Training Log: Entry 3844

AM WORKOUT (0400 Wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 4, Week 2, Workout 3

18 Chins
18 Dips

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

Log clean and strict press away
3x5x165

SSB front squat
3x5x135

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

(2) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
10x425+chains

ASSISTANCE

Axle curls
3x5x106

3 round giant set of 10 hanging leg raises and 25 band pull aparts

Lateral raise dropset

AM WORKOUT II (0830)

3.5 mile trail walk

Notes:

• It's been 1 week since I borked my knee, and I actually woke up feeling really good this morning. There's still some swelling and minor bits of pain, but definitely not "holy crap I tore my meniscus/ACL" dysfunction. I took my war up slow and steady and came in with a policy of "do what you can, don't do what you can't". Log and squat both felt strong.

• The mat pulls was the most controlled set of pulls I've had in months and, consequently, the strongest I've felt. I had more reps in me, but shut it down at 10 because it was the right and safe call, and as a result my knee AND my SI joint/IT band all feel awesome. First time in months I can say that. Lotta lessons to learn there.

• Curls were solid as well. Just a strong day in general.

• Got the day off work for the kiddo's first day of school, so after we dropped them off the Valkyrie and I got in a walk. Still coffee fasted at that point.

• Tang Soo Do was semi-active last night. "Cardio hyungs". Biggest thing is I'm doing exactly what my instructor says and taking them gently: no power in them. Tai Chi style. He came up to me in class and told me he noticed my efforts, and the big thing he gave me was "With your stature, even when you DON'T put power into the technique, it's powerful enough to have the desired effect". That was the feedback I needed. Ok: game on. He also gave me a compliment, demonstrating an elbow strike technique to the abdomen and saying "The intent here is to soften up the target with the strike", he then struck my abdomen and commented "Probably isn't going to work on you, but on OTHER people..."

• Weighed 80.3kg this morning. Roulette diet keeps working magic.

Training Log: Entry 3843

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

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 4, Week 2, Workout 2

18 chins
18 dips

"FOBBITS" on rower w/Naihanchi Cho Don

• 2 minutes on rower

• 1 Naihanchi Cho Don

• 20 minutes total

Notes:

• This didn't feel terrible on my knee. A few clicks here and there, but I was able to put out the effort I needed to match/exceed previous weeks' work. I had more issues during the hyung portion, but even then it was survivable. I'm thinking I may have re-torn the meniscus rather than the ACL graft based on how quickly I'm recovering and how much the knee is clicking/catching. Swelling is pretty much gone, and I'm spending as much time OUT of a brace/sleeve as possible to promote blood flow to recover.

• This was still just a good conditioning effort in general. After 20 minutes, I'm feeling pretty taxed. Pulled up my garmin data and my RHR is back to 41 from 44, so things are moving in a good way, and that tends to correlate with how changes in bodyweight go.

• We have Tang Soo Do tonight. It's wildcard/cardio, but we're outside of physical testing requirements, so no more extensive push ups/sit ups. I'm also taking my hyungs slow in class, per my instructor's guidance, so not too much of a cardio hit. We're taking the day off work tomorrow for my kid's first day of school and getting lunch at our favorite BBQ spot, so schedule will be a little different. Still intend to get up early to train though.

• Weighed 81.7kg this morning. Been taking down a lot of fluids/electrolytes recently, as I can't get ahead of the cramping. Another issue I tend to experience as I get leaner.

 Training Log: Entry 3842

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 4, Week 2, Workout 1

18 Chins
18 Dips

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

SSB front squat
2xBar
1x135
1x185
1x225
1x275
4x275

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

Log clean and strict press away
5x5x165

Stone of Steel to Platform
5 rounds, 1 min each, 2 min rest, w/135lb stone

ASSISTANCE

2 giant sets of 30 second SSB front rack hold w/365, 10 hanging leg raises, 25 band pull aparts

Notes:

• Per the norm, I put on "Book of bad decisions" for this workout and sent it. I feel like Old Man Logan, as my knee is continuing to heal, just not as fast as I would like. That said, on Wed, it was legit clicking with every single step I took, which was also a limp and a lot of pain with no stability. Today, it clicked 3 times heading downstairs and then snapped back into place, and it felt fine during the squats. I still played it safe and kept it at a weight I can manage and didn't chase reps deep to failure. I'm a few hours post training and it legit feels like a regular knee again, so I'm thinking I made the right call.

• The log is feeling more explosive on the clean. Really trying to get it on the belly and then snap it into place. If I can save energy on the clean, I can put it into the press, and it tends to put me in a better ack position.

• Kept the weight light on the loading and focused on technique. I can tell I rely on my connective tissues to bear some load on these movements, and that's not smart right now.

• Weighed 80.1kg this morning. Lightest post-carb weigh in for the cycle, and I'm looking very lean at this point. This has been a great experiment in leaning out and supporting training. In Sep, I hit 2 years on Tactical Barbell, and I feel like I've got a solid handle on how "seasons" work for training now. I'm champing at the bit to start gaining again.

Training Log: Entry 3841

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 4, Week 1, Workout 5

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO (Strength): 50 Rounds of 5 burpees, 3 dips, 3 chins (Work Capacity/SE)| New Window

“PAULIE CICERO”

50 rounds EMOM

• 5 burpees
• 3 chins
• 3 dips

Notes:

• Named this workout after the Goodfellas character, with the famous quote “F–k you: pay me”, because that’s ultimately how every EMOM workout works. Doesn’t matter how tired you are, if you’re hurt, if you’re slipping on sweat on the mats, timer goes off “F–k you: pay me”
• This workout itself is an audible. I woke up and my knee was feeling BETTER, but not 100% healed. I COULD have pushed it through a training session, but I recognized that the damage (not risk) to reward ratio was unfavorable as it related to being able to compete at the end of the month (which I now have a 3rd person in my division, counting me, so that’s cool). So made this a SE/WC workout instead.
• I haven’t performed this kind of training in a LONG time, but I’m not skipping a beat on it. That’s an excellent sign of how overall fitness is holding up. Reviewing the video, I’m also quite lean while my arms have kept their size, so I’m firing on some cylinders that were previously rusted. Really getting things figured out.
• Knee held out well through this. Just enough stimulus to remind it. And now I’m 250 burpees, 150 chins and 150 dips into my day.
• Tang Soo Do last night was low energy, but still got the physical testing requirements, and we’ve been given the task of incorporating Sais into our hyung for Oct, so we’re going to spend some months channeling our inner Raphaels.
• Weighed 80.3kg. Lightest I’ve been on a Friday all cycle, and that’s with a Wed lunch at a Brazilian steakhouse. Go Roulette diet.

Training Log: Entry 3840

AM WORKOUT (0430 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 4, Week 1, Workout 4

18 Chins
18 Dips

4 prowler sprints w/90lbs on high handles

17 chins
17 dips

Notes:

• Sleep was a little rough last night. Was still quite full from my midday meal, and body turned up the thermostat to start burning off the excess energy. I was curious how today was going to go with my knee. It's still swollen, lateral movement is a bad idea, but prowler is perfectly suited for these sorts of situations.

• That said, performance wasn't awesome, but I attribute a bit of that to the weather. We're getting rain and high humidity, which I imagine is part of the reason my knee is swelling, but it also meant increased friction today while pushing. These were slogs, rather than sprints, with some over 60 second times. It's why I cut it at 4 reps: I was feeling prowler flu pretty heavy. That, along with the meat hangover.

• With that, I still weighed in at 81.9kg, which matches the lightest weigh in I've had on a Thurs this entire training cycle, and given the nutritional debauchery I engaged in yesterday, that's an incredible sign. I'm going to see how a 2 mile run goes today during my fitness test, and I'm going to avoid doing stupid stuff in Tang Soo Do.

• UPDATE: I have decided to be less stupid and rescheduled my fitness test to 2 weeks from today, to see if time is all I need for healing. I also realized HOW I hurt my knee. It wasn't deadlifts: after training that morning, I met my kid on the stairs, having discovered that one of the dogs needed out NOW. Unfortunately, the OTHER dog likes to chew on toes of people who are on stairs, and he engaged in that as I was trying to sprint down the stairs to let the other dog out. I have hurt my knee on these stairs before, and trying to navigate that situation most likely resulted in the same outcome. The adrenaline of the moment most likely had me unaware.

 Training Log: Entry 3839

AM WORKOUT (0200 wake up via dog, then 0300 by thunder, then 0400 by alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 4, Week 1, Workout 2

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO (Strength): Cycle 2, Week 1, Workout 2| New Window

18 chins
18 dips
30x90 reverse hypers

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

Log clean and strict press away
3x5x155

SSB Front Squat
3x5x220

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

(3) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
10x425+chains

ASSISTANCE

Axle curls
3x5x98

3 Giant set of 15x90 reverse hyper, 10 hanging leg raises and 25 band pull aparts

Lateral raise dropset

Notes:

• Day off work, but got up early anyway, with a pretty rough night of sleep to start. Heavy thunderstorms, crazy lightning flashes, real Ragnarok kinda stuff. Great setting for deads.

• Felt great coming into this workout despite all that. Back and hips have been in a good way. Now that the workout is done, my left hip is pissed at me, but no worse than usual post deads. I actually focused on bending my knees a little on the deadlift, which seemed to help. I’ll have to be more open to that in the future.

• Presses felt strong, and been focusing on cleaning from the stomach instead of the chest, which seems to be helping.

• This was a 1 rep improvement from last week on the pulls, which in itself was a 1 rep improvement from the week before. I think getting healthier is helping manifest strength.

• Weighed in at 81.0kg: same as yesterday. Been 3 consistent days in a row here. Tang Soo Do last night was pretty low energy last night, but still had physical testing requirements, so I’m getting in extra push ups and sit ups these days.

 Training Log: Entry 3838

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

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 4, Week 1, Workout 2

18 Chins
18 Dips

"FOBBITS" on rower w/Niahanchi Cho Don

• 2 minutes on rower

• 1 Hyung

• Repeat for 20 minutes total time

Notes:

• Despite the tournament being over, I'm sticking with this workout for the sake of consistency through the cycle. Still just a solid 20 minutes of conditioning on a day where I get to sleep in and prep me for deads the next day. Which, on that note, I've made sure that, on the days I get more sleep, I take LONGER to get out of bed, given the past few times I ended up slipping a disk moving too quickly. In turn, my back is feeling awesome these days: would hardly believe how crippled I was last week.

• I was being more deliberate during the Hyungs, trying to take some feedback from my instructor and implement it. In turn, I had 1 minute less on the rower than usual as far as total time goes, but still made up the distance by increasing the intensity of the rowing.

• Been meaning to comment about this: this is the longest I've ever run daily chins AND strongman loading work without having my elbows feel like they're going to explode. Now, I'm not doing any squats with a bar on my back, which helps, but I think I've finally figured out the combo I need by increasing reps by just 1 per week, along with the fact I'm switching my grips on the chins. And I've achieved the goal I've been looking for of returning back to an "everyday" ability to hit 20 chins. Success there.

• On the topic of success: weighed 81.0kg this morning. I anticipated a slight increase, as last night's meal of very salty pork was a wonderful way to get some sodium and water in my body. On that note, my vascularity absolutely exploded at the end of the night with a combination of the carbs on Sunday and the sodium load for Monday. Looking over my notes, I started this training cycle at 85.0kg, and I'm in the 10th week now, so 4kg dropped over 9.5 weeks, no counting/tracking cals/macros, eating ribs, cookies and pizza on weekends, never being hungry and still getting stronger. Definitely found what works for me.

• Valkyrie and I got in a 3 mile walk last night after dinner, and tonight is Tang Soo Do. It's 1-step week, which tends to be lower energy, but we're still doing physical testing requirements. I also am taking tomorrow off, so I'll still get in my morning workout, but then the kiddo and I are doing our favorite Brazilian steakhouse for lunch, and then the next day is my penultimate fitness test.