October 21, 2017 – Week 10, Day 3

5 Minutes Concept 2 Rower

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx15

One Leg Leaning Calf Raises
BWx15/15

Regular Box Touches (12” Box)
BWx15

Sumo Box Touches (12” Box)
BWx15

Squat Therapy (16” Box)
BWx15

Hip Airplanes (supported)
BWx7/7

Band Rows w/Biceps Stretch
MMBx20/20 seconds
MMBx20/20 seconds

Push-ups
BWx15

Yoke/I-Beam Farmer’s Walk Medleys
y-300x100’ in 11.40 seconds
500x30’/112xDNF (Rogue handles, weights fell off)
500x30’/122x30’ in 10.53 seconds
600x30’/200x30’ in 11.89 seconds
700x30’/265x30’ in 14.45 seconds
y-800xpick
850x60’/332x60’ in 38.09 seconds

Sandbag Rows
150x5
225x5
285x5 PR+10lbs

H-Stone Carry (off platform)
Turns at 30’
300x60’
350x60’
Turns at 60’
400x207’4”
400x182’5”

Sled Drags
445x147’1” in 75 seconds

Stretching

Comments: It was hard getting sleep this week. I’d get distracted upon getting home from work or the gym and the hours would disappear. Things at least calmed down a little by Friday with work but I’m sure it will be hectic Monday again and start all over. I was nervous thinking about this workout. Last time I’d touch some of these events before Nationals. Out to Lancaster to training event work. It has gotten cooler out so I wore my long sleeve warm-ups but there was no cloud cover so it got quite warm. Good thing I had the extra shirts and towel. Quite a few people in today training for different upcoming shows. Warmed up on the rower. Keeping an eye on the right biceps. Didn’t wear the sleeve at the start to see how things felt. Row felt good, although my hips felt pretty tight afterwards. Calf work was okay and the box touches for both styles were good. Squat therapy I was little achy but still pretty good. Best it has felt this week. Hip airplanes were pretty good as well. Band rows and stretching followed. Easy on rows. Biceps were really tight so this was good on the stretch. Set of push-ups to finish things up. Felt pretty easy this time. First up was medley work for Nationals with yoke and farmer’s walks. The first set warm-up stayed the same. I felt I was moving well but it turns out this was the slowest I’ve done this so far this training cycle. Not the best start to the day (luckily I don’t know my exact times until I get home to edit video). Then setup half distance course again with both implements. At least I tried to. Initially, the I-beam handles were in use for another competitor doing frame picks for WSM under 80kgs, Guy Fulton. I didn’t have my good clamps for the other handles but I tried to make do. I really wanted to use the I-beam handles to finish off the training cycle. I setup the run with the other handles with the tightest clips I could find (that weren’t in use) and set off. Didn’t go well. Yoke was fine but the weights fell off the handles on the left side almost immediately. Weight was light though (grip feels so much better than the other handles) but I tossed the empty handle to the side and then dropped the other handle a short bit after that. This wasn’t going to work. Can’t risk the weights falling off and getting an injury. So I waited until the other handles were available and reset the course. Much better that time haha. The working up sets were the same as last time with the only change being the second to last set of farmer’s walk was a little bit heavier. Each run was faster than the last time I did this so that was good. Pick was done for the yoke and it felt easy compared to last time. Enough so that I had confidence in finishing the yoke no problem. Then came the moment of truth. Yoke and farmer’s walk slightly above contest weight. This weight would be 200lbs more than what I had done on yoke last training cycle. Had Brian, Guy and George out shouting at me as I did this run. I heard noise but only bits and pieces get through when I’m focused. Pick was good and I was a little slow off the start but I felt I was doing well until about halfway. I felt myself start to falter but kept going and slowed down. I was not going to have any drops. I just knew that this was going to make my legs tired for the farmer’s walk. I finished the yoke and took my time to get to the handles. I knew that this was going to be hard and I had one shot at the pick. This was one of the slowest picks I’ve had on these farmer’s handles. I think I accidentally had some of my right foot on the bottom of the one implement (shouldn’t be an issue with the implements at Nationals) so that might have added some additional resistance. The effort meant that if I dropped these, I wasn’t getting them back up. I was definitely moving slow. Video it looks like I was walking all over the place. About halfway through this run, I felt the handles settle lower in my hand. I heard someone yell don’t drop them. It was a weird sensation as all I could feel was weight in my hands, like no other awareness of my body. But I finished the course. I was just dead and after that (but still enough presence of mind to flip double middle fingers). Then on to sandbag rows. Same as last time, three sets of five up to a 5rm with up to 10lbs more than last time. I put on the copper sleeve for this and kept it on the rest of the day. Biceps still a bit tender so keeping an eye on it as I did these. These felt better compared to last time and I was using more weight on the two heavier sets. Not happy that the biceps is still tender but happy that the weight was feeling better. Husafel stone again. I guess I shouldn’t say again as there was a big change here as I was using a different husafel stone. The previous weekend, I had brought my BiggDoggStrongg husafel out my garage to the gym (this was pain to do in the morning by myself). The dimensions are closer to the competition one and it is chain loaded so the weight is at the bottom. I wanted to try and mimic contest conditions since no gloves or tape on forearms allowed. My only concern was if there was going to be enough chains to get to contest weight. If not, then I’d mess around with the thinner one with sharp edges. As luck would have it, there was enough chain to get with 30lbs of what I needed for the top set and there were enough tiny plates that would fit to reach the quota. Plan same as last time except I was to do the contest weight for two runs this time. Chalked up my forearms and hands and got to work. First set I did front carry style. I was expecting to but I picked it off the platform and it felt so comfortable that I just did it. Right biceps didn’t particular care for this style so I made sure to do staggered the next set. That went smoothly as well. I really didn’t know what to expect with this husafel stone so I was happy it felt comfortable. Then on to the top sets. I was planning for anything from dropping it right at the start to walking to the next county. My grip felt pretty secured on that first set. I just told myself that as long as I made two lengths on both sets, it would be a job well done. But I got a third and ended up almost halfway down for a fourth. I wasn’t expecting this after how the last two sessions have gone at this weight. Second best distance I’ve done with this weight. Any distance on the second set was going to be just gravy for total time and distance with the stone. Grinded out three lengths and dropped it on the turn. So good work here going into Nationals. Definitely some confidence restored. Last item of the day was a max distance sled drag. I had all these weights out from the farmer’s walk earlier so I just put those on minus a pair of 25lbs plates. This added 40lbs to the sled from last time. Don’t know what I was thinking but I got set and started the slow and steady set. Just kept telling myself to keep moving over and over until the timer went. Put away all the stuff I had out which took about 20 minutes before driving home to stretch and recover. One more hard week to go.