Training Log: Entry 3145

Feast and Franmine yesterday.  Had a wonderful Christmas, got in some squats and push ups and ran a quick Fran workout and some KB work for 10 minutes when I had some downtime, and did 5 mins of burpee chins while cleaning up wrapping paper.

Today is a travel day.  Flying to Galveston to port out of my cruise.  Fully intend to take in some Texas BBQ upon my arrival,

BUT, because I am an absolute psychopath, I woke up and, first thing this morning, did 85x185lb buffalo bar squats

That's a 7 rep PR there.  MUCH closer to my limit than 77.  I figured: since I'll be away from heavy training for the next week, I may as well get in something ridiculous beforehand.

I may be able to check in here and there, but otherwise, happy new years folks!

 Training Log: Entry 3144

Life is gonna be wild for the next 2 weeks.  All great stuff.  Family, feasting, healing.

Slept in, 50 push ups and squats, great breakfast, a workout of 5 minutes of 50lb weighted vest burpees and a walk with the wolf, chores, delicious lunch, and then this awesomely inspired workout

**CHAOS IS THE PLAN: THE CIMMERIAN CHRONICLE** Week 9, Workout 5: "War of the Amazons"

Alternate between Grace and Fran with EMOMs.  Go until both WODs are finished.  This is just AWESOME, because switching each minute keeps you far more honest for the sake of intensity.  And I could blend even more WODs into this.  I got this done within 16 rounds.

Family came into town, went out to Culver's for dinner, they accidentally put too much swiss cheese on my 5 burger patties, which is a mistake I didn't feel like correcting.  Let's hear it for the feast!

Tomorrow we feast even more, because we do up Christmas Eve big so we can do leftovers on Christmas day so that no one has to cook.  It's brilliant. 

 Training Log: Entry 3143

Today was an awesome day.  Had the day off work, slept in until the Mrs alarm went off, got in 100 push ups and 100 prisoner squats, took the wolf for a 3 mile walk, did this workout

14x260+chains breathing squats
Rest 5 minutes
40x225 breathing squats w/pull overs

I was fasting since I woke up, because after this I took my kid to Texas de Brazil and we ate steak, chicken and pork for 90 solid minutes

After that, I came home and did a 4+ mile walk to help digest, and then an awesome Tang Soo Do class.  1 BIG meal today and that's it.  I'm still satiated.  This is a helluva wake to kick off the feast!

Talking about that workout for a second: I am TOAST!  With a 3 week famine and all the hard training, my lower back tapped out on the first set of squats.  I still wanted to do SOMETHING anabolic before I ate so much meat, and was very pleased to find those 40 squats hiding inside of me.  No pressing overhead today: I'm really burnt out on training, just in time for my cruise coming up.  Be an awesome deload, and I'll be ready to attack from there.  I'll still sneak in SOME workouts between then and my return, but right now it's about family, feasting and living.

 Training Log: Entry 3142

AM WORKOUT (0425 wake up via alarm)

**CHAOS IS THE PLAN: THE CIMMERIAN CHRONICLE** Week 9, Workout 4 “Aesir Prisoner & Spartan Conscript”

50 minute workout

EMOM, do 3 Viking thrusters w/95lbs on axle, then 6 prisoner squats and 6 push ups 

*10% corollary*

20 standing wheels of pain

50 pull aparts

50 lateral raises w/2.5lbs, 50 with empty hands

BREAKFAST

Walk with wolf (no vest)

Notes:

* Felt some quad soreness this morning upon waking, but nothing like I’d expect after the squat effort yesterday.  I’m going to attribute that primarily to nutrition and all the daily squats.  It’s really been pretty incredible: my ability to recover.  Hell, I’m putting weight over my head at LEAST 5 days a week, and often 7 days a week, and my shoulders are doing just fine.  My right shoulder is a little clicky these days, but I attribute that more toward dorking it up a touch on my grappling competition, which I went to with zero deload and just called it a training day.  This has been a fantastic GPP protocol, because I am absolutely ready for anything.  All that said, I DO think I’m going down with a slight cold.  Just got that general crummy feeling.

* I genuinely despise thrusters, which is why I did them.  I could see myself avoiding them in all of my workouts.  Viking/landmine thrusters are at least a good compromise, as they can allow for some fatigue/slop without disastrous outcomes, however cleaning the handle into place is make or break.

* This is like Kalsu flipped upside down: open with thrusters, then do bodyweight work.  I went with prisoner squats and push ups so I could sneak in my daily totals.  That originally wasn’t the plan (because Chaos is), but after the first round I realized that if I went for 6 reps instead of 5 and pushed for 50 rounds I could make it happen.  So 150 thrusters and 300 squats and push ups…the day after 77x185.  F- -k I am so stupid.

* Story behind the name: Our Cimmerian once again finds himself under lock and key with the Aesir, but in their battle with the Spartans he finds freedom, so long as he swears a new loyalty and endures their rigorous training. So keep form on those push ups!

Another way I'm real stupid is I found ANOTHER burger challenge in town that I'm seriously contemplating...

Only 30 minutes to eat this, vs 45.  But it doesn't have any onions, compared to that last beast.  Also no fried eggs, bacon or peanut butter.  But it DOES have a lot more bread.  I already have a strategy in my head...but I also told my Valkrie I was retired after that last one...

 Training Log: Entry 3141

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

**77**x185lb Buffalo Bar Squats

No breakfast, extend fast, stumble inside, leash up wolf, throw on 50lb vest and stagger through the streets for 2 miles

Notes:

* Got the day off work, and this was all I wanted to do.  Cody Lefever (GZCL) very recently accomplished 185 for 76 reps, so I had that in my head.  At around rep 15 I realized that wasn't going to happen.  At rep 30 I knew I wasn't even halfway there.  At rep 50 I was at peace with getting 60 reps.  At rep 67 all I could think was "glorp, haffle-flop".  After rep 77, the floor felt quite cool and a nap sounded lovely.

* Dig the depth on these.  NONE of them felt good.  Typically rep 7 is where things start clicking with breathing squats.  It never happened here.

* Went with the Dan John playbook and went for my walk right afterwards.  THAT was an experience with the weight vest on.

* I have the axle loaded for some deadlifts later today, and maybe I'll do some overhead stuff as well, but right now Chaos remains the plan and the results of that plan are on display.  I'm 170lbs, so this was 15lbs over bodyweight for 77 reps, and in truth I didn't find my limit there, but I had a goal and I met it.  "Where you are now you can't even imagine what the bottom will be like". 

* I was crowned my Dojang's "Sparring Champion" for the month of Dec, the same month I won my grappling competition, which I feel serves as proof that I am lethal on my feet and on the floor...which is how that squat set went.

PM WORKOUT (1500)

**CHAOS IS THE PLAN: THE CIMMERIAN CHRONICLE** Week 9, Day 3

Axle deadlifts w/12 breath rest pause

6+3+3x406

Klokov Presses

100xAxle

Poundstone curls

100xAxle

50 pull aparts

Notes:

* That's a rep GAINED from the start of the cycle, and let's keep in mind that earlier this morning I squatted 185 for 77 reps AND I am in a famine phase where I had a 13 hour fast prior to this.  Holy cow this protocol is downright magic.

* That said, I was totally done once those pulls were over...and yet what I picked afterwards was downright horrible.  Ya'll need to give that one a spin.  100 reps of Klokov presses will light your shoulders on fire.  And, of course, poundstones afterwards, because it's a high rep kind of day.

 Training Log: Entry 3140

AM WORKOUT (0425 wake up via alarm)

**CHAOS IS THE PLAN: THE CIMMERIAN CHRONICLE** Week 9, Workout 2 “Noble Savage”

Log Viper Kalsu

135lb log

100 reps, but EMOM do 5 burpees

Done in 44 rounds

15 minutes of assistance work (3x10 standing wheel of pain, 50 pull aparts, 25 conan curls/25 pushdowns, lateral raise dropset)

Breakfast

Walk with wolf (no vest)

Notes:

* Went to sleep wanting to do this workout and woke up wanting to do it.  That’s an outstanding sign.  This is like “catfish week”, which might actually be how I approach the deload on “Chaos is the Plan: The Plan”.   Shaking things up has been refreshing, and it’s hitting at the point in the program where I was experiencing the most significant degree of burnout.  Along with that, I got this workout done in about the same time as I usually do, and that’s at a bodyweight of 20-25lbs lower than before.  That’s just plain stellar.  And upon reflection, I realize that all my training up to this point has basically turned me into a “Kalsu machine”.  I’ve mastered taking things off the floor and putting them over my head, my conditioning is top notch, but the dirty little secret is that all those breathing squats have significantly improved/maintained my mobility.  That was a total gamechanger for how Kalsu ran, as every attempt prior to this would absolutely murder my lower back, because I couldn’t get into a low lap position for the log, so I’d end up back extending it into place vs cleaning.  Being able to hit that low set up with every single rep kept the back pain to a minimum, allowed me to maximize the input from my legs, and, in turn, made it so I didn’t have any “empty rounds” on Kalsu.  Previous attempts would have at least 1 round where I did only burpees, but here every round had at least ONE viper press, and really, the only reason I had a single round (rep 86 IIRC) was I went too fast with the log and sent it behind my head, so I had to drop the rep and regroup.  In general, I felt the best after this Kalsu than I did after any other one in the past, which is awesome AND a slight amount of a letdown, as I wanted to be completely floored when this was over, haha.

* I am proud of myself for hitting up the ab wheel as part of my assistance.  In the past, abs were the first thing I’d neglect when left to my own devices.  I’m still bad about training my calves, but little steps.  I also included an ab wheel plank at the end, which I really dig.

* Went without the vest this morning.  It was 26 degrees with strong winds, and I wanted to get my wolf back inside quickly.  She’s 13: she’s earned pampering.  Her and I get “meat treats” at the end of our walks.  For her, it’s leftovers, and for me it’s liver.

* Tang Soo Do tonight.  We should find out who is the sparring champion of the Dojang.  I didn’t give up any points last week, but I didn’t have a great deal of competition.

* I’m going for a famine until Friday this week, which will be 3 workweeks of famine.  I’m super lean again, which isn’t the goal but is a good indication of the success of the method.  In terms of physique impact of “Chaos is the Plan: The Plan”, my upperbody has definitely gained some mass and I’m filling out my t-shirt sleeves again.  What’s unique, and I should have anticipated it, is how much my obliques filled out while I still got lean.  Where my pants sit has gotten so lean that my size 30” jeans are sliding off of me, but my waist proper has thickened up, which gives me an interesting look where I have veins on my abs and obliques while being blocky.  Very unique combination of lean and thick.  Legs are pretty thick with “only 3 sets” of  squats per week, but there’s something to be said about all the burpees and the prisoner squats, along with thrusters when they happen.  I DO still feel like I should get in some more GHRs and reverse hypers on my next training cycles.  There’s a reason I used to include those in my daily work.  I SHOULD also do some rows, but man, I’m so terrible about doing them.  That is the reason I bought a rower: to get in more rowing.  But pretty much any time I COULD do some rowing, I do something else.

 Training Log: Entry 3139

AM WORKOUT (0545 wake up via Valkyrie's alarm.  Had the day off work)

**CHAOS IS THE PLAN: THE CIMMERIAN CHRONICLE** Week 9, Day 1 "Paradise Lost"

20 minute limit

Axle Grace 

66 Devil presses w/22.5lb DBs

Another attempt at Axle Grace (9 reps accomplished)

Extended Fast (no breakfast)

Walk w/wolf with 50lb vest

Notes: 

* We fall from Grace into Hell and try to claw our way to Purgatory.  Open with axle Grace (30 reps of 136lbs floor to overhead), then 66 Devil Presses (I used 22.5lb DBs), then finish with another Grace attempt with remaining time (20 minute limit).  If you want salvation, you need 30.  15 would be purgatory.  I am still in Hell.

* With the day off, I wanted to spend more time with the Mrs, so slept in with her and got in a quick workout while she got ready for the morning.  This hit plenty hard.  First time running Grace without a power belt and it's definitely a different animal.  Doing it at 25lbs less bodyweight changes things as well of course.  I liked the story this told and how it shook out.  Really gotta move quick on those devil presses: too easy to get slack.  

* Doing an extended fast today.  Had a delightful carb up yesterday with some of the Valkyrie's christmas baked goods and homemade sourdough.  Going stupid low carb today to throw some chaos at the body.

* Plan to get in a high rep squat post lunch to round out the training.