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Always Be Smashing

09/19 06:00

5min samurai getups
EYFS +

Oddly stiff this morning. No weight increase for next week, this was a shaky session.

09/19 15:00

Static stretching sequence x1

09/19 21:45

GSQT 3x5 48,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24,24,20
Bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
DL 1x5 315#
Pullups 6,6,5,4
ZSQT 3x5 165#
BB side press 4x5 60#
Convict circuit 3x10

Starting so late suuuucks.
 
09/20 06:00

Agile 8-1
65min treadmill run / walk 4.0m

Starting to develop a pattern where the Friday run is much slower than Tuesday. Wondering if volleyball is maybe more taxing on the legs than I give it credit for.

09/20 13:00

Static stretching sequence x1


Took the evening off. Both legs and grip were feeling fatigued today, and I need them both for tomorrow.
 
09/21 08:45

CerusLuv OCR (~5k)

Local OCR. First time I've run this, I think only the 3rd year they've done it.

Unlike the Spartan, they don't have an obstacle failure penalty in the competitive wave, and no limit on attempts. Instead, you can try as many times as you want, but if you don't complete an obstacle, you basically didn't finish the race. For the recreational division (which I ran), you're free to skip any obstacle.

Some highlights :
  • They had a hype man at the start line - dude sounded like Antonio Hall's riffing reverend in Coming to America. Ridiculous, but amusing.
  • One obstacle was an axe throw! I completely missed the target, as it was the first time I've ever thrown an axe. I know what I'm asking for my birthday...
  • The only other obstacle I failed was a slack line, maybe 10 feet long. I tried around 15 times, but I just don't have the balance.
  • The last obstacle was a big rig of ropes and rings - a beast. I was really proud to complete that one.
  • During that last obstacle, at one point while I was waiting for my grip to recover, a random guys in the crowd signaled me that I should be stretching my forearms - and he was totally right. Just good for my faith in humanity to get a little good coaching from somebody I don't know.
Great part about doing races/competitions is finding things that were once difficult that are now easy. College-age me could never have gotten over an 8 foot wall, almost-44-year-old me can do it no problem. Even 2 years ago, swinging on rings was almost impossible, now it's no big deal. What might be easy next year?

Fun day.

09/22 07:45

Agile 8-1
48min treadmill run / walk 3.1m

Could have kept going, but had to get to family obligations. Good indication that yesterday's race didn't wreck me.

09/22 21:00

Static stretching sequence x3
 
09/23 06:00

5min samurai getups
EYFS +

09/23 13:00

Static stretching sequence x1

09/23 17:30

GSQT 3x5 48,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24,24,20
Bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
DL 1x5 335#
Pullups 7,6,5,5
ZSQT 3x5 175#
BB side press 4x5 65#
- Easy to lose focus on the presses. Stay tight, get the bar the #@%! up.

... break for dinner ...

09/23 21:00

Convict circuit 3x10

Keep fighting the urge to add more reps to the calisthenics routine. Feels like I have the energy, but it would be better spent in karate practice or snatching kettlebells another day. Right now I do this mainly in hopes of reaping the tendon-strengthening benefits, as opposed to a goal of doing a lot of pushups or what not. I have been trying to progress the difficulty of the movements little by little, though - more diamond pushups, more angle on the TRX rows, a few angled bridges, that sort of thing.
 
09/26 06:00

5min samurai getups
EYFS +

09/26 15:00

Static stretching sequence x1

09/26 21:45

GSQT 3x5 48,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24,24,20
Bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
DL 1x5 335#
Pullups 7,6,5,5
ZSQT 3x5 175#
BB side press 4x5 65#
Convict circuit 3x10

During this session I was struck by the thought that it's 11 at night, and I'm doing pushups. Nobody is making me do it, nobody is paying me. I'm just doing it. Clearly, I'm a crazy person. :p
 
09/27 06:00

Agile 8-1
62min treadmill run / walk 4.0m

09/27 13:00

Static stretching sequence x1

09/27 21:00

GSQT 3x5 48,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24
Bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
KB snatch 16x3 40, 10x5 32 EMOM
TGU 5x1 x side 40

Good session, felt strong. Perhaps it was the awesome power of chicken and waffles for dinner.

No elite TSC this year. .. but I'ma get there.
 
Saturday was a busy day with kids sports and the like, but I managed to sneak in about 30 minutes of heavy bag technique work and jump roping. But pretty low key.

09/29 10:45

Agile 8-1
79min treadmill run / walk 5.1m

09/29 16:00

Static stretching sequence x2

From here on out, replacing the kneeling lunge with front split. Also felt like I'm getting close to being able to get some real overhead extension out of the downward dog - might be able to drop the wall overhead extension in the near future.


I spent a little while today reviewing my training logs from the start of the year... and, on the surface, it looks like I haven't improved much, maybe even regressed in some areas.

A few areas are clear improvement - mobility/flexibility first and foremost. Done nothing but slowly increase weight and/or difficulty in EYFS movements, and I know my flexibility is better, though I don't measure it quantitatively. And my snatch power is noticeably improved.

But, I was doing more DL volume before with the same weight. Doesn't seem like I've appreciably improved pullup training volume. Looks like my press has regressed some. My 10k run time has gotten significantly worse (I suspect a lot of that is simply that I was doing a lot more hard running in 2017, which I've really tailed off this year to focus elsewhere).

It's a bit disheartening... but at the same time, my log was also peppered with comments like "skipped because I was too tired today" or "feeling beat up". I haven't felt beat up or too tired to train in quite a while. I also note that my warmup weights have crept up slowly - grabbing the beast for a set of GSQT isn't something I have to "prepare" for anymore.

So... have I actually got slack and lost ground? Or, am I just training "smarter"? The TSC will tell...
 
09/30 06:00

5min samurai getups
EFYS +

Upped the SLDL to the 20 today. Good session, felt energetic.

09/30 13:00

Static stretching sequence x1

09/30 18:00

GSQT 3x5 48,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24
Bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
DL 1x3 380#
Pullups 7,7,6,5
ZSQT 3x3 200#
BB side press 4x3 75#

Good news/bad news day on DL. Good news: grip was solid for full set. Bad news: nothing else was - felt heavy. Pullups and ZSQT were good... presses felt weak. Really need to put some more focus into pressing at some point, maybe a good thing to focus on over the winter.

09/30 21:00

Convict circuit 3x10

Had to skip cannonball hangs today, just nothing left in the grip tank... must have used it all up on DL.
 
10/01 06:00

Agile 8-1
63min treadmill run / walk 4.1m

9 minutes of solid unbroken running at the start, staying below 124 BPM. Seems like some actual progress.

10/01 13:00

Static stretching sequence x1

10/01 18:45

GSQT 3x5 48,48,28 with curl
Halo 3x5 24
Bridge 3x5
Wall overhead extensions 3x5
KB snatch 12x6 32 EMOM
TGU 5x1 x side 40

Good short session. Felt like dipping into the acid just a little today. Forgive me, Pavel, I won't do it too often.
 
10/02 06:00

Agile 8-1
46min treadmill run / walk 3.0m

Good volleyball session in the evening. We lost all 3 games to a much more talented (and younger) team, but I was really getting out of the sand well, had a lot of blocks.

Have been reading Daniel's Running Formula. Yet more confirmation that, as far as runners go, I've got a very weak cardiovascular system. Despite having run at some level for years.

Gotta be strong first, of course, but we're only as strong as our weakest link... can't ignore cardiac strength.
 
@offwidth , I read their little blurb about it: Aerobic Deficiency Syndrome — Uphill Athlete

Describes me to a T. My mantra for a long time was that, for conditioning, you go hard, or you're wasting your time. So I got good at going hard... and apparently I now suck at going easy. It's an interesting contrast with strength principles. I do believe that being strong makes just about anything else easier, and certainly had thought that the ability to go hard should make other tasks easier as well. But I guess energy systems don't quite work the same way as musculature.
 
Well... the good thing is that around here many of us have figured out (0r are at least starting to) how to integrate both strength principles and endurance principles together. As long as one doesn't expect too much, strength and endurance can coexist as we are seeing.

I'm happy you were able to get some value from that. Those guys are the real deal when it comes to locomotive endurance...
 
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