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.

 Training Log: Entry 3837

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

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

19 chins (1 too many)
18 dips
20x90 reverse hypers

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

SSB Front Squat
2xBar
1x135
1x185
1x225
1x275
2x325

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

Log clean and strict press away
5x5x155

Loads to platform: 1 min on/2 min rest

• Rounds 1 and 3: 7/8x135 Stone of Steel

• Rounds 2 and 4: 3x250lb Power Keg

• Round 5: 2x200lb sandbag

ASSISTANCE Giant Set

3 rounds of 30 second SSB front rack hold w/325lb, 10 hanging leg raises and 25 band pull aparts

Notes:

• Knowing I had a great family meal to fuel me through this was the sort of motivation I needed to get up and train this morning, as otherwise I was pretty ambivalent. I DID have a goal to finally get that third rep on the front squat, but on rep 2 I felt the world stop and heard my music skipping despite being an MP3, so I knew I was on borrowed consciousness and racked it. I'm STILL setting PRs because my bodyweight keeps dropped (more to follow on that).

• Log felt crisp today.

• I'm really digging what I've come up with for the loading event. Making the most of my garage set up. This definitely needs to get carried into the future.

• Body is feeling pretty solid. Get some twinges up and down the back here and there, but no longer in the "maybe I need to retire from the sport" zone.

• Weighed 80.7kg this morning. I am going to call this the lightest Monday weigh in, because though I DID weigh 80.0 2 weeks ago, that was post travel day weight. This was post family meal weigh in, which was spaghetti with meat sauce, 1.5 sourdough rolls, and 3 cookies/1 sourdough oatmeal cream pie, all with raw local honey. I'm going to do a more fleshed out write-up of the Roulette Diet, but I'm realizing that these green/0s days are honestly a crucial part of it.

• I am feeling that urge to "build" again. This time with fasting and leaning out has been good for that. The idea of eating well and recovering from hard training so I can grow is very appealing.

• Got all 7 days of 4x17 chins/dips last week.  This is the start of 18/3x17

Training Log: Entry 3836

AM WORKOUT (0620 natural wake up, 0930 workout)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 3, Week 3, Workout 5

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

Log clean and press
2xLog
1x150
1x170
1x200
1x220

SECONDARY MOVEMENT

SSB front squat
5x5x250

ASSISTANCE

2 Giant sets of 30 seconds 355 SSB front rack, 10 hanging leg raises and 25 band pull aparts

LUNCHTIME WORKOUT

1 hour Tang Soo Do Class

PM WORKOUT

5 rounds of 1 minute loads to platform

• Rounds 1 and 3: 7x135lb Stone of Steel

• Rounds 2 and 4: 3x245lb keg

• Round 5: 3x200lb sandbag

Notes:

• Full day today. I pushed my workout to Sat due to this week's schedule and decided to make it "progressive" by doing some of it in the AM and some in the PM. In between we had a make up TSD class which was a fairly solid workout.

• I'm not progressing on that log clean and press, but I AM maintaining on it, and with my bodyweight continuing to drop, that's a positive. The SSB front squats are feeling strong still.

• I REALLY like what I came up with for the loading, and think that can be a more permanent fixture. I get less beat up by varying the implement. OF course, it's also dependent on the garage not being too hot so that I CAN use the stone and not worry about it slipping, but at least I know the sandbag is viable as well. And I have a 150lber in my basement I can bring up sometime to really get in some variety.

• Being a masters athlete is waking up on Wed and thinking you may have to retire from the sport because your back hurts so much and then feeling awesome on Saturday. Can't explain it, but I'll take it. Pain is gone.

• No weigh in, since it's the weekend.

Training Log: Entry 3835

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

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

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

17 chins
17 dips
30x90 reverse hyper

"ROW ROW ROW YOUR BLOAT"

20 minute recovery row

Notes:

• Leaning into the "easy conditioning week" finally, in no small part to that back tweak. Was able to sleep in WITHOUT crippling myself, so that's a big win. Still making sure to slowly exit the bed and just take my time when I get up. On that note, I felt a little electric jolt in my back once during the row and a few times just walking around the house, so I'm still not fully Humpty Dumptied together again, but in better shape than before.

• Got 4150m done in the 20 minutes, which is a good showing on this day.

• I'm still getting those daily chins and dips. The chins aren't really getting easier as I'd hoped, but I'm still able to do them, and the accumulation of volume is paying off. If I were to stop now at 4x17 daily, that is 68 per day, 476 per week, and 24,752 per year. But, since I'm increasing by 1 weekly, that number changes in a way that I'm sure there IS a method to calculate it, but I took stats rather than calculus in my undergrad, and I'm glad I did.

• Weighed 81.9kg this morning, which is stupid light for a Friday weigh in without a big workout. And given that all the coffee I am drinking this morning is rushing out of me, it looks like any weight I DID "gain" yesterday is water looking to exit. My kiddo is in their last week of summer next week and I took of Wed to take them out to Toy Story 5 followed by lunch at our favorite Brazilian steakhouse, so I've got some big eating in my future. And the next day I take a physical fitness test...so I'll have some good fuel for that too.

• Valkyrie and I were commenting on how physically exhausted we felt at Tang Soo Do last night. 3 nights in a row of slamming hyungs and physical testing requirements is starting to manifest. However, we also got our second stripe on our belt for our weapons form, we we're delighted for that.