Five days (weekend included) and counting...

Ran a half hour today. i'm still fat and slow, but i did shave 20 or 30 secs off of tuesday's time. If i can just shave 20 seconds off of each run, it won't be long 'til i'm clicking off 6 minute miles. :-)

Every girl is capable of murder....if you herd her

i used to think hip-hop was just mildly gay: as in Hey now, i do not think that was a well though-out lyric. In fact, i think maybe he/she just strung those words together 'cuz they rhyme. But having found it to be the only genre of music folks in this hemisphere can apparently imagine working out to, and having as such had it inflicted on me until i actually know most of the words to most of the songs, i now think it's either written by a random theme generator (as in, pick a theme--say, "her ass vs. my work ethic"-- and it sews together the 50 or so obligatory emotion-words with which that theme might be cathected) or else it's composed by IT, that central brain thing from "A Wrinkle in Time."

And being a kind of fan of Country and certain breeds of Rock, i realize that every genre has its ignorant, jingoistic, and just plain poorly-thought-out songs. I just have yet to run across a Hip-Hop song that isn't. i can imagine a song that isn't about the singer's balls or self-deification; only i haven't run across one yet. And how do you work out to that crap with a straight face? i mean, even if you like it, how to you work out to it? i like some Country, but i can't work out to it.

Anyhow. Today was deads/back. G inspired me with talk of density, etc, so i tore it up pretty good, imho. 5/5/5 day again on deads. Because i failed to move a heavier bar last cycle, i left my percents based on 480. So it was 360, 385, and 410. Then 20 p'lups. Then BB rows: 12 x 135, then 2 x 5 x 185. Then Face pulls: 4 x 10ish with some weight. Then Good Mornings: 4 x 12 x 115. Then DB rows: 10 x 80 (each side), 6 x 90, and 8 x 90. Right side's definitely a bit stronger than the left on these. Then DB shrugs: 3 or 4 sets of 10 with 100s, 'cuz they don't have any bigger DBs.

i've gotten used to doing deads in pants in the cold weather 'cuz i leave with skin on my shins, but it was a bad idear today. Way too hot. But the workout felt a bit easier than last go-round, so i've hope i might edge a li'l mo' iron on the bar here in a few weeks. Less than a week to go here. :)

acidote

You'll be proud to know that i ran for 31mins this evening. Okay....ok. Ran might be something of hyperbole. But i shuffled along with my heart running like a rusty sewing machine for 31mins. It's funny: in my early twenties when i still had serious thoughts of racing elite, i never thought old age would happen like this. i always thought i'd eventually drop dead from an embolic something-or-other; but i never thought there'd be a day when i'd be afraid of running. But that SUCKED, and my fears were well-warranted. Map says it was 1.5 mi out, so i was right at 10min miles.

i went to the doc yesterday fo' to acquire some labs. Plannin' on ascertainin' my CBC, 7 and lipids. See if this diet thing is killing me. But more germane, i weighed in at 209. i have just ballooned over the last couple of months. My diet just is outta control. And i hardly know why. i think mostly i just haven't been doing anything aerobic. But i definitely also have been drinking too much and eating too much cheese and fattening crap. We'll see: less than a week of this ob/gyn shadoodoo left. Mebbe things'll smoothe out some then.

Eet Mor Chikin!

So i switched gyms today for OH press. Very small place...kinda ghetto; but i sorta like it. Can't say what, exactly, i liked about it. i guess most of the people i was ignoring or otherwise pushing past were not altogether rude pricks. Lots of Fake Lat syndrome going on though. And a Zumba class happening in the room directly adjacent to the weights. And a continuous stream of hip-hop dance. Huh. Maybe that's what i liked about it: i've never finished a workout that fast, nor with that density. There's not a particularly good place to do something like OH press. There is a power rack, but some dude was doing knee raises from the bar on top. So i dragged a bar off of some bench (before anyone could notice that i'd stolen their bar) and i just cleaned the bar in the middle of an aisle trying hard not to hit the odd machine in front of me or trip o'er the bench just behind. As far as i know they don't have any 35lb plates, so i just started with 135 cuz it was easier. 5/5/5 day, then, with 135, 140 and 145. Went just fine. Then supersetted 4 sets of 12 on DB militaries with 40s and lateral raises with 20s or so. And i walked to the gym and back 'cuz it was a mighty pretty day. i'm gunna make a point henceforth to miss the prime-time zoo. There was even some dude's li'l kid running around. Cute kid, but that's nerve-wracking.

On another note, here's an interesting article: http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/760275?src=cmemp
i think this article left some very vague, loose ends begging some questions, but there're some good points in, and some interesting thoughts. Tawk amongst ya'selves. Discuss!

bench again

After nearly 3 weeks off of bench, i made myself go in yesterday. Did chest and abs. 3/3/3 day on bench. It was 200, 210 and 225. Only i did 5 with 200, and missed the last rep with 225. Not as bad as i deserved, i'd reckon. Did some dips, and DB flyes too. Abs was sad. Been a couple of weeks on those as well. Straight leg raises for 1 x 30 and one with 20ish. Then a couple sets of 20 hanging crunches and a couple sets of 20 on each side of DB oblique thingies with a 70. i need to stay on that better. The workout just always falls on a friday, and i go home (usually) soon's i can on friday afternoon. But it wasn't too bad, for all that. And it was a nice day, so i walked the couple of miles to the gym. Prob'ly won't get anything in today, but hopefully i can pull off a nice climb sesh this weekend sometime. It was deload week, so hopefully i'll be nice and healed. Peace.

holla' back

Deload week. Still. i do believe this is the first deload week wherein i've actually done anything weight-lifty at all. Pretty good back workout today. Deads first: 2 x 10 with 225, then 2 x 10 with 315. No belt and i tried the overhand grip thing, but my hands started unraveling after 3 reps or so with 315, so i switched to the staggered grip. And i didn't take chalk in for some reason. Them there hurt: felt like my spine was coming unhinged toward the end. Then did bent over BB rows: 135 x 12, then 2 x 6 with 185. Then good-mornings: 4 x 12 with 115. Then a set of 20 pullups with bw. (i ain't getting any skinnier, it turns out.) Then one-arm DB rows. Hadn't done those in a while-e-o. Umm, think it was 12 with 70, then 2 x 8 with 80. Left arm wasn't feeling quite as spry as my right. But i like those things. i'm gunna hafta add 'em back in. Then 4ish sets of face pulls with increasingly heavy random amounts of weight. Those are tricky. i like the motion, but the only way i can get the angle right is to so 'em standing up. Only then i have to lean back to not pull myself forward--which tends to change the angle. The stoopid seated row machine doesn't adjust, and the angle of pull's so low, it doesn't work what i want to work. Anyhow: still a pretty fine workout.

CoR

Monay I went in for shoulders. Deload week, so it was boring. Did 4 or 5 sets of 10 on OH press: something like 95, 105, then 2 or 3 with 115. Then I did a set of 20 pullups, and generally walked to the water fountain a lot so I could flex my neck muscles for the hot chicks. I may have also done some toe touches and arm swingy things. I do recall clearly trying to get my mojo on to some song from the Twilight soundtrack and wanting to break my teeth on the bar. But the last time I went to the desk to request a change in music, the chick went to her secret lair and switched it to an all-British-80's-band station. Amazing what you can dredge up with satellite radio.

Yesterday I went to city of rocks for some bouldering action. There are very few places I've been where I just felt overwhelmed and all about taking pictures, but that place was seriously cool. I ended up doing very little bouldering, cuz many of the possible problems were very highball, and nearly nothing was developed. I suppose the place was a volcanic bubble like Hueco. The ground is all a plate of rock, and the boulders sorta just rise up outta the floor. Imagine this 30 foot thick plate of lava with "boulders" carved out of it by the wind. So lots of the rocks were more like sculptures than fallen chunks of mountain. And not a lot of holds, oddly. Love to go back with a posse and more pads. Be a good time.

Hemarthrosis

So i ended up with an extended, lazy weekend. i ended up doing just almost nothing at all. But i did climb on the way outta town today. i've had a headache and a near-anaphylactic reaction to the whole world going on for the prior 4 days or so. Today was the first day i felt vaguely human. so i thought i'd put it to the test. Actually felt pretty strong. i got that v5 i nurly got on thursday. That was very encouraging. One of those sends (and, in the end, sessions) where it didn't matter so much whether my footwork sucked or that all the holds were crappy crimps; i left finger divots pressed in the plastic and there was no way i was gonna fall. Very cool feeling. Then i went up and worked on the project. i've developed an approach to the thing. i start at the final crux (which is this really big, very precise throw under the ceiling) and make sure my head and hands can handle that ('cuz if they aren't there for the end, what's the point of starting it?) Then i start working backwards from that point. There was a single move before that point that i had not yet stuck. And honestly i wasn't sure i was strong enough to stick it. But i stuck the crux to the finish 'til i felt good about that bit. then i started working that middle piece: directional, not-too-savory left hand high; no left foot; horrible right foot; then the right hand moves from an ankle-high crimp to an above-the-head flat pinch. Every single time i stick that pinch, my feet cut and i rock off the holds before i can swing back in to the footholds. But i stuck it today. It was like my right hand somehow got stronger since thursday. And i linked through to the finish. i didn't manage to link from the start. Too tired. But i got the wonkiest, hardest bit of climbing. Now i absolutely know it'll go. i'm super psyched to get in fresh and on. i mean, sending that piece of climbing was this huge victory. i hopped off the finish pumping my fist like i'd sent. And for sure, that piece of climbing was very stiff v5.

Somewhere along the way i also managed to hurt my middle finger. i thought maybe i had bled into the joint because it was taped. But i think i damaged a collateral ligament. i'm hoping that heals by thursday, 'cuz i found a really good-looking place to boulder down here, and i brought the crash pad with me. Right then.

deads. stale. obese.

5/3/1 day on deads yesterday on m' lunch break. i think it was 380, 410, and 460. i tried a double with 460, but it didn't happen. Then i tried for a new max with 480, and that also was an epic fail. i was glad to finish the prescribed sets, but i was hoping for better than that. But i have a culprit. i pulled a hamstring last week doing deads, and it was still bugging me a lot. So i don't feel too discouraged. Didn't do any of the rest of the workout cuz i was outta time and left for home after work.

Today i climbed. Started off as a "Mehh" kind of session, but it improved. Actually did a bunch of climbing. i tried my project v6, which is...very arm and core dependent. i'm gonna say the deads yesterday did not contribute in a positive manner to this particular climb. i gave it a few burns and gave up. And the vibe was very thursday afternoonish. Lots of n00bs in tennis shoes. It makes me nervous to climb around folks who don't know what they're doing. Nothing snobbish about it; but they'll walk right under you and never know how close to death they came. This group of teenage guys was upstairs and had a never-ending assembly line going on this v1, taking up the entire wall. So i squeezed in and got on this very hard-looking not-terribly-hard problem that i had done before. Got me a "Whoa. That's strong. i'm going downstairs." Then i had the whole cave to myself. And i was happy. That kind of arrogant crap never works for me.

Went downstairs and watched this guy working on a 5+. Then i flashed it. i think that might be the first time i've flashed v5. So i question the plussiness of that one. But i'll take it. Then i came terribly close to getting another 5. Got one hand on the finish, but my feet popped before i could match. So it ended up not being a bad session.

blown keg

Did OH press for 5/3/1 day today. 130, 145, and 165. i got 'em all, then tried (twice) for a new max at 175, but i missed. i think it went much better than the last cycle, but i'm thinking i've hit a sort of plateau here. And that bums me out. i mean, i realize you can't just keep making gains to yer max on every workout every four weeks indefinitely. But i had a pretty good run there, and i kinda got used to the feeling. So i've decided instead of changing the workout up and making it more complex just to make small gains, i'll just totally decondition for the next six or eight months and start over. That way, rather than ever having to deal with the tedium of crossing the mesa, i'll constantly experience ultra-steep gains up to a sort of pinnacle and then BASE jump off the other side.

Speaking of which, i have a consult on thurs to go under the knife. And how could that not be fun?

pec free

i didn't get to do chest on fri 'fore i left for home. Then i didn't get to do it saturday either. So i've decided to leave it till next week, or else it'd mess with OH presses tomorrow. i did stop by the climbgym on the way outta town, just to see what'd happen. Wasn't climbing badly, but i can tell that once a week is not enough to keep the meat hooks strong.

verylongsigh

i got on my project, and did indeed manage to repeat the "crux". i think i've got that ironed out and wired now. But i still can't stick this one stinking flippin' stoopid move. You hafta throw for this pinch off of two bad feet and a bad left hand. i can hang the pinch, you see. But then my feet cut and i squidge off the crappy thing at apogee every fraggin' time! It is becoming a study on the descent into madness. i friggin' know i can hang that move, and i pop every. flippin'. time.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I TOTALLY KNOW I CAN HANG THAT FRICKIN' MOVE!(!)

It's a matter of going in calm and strong and awake. ijustknowitis.

Hey, we should do one of these climbing festivals one of these times. That'd be a party. Do some tough mudders or so, and meet up for Hueco Tanks' Rock Rodeo next year. That'd be one sick time. There's a road trip a gnawing at my soul, homies. i think we're about due one. Can i get an amen?

pummeled

i had a hard time getting outta bed this morning. i had a hard time bathing my further-distal appendages. i had a hard time securing my shoes on my feet. My back felt exactly as it tends to the day after a hard deadlifting session. Only i hadn't done that session yet. My spine felt compressed. Anyhow, i moseyed in to where i was s'posed to work today, and the FNP i was to work with was off for the day. Yay for the home team!! So i moseyed right back home and thought seriously about doing my impending back workout. Then i was struck with an epiphany: why not walk to the gym? Maybe it'd loosen m' back up a bit. So i did. Packed the Inzer and chalk into my backpack and took advantage of a sunny breezy day for the walk.

It was 3/3/3 day on deads. Umm: 385, 410, and 435. But i had to seriously convince myself i was gunna look like a little girl if i didn't. (i don't know whom, just exactly, for i'd look like such; only i knew i didn't wanna post up that i'd bailed.) It hurt a ton, and i think i might have actually damaged a hamstring. But once again what hurt the most was the air in my chest. i can't seem to figure that one out. When that's not there, i feel like a monster. But when i get air --i dunno-- trapped in my chest? trachea? esophagus? it hurts like hell. And that sucks. Anyhow, i otherwise finished out with pretty much the same workout as last week, only i didn't do all the good mornings 'cuz they were further damaging my hamstring.

Then i peered out the window and it looked like i had a view from inside a submarine in a toilet full of diarrhea flushing around me. i walked the mile and a half or so back in maybe a 35mph sandstorm.  That out-sucked the workout, so i guess i have that to be thankful for. Anyways, i gots to modify my sleeping arrangement or i'm going to be an invalid soon. i'm happy to have that workout over with.

Sacacorchos

Yesterday i did OH press/ shoulders. 3/3/3 day, it was: 140, 145, and 155. Didn't get any extras, but i got 'em all locked. Then did super-sets of DB militaries (with 40s) and lateral raises (with my finger nails).

Today i failed to run. But i got closer. i found last night (and much to my chagrin) that there is no corkscrew at this casa. So i walked the 2 miles to wal-mart for a corkscrew. Very motivating. Maybe not yer typical motivation for a constitutional, but it worked. i even avoided the temptation to plug in some grizzly for the occasion. And i saw a couple out for a jog along my route, so i'm building confidence.

Tomorrow it's deads/ back. Should be a really good time.

-------------------------------------------------------
so presently 

it's 10:41, and my NP preceptor didn't come in to work today. so i'm looking down the barrel of back work. This makes me want to cry a li'l. i sleep on something akin to a squishy slab of plywood. And my back currently feel fused. i mean, i feel as though i just finished deads, and-- Lo!-- i'm 'bout to go get started. This bodeth not well.

Creaky

So i came in the door last night and Soren saw me and puked a few times. Effortless projectile...duodenal atresia style. (Probl'y a li'l late for that). i think all of 'em managed to hurk at some point yesterday/ last night. Made for a hectic homecoming.

Worked chest over lunch yesterday. Didn't have a ton of time, so it was truncated. But i got bench in for 5/5/5 day. Think it was 185, 200 and 210. Once again, i didn't feel super with it, but i got all the reps--even if i racked it on the last set and had to rest a sec to finish. i'm getting fat. Not exactly a runner-friendly town, methinks. i might have to resort to treadmilling. But i'm way outta shape. Had to seriously suck it in to get my belt buckled in the third holes. That's sad. Let's see: also did i think 4 sets of 10 dips. Then i left. Today i feel like an eighty year old. Worked abs a couple of days ago, and you'd think i hadn't used my abdominal wall for righting myself outta bed in 3 months. Absolutely pathetic. Today i'm having trouble moving. i think i'm gunna try climbing. Not looking for a powerful day out there, but i gots to move the diarthrodials. i really have been wondering if i'm coming down with something, or if i'm just exhausted. Anyway, let's see how a little climbing feels. At least my finger joints have had a desperately-needed week off.

---------------------------------------
And then...

So climbing didn't go so badly. i put a few burns in on my v6 proj, and couldn't repeat the crux moves, but i did get a new "4+" that'd tossed me last time in, and several other 4s. My hands definitely benefited from the week off; my gut definitely picked up some gravitons. And i'm also gonna say the murderous back work and ab work didn't exactly contribute to the monster factor whilst climbin'. But if i can find a way to use this not-climbing time to also lose some lard and rest constructively, that project might just fall. And that'd be just fine.

Hurt

Yesterday I did back. That was nearly crippling. 5/5/5 day on deads. That was 360, 380, and 410. I think I nearly tore open my lower esophageal sphincter on the last two reps. Seems like the last cycle or two, i've been ending up with 405 on these, and it didn't feel that bad. But this made me hurt for it. Took some introspection and soul-searching to not quit after number 3. I just didn't have much pain tolerance. Then I did bent over bb rows, face pulls,Oh, and weighted pullups. Haven't done those in a coon's age. I've lost some serious strength on those. But every time I do'em I get like a crazy tendonitis in my brachioradialis. Can't seem to get over it. And good-mornings.

Today i did abs. Even less pain tolerance. Hanging leg raises, side bends with a db, some crunches. Bleh. Not that it was a terrible workout--i just had no strength and sad, sad pain tolerance. Hopefully i'll sleep some before next week.

And i get to go home tomorrow. Pretty amped about that. Peace.