AC can't be broken... or can he? News at 11.

[CookAndrewB]

I have set my eyes on a new prize, and the intent of this journal is to track my progress towards that goal... and to perhaps talk through the event itself to debrief the experience. Right now that goal is to participate in the GoRuck challenge in Columbus, OH on 21 June 2013. https://www.goruckchallenge.com/Events/Challenge

This is a pretty good departure from my normal training. Through the nicer months I jog a few times per week, and I lift 5-6 days a week. For the past couple years my training has been geared towards competing in strongman (NAS sanctioned) competitions. I stopped competing well over a year ago, but I've always been drawn to the idea of pushing myself and doing something different and this seems like a great opportunity to do just that. This also dovetails nicely with my close to 16 years of military service, so in some ways it feels familiar.

So to kick this off I think we will go with a good old SWOT analysis:

Strengths-
1. This wouldn't be the first time I've had this kind of extended military physical challenge. Having been through boot camp and commissioning as an officer has given me a wealth of experience to draw on.
2. I have roughly 21 years of physical training experience, participating in a variety of sports and competitions. I will have to alter my training, but I'm not starting at square one.
3. I am comfortable as both a leader and a follower. The military has taught me that both are necessary.
4. I'm confident in my own ability to do this. I will make mistakes, but I don't get flustered by it and they don't derail me.
5. I'm good under pressure. When the world is falling down around me I get zen and my ability to make good decisions doesn't go to hell.

Weaknesses-
1. In general I don't love people. I have a tendency to be quick to judge and quick to be irritated. These traits won't help when the going gets tough.
2. While I'm fit, I will be the first to admit that I don't LOVE endurance type activities. I will have to be extra cautious about shrugging off the parts of training that I don't want to do.
3. Though I'm good under pressure, I can be a little distractable when the pressure isn't there. Blame that on MTV or something, but I can require a lot of entertainment or I can lose focus.
4. I have some old injuries that I need to be aware of. I'm almost 37, so of course I have my share of banged up elbows, a lower back that goes out when it wants, etc. Injury prevention needs to be a top priority
5. This isn't my life. I have other responsibilities and I have to find a way to juggle potentially long training times (30 minute jogs aren't going to cut it when I may have to do that 6-8 times in a night) with the rest of my life.

Opportunities-
1. Well, the good news is that money isn't an issue. If I need/want new shoes I will get them. The GoRuck brand packs cost roughly $300. I can afford that plus the entry fee.
2. I have some other individuals who will be coming along for the ride. At a minimum "Ben" will be my training partner for this little adventure. Ben is a former Marine, so I will lean on him quite a bit as I know he has more experience with this than I have. There may be others to be named later.
3. New friends, new experiences, new knowledge.
4. There is a good bit of info out there about this experience. I won't be going in completely blind.


Threats-
1. Weather is a big one. I can't control it, but I can prepare for it. During the next several months of training I expect I'll see single and three digit temps, crap tons of rain, and generally any other weather pattern that would have me considering how badly I want to do this.
2. Travel for work. This can potentially take me out of my training "groove" and I will need to plan accordingly to accomplish my goals while I'm on the road.
3. Though the overall intent of the event is the same, every event has its own flavor, if you will. There will always be a level of uncertainty.
4. Any time you get away from your basic "walking around" level of exertion, you increase your risk of injury. This is going to be a monumental departure from walking about, both in training and performance measure.

[Sourapple]

good luck man!

your weaknesses absolutely mirror mine, and so do most of your strengths!

[CookAndrewB]

So I have determined that 1 January will be my official start date. Until then I will be trying out some training ideas and generally keeping on track with my current training.

Some assumptions I am making about the training necessary for this event:
1) True top level strength (1RM) isn't going to be a primary concern. I do want to maintain a little strength, and I will actually be looking for some "move heavy sh!t" workouts to help break up the monotony of hundreds of pushups, flutter kicks, etc.
2) Injury prevention is key. I will devote some portion of every porkout making sure I'm limber, mobile, and otherwise not cruising for a huge delay in my ability to train.
3) Weighing less is going to be an advantage. Now, I am never going to be 165 lbs, but I don't need to be 215 either. I'm going to aim for 190 and see how that feels.
4) Hand strength is never overrated. Training various grip types still has a priority.
5) Training frequency is still my plan. I will probably look at 7 days a week, and balance my intensity/workload to manage recovery. If breaks are needed, or are created because of life (IE, all day travel), then I'll take it as it comes.


Game plan is as follows (no specifics, this is just an outline):
Monday- Lower body strength endurance (high rep squats, Bulgarian split squats, lunges)
Tuesday- Upper body strength (This will probably be bench press, if for no other reason than overhead pressing and pushups work better for strength endurance work for upper body. Also, lots of pullups!)
Wednesday- METCON and include some movement (weighted carries, bear crawls, etc)
Thursday- Lower body strength (Deadlift, as it is going to be most practical for this competition)
Friday- Upper body strength endurance (clean and press for reps, pushups, etc)
Saturday- METCON and movement #2
Sunday- Long hike with weighted pack.

Soooooo, what about all that endurance talk?
Starting Jan 1, I'm aiming to put in 7 miles per week running. I'm not as worried about how many times, so long as I get my miles in. Trust me, I won't be heading outside to run a 7 miler on Sunday Its going to be hard enough just to get out in the freezing cold through winter (call it character building) so until the weather starts to get nice (say March/April) I'm going to work on increasing mileage per week without adding weight. Once the weather gets nice I'll start adding jogs with some weight and start fiddling around with some interval runs. In the meantime, I'm going to build up some tolerance to the backpack by hitting a 1-2 hour hike on Sundays, when I can. Cardio will be done in the evening or at lunch time if I can get away from work for a bit.

Everything is subject to change, but that is my primary plan and I believe it covers all of my bases well enough to keep me injury free and on track to put up a good fight, physically.

Bought a starter pack today, so I can start getting some training in while under load. Figure the sooner I start wokring with the backpack/brick combo the more time I will have to learn lessons and make changes. I will be looking at buying the real pack in early spring... mostly in the hopes that someone may get me one for my birthday

[VoxExMachina]

Up in this yarn.

[strongforgood]

In, and inspired. Go AC!

[CookAndrewB]

Welcome all, and thanks for the support.

[CookAndrewB]

First off, took some time to start taping bricks together so I could try out the new pack. 6 bricks + pack weighed in at 39lbs and some change. I will try to take some pictures of the brick pack once I have it finished.

Today was a METCON/movement day. Temp outside was a balmy 37 degrees.

Started off in the garage with some warm up circuits:
Burpee- 12
Rock climbers- 1 up, 1 dwn, 1 up
Kettlebell swing- 45lbx20
Burpee- 12
Rock climbers- 1 up, 1 dwn, 1 up
Kettlebell swing- 45lbx20

* As a side note, I do something similar to the above for every workout. Gets the blood pumping, gets me limber, and I have found that burpees/KB swings are a great way to get my CNS primed in a short period of time. Also, "Rock Climbers" aren't mountain climbers. I have a series of rock climbing grips suspended on an incline in my garage. Think monkey bars that travel up at an angle and you have a pretty good idea of what this actually is. This is a grip/upper body bracing move. I will also try and get video of this at some point. A trip up or down requires about 6 hand placement adjustments, so you can sort of count out how many reps all that is by multiplying the number of trips by 6 if you are so inclined. I'm not so inclined and just count them as a complete set if I go from the lowest to the highest grips, or visa versa.

Enter the backpack...
I did bear crawls and some sandbag carries for the bulk of my work. Bear crawls covered 80' total (40' out, 40' back, with 8 steps in the middle). Sand bag carries covered 120' total (60' out, 60' back on gravel) and were either shouldered or bear hugged, or fireman carried across both shoulders. Following all this? There is a test later. All of this was done wearing the 39lb pack.

Bear crawl- 80'
Sandbag carry- 120' right shoulder, 120' left shoulder (bag returned to ground between trips)
Bear crawl- 80'
Sandbag carry- 120' bear hug, 120' fireman carry (bag returned to ground between trips)
Bear crawl- 80'
sandbag carry- 120' right shoulder, 120' left shoulder

Major...wind...sucking. Bear crawls werent bad until going down stairs. Pack needs to be adjusted so it doesn't slide forward (up towards my head). Sandbag carries weren't too bad. I may double that distance in the future. Either way, I was puffing like a fat kid. Tried to jump back in on these as soon as I could breathe normal. I'll probably also time this complete evolution in the future to monitor my recovery or how quickly I can get back into it. I actually got out my stop watch, but forgot to start it and didn't remember that I had done that until I went to write in my training log.

Injury prevention stuff (no pack):
Jump rope- 100
Bird dogs- 20
neck bridge to full bridge- 10
Jump rope- 100
Bird dogs- 20
neck bridge to full bridge- 10

Upper back tightened up a couple times on first set of bridges. To clarify this, I do a neck bridge until I'm up on my head, then put my hands on the ground and press out into a full bridge. I started doing neck bridges 6-8 months ago and honestly I love them. Full bridges are relatively new to me, but I've read enough on these to think they are worth a little time and attention for most athletes. Jump rope is about all the calf work I do, and I view this primarily as a way to keep my ankles healthy. The cardio aspect is an added benefit.

[Miketoc]

Good Luck AC, I'll be following along.

[CamLeslie]

Subbed. This looks sick.

[CookAndrewB]

Strength is a funny concept. A year or two back I read something that talked about being "strong enough" and at the time that seemed counterproductive. Why wouldn't we want to have football linemen who can squat 1000lbs? But the concept of strong enough kept bouncing around in the back of my mind and it continues to do so as I analyze how strong is "enough" and how much return do I get on an investment to get stronger at this point? I really bring this up because it may explain some of my training, or it may at least give you some shred of hope that I don't make random decisions when I choose to do something.

Warm up circuit:
Burpees - x10
Lunges - With 39lb pack x 12
KB Swings - 70 x 14
Burpees - x10
Lunges - With 39lb pack x 12
KB Swings - 70 x 14

Deadlifts (All sets DOH grip unless otherwise stated):
135 x (3x5)
225 x 2
295 x 2
345 x 2
395 x 1 + 1 (w/straps) + 1 + 1 (w/straps) + 1 (5 total, 3 DOH without straps, 2 with)

My weight for this is primarily chosen out of convenience. 395 isn't a significant number, nor is it a particular % of anything. I can pull 475 with straps for a good grinder, and 395 is something in the 80%-ish range for that. I'm far more concerned about bar speed, technique, and most of all my grip strength. I'm not training for a max, I'm training for consistency.

Navy PRT curl ups (it's somewhere between a crunch and a sit-up, and required for Navy PT testing):
BW x (3x40)

Expand Your Hand bands (http://www.ironmind-store.com/Expand...ctinfo/1376/):
Blue band x (3x15)

I think it is worth expounding on the idea of consisitency. One area that I think I differ from your average gym rat is that I don't much care about max lifts. There are always days when everything works well and the Gods smile upon your efforts and you walk out of the gym feeling like a complete badass. Problem is those days are grossly outnumbered by your average "woke up sleepy, bodypart X is a little tweaked, I'm stiff, my diet wasn't great yesterday... blah blah blah" type of day. It was always my experience that a competition is far more likely to fall on a so-so day, even with the best laid plans, than a great one. If I was going to compete I needed to have an idea of what I am capable of on my worst day. So generally I only focus on consistency, because that is how I judge whether something is going to end well or not. Consistency builds confidence. Confidence gives you the ability to take risks because you know how far away your safety net is. Confidence also gives you the ability to take risks and fail... because you KNOW what you are capable of, and that little bit of doubt never creeps into your head. When I wake up to do this challenge I have set in front of me, I will be confident that I can succeed. That confidence will come from months of consistent work.

BTW, I'm sick as a dog today. I woke up, took some cold medicine, hit all my numbers for the day, and I didn't doubt for a second I would get it done. Why? Consistency. This is what I'm capable of on my worst day, and I've trained for this. Next month I'll be prepared to do a little more on my worst day, and the month after that I'll be ready to do even more when the chips are stacked against me.

[CamLeslie]

BTW, I'm sick as a dog today. I woke up, took some cold medicine, hit all my numbers for the day, and I didn't doubt for a second I would get it done. Why? Consistency. This is what I'm capable of on my worst day, and I've trained for this. Next month I'll be prepared to do a little more on my worst day, and the month after that I'll be ready to do even more when the chips are stacked against me.

Good stuff man. I find it much harder to perform/continue when there's no one around, or I don't feel good, or I didn't sleep well etc. But the reality is that stuff will always be present. I can always find an excuse to quit if I look hard enough.

You ever read any stuff that Mark Twight at GymJones posts? This stuff sounds very similar and you might find it interesting. Another interesting site is http://station515.blogspot.com/. I'm not sure how I feel about either of these places yet i.e. I haven't drank their particular kool-aid yet, but I think they do have some stuff of redeeming value, especially for people who aren't "your average gym rat".

Thanks for typing it, glad I read it.

[CookAndrewB]

Good stuff man. I find it much harder to perform/continue when there's no one around, or I don't feel good, or I didn't sleep well etc. But the reality is that stuff will always be present. I can always find an excuse to quit if I look hard enough.

You ever read any stuff that Mark Twight at GymJones posts? This stuff sounds very similar and you might find it interesting. Another interesting site is http://station515.blogspot.com/. I'm not sure how I feel about either of these places yet i.e. I haven't drank their particular kool-aid yet, but I think they do have some stuff of redeeming value, especially for people who aren't "your average gym rat".

Thanks for typing it, glad I read it.

Those are good reads in my book. I will be honest, I haven't see either of those places before but I like the feel I get from them. I just spent the last 50-60 minutes browsing about and I can't find anything that absolutely makes me cringe. I subscribe to many of these ideas myself, such as training movements, not muscles. Of course, that works well for those of us NOT bodybuilding, right? That philosophy, or point of view, works well in some circumstances and not others.

One of the smartest bits of advice I've ever adopted into my life was the idea that I can take what works and leave the rest. In any situation, some things are going to work for me, and some stuff just isn't. This comes with a caveat, of course... you have to be smart enough to understand what you are chosing and rejecting. It can't be picking out the things that sound good, or the things that are easy. It takes a lot of effort to make sure you are holding onto those things that really make a difference.

[strongforgood]

you have to be smart enough to understand what you are chosing and rejecting. It can't be picking out the things that sound good, or the things that are easy. It takes a lot of effort to make sure you are holding onto those things that really make a difference.

QFT for most things in life

[CookAndrewB]

Upper Conditioning

This was a bit of a pulse check on things, as I haven't really done anything like this since I stopped training for strongman.

Warmup circuit:
Burpees (Every day)- x10
Band resistance rows- (mini band doubled) x15
KB snatches- 25lb x 10 each arm
Burpees (Every day)- x10
Band resistance rows- (mini band doubled) x15
KB snatches- 25lb x 10 each arm

I really haven't done more than a handfull of KB snatches in the past, so I was really just feeling my way around these. First set was a little odd, but second set felt very fluid (wasn't banging my wrist on the catch). I probably should have done something other than rows as my second warmup, and you will figure out why as I detail the rest of this workout.

Log clean and press AMAP (as many as possible) in 10 minutes. Each rep was ground to lockout in case "clean and press" wasn't clear.
90lb x 10 (warmup)
140lbs x 33 in 10min

I'm on the fence about this. I think I may split this into two different sets. Going into it I had a couple guidelines in my head.
1) I needed to push a bit, but not kill myself, so I could set a fair baseline. I felt like I accomplished this, actually.
2) I needed to hit at least one rep in a given minute, so I could keep some form of pace going. I ended up averaging 3 reps in a given minute, and between groupings I averaged about 30 seconds of sucking wind before I was good to press on. First and second minute were a bit better than that as I think I hit five reps in the first minute before breaking, and 4 in the second minute. After that I ended up being oddly consistent with how much I could do and how quickly I could recover.

Moving forward with this, I may try one 5 minute round at 140, and then a second 5 minute round at 170. Oh, I should mention that this was on a 12" steel log.

Pack training (39lb):
Alternated between pushups with the pack on and body weight rows done with a pair of Olympic rings looped over my power rack.

pushups - x15
BW rows - x8
pushups - x15
BW rows - x6 + 2 partial
pushups - x15
BW rows - x6 + 2 partial

I will be the first to admit that this was way harder than I expected it to be. Granted I haven't been feeling well, but I didn't expect this to be so tiring. My goal with this would be to hit at least 20 pushups x 5 sets, and 15 rows x 5 sets. I'm a pretty long way off, but over 6 months of consistant training I think this is a reasonable goal. I think the thing that stunned the crap out of me was how hard the rows were. The weight seemed to make a much bigger difference there than on pushups. I'm not exactly sure why that is... but then again, this brings me back to everything I did leading up to this: Getting the log onto my lap is... a row. I warmed up with... yes, ROWS. So I suspect that after 63 rows leading up to this point, my back was ready to give me the finger and call it quits anyway.

Weather was awful outside today. 27 degrees and snowing so hard that I actually had snow build up inside my ear just from walking from my house to the garage. I purchased some new gloves for my outdoors escapades this winter. I have no plan to stop bear crawling or hauling sandbags around like an idiot. I think that is part of the training, is to stop making excuses for why you can't do something and live a little outside of my normal comfort zone. Granted, my garage is never more than a few degrees warmer than outside temp anyway, even with my propane contractor's heater blasting, but there is no snow or wet.

In the interest of being "complete" with my journaling, these are the gloves I ordered: http://www.ytgloves.com/products.asp...bCategory2Id=0

GoRuck seems to endorse Mechanix gloves, but after reading some reviews, they seem to wear out relatively quickly. It seems the supple leather they use to obtain good dexterity is not so good when it comes to handling a lot of rough surfaces (IE, bear crawls on concrete).

I also ordered a couple pairs of trail running shoes. Nothing special there, just some stuff from New Balance because they have readily available wide sizes and my feet are... well, wide. Going to give each a shot and see what I think the best answer is for being on my feet 13 hours.

Because I may not get a chance to hop back on here, tomorrow is more METCON/movement training and Sunday it should be a balmy mid 40's and sunny, so I'm planning on hitting the hills around my house and dragging my bag of bricks around for a couple hours.

Hope everyone has a safe holiday!

[CookAndrewB]

Saturday METCON and movement

Warm up circuit:
Burpees - x12
dips on Olympic rings - x10
KB swings - 45lb x 20
Burpees - x12
dips on Olympic rings - x10
KB swings - 45lb x 20

In general I have stayed away from dips for a number of years because they tend to beat up my shoulders. Of course, I was doing dips with an extra 100+ lbs and I was probably going far too deep so I thought I would see how this worked out. I liked it, actualy. Sometimes it pays to circle back on some things that you gave up on. We all get older and wiser, and it isn't wise to swear something off forever. In particular, I liked the extra effort that it took to stay stable and keep from swinging all over the place.

Pack work, 100lb sandbag carries:

To kick this off, let me describe the order of the day. Behind my house I have an alley that is a 160 meter hill. That was my goal today, carry the sandbag up and down that hill...in the snow.

160m downhill, 160m uphill with pack and SB
160m dwn, 160m up pack only
160m dwn, 160m up pack and SB
160m dwn, 160m up pack only
160m dwn, 160m up pack and SB
160m dwn, 160m up pack only

This took me about 30 minutes to complete. 960 meters with the sand bag (all fireman's carrys) and 960 meters without it. This was tough, but not impossible. I got up a good sweat and I certainly huffed and puffed quite a bit.

BW crawls:

Traps were shot after all the carries, so I left it off for the next portion.

Bear crawl 15'
Crab walk 15'
Bear crawl 15'
Crab walk 15'
Bear crawl 15'
Crab walk 15'

Kept to my plan, got down in the snow and crawled around. Kept it pretty short because it was slick out. Can't wait for my new gloves to come! The ones I have now... wow my fingers were cold. Temp today was about 26.

[Lifting N Tx]

Well, dang, you've gone Crossfit on us. Or something like. This ought to be at least interesting in being different than the run of the mill journal.

On the GoRuck stuff, I checked the link and still am not 100% sure what it is. Sort of a team race, backpack, carry sometimes heavy stuff thing?

[Miketoc]

In general I have stayed away from dips for a number of years because they tend to beat up my shoulders. Of course, I was doing dips with an extra 100+ lbs and I was probably going far too deep so I thought I would see how this worked out. I liked it, actualy. Sometimes it pays to circle back on some things that you gave up on. We all get older and wiser, and it isn't wise to swear something off forever. In particular, I liked the extra effort that it took to stay stable and keep from swinging all over the place.

Yeah I messed my left shoulder up the same way. Swore off them, but I love them too much. Picked them back up a couple months ago and now I just focus on a slow decent, because a quick uncontrolled decent was what broke **** before.

[CookAndrewB]

Well, dang, you've gone Crossfit on us. Or something like. This ought to be at least interesting in being different than the run of the mill journal.

On the GoRuck stuff, I checked the link and still am not 100% sure what it is. Sort of a team race, backpack, carry sometimes heavy stuff thing?

No, not crossfit, I have specific goals in mind. Circuit training happens to get me to those goals faster than anything else I can think of. Still, the goal is to complete the challenge without injury so I will be focusing on training that will make me stronger and not training that will potentially put me in harms way. So the weights will be moderate for the most part, and I won't be trying to accomplish anything that looks like failure... although I'll be the first to admit that I will be pushing myself so I can build a greater tolerance for lactic acid response.

As for what the GoRuck challenge is:
1) It is NOT a race. The day/night takes as long as it takes. Everyone who finishes is a "winner" and the only way to not finish is to be too injured to carry on or to quit. So, no quit = winner! The injury stuff you just can't help. The best you can do (*I* can do) is to train to handle the widest number of movement patterns and don't lose focus on the big day.
2) Being a military type for most of my adult life (16 out of 36 years) I would simply look at this as an exercise in teamwork. The better the team works together, the better the night goes. The more someone tries to be a superstar/lone wolf, the more miserable this will be. No military force survives based on one guy doing everything, no matter what video games and movies tells us. A unit has to identify their weaknesses and strengths, and leverage them to accomplish tasks. So GoRuck challenges look like "carrying heavy crap around" and going out of your way to be miserable by sitting in cold water, crawling through mud, and do forth.
3) The backpack is one of those constant miseries as far as I can tell. I'll be honest that I didn't think 6 bricks would be so miserable until I started wearing the pack and trying to do stuff. It is not enough weight to keep you from doing anything, and it is just enough weight to make everything you do a challenge.

Well, I'm about 15 minutes out from my first full hike with my pack on. Gotta go put forth a little effort to figure out what clothes are my best option as it is almost 40 degrees, and sunny... but that sun won't be hitting the valleys, and only some of the ridges I'll be hiking. Should be a good time, and I fully expect to have sore traps come tomorrow!

[CookAndrewB]

Hiking yesterday was an interesting experience. Total distance was 3.38 miles and it took 1hr21min to complete. Hills were tough, mostly on the descent, due to snow and ice. Hiking with the pack was also tougher than I had assumed it would be. 40lbs seems like such an insignificant thing, until you have worn it for a while. Traps were screaming by the end of the hike, but not a lot of DOMS today. I think this is something that just takes time to get used to, but holy crap I can't imagine 13 hours of that at this point! Certainly not with running included.

[Lencho]

Hello, old friend.

[Miketoc]

Hello, old friend.

You are both young in my eyes.

[CookAndrewB]

Hello, old friend.

Who says Christmas wishes don't come true! How are things, my fine Texan friend... or one of them. Why is every third person on BB.com from Texas?

You are both young in my eyes.

Thanks, dude who is quite a bit younger than both of us.

Today's lower body conditioning workout

Warmup curcuit:

Didn't feel all that creative today, kept it basic.

Burpees x 10
KB swings x (70lb x 10)
Burpees x 10
KB swings x (70lbs x 10)
Burpees x 10
KB swings x (70lbs x 10)

Safety Squat Bar (SSB) touch n go off a 12" box:
60 x 20
60 x 20
110 x 5
150 x 5
200 x 5
150 x 10
110 x 15

I haven't been squatting quite this deep in a while, preferring 15" box heights normally. Still, if I'm going to lighten my load I figured a little extra ROM wouldn't kill me. Felt good, and for whatever reason the higher reps gave me a good pump in my lower back. I think this had more to do with the depth than the weight or reps. Keeping tight that deep (12" is about 2" below parallel for me, and 15" is about spot on, and yes I recognize there is an inch missing in there somewhere. I'm just guestimating for the most part).

Walking lunges and planks with 39lb pack:
lunges x 30
plank for 30 seconds
lunges x 30
plank for 30 seconds

Planks could have lasted a bit longer, but the lunges were taking the wind out of my sails pretty quickly and I didn't figure I needed to push this too hard 6 months out. One of the prep journals I read for GoRuck talked about doing tons of lunges... talking half miles worth of them a few times per week. First, I can't even fathom that... but it does sound badass. I can remember being stationed in Kings Bay, GA and watching this Marine do lunges while carrying 70lb dumbbells. Dude had one of the thickest pairs of legs I've ever seen. Sure he did some other stuff, but by far he spent the most time doing walking lunges. If I get halfway there I'm going to cry tears of joy.

Overall I'm feeling good. Weather here has been for crap lately. Today's lunges were done in freezing rain. Sidewalk was slowly turning to a sheet of ice, and I was getting rained on. Beautiful damned weather! I'm probably going to hit some foam rolling for 20-30 minutes tomorrow and work some of the stiffness out of my legs, but otherwise I still feel strong.

Hope everyone has a good holiday!

[CookAndrewB]

METCON/movement work for the day

Well, Ohio is in the midst of a winter storm, so not too much "getting out" going on today.

Warm up circuit:
Burpee x 10
Jump rope x 50 skips
KB Swing x (70lb x 20)
Burpee x 10
Jump rope x 50 skips
KB swing x (70lb x 20)

METCON work with backpack on:
Pullup x 5
Cleans x (115 x 5)
Pushup x 5

Did the above circuit 4 times. Cleans with the pack on were not as difficult as I originally thought they might be. I think I can probably up the reps a bit on this if/when I am forced to stay indoors again.

Bird dog x 20
Flutter kick x 50
Bridge x 10
Bird dog x 20
Flutter kick x 50
Bridge x 10

All in all a bit of an easy day. Need to spend a little time stretching/foam rolling today to work out some stiffness. One of the reasons I work out 6-7 days a week is because it helps keep the DOMS at bay. When I take a day off (like xmas) I tend to get extra stiff/sore. While training every day seems to keep it all at a low boil and my warm up circuit tends to wipe away all those issues.

[Miketoc]

You should be working out within the storm, it will help you mentally prepare.

[CookAndrewB]

You should be working out within the storm, it will help you mentally prepare.

Eh... in general I agree with you, but my event is in the summer, so getting used to being covered in freezing rain doesn't really get me to my goal There is some risk there that I didn't feel the reward covered.

Did 50 minutes of light cardio on my spin bike.

[CookAndrewB]

Lower strength day

Warm up circuit:
burpees x 10
walking lunges with pack x 12
KB swings x (70lb x 14)
burpees x 10
walking lunges with pack x 12
KB swings x (70lb x 14)

DOH deadlifts:
135 x (3x5)
225 x 2
295 x 2
345 x 2
395 x 1 + 1 with straps + 1 + 1 with straps + 1

Felt ok. Final rep was a little tougher than I would have liked. Garage was 19 degrees this AM and my hands were pretty cold by the time I was done pulling.

Wrist extensor work + stretching to wrap it all up.

Have a massage scheduled in an hour. Looking forward to it as I've been feeling a little beat up all-in-all. The change in exercise protocol has been a bit of a transition so far. Right now I don't think there is a good reason to alter my game plan, but I'll take a look at it towards the end of January and evaluate how things are coming along at that point. Come January I'll be scoping out a new gym. Have a couple that I've got my eye on right now, both are crossfit type gyms (not affiliate, but have all the right toys). I really would like to find a place that has a significant amount of indoor space for my movement and mobility trianing days when the weather is crap. I would also like to be able to add tire flipping as part of my METCON work, and potentially some yoke/farmers walks too. I have great space for it at my house once the weather decides to play nice, but that won't be until April/May most likely.

[CookAndrewB]

Upper body endurance

Warm up circuit:
Burpee - x 10
Face pulls - mini band x 10
One arm KB OH press - x 10 each arm
Burpee - x 10
Face pulls - mini band x 10
One arm KB OH press - x 10 each arm

Log press for reps:
90lb x 10
140 x 5
170 x 5
200 x 5
170 x 8
140 x 10

Each set was only cleaned once this week, most of my reps were push presses. I don't have a lot of care where strict pressing is concerned. In general I think it is unlikely that an athlete wouldn't use some sort of momentum to deliver maximum force. I'm also not a bodybuilder, so I'm not encumbered by some desire to think of my body as a disconnected collection of parts.

Pack push ups and BW rows (all body weight +39lbs):
Push up x 10
row x 5

Did the above for six rounds. Rows still feel really odd. Body weight is fine, but add the pack and suddenly I have trouble with it.

So the massage last night was awesome. Honestly I slept better than I had in months, and woke up feeling about 70% less sore. I'm going to have to keep that in mind. The masseuse told me some pretty funny stories about "pervs" calling her looking for THAT kind of massage. I think the laughing was as stress relieving as the massage.

Tomorrow is some METCON/movement stuff (supposed to get another 2-4" of snow overnight) followed by a day at the indoor water park near my house. I am tempted to count the number of stairs that I climb and count that as part of my training.

[CookAndrewB]

Saturday 29 Dec Movement and METCON

Warmup circuit:
Burpee x 12
KB snatch x 25lb (10R/10L)
BB snatch x (115 x 5)
Burpee x 12
KB snatch x 25lb (10R/10L)
BB snatch x (115 x 5)

Pack hill walks 160m, 39lb pack, 30lb sandbag:
Fireman carry x 6 trips
Rt shoulder x 4 trips
Lt shoulder x 4 trips
Bear hug x 4 trips
Overhead carry x 1 trip
fireman carry x 1 trip

Total of 2 miles (20 trips x 160m = 3200m)

temp out was 28 degrees, hill was relatively snow/ice covered. This took me nearly 40 minutes of walking to cover.

Afterwards headed to the local indoor water park for 5 hours of hot tubs, lazy rivers, and water slides (lather, rinse, repeat). I think the water park wore me out more than the workout did. Grabbed a full rack of ribs and a loaded baked potato for dinner and pretty much passed out when I got home.

[CookAndrewB]

Went to the usual location near mu home to hike. Did manage to find a new hill that is a real arse kicker. I think it is going to be a regular portion of my hiking training.

3.24 miles in an hour and some change.

[CookAndrewB]

Monday lower body conditioning

Warm up circuit:
Burpee x 10
SLDL x (70 x 10)
KB swings x (45 x 20)
Burpee x 10
SLDL x (70 x 10)
KB swings x (45 x 20)

Safety squat bar squats to 12" box:
60 x 20 + 20
110 x 5
150 x 5
200 x 5
150 x 10
110 x 15

Ready to bump the weight up on this.

Walking lunges with backpack and planks (+39 lbs):
x 32 lunges
32 second plank
x 32 lunges
32 second plank