Fitness Goals

Pulled 10, 10, 9 Soooooooo close.

Also somehow managed to bungle up my left knee (old injury that likes to pop in and say "hi" every now and then). Still made reps/weight for squats, but now it's wrapped up in an ACE and heat/ice through the work day.

OHP went up a little more. Still need work on 'em.

Officially started my 'get in shape for New Mexico backpacking trip' workouts a few days ago. This is extra stuff I'm doing in addition to my regular fire station routines.

Due to the sad lack of mountains in my AO, I'm doing the 200 squats program (twohundredsquats.com) to help build a burn for my lower bod. It's just a pyramid program designed to build you up to doing a straight set of 200 bodyweight squats. There are similar programs for 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups. I've done them before, they are all good rainy day programs, or if you just need to lay off of weights for a while to heal up all those minor chronic injuries that stack up as we get older.

I've also started running during the day instead of at night. This may not seem like much, but I typically run late, like 2100 or later. Daytime temps are still not hot around here, but are probably 20 degrees warmer than nighttime temperatures. I was pretty regularly running 3-4 miles at a time at night when it was cold out, only did 2 today and could definitely tell the difference a few degrees of heat makes. The goal is to work up to 5 miles run at mid-day. Daytime temps around here will likely be in the 90's by the time I head west, should get me heat conditioned.

Finally, some hiking. I've got a buddy who said he would tag along, I likely will start doing some local trails this week. My pack weighs around 35 pounds, goal is to get to 10 miles with a 50 pound pack comfortably. I'm confident I could do that right now if needed, but would probably be a mass of blisters and back pain when it was done.

Nice job on the pull-ups, guys.

Grats GBM

More fun at the gym -

Learned a valuable lesson yesterday whilst doing my calisthenics (Steak and eggs and eggs and steak, that's what we have for dinner..) as I watched a big dude drop some heavy ass dumb bells onto his iphone which was under the bench.  Dude was listening to something with the ear buds, and it was in his way so he put it under the bench thinking it would be safe, only to have the bailed weight crush it.  There was a frowny face and some words.

As such, combined with the fact that I'm a forgetful person and tend to wander away from my cell phone when working out, I immediately went to Office Max and got a pack of those small composition books, laminated my workout to the inside cover, cut down a BIC pen, and now I've got a reasonably crush proof log that I can wander away from and not feel overly anxious about if I lose it.  Win.

Awkward moment this morning when I adjusted the safety bars in the rack up one level for my final set of heavy squats (not so sure I'd make the set, didn't want to crash to earth with one to go).  Loaded the bar up, stepped back, set the feel, drop and CRASH!  Like loud crash.  Bar/weights bounced hard and I recovered back to standing, but I didn't realize how low I actually go when I squat - I thought for sure that 3" wouldn't have been that big of a deal.  Nope.  Everyone look at the dummy that bounced the safeties.  Re-racked, reset the safeties, fuck it we're goin' for gold - finished the set like a champ with a spare rep for Odin.

Today was 80's hair metal in the gym.  Nothing makes you feel like a boss after busting ass more than walking down the hallway and out the door to

(wish it would have been playing during the squat set...  )

I love dips. Way more than chins/pullups. Right now I'm at 10, 10, and to failure (17 today). Getting ready to strap the belt on and start putting some weight to them to see if I can hold the 3x10 pattern and up weight.

Great day on the bench today, really felt powerful and knocked out way more than I thought I could on the failure run. Switched to rows and had good increases on my Pendlay, T-rows, and Meadows Rows (last two on the LM using a rope for the T-row). Worst of the day was again my deads. I just don't have the grip strength for dual overhand at #295 to rock out more than 1x3. That makes me a sad panda. I tried a switch grip which felt incredibly uncomfortable, but I managed to pull a solid 1x5 with it. I need to look into hookgrip technique, and really should just deload a bit and head back to either Romanian DL's or SLDL with weight holds and get my grip strength up while working on the basics.

I shouldn't be bummed at all. In fact I'm damned proud of my skinny ass.

Since I've started going to the gym regularly and charting my progress, adjusting my diet and sleep to live a better life style I've: put on 6 pounds of muscle, have an average of 30% increase across the board on all lifts, sleep better, and am just plain happier. I still hate getting out of bed at the ass crack of dark, but I love going to the gym - and that's what makes it worth while.

You should be GBM.  Congrats!

Did around 6 miles yesterday on local trails with a 40 pound pack.  I was pleasantly VERY surprised at how relatively easy it was.  Probably could have doubled that from a conditioning standpoint, but I was starting to get a few hotspots on my feet.  No reason to push things.  My trip isn't for a few months, and a big part of the ruck training is toughening up my feet.  No blisters, I like my shoes, might change my socks and see if that makes any difference.

Feeling cocky, I headed out for a run today in the early afternoon, temperature was in the high 70's low 80's.  Hmmmmm.  Did two miles running, walked another mile.  It wasn't killing me, but it was hot, and I'm still not used to running in the heat of the day.  Again, no biggie.  My self-stated goals seem doable based on my initial forays.  If zombies were chasing me I could have gone farther, but again, no reason to push things too hard.  I've got time on my side.