Training Log: Entry 3867

AM WORKOUT (0450 wake up via Valkyrie's alarm)

OPERATION TACTICAL SLEIGHBELL

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL Grey Man, Week 2, Workout 2

"ROW ROW ROW YOUR BLOAT"

14 chins
30:22 recovery row (6000m total)
5 min walk
14 chins

Notes:

• Schedule a little weird. It's my kid's first cross country meet today, so the Valkyrie got to work early so she could leave early and make it there on time. Meant I had a little extra time to play around this morning. Plan was originally just 30 min on the rower, but I was close enough to 6000m that I just closed it out. Which, 6000m in 30 minutes is like "timed with an hourglass" speed, but given this is a recovery row, it worked.

• Which, on that note, I go to bed with ambitions and wake up with reality. I felt like I could do more until that alarm went off and then I realized that a slow, easy recovery row was just what the doctor ordered. Again: Grey Man hits different, and I have to meet it where it's at. I do love how much I want to "be everything", as it means the fire hasn't died, but I still have to be smart with how I go about approaching it.

• It's sparring week in Tang Soo Do this week. Our instructor is going to play with a new bracket format, which should mean no more mixed gender sparring matches. Curious how it will play out.

• Got in some throws last night. They actually felt pretty solid. That "scoop" technique helps. From now until Feb at least gives me a LOT of practice time.

• Weighed 81.4kg this morning: .1kg drop from yesterday. I keep having Nicky Snatoro's voice in Casino going through my head on the weigh ins: "We're supposed to be robbing this place". Keep the goal the goal.

Training Log: Entry 3866

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION TACTICAL SLEIGHBELL

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL Grey Man, Week 2, Workout 1

MAIN CLUSTER

Buffalo Bar Squat
4x6x352

Axle strict press from rack
2x6x166
6x156
5+1x156

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

(3) DB Incline Bench
4x10x65s

DB row
4x10x145

GHR
4x10x25

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit up
15, 10

Notes:

• In a poll of 1 American, 0% of the population wanted to do this workout this morning. But knowing I had a bunch of awesome fuel to burn through from last night gave me a little motivation. Which, on that note, my guts actually woke me up in the middle of the night with an urgent message, and I spent a lot of the night overheating, so I'm wondering if I may have eaten something a bit too ambitious for me at some point.

• How I felt about the squats (a panel from my favorite comic)

  

• Which is to say, despite coming into this not excited to train, I was "inhumanly strong". I dig the 6s week for just that. Depth never looks solid on the video, but I remind myself in the middle of the workout that I legit can't go any lower. If I wanted to make it DEEPER, I'd have to get my shins more vertical, but as far as ROM goes, I'm doing what I need.

• Presses are most likely just too damn heavy for the TM. I'm going to be a little stubborn about it for now and see if I can Bruce Randall my way through.

• Despite my frequent sweating and profanity on the video, I'm feeling slid though through this. Grey Man just plain hits different than Operator, which is why it's a hypertrophy program. I've actually considered being cute about Tactical Sleighbell and having phases of the operation, with this one leading up to Halloween being "Jacked-O-Lantern", since it's most likely going to time out that 2 cycles of Grey Man end there and then I could move onto "Gainsgiving" and "I'll Be Jacked For Christmas". I still might. It's a lot to write.

• Weighed in at 81.5kg this morning. This will be my first Monday baseline for the Operation, as last week started on Tues with a post travel day.

• I officially signed up for the comp in Feb. Currently as a Masters 220. Also the only one signed up. Events are a lever deadlift (first ever for me), max axle press, sandbag throw over bar, Heracles hold, and some sort of carry medley to end (still not fully fleshed out). I'll be able to spend some time training my throws, my grip, and working on my loading. I realized that I've been trying to pick up sandbags like deadlifts, which has been hamstringing me. I need to pick them up like stones.

Training Log: Entry 3865

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION TACTICAL SLEIGHBELL

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL Grey Man, Week 1, Workout 3

14 Chins

MAIN CLUSTER

Buffalo Bar Squat
4x8x330

Axle strict press from rack
2x8x153
6x153
5+3+2 (rest pause) x 153

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

(3) Incline DB bench
4x12x60s

DB row
4x12x130

GHR
4x12x20

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit up
2x15

Notes:

• I didn't want to do this session so much that I literally had dreams about skipping it, but then I had a dream that I DID it and it was over and thought "I'm so glad I did that". Then the alarm went off and I made the decision to get it done, and again: I'm glad I did. I imagine the big issue is I've lifted 4 days in a row, due to the travel schedule, and I'm just feeling beat. My nutrition also isn't in place to support that, since I'm still trying to normalize after travel. But today, I knew we were going to eat a little light for dinner, so I came up with a post training breakfast, and that gave me a little motivation to get through. Moving forward with that, I'm going to experiment with a very high protein/lower fat post training breakfast and reverse the macros toward dinner, but for now we're just getting back into the groove of things.

• I felt weaker coming into today vs day 1, but again, being down 6lbs and 3 days of lifting in a row leading up to this makes sense. The squats still moved smoothly, which was the big W.

• We got our 4th stripe in Tang Soo Do last night: we're eligible to test for the next belt. For the Valkyrie and I, this will mean the belt before black belt (in our school, it's "Cho Dan Bo", which is effectively "black belt candidate", a solid blue belt). When I first joined, it was honestly kind of a laugh, but as I'm getting closer, I'm feeling more a sense of pride for this accomplishment. When it's done, I'll technically have a black belt in 2 different Korean martial arts, and given I married into a Korean family, that's honestly pretty nifty.

• Weighed 80.8kg is morning. Based on the past 2 days, it's likely this is where I've stabilized post cruise, which is about a 1.5lb weight gain, and given that I had effectively engaged in a 7 day campaign to undo the efforts of Noah's Ark by EATING 2 of every animal, that's pretty reasonable.

Training Log: Entry 3864

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

OPERATION TACTICAL SLEIGHBELL

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL Grey Man, Week 1, Workout 2.1 (missing portion from yesterday)

14 chins

(6) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
5x440+chains

14 chins

Notes:

• Valkyrie was recovering from some stuff, so I wanted to sleep next to her until she woke up for her day. I had 20 minutes to do something, and my back was feeling better, so I decided to get in the missing pulls from yesterday. Still took it easy on the back as I'm coming back into the training and still in a weird place post-travelwise, so I capped it once I started struggling.

• Warm ups felt MUCH better than yesterday. Still stiff, but much stronger and more confident. That first break off the mats was tough, but not insurmountable. I figure things will pick up over the cycle.

• Weighed 80.6kg this morning. I'm down 2.7kg from Tues, practically 6lbs for the imperial folks, in the span of 2 days. I'm also looking as lean as when I left, so I've shed the vast majority of the water weight/inflammation, and this was AFTER that dinner of ribs and brisket, which is typically a Friday treat. Next week should give me a more accurate baseline to operate off of.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. Wildcard/cardio.

Training Log: Entry 3863

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION: TACTICAL SLEIGHBELL 

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL Grey Man, Week 1, Workout 2

MAIN MOVEMENT

Axle bench press
3x8x236
7x236

SUPPLEMENTAL MOVEMENTS

Lever belt squat
4x12x250

Dips
4x12x47.5

Axle curls
4x12x85 (rest pause final 2 sets)

ASSISTANCE

Reverse hyper
2x15x90

Ab triad
2 rounds

Notes:

• Lower back is incredibly stiff from travel and lifting. Warmed up on the mat pulls but listened to my body and backed down. Trying to pull was going to put me further behind than ahead, and I got a LONG training cycle ahead of me.

• Aside from that, feeling quite strong, especially given the circumstances. Things moved well today.

• Tang Soo Do was a decent workout last night. It's wildcard/cardio week, so we're staying active.

• Weighed in at 82.1kg this morning. Down 1.2kg from yesterday. Travel weight still stabilizing.

• Got the day off work today: final day of the vacation time.

 Training Log: Entry 3862

AM WORKOUT (0715 wake up via alarm, 0930 workout)

OPERATION TACTICAL SLEIGHBELL

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL Grey Man, Week 1, Workout 1

Buffalo Bar Squat
4x8x330

Axle strict press from rack
2x8x153
2x6x153 w/2 rest pause

(3) Incline DB bench
4x12x60s

DB row
4x12x130

GHR
4x12x20

GHR sit up
2x15

Notes:

• Despite being incredibly jet lagged and only getting 6ish hours of sleep (which is actually pretty good for me), I decided to take this on. It went much better than I expected. All the eating most likely went well for my strength.

• On that note, weighed in at 83.3kg this morning. Post travel weight, will take a bit to stablize.

Training Log: Entry 3861

AM WORKOUT (0545 wake up via Valkyrie's alarm, 0900 workout)

WILDCARD

Buffalo bar squat
38+12x225 (Dan John's "to 50" approach)

20 minute EMOM of

• 5 chins

• 5 dips

• 10 band pull aparts

Cooldown walk around the block

Notes:

• It's a travel day today, I won't have access to my gym until 15 Sep at the earliest, and I've already tested out my maxes for Grey Man. On top of all that, I've just been wiped out this week and how low enthusiasm, so I decided to break out the Ironmind classic "Squat-dip-chin".

• I'm very pleased with that effort of 38 reps. 40 would have, of course, been more satisfying from a base 10 perspective, but those first 20 reps were cyborg perfection. Even with the grip shirt, the bar was getting too low toward the end, forcing me to hike it up, which put it in a weird spot on my back, causing the chest to collapse on the final few reps and triggering a vomit-like response. 50 is the white whale, I'll catch it one day, but at a bodyweight of 175lbs, this is my best effort on this.

• I was curious how that'd circuit at the end would go, especially after racking the bar and then getting in that other set of 12 to finish. I had ambitions of making the dips sets of 10, but my chest is actually pretty sore from benching, which is a fun novel stimulus. I really like that the EMOM structure in general to build up the volume, but also recognize it's not quite the hypertrophy stimulus that sets closer to failure would get me.

• Did a Dan John "to 50" squat AND a post workout walk. Wasn't 40 minutes, was more of a shuffle/lumber, but got some steps. Happy with that.

• No weigh in. Going into vacation with my lightest bodyweight on my mind so that I can just eat and enjoy.