Short warm up (ad lib)
Sprint Development
30m x 4 full recovery
remedial jumping
split Squat 45s x 5e x 3 sets
db incline 50s x 5x4
pullups x4 EMOM x 8 minutes
pallof press 10e x 2 sets
flag football practice tonight! Finally!
interesting novelty sorenesses over the weekend from flag football practice.
today:
Planned on a sprint workout on the indoor track, which was inexplicably blacked out 
it’s raining and cold outside so that was a bit of a bummer
Goblet Squat 45x5, 70x5, 80x5, 90x5x2 upping to 6’s next week.
DB Bench 40s x8, 50s x8, 60s x8x3
Pull-ups 8 min EMOM (33 total reps)
Cross Chops 10e x 3
Triceps Pushdown 12x3
After much strum and drang, finally coughed up for a family membership at the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington, Alexandria. It’s a short drive, and it at least has a rack to squat in. The bars are alright. They’ll do, for now. The decagonal plates… we’ll see. First time in 2 months touching a barbell!
today:
Ad lib kettlebell and TRX warm-up
High Bar Squat, no belt 45x6x2, 95x6, 135x6, 165x6, 185x6@6, 195x6@7 - these were really good - good depth, good rhythm, good positions, just good. I’m going to stick with high bar for a while.
Press 45x6, 75x6, 95x6, 105x6@6.5, 110x6@7.5 - a little over shoot here but again, it more feels just out of practice than lost strength. I’m sure that I’ll be close to where I was before in a short while.
Lat Pulldown 10x3
above took ~ 35 minutes, and wasn’t challenging from a capacity standpoint, which is good. Just being positive.
Flag Football practice tomorrow.
Holy DOMS, Batman.
quads are pretty toasty on waking up. Will get em loose before practice
Practice ended up being a stand through walk through. Then all hell broke loose family wise.
Today, while trying out the child watch at the Y:
rowing 20 minutes: 4634m (seasons best), 2:09.4/500m avg 21 spm
ill take it!
2000m at 8:30 (10 seconds better than last at threshold)
2820m at 12 minute mark (40m better)
3500m at 15 minute mark (31m better than last)
4000m at 17:20 (35 seconds better than last)
first bw measurement in 2 months: 186 pounds
waist (best I measure) 36 inches.
I forget the DC area is overrepresented with type A morning people who work out at 530. Y was pretty crowded, so difficult to make a good plan work.
Bench 45x8, 135x8x3
Front Squat 45x4, 95x4, 145x4x3
RDL 135x6, 155x6, 175x6
DB OH Press 25s x 10, 30s x 10, 35s x 10
Cable Row 10x3
45 degree Back Extension - Side Up L - Side up R 10x2
Knees to Elbows 10x2.
no part of this was challenging except the logistics of it.
Row 60 minutes 13055m 2:17.8/500m avg, 21 spm.
Splits from today, and analysis:
| Time | Meters | Cumulative | Pace | S/M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-5:00 | 1072 | 1072 | 2:19.9 | 22 |
| 5-10:00 | 1087 | 2159 | 2:17.9 | 22 |
| 10-15 | 1089 | 3248 | 2:17.7 | 21 |
| 15-20 | 1092 | 4340 | 2:17.3 | 21 |
| 20-25 | 1095 | 5435 | 2:16.9 | 21 |
| 25-30 | 1100 | 6535 | 2:16.3 | 23 |
| 30-35 | 1101 | 7636 | 2:16.2 | 22 |
| 35-40 | 1095 | 8731 | 2:16.9 | 22 |
| 40-45 | 1085 | 9816 | 2:18.2 | 21 |
| 45-50 | 1074 | 10890 | 2:19.6 | 22 |
| 50-55 | 1074 | 11964 | 2:19.6 | 23 |
| 55-60 | 1091 | 13055 | 2:17.4 | 24 |
this was casual, until it wasn’t! One thing I’ve struggled with is pacing myself on longer rows. I’m happy that today, I just started running out of gas around the 10k mark, which makes a lot of sense given that I haven’t done a lot of work longer than 40 minutes continuously. I’ll be doing a bunch of 60 minute rows this month. The eventual goal here is 15000m, but that would be an improvement of 18 seconds per 500m, so it’s not a goal I’ll achieve the next time I do this, which will be on Thursday.
Today I set the pace boat at 2:18.0, which I beat, so, I’ll set the pace boat to 2:17.7 next.
Hot garbage today!
DL 45x4x4, 135x4, 225x4@6, 245x4@8-9, 235x4@7
Barbell Split Squat 45x6/6, 95x6/6x2 sets
DB Incline 40s x10x3 → should have used more weight.
Abs (strict toes to bar x5 + lying leg raise x 10 + MB Decline Sit-up x 15 + MB Russian Twist x 20 + Ball Slams x 25)
Good - in and out and done. forced myself to do some ab work, which as I was reminded yesterday after rowing, is actually helpful for that kind of thing.
Bad - First Deadlifts in like 3 months. On 245 I had the following issues:
First and foremost, my set up is, well, out of practice. Didn’t get my back set on the second rep.
Next, I’m not driving the legs and dragging the bar as I should.
Third, I was trying to hook as much as possible. This is proving difficult with the bar; there’s virtually no knurl and it feels closer to 30mm than 27mm in diameter. Plus, it’s humid AF and they have the funky 10 sided plates.
Weird - Split Squats. Since I won’t be competing in PL anytime soon, I’m consciously trying to incorporate a lot of movement variety. I think I’ll get used to these in a couple of weeks but today it also just felt awkward. I’ve also decided not to use a belt or wrist wraps for the moment, but I might have to change my mind about straps. I’m definitely still wearing my lifters because they are so much better than trying to use normal shoes.
Also weird - I’ve been to the same gym 3 days in a row, 3 different times of day, and the same dude in skin tight Dragonball Z gear arrives about 5 minutes after I do each time. Also weird; everything else about this guy.
Recovery row:
6584m 30 minutes, 17 strokes per minute, negative splits each 5min.
weird. Legs wouldn’t turn over and started at the goal pace I want for 60 minutes next, so, kind of a missed opportunity to get more meters
Flag football practice last night. Right hip/knee/lumbo-pelvic soreness this morning.
today:
chase kiddo around playground for an hour
then:
dynamic flexibility
then multijump circuit :15/:45 x8
then general strength :30/:30 x12
Finally a good weight training session:
w/u
HBBS no belt 185x8x4 sets (@6,6,6,7)
Press 1.0, no belt 95x8x4 sets (@6,7,6,7)
Pendlay Row 135x10x3 (@6,6,6) - really focused on “flat back”
Hanging leg raise 2 sets
under 60 minutes including warm-up. Good place to start for an end of the year push.
DOMS.
W/U 10 min row (2254m/2:13 avg 500m/20spm)
Work: 5x500m/2 minutes rest
1:56.4/25,
1:54.8/23,
1:54.6/24,
1:55.5/25,
1:59.6/25
C/D 10 min row (2164m/2:18.6 avg 500m/17spm)
Suspicions confirmed. These bars are pretty bad. there’s virtually no knurling left on any of them!
DL 225x4, 235x4, 245x4x2; The weight is really not the issue, holding on to the bar is. I will be bringing my straps from now on to save hands and use a more appropriate weight. Debating using liquid chalk but I really don’t want to deal with it.
DB Incline 45x10x3
100m rowing time trial - 17.5 seconds. easy, I know I probably can go faster, but my goal today was just 17.8, so I’ll take the W and go home.
Today:
HBBS no belt w/u then 190x8x4 - last one was definitely > @7
Press 1.0 no belt 100x8x4
Lat Pulldown 120x10x3
Good day:
Rowing-
12 min w/u 2732m/2:11.7/21
1000m time trial 3:47.6 (1:53.8/28 spm)
8 min c/d 1720m/2:19.7/20
Odd. Still very very sore, especially in quads and also serratus.
Gym was v. busy. Guy was doing a circuit of heavy-ish quarter squats (taking up the rack), DB split squats, and DB RDLs, but the bench press was open. So out went the plan for the day and I improvised.
Bench 45x8x2, 95x8, 135x4, 145x4, 155x4, 165x4x2 - probably could have/should have gone heavier. I haven’t benched much in the past few months so playing it safe
Single Leg DL 2x16kg KBs x 10 each leg x 3 sets - an odd movement but I got the hang of it.
Prone Isometric Rows - 2x16kg x 10 x 3 sets - Another odd movement. In rowing, Seal Rows (i.e. chest supported rows lying flat on a bench) are a key indicator lift, and while this Y isn’t set up for that exercise, it does have an old school roman chair, so I thought i’d give these a try. They are interesting.
wanted to get in some additional trunk work but ran out of time + got distracted by a call + ran out of batteries on my headphone.
Yesterday: holy DOMS batman
today:
DL 45x8x2, 135x4, 185x4, 225x4 - good bar path, add straps 245x4 - very good bar path. Amazing how not slipping out of my hand makes a difference! 255x4x2 @7.5 - again, just nice not have to mess with the bar. weight/strength not the issue, just getting used to anything heavier.
DB Incline 50s x10x3 - Solid, still maybe a little light. Pleased with these, given everything.
Rowing: 2 blocks x 6 rounds x 30 seconds work/ 30 seconds rest, 3-4 minutes between blocks.
First block 825m/1:49.0/30 spm
Second block 852m/1:45.6/ 32 spm
felt good to go faster and breath hard and improve basically round to round.
One of the trainers was impressed that I was deadlifting in the first place, and also that I wasn’t making an ass of myself, so got a chance to ask about chalk use there (don’t be a dick, clean up after yourself), and how to work the main lifts in for general population trainees. encouraging! I’ll be referring him to BBM materials.
Next week is the flag football tournament we’ve been practicing for. I’ll run this basic set up through next week, and then start the GPP endurance template again, with a few modifications. I’m going to focus on my rowing performance after this flag tourney.
Thank goodness - last week of 8s here.
HBBS, no belt 195x8x4 - @7,@6,@7, @8 - tough.
Press 1.0, no belt 105x8x4 - @6, @7, @8, @9 - oof.
Pendlay row 145x10x3
Toes to bar 5x2
tough but good. BW down to 183-184, which is what I’m going for (I’ve decided I’d like to stay between 176-183, even if I enter another PL meet).
This was fun! Like actually fun.
Was going to DL, DB incline. Too crowded/on a time crunch, and have flag football tournament on Saturday, after an early morning call and 2+ hour drive.
with all that context, here’s what I chose to do today.
kb swing 16kg x10x2, 24kg x10x3
double kB front squat 2x16kg x10x3 sets
kb press 16kg x 10 each x 3 sets
dead hang pull ups 5x3
walking lunge 8 each x 3
2ct pause push ups 10 x 3
inverted row 10x3
ab work
above took ~ 30 minutes
then
rowing 2x500m, 3 min rest.
objective here was to work on positions and keep a low stroke rate, while staying under 2:00 split.
1:58.1/24spm first round
1:58.8//23spm second round