shoulders

5/3/1 day on OH press. Think it was 120, 135, and 155. Got a double with 155. Tried for a new max with 165, but it didn't happen. i'm gunna blame it on the gay music and general lack of focus. Deads are coming like a freight train, and i want a new max. i can smell it. i'm concentrating on knitting my erector spinae back together as i write. Just read an article on deadlift, and i'm focusing on forgetting all that and ripping a quarter ton off the floor. (Or, you know, closer to a quarter ton than i've yet locked out).

Then i swam some. Now to sleep. Peace.

Friday last

Did a bench workout on friday. It was 5/5/5 day on bench, which i usually dread. i went up a modicum in weight, 'cuz of the shiny new max. i historically fail on 5/5/5 day with lighter weight, so i had low expectations. But i got 'em all. It was 180, 190, and 200. Not horrible for a guy with no pectoral muscles. Then I did some accessory back work. Then i swam a bit. Then i drove home 'cuz my very nice preceptor gave me the weekend off. Very nice to make it home for the anniversary. Breath of oxygen, that was.

i'm hoping for some new PRs this coming week. i'm really looking forward to deads. Really, really looking forward to it.

Peace to you on your monday. :)

Deads

Didn't get off work till 1230 this morning, but I snuck away for an hour to do deads. 3/3/3 day. Got'em all with 360, 385, and 405. Little wobbly on the last rep, but not too bad. Didn't have time for the rest of the workout. But that was the important bit.

P'lups

Did p'lups yesterday evening. 3/3/3 day with 90, 95, and 100. Can't say I really locked out that last rep with 100, but it wasn't a bad workout. Didn't get of work till 2000, and has to be in bed by 2200, so that's all I did. Sposed to do deads tonight, so I'll hopefully finish the back work today.

lull

i, uh, got my hangboards put up today finally. That was something. It was 7 degrees here when i left for work. Don't know how hot it was when i put the boards up this "evening" (at 1600), but i couldn't feel my hands if i took off my gloves for more than a few seconds. It doesn't take long to get enough of that kind of winter. i realize it gets much colder in, say, north dakota; but i can't for the life of me think why a human would intentionally go to or remain in such a place. i didn't go to the pool today 'cuz i am depressed.

i found out i'm on call this weekend, so it's somewhat doubtful that i'll get to go home. Which sucks, 'cuz it's our anniversary. And it'll have been three weeks since i've seen my family if i don't go. i want to break something just at the moment. And the really amusing part is, i probably won't get called in even if i stay. Veeeeery bummed. Mighty bummed. Super bummed.

But there's no damaging myself too badly over it: it's pullups tomorrow. And i can't afford the proper poison anyway. Guess i'll stay healthy. Ish. Healthy and enraged. bleh.

Weekend, shoulders

See here...ummm, swam on saturday and sunday. Think I got over 1,000 units in on one of those days. Yesterday I did OH press. 3/3/3 day, it was. I felt guilty for rounding down, so I didn't. Think it worked out to be 130, 140, and 145. Got four with 145 though. That was a nice feeling. Then superSetted db militaries and lateral raises. Getting a touch stronger at those. Then I swam. Swimming after shoulders is a really really enjoyable experience. Was just getting in to get some blood flowing, but a bunch of other people came in and got my competitive juices flowing and it turned into a 12,000m sprint. That was just refreshing.

Portal Venous Shunting

Going home is looking a li'l bit bleak for the snowy weekend, and i've got a ton of time-consuming tick marks to put in li'l meaningless boxes for school with which to occupy it. So instead i'm gun' post up on the week's workouts.

Seems like i got as far as tuesday with the last post. So wednesday, i did p'lups. Got a new max with 110 the week before, so that tweaked my workouts in a dreadful direction for 5/5/5 day. And the cheap, naxty chinese food at lunch didn't help at all. It was supposed to be 85, 90, and 95lbs. i got 'em all with 85, but there was an ill portent--some je ne sais quios about the set. Maybe it was the gangrene swelling in my gut...but i'll get to that. i got through 4 with 90 before i had to drop and jump back on. Didn't even bother with 95. i just snagged another 3 with 90, then cheated up 2 more to make 3 sets of 5. i guess i didn't feel bad about it seeing as my one rep max was 100# three weeks prior. But i also didn't feel super psyched. It's also funny to think i pretty surely gained 4 or 5 lbs over the holiday since i'd fetched that shiny new max.

Anyhow, then i had the genius idea that i'd just combine that with a 5/5/5 day of deads. (This is where the pneumoperitoneum became important.) Thing is, i don't wanna lose ground on deads or p'lups, so it seems like a fair enough combo, seeing as they don't precisely work against one another. Did a nice long workup, then strapped on the belt for the pain. i think i got the first set with 340 when i got something like air trapped in my chest. Hurt like hell, and i couldn't belch. Figured i'd either dissected an aneurysm, or given me new esophageal varices. Gave it a few minutes and tried the second set with 360, and i think i got one before i let 'er go and went home in defeat. Could not get the air out of my whatever. Funny thing was that the weight didn't seem that bad; just hurt to bear down in the Inzer.

So i went back yesterday to see if i could get 'em sans the Broccoli Beef and sparkling mineral water. And they went like butta' --5/5/5 with 340, 360, and 385. In fact, it didn't feel nearly as hard as i remember it feeling last time. Seems like last time i did the 5/5/5 day with those weights i nearly blew an eyeball out of my skull, and i couldn't hear correctly for a few days. And this made me kinda ecstatic because i tweaked my low back something mildly heinous last week doing SL deads--wasn't a bit sure 5/5/5 day was gonna be a go. So i'm visualizing a new pr in the future. Finished that off with bent o'er BB rows: 1 x 10 x 135, then 2 x 6 x 185. i think that's all i did 'cuz i was outta time.

Today i did chest n triceps. This was 5/3/1 day because i missed a day of it a few weeks ago. Called for 5 x 175, 3 x 200, then 1 with 220; but i made it 225 'cuz the two big plates look cooler. That went up easily enough, so i put 10 more on and got a new max of 235. Tried with 240, but failed. And i feel like it was a purely mental fail. Whatever J Lo song they had cranked up on "Defined TV" not only failed to do it for me, but actually sucked the motive force right outta my nostrils. Ah well: it's a new max after many, many months of no forward progress whatsoever. Finished this up with dips and some triceps press outs. Wanted to do flys, but absolutely every bench was taken. So i did straight leg raises instead. Those hurt, so i swam. And that was nice.

Oh, and there were some guys came in and did squats with chains, you'll be happy to know. Reminded me of yous guys. They lifted in full hoodies. First i was thinking Oooo...these guys must be strong, 'cuz why else would they lift in hoodies with their hoods on? But then out came the chains. They had upwards of 185 pounds of steel on the rack already, then lashed chain on that could have easily anchored a motivated, hungry pit bull to its back yard. This was not stuff you could probably get at K-Mart. This was the stuff you'd have to go to Home Depot for. i mean, at the top of every rep they probably added more than one--several--pounds to the lift. That moved me. That there's how you train to squat more than i squat.

Up-catching

i've been inspired by the Thanksgiving gluttony to start working out in earnest. That is to say, i'm going to try (insofar as my schoo' obligations will allow) to work out daily instead of occasionally. i've seen my weights creep up on the workouts i'm actually doing, and that's encouraging. But i have this longstanding bad habit of nailing the carpet down in one place and ignoring that it's bubbling up in another. Presently my shoulders and lats are getting stronger, and that's just spiffy, but my lungs are growing anaerobes and i'm getting just portly. That's not so useful. Pretty much can't run or bike, 'cuz it's dark out just after lunch now. So i'm a try to swim consistently. we'll see how that works with the lifting. Swam tonight and it felt pretty good. i'm (as i mentioned) way outta shape, so i'm sure i looked like one of those 80 year-old cardiac rehab d00ds churning out laps as though my life depends on doing it very slowly. But no matter! Swim i did. And in fact i intentionally didn't count distance. i'm guessing the pool is 25 yards. Pools are usually 25 units, and it took me 17 strokes to get to the other side (which, in the shape i'm in, i could not have done were it in meters). So i can confidently say i've swum multiple furlongs this evening.

Did OH press yesterday. Your spreadsheet, by the way, doesn't round to the nearest 5lb increment. It rounds up. But i didn't. 'Stead of doing 3 x 5 with 120, 130 and 140, i did 120, 130 and 135; but i did 135 for 6 reps, so it worked out ok. Tomorrow it's P'lups, and them thar're gun' be hard.

Thanks Giving Part Deux

Got a forty-some minute run in yesterday. Definitely didn't feel like a runner anymore. But it was nice to move, and a perfect day for it. i can be happy sucking wind when it's crisp, sunny wind. And i haven't climbed since rotation began. i think my wi'l pinger is finally starting to heal. That's welcome, 'cuz i was starting to think i'd finally done something permanent to it. And an upshot of working out in the Borg Cube is that they have a pool. And i gots me some casseroles i've gotta work off now. But i have to say i enjoyed packing 'em on. May packing 'em back off be even more enjoyable.

Thanks Giving

'Nuther week of cathin' up. They let me off for Thanksgiving, so i squashed my workouts into monday and tuesday. Made for an odd hybrid. i'd already missed my bench workout from the week before, so i mashed it in with OH press for an interesting shoulder day. Really didn't go so badly. Got a new PR of 160 on OH press. 'Least, i think it was a PR. i know i've got 155 before, but i don't remember doing 160. So i'll happily tell me it's a PR. i could use one. It was 5/3/1 with 120, 135, and 150, and i got 2 or 3 with 150 so i put 10 more on, and it went. Don't think i could'a pushed more than that though.

Bench actually went ok. Ish. Supposed to be the 5/3/1 week of the workout, but 'cuz i'd missed bench, it was still the 3/3/3. 185, 200, and 210. i sorta got 'em all, but i fudged the last rep with 210. Wasn't sure i could get it back up, so i didn't take it all the way to my chest.

Tues i did back work. Started out swimmingly. Pullups it was 5/3/1 with 75, 85 and 95. That went easily enough, so i thought i'd max and i locked one out with 110. That's not a PR, but it's been many a moon since i've pulled that. And i weighed at the office earlier that day, and (fully dressed) i was was almost 205lbs. So i can't attribute pulling more weight to my having lost any--i'm fat as ever. Then i did SL deads, and it was too soon since the last workout. i hurt my back. Funny thing too: did an excruciatingly long warmup replete with stretching, but i just wasn't healed. Just got set up for my first set of 4 with 275, and i stood up with the bar off the rack and felt m' back lock down. So i set the weight right back on the rack, stripped the bar and went home. Walked like a 90yo guy the next day, but i don't think i damaged it too bad. But that workout uses so many small agonists, through such terrible vectors, there's just no half-assing it. (No pun intended). Kinda bummed, 'cuz i couldn't do BB rows, which i really dig. But they require a lot of low-back, and i'd dispensed with all of that.

i'm otherwise at a crux. i could only afford this gym for 1 month, but i'm there for 6 weeks. (It was, i think, $50 for a month, then like $35 or so for 1 week). So i don't really have time for a deload week. i definitely will do only rehab on the low-back for a week, but i want to get some damage done to my lats and chest before the meter tuns out.

Pharmin'ton

So i thought i'd do a li'l updatin' here. Hasn't been a super active week, really, on the workout front; but i did squeeze a few workouts in. Got a month's membership at Defined, which is one of those big Borg Cube Fitness Centers like 24 Hr, where your workouts are spectated by a terraced hillside of Golgafrinchans on ellipticals rocking out to Kylie Minogue videos. i find it irritatingly hard to get in touch with The Pain there; yet She and i did indeed cross paths for a few sets, and in fact, she's moved in for a protracted relationship with my hamstrings after hitting straight-leg deads like i was still good at 'em. But it never does fail to boggle me how you can get that much machinery in that large a building without having a single useful piece of equipment. Ah well: if you can get a bar far enough away from the crap it's attached to, turns out you can constructively damage yourself anyhow.

Did overhead presses on mon or tues. That went fairly well. Don't recall the weights, but it was whatever was on my piece of paper, and i did 'em all. Wed was the killer though. Did 3 x 3 p'lups with 80, 85, and 90 strapped on. Those are especially a load of fun smack in the middle of the gym on the cable-cross machine (which, for reasons that elude me, happens to be one of the more popular places for blokes to do obscure biceps curl variants). Then i did the SL deads. Those things just rock. They have a specially built platform, apparently just for SL deads--which was nice, 'cuz i was gunna be pressed to think of a way to drop the bar to my feet otherwise. i'll go through my whole warmup, etc, because i think you should do a cycle with 'em. i did 20 toe-touches, then 20 with the bar, then 14 with 95, then 10 with 145. Then the working sets: 8 x 195, 8 x 215, 6 x 235, 6 x 255, 4 x 275, and 4 x 295. Only i didn't get the very last rep of the last set 'cuz the bar was sweating outta my hands. i haven't really gone up with these ever--- it's the same workout whether i'm strong or weak. Only change is that if i feel good i'll keep the same progression further, and if i'm weak i'll stop at the sets of 6 somewhere. But i don't really bump my numbers up (unless i do more sets) because i'm paranoid about hurting my back. The progression works. And i gotta say they felt a lot easier after a few cycles of doing heavy deads. So i'd like to segue back to heavy regular deads again next, and see if these help me out in the low back.

Then i did bent o'er BB rows. 12 x 135, the 2 x 6 x 185. Like them thangs. Then SL lifts. 2 x 30 then 1 x 15ish. That hurt, so i went home. The dorsal erector set had some trouble supporting me the next day in surgery. Speaking of which: i gots to find me a job doing that. Surgery rocks.

Came home fri evening, so i didn't do chest/triceps yet. Planned that wrong. Gunna try to get it in on mon.

Few mo' days

So tuesday I climbed for what was pretty undeniably the most worthless day of climbing I've had in a millennium. I actually nodded off whilst sitting on a mat waiting for a turn. Had been looking f forward to hitting it all day, and got off work so late I had no gas left.i stayed there a while, but it was bad.

Yesterday I did back and abs. Switched my heavy workout to p'lups from deads. Did it based on 100# for my percents. So it was 5 x bw + 75, 80, & 85. This was friggin' hard. I think I got maybe 3 with 85. By contrast, if I'd have calculated it on 300 the weights would have been 225, 240, & 270. Now,i got 5 with 275 (bw + 75) just fine so i definitely think percents on 300 would be too light. I think it'd work out just right if I calculated out the weight of my forearms from body weight (cuz I'm not actually lifting'em). In other words I'd basically drop all my weights by about 10#. Or I could just get strong enough to lift 285 five times.

Also did straight leg deads again. Very specialized workout, that. I've lost some muscle for those. Started back on straight leg raises. Wanted 3 x 30, and got 2 x 30 and 1 x 10 before I started crying and trying to comfort-clutch my spleen. Finished out with bent o'er bb rows. Went heavy with these since I didn't do heavy deads. 1x135, then 2x185.

Not a bad workout. Now I'll hafta find some iron in the four-corners area.

New Week's Resolution

Went to the climbgym fri to get that v6, and they'd already taken it down. Managed to get in a pretty hard workout anyhow. In fact, I've pretty much hurt my ring finger to the point of needing to rehab it.

So a friend and I went on saturday to a new climbing area. Great rock and a good day, but it was maybe 25-30° and a little breezy for extended comfort. There were snow flurries and a wind that cut to the skeleton. We stayed out there all day and had a ball, but I just don't get folks intentionally waiting for cold days to go project. Actually hung on the rope on a 5.10 right before the chains cuz I couldn't feel my hands... seriously couldn't tell if what i was about to hinge my body off of was really good or really bad. It was a ton of fun to be on rock again though.

Yesterday i started back on the 5/3/1 program with shoulders. Lost some ground over the last month--'specially endurance. The weight didn't seem so heavy, but the sets of 12 on accessory work were murderous. Not too bad, though, after a too-long layoff. Then I did a 40 min run. Very pretty day for it. Gunna try to keep that habitual.

Oh, turns out I'm not going to the south next...heading to farmington just south of durango. Maybe we can hook up a li'l wolf crick action, yes?

record

had a good climbin' sesh yesterday. got a new v5. started working a stiff v6, and got all but the last moves. there's a fine chance that un'll go, and it'll be a sick, sick notch on m' belt if it does. haven't been back to the irongym yet. late work days and no energy. but i'll get back into it. kinda stressed here. but hopefully this school crap will be over soon.

New leaves, corners, 180s, thumb screws, etc.

i climbed yesterday, and it encouraged my soul. It shewed me a few things: 1) Taking a month off from the iron wasn't necessarily the best idea, 2) taking a couple o' days off from climbing now and again is a fabulous idea, and 3) i haven't lost as much as i'd feared. Somehow i've managed to seriously damage a ring finger. Funny thing was it didn't hurt me till the day after we put that building up. Don't know what i did, but it hurts mucho to crimp now. i climbed ok last monday, but it went steeply downhill from there for the following two days. So i finally took a few days off completely from total failure. It was kinda depressing. Wasn't like i just felt down or non-prime; i was falling off of v1s and 2s. Anyhow, yesterday was mo' betta. i sent that 4 that'd tossed me many times first try. i guess that was the last of my list of projects, so it was kinda freeing. So i went in and re-sent a 5 i'd done before. Then i got another thing that's prob'ly 4ish. Then i finally got another "v3" on the 8th or so try. Definitely the hardest 3 i've ever seen. As in, i got frustrated and went in the cave and nearly flashed a v5 in between burns. So: good climbin' day.

Today (and kinda as a result of yesterday's revelations) i skipped my chubby butt to the iron. Wasn't sure where to start, so i maxed on pullups, and did sort of a hybrid all-around light workout just to remind my skeleton that something will again be demanded of it in the near future. i think i'm gunna do heavy p'lups in place of heavy deads, and do straight-leg deads also. There's no skin left on most of my fingers, and i have a wrecked tendon, but once i taped all my fingers to their requisite degrees of immobility, it worked out to be a reasonable workout. Main thing, i got 100lbs on pullups. Just don't know what i weigh these days. But i was pretty happy with that after having not done a serious weighted pull for most of a year now. Don't know whether to calculate the 5/3/1 thing off of 100# or off of (?) 300#. Guess i'll do 300#.

Then i did a 32min run. Been a few moons since last i ran. Need to make a habit of that.

Saddle, the swing, etc.

Thought I'd screeble about my feeble out-workings. Climbed yesterday. And I didn't drink heavily. I'm plumper than I've been in the recent past. But I still got a project. No grade on it yet, but it felt v5ish...in other words, it'll get very soft 6, or sandbagged 4. Anyhow it was a good climb even if it only scores a 4. Don't think I've lost too much power, but I've gotta get back on the wagon and back in a rhythm.

And speaking of saddles, you didn't get yours outta my car.

-------------------------------------------------------
Then:

Snuck a climble in this ev'nin'. Total waste of time. i've done something evil to my wi'l pinger. Looks like it's time for a detox and a change of plan. i'm exhausted. And feel like doo. Tired of this. Gotta start back to lifting 'fore i lose any real strength, and i gotta start running again. Prob'ly do my climbing more good for now than climbing. But: bleh. i hate not climbing.

Tagup

Tiny action report here. I climbed yesterday. Interesting all around. First of all, I think I climbed way harder at the comp than I thought. My hands were still destroyed yesterday. I looked at the score sheet and two guys from the 20-29 age group beat me. And they beat me by less than a climb. I mean, I scored something like 8,400pts on 6 climbs, and the top age-grouper beat me by about 150points. In other words if I'd gotten any of the stuff I was piddling on at the end I woulda had the top score before the advanced category. I beat all the femmes except 1st in the advanced. That was a li'l surprising. So I went in yesterday and got one of those projects first thing. It was worth 1500pts which woulda replaced my lowest score of about 750, and I'd have tagged nearly 10,000pts. But I can hardly complain.

And I think I've finally got a direction for my stoopid paper. I'm really hoping to have that basically done before friday. We'll see. Tiny bit worried.

I've otherwise only done unhealthy harmful things.

winning

So. i got 1st in the Fat Old Guy category. And i'm pretty happy 'bout that. Definitely not my best day of climbing ever, but it sho' weren't my worst. Amazing how bad adrenaline and nerves can suck a brutha dry. So here's how it went: as usual the problems were assigned points on an arbitrary scale, that (very) roughly corresponded to the route's grade. You could climb as many as you wanted, but you only got to add up yer top six scores. i was foraging in the 1,000 pt range (which i suspect would sorta correlate to the v3-6 range). So i was hoping to break 6,000 pts. Long story short, i ended up with nearly 8,500 pts. Thing was, if you got into the top 10%ish of scores, you were automatically bumped up the the Advanced category, and were competing with everyone else in that category. i was not bumped up. So i cleaned up in the 30-39 age groupers. i'm super curious to see how the point spread fell. Anyhow, i got a handsome solid steel trophy (thing weighs at least 10#) and a li'l ego boost for the trouble.

Now it's on to my thesis, and i could use some supplication on my behalf. First draft's due next monday, and i've got no time and a serious writer's block going on. i need to poop something convincing out pronto. Prayers please.

Yank'n's Eve

As per usual, i've trained for this year's comp by getting strong then "tapering" for the two weeks prior by sleeping not at all, deconditioning, and drinking nightly. Ah well: i've been pulling down right mightily, and it'll be fun no matter the outcome. And there's another teeshirt for me if i score no other shwag. And it don't start 'til 1330, so i'm hoping to sleep in a bit. Only regret is that i haven't lost a few pounds. i blame that on not sleeping. Mattereth not! Yea, hark: i'll have fun if i only manage to climb ten or twenty v2s. Should be some good energy flowing there. i'll post pics, even if i shan't manage to get fully muddy, and though there may be no keg tossing involved.

Infinitesimal

Just signed up for yank'n'yard. i'm doing it for the t-shirt. Although if i can heal fast enough, and can put healthy vittles in my skull (which i'm presently not doing), i might just throw down the Serious.

Against Sapientia, i clumb yesterday and the day before. Really not particularly effulgent sessions, but they had their highlights. i was climbing like basest shadoodoo on saturday. Then at the very end, i found some tryers and i started working this v6 that i really thought was absurd. Only i ended up working out all the moves. Just couldn't link. Too tired. So i went back yesterday very motivated, expressly to send that route. i didn't get it. i bounced off the finish at least three times. But i missed it by molecules. i mean, i truly do not know why i didn't send. Literally a matter of friction. Absolutely maddening. i did get a hole in my hand where i tore off a very nice callous. i'm hoping i re-epithelialize before saturday. But i know they're gun' tear that climb down in the next few days, and i know i missed it by thiiiis flippin' much. Staying away is like a meth head about-facing at the pipe. But i'd sure like to feel good for saturday.

On a happier note, i was warming up yesterday for climbing, and i was doing some pullups, and i was pulling up to the bottom of my rib cage and generally feeling fairly gorilla-like, so i let go halfway up a pull, and hung there in a solid one-arm lever for a good long while. Then i switched hands and dead hung in a lever on the other arm for a while. One-arm pullups are not that far away. And that's at 200lbs. And i spent the day in the cath lab today, and that's just good clean fun.