Training Log: Entry 3638

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 1, Workout 3

MAIN WORK

SSB front squat
3x5x215

Axle strict press
3x5x148

(3) Texas Deadlift Bar mat Pulls
11+5+4x455

ASSISTANCE

3 round Giant set circuit (no rest) of

• Reverse hyper 15x360

• 10 hanging leg raises

• 50 band pull aparts

Lateral raise dropset
35x10, 35x5, 35x2.5, 35x Empty hands

Notes:

• Staying with the protocol of fewer sets on my deadlift day, and I eliminated chins between sets for a similar reason. Allowing myself plenty of energy to pull.

• Best I can describe this is performing strength miracles inside my garage, because I have no idea how I managed to get that bar moving on the mat pulls, and then somehow found 11 reps on that first pull, and I truthfully had a 12th in me if I was willing to sacrifice work downstream. Same with those follow up sets. I’m re-discovering that other gear inside of me that can just make stuff happen. It’s cool to find that part of me again.

• Right knee is already telling me it doesn’t much care for the squats, but such is life. I’m focusing on sitting back rather than down as much as I can.

• My pecs are quite sore from Monday’s GC5. Novel stimulus.

• I had an idea in my head to do Fran when this was all done, as a means to get in more front squatting and chins. That’s not entirely off the menu, but for this first week it certainly was. I’m also glad I put the stop to the 10k swing idea, because with the puppy coming into our lives and a host of other schedule silliness, it would have been non-viable. This flexibility is helpful.

• Weighed 84.9kg this morning. More crazy swings. Got in 20k steps yesterday as well: had to take my truck in for some work, so walked around while I waited.

• Keg carry yesterday was 263.5.

• Tang Soo Do last night was actually a decent level of activity. Drill components of the one-steps in isolation, which gave us a chance to hit the bags. Class tonight will most likely be low on activity, and we have a parent-teacher conference, so the evening walk is most likely not going to happen.

 Training Log: Entry 3637

AM WORKOUT (0515 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 1, Workout 2

“Charon’s Trinity”

5 rounds of

• 1 min rower

• 1 min 24kg KB swing

• 1 min burpee

• 1 min rest

Notes:

• It was good to come back to this, because it kicked my butt. Made it through all the rounds, but was definitely dogging it come time for the burpees. Lungs and heart were working hard.

• Right knee continues to feel pretty awesome. Recovery is going well.

• Weighed in at 86.3kg this morning. Significant jumps and swings: will have to see what my weight settles in at when things become a bit more stable.

• Keg carry yesterday was 262.5lbs.

• Haven’t been getting in my steps the past few days, due to schedule insanity. Should be able to resume now. We get our new puppy on Friday, which will change the schedule some more, but we’ll adapt.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. It’s one-steps week, so a little lower in terms of activity.

 Training Log: Entry 3636

AM WORKOUT (0359 natural wake up)

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 1, Workout 1

MAIN WORK

SSB front squat
5x5x215

ALTERNATE w/

Axle strict press from rack
5x5x148

Sets of 5 chins between sets

CONDITIONING

General Conditioning Workout #5

3 rounds of
-60 seconds of dips
-90 seconds rest
-60 seconds push ups
-90 seconds rest

3 rounds of
-5 burpees
-10 chins

ASSISTANCE

Ab wheel/band pull apart superset
3x10/50

Notes:

• 2 min rest between lifts

• 3:30 to complete the second part of GC5

• Performed chins during the warm up as well.

• Felt good coming into this. Bridge week paid off. Right knee is feeling buttery smooth on those front squats. Bracing is really solid.

• GC5 is always great for an upper body pump. Hitting burpees after all those push ups sucks.

• Feeling out the program for now, although it’s going to be a short run anyway at 3 weeks before getting back to Mass Protocol.

• Woke up at 85.4kg. That’s the scale moving in the wrong direction, but lots of variables at play. I ate something that disagreed with me this weekend, and spend much of Saturday evening/Sunday morning getting rid of it. Alongside that, in-laws in town meant reduced activity and increased celebrating. I’m not too concerned, as I really just need to be below 185lbs on 7 Dec as far as weight goes, otherwise, I’m just eating to support training. Will still be reducing food intake as I go. Last week was 16oz of meat at breakfast, this week is 14.5.

• Last night was the family meal. Classic spaghetti and meat sauce, with some sourdough and 4 of the Valkyrie’s cookies with some local raw honey. Cut myself down from 5, because I’m the master of restriction like that. There is a little truth to that, because she made pumpkin oatmeal cookies, which basically hits all the right notes for me.

• Keg carry yesterday was 261lbs. It keeps getting heavy but manageable. At this point, I might let weather determine when I stop.

 Training Log: Entry 3635

PM WORKOUT (1330)

BRIDGE WEEK

57 burpee chins in 5 minutes (lifetime PR)

Notes:

• The whole time I was doing this, I thought I was moving SO slow. Around rep 14 I thought to myself “ok, it’s been a while since you’ve done this, and you’re missing a gear here, just focus on not stopping”, and at rep 22 it was “just because you’re recording this doesn’t mean you have to post it, if it’s a sh*t show, you can just delete it”, and at rep 35 I thought “ok, we might get to 50 before time expires”, and then when I hit 50 I wondered “did I forget to set the sound on my alarm?”, only to see that I had 38 seconds left, so I kicked it into gear and got that 7th rep at the end. It’s funny how the way we feel can be completely different from reality, but maybe I always felt like I was going “faster” because I really just felt like I was working HARDER because it WAS harder, and this time it was so easy it felt like I wasn’t putting in much effort.

• That’s a lot of analysis for some burpee chins, but I’m pretty happy that I turn 40 at the end of this month and I’m still hitting some PRs. After this, I was wiped out, went and mowed the lawn for about an hour, and caught my heart rate at 120 a couple of times.

• I really dug how this was a workout I WANTED to do. And no loading.

• I carried a 258.5lb keg yesterday and a 260lb one this evening.

 Training Log: Entry 3634

AM WORKOUT (0515 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm)

BRIDGE WEEK

20 minute recovery row

Notes:

• Finally got smart and treated this bridge week right. Another night of sleeping in and a recovery workout. I absolutely caught myself wanting to get up and hit a Fran WOD instead. I have to interpret these things positively: it means I am recovering and excited to train hard. That’s exactly what a bridge week is supposed to do. The key is to not squander that: use it to perpetuate excellence in the follow-on training cycles, rather than waste it with stupid workouts during the bridge.

• That said, I gave myself permission that, if I’m really itching to train like a maniac again, I’ll do that during a cycle of Operator sometime. Get the strength work done, then follow it with a WOD. Easy Strength style.

• In the other realm of positives, I drove to work without knee pain today. Any prolonged sitting tends to really agitate my knee, and driving was always a surefire way to experience that. This re-affirms my suspicion that it’s something I am doing in training that is causing the issue, rather than this just being a forever issue. I still want to get some imaging, but it’s nice to know that solutions exist.

• Weighed in at 84.3kg this morning, down .7 from Monday.

• Keg carry was 257.5lbs yesterday.

• Tang Soo Do was a solid class last night. Drill some basics hard and got some kudos from the head instructor.

 Training Log: Entry 3633

AM WORKOUT (0510 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm)

BRIDGE WEEK

“Meat Eater II”

10 rounds of

• 10 KB swings w/24kg bell

• 10 burpees

• 1 min rest between rounds

Notes:

• I have abandoned the plan for the 10k swing challenge. Ultimately, I recognized myself going down those same old self-destructive pathways of the past. Intellectually, I realized that, since Operator is a static workout (same moves done 3x a week for 3 weeks), pairing it with a static assistance protocol ala the 10k swing challenge was going to lock me in and give me zero room for adaptability. Along with that, I remembered that the last time I ran Operator, I only budgeted 20 minutes for assistance, which meant I’d only be able to get away with the 25 swings EMOM protocol to make it fit my time budget. In doing so, swing technique was going to get sacrificed for the sake of time, which really meant not getting the benefit OF the 10k swing challenge in the first place, and I’d ultimately just be doing swings for the sake of accomplishing the challenge. And in doing THAT, I’d be violating the Dan John principle of “The goal is to keep the goal the goal”. I’m not doing Tactical Barbell so that I can do the 10k swing challenge: I’m doing it so that I can get the benefits of Tactical Barbell, specifically with the O-M-S protocol. Dan spoke to how the 10k swing needs to be done on his own, and he’s not wrong: it was going to take more than it gave with this approach.

• I will say, as far as proof of concept testing goes, I know that it CAN get done: just a question of “should”

• On top of all this, I realized my bridge week wasn’t really allowing me to recover with so many swings, also defeating the purpose. I trained hard: I need to recover so I can train hard again. It’s why I elected for another night of sleeping in. Stan Efferding talks about how it’d be better to sleep an extra hour than to wake up an hour early to train, so I went with that.

• Moving forward, I do feel my approach for Operator will be to finish the workouts and then end with a GC workout of my choosing. Operator will be static, conditioning will be dynamic. Should help prep me for grappling as well.

• Long preamble aside, this morning’s workout was solid. MEII is just a classic “no duh” workout. I fell on the first round of swings: just wasn’t balanced.

• Tang Soo Do was relaxed last night. We worked on tournament form presentation. It was the kind of night we needed. One more class tonight. My in-laws come on Friday and will be staying the weekend, so slight schedule changes.

• Keg carry yesterday was 256lbs. I’m feeling it more in my hamstrings these days.

• Weighed 84.5kg this morning. I think I may do daily weigh ins for the 4 week block. That’s a half kilo loss from Monday.

 Training Log: Entry 3632

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

BRIDGE WEEK

SSB front squat
2x5xBar
2x135
1x185
1x205
1x255
2x288

500 KB swings

• 5 rounds of 10-15-25-50

• Rest periods of 30-30-60-120 seconds

• 2-3-5-5 dips between swings

• 24kg bell

Ab wheel/band pull apart superset circuit
3x5/25

Notes:

• The front squat was for max testing for my next cycle of Operator. The double of 288 was slow, controlled and rock bottom. I feel comfortable using a 300lb max. Also had a revelation about bracing, where it’s not just about a big belly full of air pressing against the belt but then also clamping down my abs on top of that. One of those things I understand in my head but would need quite a few more words to describe to someone else.

• I contemplated not doing the swings at all today, but settled on Dan John’s recommendation for how to approach the workout. Much nicer on my forearms. My grip and hamstrings are what seem to be the most impacted with these swings, which is probably a good sign. I’m still on the fence about doing the full 10k swing challenge over these next 3.5 weeks, but I think I can at least finish out the bridge week at this rate.

• Technically did more dips than recommended, but it didn’t impact my recovery. Dan’s recommendation of rest periods allowed me to have some more explosive swings, and kept my heart rate in a good spot.

• Keg carry was 255lbs yesterday.

• Tang Soo Do was a solid enough workout. The last thing I wanted to do was Bo/staff work, since my grip was fried…and it’s exactly what we did. But, it actually ended up helping get some life back into my forearms. We’ll see what tonight brings.

• Weighed in at 85.0 again today.