August 27, 2023 - September 2, 2023 - Week 10

 August 28, 2023 – Week 10, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Clean and Push Presses (one clean)
90x5
110x3
130x2
150x2
170x2
170x2
170x2
170x2
170x10

Stretching
 
Comments: I had felt somewhat better about myself with how Saturday stuff went. While not feeling like exactly where I wanted to be, I was feeling like I was doing something. But I was still having reservations and leaking out negative self-talk. Which is why it is a good idea to have another set of eyes on things divorced from you. I got a bit of verbal kick in the pants. I had thought I was doing things with the right intent but it was true that I wasn’t exactly. I was still feeling things out and noncommittal. To protect myself if I didn’t hold up to standard. I had to think on things and not just do. Realize how little time there is, how big the ask is. The sessions are minimal but that means I need to wring out everything I can in the little bit I got to do. Realize how few workouts there are to get into shape that respects the level of competition. Being on the fence mentally is the right way to go about getting most out of the training and to have even competing and doing well be an option. All in, even if it doesn’t work out. This smelling salts of a message had me alert and decide on going forward. Dynamic warm up was added to get blood moving and to also put me in the right frame of mind. Not adverse to it. I was having a lot of nervous energy and I could tell that there were things still feeling the stuff I did last week. This warm up will be the same for each session going forward. From there it was time for the lifting, which was just log. As mentioned, 5x2 going up 20lbs from last week. But option to rep out the last set if I felt good. I had not been too pleased with how the pressing had gone. I mean, it was better than what I had felt the week prior but I was all over the place when I was trying my best to be stable and have solid presses. I made the change of direction I was facing to cut down on the direct glare into the sun overhead as well as bring the stall mat I had in the backyard for my throw tower on the patio. Hopefully have my footing even. I was going to move the power rack but one of the wasp/hornets that lives in it was keeping watch and I figured it was best to not disturb things. Considering the intent was to treat things like this was all I was getting, I figured I was to wear what I felt I’d be wearing for contest. I kind of like just adding bits as I get up in weight and this is still weight that should be light. I didn’t need to do the deep lap and sit for my knees as they weren’t stiff or sore. Likely from the warming up but also because I’m not doing so much that is putting a beating on my joints and I can recover. Wore knee sleeves and no grip shirt (but a shirt with a decal) and added soft belts. I got note after the session about full gear to be used so I will for next week. My biceps were feeling a bit sore from stones and that was to be expected. Cleans were feeling really explosive and violent. I ended up using some liquid chalk before the working sets just to keep hands dry as it was a bit humid. Weight was moving like it should. 150lbs last week hadn’t felt 100% but the pressing was moving fast. This felt like I was blitzing that. Took same rests as I did for the week prior. Second set I was a little caught off guard with how powerful my clean was that I stumbled back a bit after I did the first press. Took a moment to compose myself and launched it. Fourth set I was so pumped I did a little hop after I set the weight done. This is how I like things to feel. I took about double the rest before the rep set (90 seconds for the sets, 180 seconds here). I definitely notices some things here. I was definitely treating the previous sets and weights as CAT reps and I kind of knew that that output would exhaust things after a certain point. And that seemed to be about 5 reps. Also showed that I was really not conditioned for reps on overhead pressing using lower body drive. I do feel that I got my air and composed myself and seemed to get a second wind after 2-3 more reps. I stopped at 10 reps because the example had indicated 2-10 reps. So I assumed that 10 was where I was to stop. I had a good bit more in the tank. But goal was to keep things powerful and no grinding reps. And get some confidence back. If I can keep sets of 10 the next two weeks, I will be where I need to be. Biceps were a bit sore from the log work on top of stones. Put stuff away before eating lunch.

August 30, 2023 – Week 10, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Power Stairs (18”)
60x5
105x3
150x2
195x1
240x1
285x1
330x1
375x9

Stretching
 
Comments: I was nervous for this session. It was work and I felt unprepared. I should be able to do this and I kind of need to be able to do this as the bare minimum. I’ll get to it. I had felt good with training Monday. Work has just been exceedingly irksome and tiresome and trying to not let that drag me down. But I also need to stay focused on things that need to be focused on. I had been thinking about this workout for over a week with things to setup as well as getting my thoughts together. Had me waking up a little early this morning and I got a little distracted as I kind of jumped right into work and I wasn’t sure if I logged in for the day at my start time or not. I sent e-mails to explain I was here and signed in (maybe signed in twice). Just shows how hectic things are. Also had an issue happen right as I was about to go to lunch and ended up having to take that 15 minutes or so later than I had wanted to. Any ways, I needed to step away to do some steps. Same dynamic warm. Some stuff felt better and smoother than Monday and other things still about the same. It is nice to not have my knees be aching doing basic stuff. Shoulders are still a little achy with stuff. The stretch component is showing that stuff like my chest and hips are tight from the training sessions. Today was power stairs. Work up to a set of 9 reps with the first implement weight for the event at Nationals. I had made some purchases. I could’ve taken a power pin from the gym but I knew that could cause issues for the person I know that is training for Nationals at that gym. I also needed to make things a better setup for at home to do this. This was something that kind of needed to be done on it’s own day for recovery purposes. This had been part of why I moved the stall mat to my patio so that the foundation had some protection from the repeated lifting. I didn’t feel confident in using my hard foam setup for the planned weight so I had gotten plyo boxes that were cheap (and a pain to put together). Weighed it down with a sandbag inside the setup. I felt I should be able to do this but also not quite sure. I’ve very rarely done power stairs. I’ve always gone heavier in competition then in training. I’ve done it twice with an actual implement in training twice and probably a total of four times in the past 13yrs. It has always been for very few steps and part of a medley. Most I’ve done with my janky setup 13yrs ago was 390lbs to 20” (it was a thick handle attached with chain) and 325lbs with the same setup. But no training (and not realizing it was a contest) I’d done 400lbs for a few steps. The last time I did this for Nats the weight was really easy. But it was doubles with short rests. And I think the reps in a set that I wasn’t exactly prepared for that amount of conditioning for this kind of movement. I was worried that I’d gas out and that I’d be knocking the setup around. That I’d take forever to do all nine reps. But as I mentioned, this was the bare minimum. I’m going to have to do 170kgs, 190kgs and 210kgs each for 3 steps so doing the lightest of them for 9 unbroken reps seems like a must to have any shot at doing stuff here as well as then progressing from there. Warming went well. I wasn’t expecting much with the lighter weights but it did help to do that and get used to placement. I made it work by using the thicker bumper plates at the lighter weights so that I got used to height of the weight stack and get used to bumping it off the legs onto the platform. Also measured the height of the handle to go off the measuring being used for “pick” heights considering the trap bar and that meant bottoming out the pin. With this setup, my intent had been to have something that was solid with a grip and would be able to have me hop up with the implement. Not enough space and I didn’t feel like making something unsafe for that. Perhaps I can do that on the deload at the gym (and maybe also swap medicine balls/100lbs sandbags for stone carry and load deload for last minute skill work). So I put on liquid chalk and then dry chalk. No hard belt here as I wanted to breathe and I’m not sure how I’d feel with a belt as far as moving. Maybe next time if I feel like the weight jump is going to be an issue. I felt good at the start. About 4 reps in I started to slow down. Resetting and deloading each rep certainly added to the work, effort and fatigue. I knew I had this at 7 reps but I could feel that I was slowing down a lot. Rep number 8 felt like the most labored. Rep 9 went better. Stomach felt a little queasy for a second afterwards and then I was good. Got the reps in under 40 seconds. Goal had been to be under a minute. Be interesting to see how that pace translates when not having to reset. I was feeling a bit of high from the training and putting all the stuff away helped me cool off before clocking back in for work.

September 2, 2023 – Week 10, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke/Wheelbarrow Medleys
200x50’/+230x50’ (103 approx)
300x50’/+402.5x50’ (200.5 approx)
400x50’/+577.5x50’ (300 approx)
500x50’/+756.5x50’ (401 approx)
600x50’/+934x50’ (502 approx)
700x50’/+1122x50’ (608.5 approx)

Stretching
 
Comments: Work was hectic and being told after lunch on Wednesday that Friday would be a half day when already had stuff scheduled didn’t help. But it is always going to be something. Road work on Thursday in the neighborhood meant I had to alter the walking route slightly but it was finished for Friday. Having half day with work did give me some time to take care of stuff so that I could just not worry about stuff Saturday morning to get out to train. Birthday related things and family stuff for Friday, Saturday and Sunday with different people. My elbows and knees were feeling a little stiff/achy before heading to bed for Friday. Woke feeling ok Saturday. Drive out was fine as well. A good bit of people at the gym. Some just training stuff, some doing stuff for the competition the gym is holding next week (won’t be at the gym). I was expecting one person out of town coming to train, Ty, that I hadn’t competed with since 2021 and he was going to be there doing several of the Nationals events. But even more surprising was a few more out of town people coming out to train events for Nationals and other shows (Master’s and Tridents). Joe I’ve not competed with directly (only show was the same 2021 as Ty and we used same weights but 300 under and 300 over were separate scoring). So while I only had the event to do for training, I had left early on the assumption that I’d probably be at the gym for a good bit helping out and observing. Warming up was first. Everything feels good for me besides the push ups I do. Not that they are bad but my shoulders feel achy and elbows a bit stiff. It is likely that those are things that are still not quite recovered from the months of work and overtraining. The event for the day was the moving medley for Nationals. Yoke 50’ into wheelbarrow for 50’. It will be a setup where the handles are on the yoke. Initially this was setup to be yoke and farmer’s walk because of course that would be easier. But the gym does have a wheelbarrow. I had mentioned that I felt that the yoke would be the thing I need more work on compared to the wheelbarrow as my grip should be good and the weight in hand is less than what I was expecting really. But this was the only thing and I wanted to see how the wheelbarrow felt as I know it will be more effort get the inertia moving as it will be just shy 640lbs weight in hand but will be 850lbs of weight needing to be moved. So at least for this time, wheelbarrow. Or see if I could even get things heavy enough on the wheelbarrow. I think I also wanted to do the wheelbarrow because it was different and interesting. But good lord is it a pain in the ass to setup in just about every regard. So pretty much I was to do 100lbs jumps with the end goal being 700lbs for the yoke and 600lbs for the wheelbarrow for weight in hand. I had done the math to calculate for the wheelbarrow. Empty it was 27.5lbs weight in hand. The pin closest to the wheel was short and only fit up to 35’s and was 25% of weight added. So I just the default weight really. Anything added to the second pin was 56.7% of the weight. I used the lighter yoke since it was easier plate math there with just doing 100lbs jumps and starting empty essentially. I was feeling a bit slow with the yoke but it has been about a month since I last did it and power stairs could be taking a bit out of me. I mean, I’ve never done more than 2 reps with 375lbs and that was in a competition about a decade or so ago. The wheelbarrow didn’t feel bad at all, but it was also about 100lbs under the yoke weight. I was sweating a good bit with the grip shirt on and there was a fair amount of moving weights around for this. Yoke was feeling heavy on the picks and slow on the picks as well so I knew that I’d be not hitting any speed PRs today. Ty decided to work in with me after the penultimate run and I was ok with that as I needed a bit of a break to steal myself. I was planning on timing this and everything setup. I think I got a little confused as I accidentally forgot to account for the 14lbs additional weight for the last run so it came out a little heavy for the wheelbarrow. So yoke didn’t start off like I was shot out of a cannon but it did feel a little better than 600lbs. Video does show I’m doing the slower strides when my back is fatigued. But going to have that with this being the second day event and second event of that day. Made quick transition to the wheelbarrow and that’s when things went sideways. Literally. This wheelbarrow is a single wheel and probably not meant for over 500kgs of weight. So my pick was a bit violent and it was more to one side and there was no way to stop it from toppling over. I was really frustrated with the set coming to halt like that. I was debating restarting and doing 700lbs again but decided if I could get the wheelbarrow back up I’d finish the run. Andrew and Ty helped me get it back up and I went for it. This was slow going because of the essentially flat and unstable wheel. Grip was fine, just stabilizing it and my quads were getting a good workout (similar to pushing a truck uphill). So it felt good to finish it (and it was only like 2 minutes to get it back up and ready). I may just do farmer’s handles going forward now that I’ve gotten that out of my system. I think it will depend on how convenient it is to use a different style wheelbarrow at another gym in two weeks (this gym closed for powerlifting meet). Only really difference is not as much quad fatigue compared to farmer’s (and easier on the back to pick up). It took a bit of time putting stuff away but I was fine with that as this was the only thing I was doing today and I helped with Ty and Joe on Nats events before heading home to get ready for family stuff. Stretched after I got back from good meal.