the climbgym that day to start a kind of downward spiral. The power steering went out on the van as i was pulling out of our street, but i drove it across town anyway. Kinda like steering a very old tractor. Good workout. But the power steering pump had seized up, and we had to replace it. So we spent big swaths of the next few days doing that. And a cylinder is out on the other van. That's why it kept dying on the way home from your place. Spent a load of time diagnosing that, and it looks like it'll only cost about 1,500bones to get 'er fixed (if we do it ourselves), so we're down a van 'til i'm gainfully employed. But at any rate, i climbed that friday, and the thursday before. i think i climbed on sunday--day 1 of the year. That was a li'l much, but i didn't feel like running. It's funny, but the worse i climb (or do anything else for that matter) the more i feel compelled to keep doing it 'til i get it right, and (of course) the worse i keep doing. So i went for over head presses monday: 5/5/5 day on the shiny new max. 120, 130, and 140. That stung a bit. i was squealing up the last two reps with 140 (which was my max a couple of cycles ago) and i didn't wanna break knee and drop under the weight, so i ended up subconsciously standing up on my tip-toes and dropping heels so's to drop through the 90deg point. Then i "supersetted" DB presses with 40s and lateral raises with 20s and 15s for 4 sets of 12ish. i put finger quotes around supersetted 'cuz i think by the end i was taking 3 or 4 min rests between 'em. Shoulders were torched. And i felt kinda dizzy and nauseous from the toxin release.

Yesterday i went back for some more unexpected left shoulder action at the climbgym. Wasn't climbing spectacularly, but i ran into some friends who gave me some motivation, and started working a v7 with 'em. my hands weren't even sorta healed for that, but i put down some good growls. Then we started making up routes, and when we stopped the tiny crimps and started on the heinous slopers the power juices started flowing again. i tried doing a direct finish out of this stupid hard v3, which would skip over half the holds on the route (and which i think would turn it into a stiff v5) and it required this crazy gaston onto a slopey crimp. i didn't snag the finish, but i tried it prob'ly 7 or 8 times for a sick left posterior delt meltdown. i think it'll go if i can heal. i'd like to set a symmetrical version of that move up on a system wall--be a ver' nice workout.

Today is 5/5/5 day on deads. i didn't get 460, but i think i'm'a recalculate my numbers off of 460 anyway...see if i can do the workout without crying. i'll post up when that's done. At any rate, it's nice to be near my gyms and at least looking at getting on a track even if i haven't figured that out completely yet. And i'm with you: i need to gun for <200lbs. i think taking 6 weeks off and loading up on weights has been beneficial, 'cuz i'm locking off one-arm hangs at 208, but i can't help but feel like things'd go better if i were to drop a stone.

On that note, i've stumbled accidentally onto an astonishing discovery: it turns out the less i drink, the better i seem to be able to stay motivated and the easier it is to lose weight. i ran outta sauce the other day, and i felt like a million bucks for the subsequent days.

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...And the deads

Did indeedy manage to go in for deads. Still trying to figure out how to break the workout up into a deads day and pullups, but it's basically working so far. Deads was 5/5/5 day, and i did 345, 370 and 400. (S'posed to be 395, but that's a gay place to end). On that last set i got four, tried the fifth (even had some dude cheering me a "C'mon man!), but i failed. My knees seriously were buckling. So i walked away for a few seconds-long vision quest, came back and saved face. That friggin' hurt. Then i did 4 sets of 12 with 115 on good-mornings. Oh, and 3 x 30 of straight leg raises. Then i went home for protein.

Praying for yous.