Training Log: Entry 3856

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

BRIDGE WEEK

Crossfit's "Cindy" WOD in 19:25 (17 second PR from previous)

Notes:

• Alarm went off early, Valkyrie requested sleeping in, more than happy to oblige. Exactly the kind of bridge week I needed. In turn, I had 20 minutes to do something today, so I picked Cindy over the rower. I like the rower in general, but it runs into the issue of being "seated conditioning", and as an office drone I spend enough time sitting that doing it during my workouts tends to make my hips stiff, and that's the last thing I need before a strongman competition. Cindy has also been good on getting bloodflow to my left knee, which is feeling pretty great these days. Very small ROM limitations. Hips are feeling good too. This is is probably the best I've felt before a comp in a LONG time.

• Decided to speed up the final round just to make a PR happen.

• Competition is tomorrow. No weigh in, because no weight classes. Not that it matters: I'm stupid light right now. I chased the leanness dragon again, even though I said I wouldn't, because I'm stupid and I don't give a f**k about jail. That's my business. That's what I do.

• After comp, I'll have 5 days of free training before I leave for my cruise. Part of me thinks "Work capacity week" and to just blow my brains out doing stupid challenging WODs, but the other part of me realizes that I'm going to be away from heavy weights for quite a while if I factor in this bridge week, then next week, then the cruise, then the return from the cruise, so I may use next week to pilot some training maxes for Grey Man and do a trial week 1, giving me a chance to push up against some heavy weights. I also like that because it allows me to still claim that I "did Tactical Barbell" for 2 years solid, as Sep marks the anniversary of me starting it. 3rd COA is to meet in the middle and do some stupidly challenging heavy workouts, like put 225 on my back and finally get those 50 reps and then spend Wed seeing how many reps I can get on 405 for the deadlift (my previous record is 23, which was set many years and many pounds of bodyweight ago).

• We've already decided on where to go for our victory dinner tomorrow. Place does an awesome 16oz ribeye with compound butter.

• Weighed 80.6kg this morning. I'm excited to see that number be higher this fall.

Training Log: Entry 3855

AM WORKOUT (0500 wake up via Valkyrie's Alarm)

BRIDGE WEEK

"ROW ROW ROW YOUR BLOAT"

15 Chins
15 Dips

1 mile row in 25:42 (15 second PR)

14 chins
14 dips

Notes:

• Alarm went off at 0410, Valkyrie requested sleeping in, more than happy to oblige. Been a good bridge week: knees and hips are feeling good.

• I don't NEED to set records on a recovery row, but why not. It continues to do the trick of being tonic, and I feel pretty accomplished rowing a mile first thing in the morning.

• Got nearly 20k steps yesterday between the morning walk, lunch time dog walk and evening walk with the doggos. Been getting in a lot of steps in general, which has been good for the knee recovery.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. Last class of the week, and last class for the Hyung challenge. Should shake out that my kid takes first, Valkyrie second, and I in third: whole family swept it.

• Weighed 79.9kg. I originally planned to not weigh myself this week, in concern that weighing heavy would get in my head, but I'm glad I reversed course on that because I appear to be undereating. I have a lot of leeway leading up to the comp. I already have my night before nutrition figured out.

Training Log: Entry 3854

AM WORKOUT (0410 wake up via Valkyrie's Alarm)

BRIDGE WEEK

3 mile weighted vest walk w/20.4lb tac vest in 52:23

Crossfit's "Cindy" WOD

20 rounds of

• 5 chins

• 10 push ups

• 15 air squats

In 19:42 (3 second PR from Friday)

Notes:

• Once again, tagging along with the Valkyrie on her morning workout. It's honestly addicting. I may see if I can make this a regular weekly event when I get back to training. We moved faster than last time, and I decided to use my remaining time to do another Cindy WOD.. It's really the perfect "when in doubt" sorta workout for 20 minutes. Solid amount of volume, decent conditioning hit, and no loading on my body.

• I'm looking trim in that thumbnail.

• Left knee continues to feel better. In truth, this is the week I should have done the fitness test, but I didn't want to have an interference effect with my bridge week. I AM noting that I feel just plain good in general going some time without loading my body, which is always well received. When you feel chronically in pain, it's nice to discover that it's something you're doing to yourself, and you can solve it by NOT training, rather than it just being something you live with.

• I was crowned the Dojang sparring champion of the month yesterday, beating out the Valkyrie by 1 point. The fact I did it in a knee brace last week is pretty cool there. Class itself was a decent enough workout. Still working on moving smoother. We're on a new schedule of Tues/Thurs/Sat as my kiddo works through cross country season, so no class tonight.

• Weighed 80.0kg this morning. Realized that my egg whites and tuna creation from Monday is 100g of protein in and of itself. Crazy to me how people struggle to reach these goals.

• Actually a pretty decent shot of me from last week's sparring.  Left leg is firmly planted because my knee was still garbage, pivot off the rear foot, punch fully extended and torso rotated: I'm happy with that. Meanwhile, dude is kicking at the belt line, which is a violation of our rules (have to be ABOVE the belt), so double whammy.

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Training Log: Entry 3853

AM WORKOUT (0500 wake up via Valkyrie's Alarm)

BRIDGE WEEK

"ROW ROW ROW YOUR BLOAT"

1 mile row in 25:57

Notes:

• We got up a little earlier than usual, so I rowed a little longer. Plan was 25 minutes, but saw how close I was to a mile at that point that I finished it off so I had a metric I could compare against in the future. This wasn't a hard mile at all: still a recovery row.

• My left knee has seemed to healed. Still some slight mobility restrictions, but it's at the point where it hurts as much as the right knee, which is symmetry at 40. Thankful this sorted itself out before the competition.

• I'm going to experiment with 5 sets of chins throughout the day vs 4, which shakes out to 2x15 and 3x14 to match the 72 I'd be doing this week. This experiment started with 2x15, so resetting back to 15s seems appropriate whenever it's no longer feeling effortless.

• Tang Soo Do on the schedule for tonight. It's the last week of our summer Hyung challenge. Looks like the whole family is going to take 1st, 2nd and 3rd on this. I'm going to endeavor to not hurt anything this week.

• Decided to still weigh myself: 80.6kg. I am curious what my weight is going to look like post cruise.

Training Log: Entry 3852

AM WORKOUT (0410 wake up via Valkyrie's alarm)

BRIDGE WEEK

3 mile weighted vest walk w/20.4lb tac carrier in 54 minutes

4 circuits of 15 chins, 15 dips and 15 bodyweight split squats w/2 mins between circuits (no rest between exercises)

Notes:

• Bridge week before the comp, so I joined the Valkyrie on her AM workout and field tested what Base Building would be like. I actually had the idea to pivot my bridge week and scheduled vacation INTO a Base Building cycle, as it would time out about right as nearly 4 weeks of downtime and we'd be getting in a lot of walking during the cruise, but decided I didn't want to have to tie myself down to a training protocol while I'm on vacation. I think I'm just going to hit the fitness center on occasion and get in a stupid big pump to remind my muscles that they're still there.

• My knee is improving, to the point that I forgot it was hurt as I was walking to work today. Still not 100% ROM, but all coming back. I need to restart my physical therapy for my OTHER knee now: I have put it off because it stressed the left knee to do it.

• We moved at a good pace for the walk. Not a ruck, but not leisurely. The base building workout wasn't tough, but it's not supposed to be for week 1 day 1. Working up to 3-5x30 will be a different animal.

• No weigh in today, and most likely not for the rest of the week. Don't really need to get in my head about that on competition week. I'll be eating well and posting updates: already have the menu picked out. Trying to maximize the foods that I feel good with.

• Going to map out what training will look like upon my return. Definitely need to spend some time growing.

Training Log: Entry 3851

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

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2 [FINAL WORKOUT OF OPERATION)

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 4, Week 3, Workout 5

Crossfit's "Cindy" WOD

20 rounds in 19:45 of

• 5 chins

• 10 push ups

• 15 squats

Notes:

• Technically Cindy is max rounds IN 20 minutes and what I've done is got the 100 chins, 200 push ups and 300 squats of Murph done as fast possible, but close enough. The big thing is that this is a pretty solid PR for me, with zero issues knocking out the chins every single round, which speaks to how much my general fitness has improved through this training phase alongside the pay off of my daily chins. Which, because I got 100 chins done during this workout, I owe no more chins for the day.

• This workout itself is a "deviation" from Operator Pro, as I technically was supposed to do the final workout of 2-3rm press, 5x5 front squats and 5 sets of loads, but my competition is on the 29th, I'm not going to get STRONGER from 1 more workout, but I can certainly get more injured and fatigued from it. This is giving my knee maximum time to recover, which, after a forced 2 mile run alongside some sparring yesterday, it will need. Still waking up swollen, but once I start moving it gets better. And I figured the 300 bodyweight squats from this would be "movement" enough. I also opted to prioritize sleep by choosing a shorter workout.

• On that aforementioned run: I was reflecting this morning on just how awesome TB has been for my general fitness, as I had zero cardio issues knocking out that run and could nasal breathe the entire time. The big thing was just keeping a pace so that I didn't feel like my knee was going to fall off the whole time. This is a great physical state to be in.

• Sparring last night went well for me, as I made it to the final round in a VERY close match against our senior black belt, eventually losing in overtime, but with him expressing a sentiment of "That was fun!" which I could only agree with. Very lively, despite my gimpiness, and the journey to the top was eventful as well. However, my penultimate match ended with me soundly defeating our resident "dojang bully" through a combination of a good offense and my own defense which drew fouls on him due to his lack of control, which he then went to the "redemption bracket" and punched the Valkyrie in the face during an exchange. Our rules forbid hand strikes to the head in general, let alone straight to the face. She handled it better than I would have, and it's most likely good that I wasn't sent to the redemption bracket to square off against the dude again, as I would most likely have had to force 12 people to have a serious philosophical discussion on the difference between martial arts training and "assault and battery". In light of that outcome, our head instructor has announced there will be changes to future sparring formats: more to follow.

• My kiddo is joining the cross country team, with practice starting next week. 5 days per week, which is going to shift our Tang Soo Do attendance to Tues/Thurs/Sat, as the connections are too tight otherwise. I semi-joked with my kiddo that, with a tight connection between cross country and Tang Soo Do, I was going to just give them a ketobrick to eat in the car so that they could take down 1000 calories in 2 minutes, but then thought "maybe that ISN'T a joke and I could get the company to sponsor us if I tell them how we're using it". Although I ALSO have a pack of Finibars in the basement that are only a few years expired too...

• Weighed 80.0kg this morning. I certainly didn't restrict myself last night, based on the photo of the meal. I'm at that point where the body has fully bought into "get lean" mode, and just burning everything like a furnace. It's a cool little data point that I'm always 12 weeks away from this state, and just how EASY of a 12 weeks it is to be this way. I feel a lot better than I ever have been operating at this level of bodyfat, as though my body is fragile/more injury prone, my mood/general disposition/level of fatigue are significantly better. I can certainly see these 12 weeks becoming an annual "reset", as this times out starting right after Memorial Day and carries me through the summer.

 Training Log: Entry 3850

AM WORKOUT (0420 Wake up via Valkyrie's alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

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

18 chins
18 dips

"INDOOR POWER INTERVALS" w/rower

• 5 rounds, 2 minutes of max effort rower w/5 mins rest

18 min walk

18 chins
18 dips

Notes:

• Oh my goodness I had absolutely zero desire to do anything this morning. Only thing that got me up was that the Valkyrie was already going to get in an early morning session, and even then I legit contemplated getting up with her and then going right back to bed once she got on the treadmill. But indoor power intervals is honestly pretty easy to talk myself into: it's only 10 minutes of "work". I went with this over the prowler because I have my fitness test today and decided this would give my knee a fighting chance.

• Once I slow rolled to the rower and got started I found my drive and sent it. This was a good workout and hit the intent. I was breathing hard when it was done. The walk at the end was shorter than last week, because I took longer to get started, but I got in some steps as well. The knee actually feels better after rowing: I imagine it helps get blood flow and alleviate the swelling. I no longer experience clicking or instability, but it's still swollen as hell with limited mobility and pain when I try to push it beyond it's resistance point.

• I made it to the finals in sparring last night, squared off against the Valkyrie, then beat our senior Black Belt in the redemption bracket to face off against the Valkyrie in the final match of the night. She commented on how ruthless I've been against the other students these past few nights, and I informed her how, with the state of my knee, I want the matches to end as quickly as possible to prevent me from doing something stupid with it. I'd feel bad for the other students...were it not for the fact that I'm 40 with a bum knee while they're teenagers approaching their prime and I can still take them to school.

• Weighed in at 80.8kg.

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Fitness Test

Height: 5'8.5 (I've shrunk half an inch. I blame squats and the yoke)
Weight: 176 (What have I become, my sweetest friend?)
Waist: 32.5" (down 1.5" from getting it measured last month), 20 points
Push ups: 52 in 1 min (max point value), 15 points
Sit ups: 50 in 1 min (max point value), 15 points
2 mile run: 16:54, 43 points (1 second away from 44 points)

Total score: 93.0 points

Considering I ran those 2 miles in a knee brace, I'm over the moon. I haven't run since my last 5k on Disney's Castaway Cay, and I was able to nasal breathe the entire time. I also watched some young bucks fail the test, which is just a sad state of affairs. That waist measurement is pretty nuts: I'm still taping the same as I did in college.

I've got an icebag on my knee (technically a bag of frozen mixed veggies) and popped 2 motrin (a rarity with how I respond to anti-inflammatories): this is how we celebrate at 40. Still planning on hitting Tang Soo Do.

Oh yeah: all of this was coffee fasted, so that's pretty cool.