Lol's New HST Log

Thu 23/12/10

Cheers Whistledixie. It's a great community here—always lots of encouragement from so many folks, all dealing with their own unique situations and problems in life. I always feel that our determination to get off our butts to train is our commonality. Seeing what everyone else is up to really helps keep me motivated.

C2 Rower:
3 x 200m sprints
Approx 90 seconds rest between sprints.
Each 200m took around 33/34 seconds which isn't anything to write home about but I wasn't hanging about either. Lungs and legs burning after that but no ill effects.

Something I forgot to mention about yesterdays w/o was that I had to strap my right wrist really tightly for bench. Why? Well, not being able to be as active as I would like of recent days, and wanting a break from reading, I picked up my guitar and thought I'd try to improve my picking technique. Of course, I never know when to stop (it's in the genes) so I went and gave myself RSI over the course of a week. I never realised until now that my long-term right wrist soreness has probably always been due to this! I had thought it was a reaction to benching or some other exercise—it was always a bother doing push-ups and hand-stand push-ups where your wrists are forced to extend. Well, it's worse now than it's been in ages. It's funny that it doesn't really hurt if I play guitar but it does hurt if I do pretty much anything else! Go figure!
 
TunnelRat said:
Guitar playing causes me pain as well -- it makes my ears hurt...
Click to expand...

Yours and mine too! I have tinnitus in my left ear from too many loud guitar sessions and gigs.

Returned home last night after my time away. Immediately went to my chinning bar to see how weak my chinning strength had become. Thankfully, I got to 15 reps before I started to suffer! Looking forward to getting back to some more regular training again. I think my healing has been going well so I should be able to squat tonight or sometime over the weekend. I am not looking forward to the intense DOMS that I know awaits me. I will be as careful as I can not to overdo it after such a long break.

Here are a couple of recent rowing results:

Thurs 06/01/11

Several short rows on me pop's C2 rower, the best of which was:
250m sprint row:
Time: 00:43.5 - PR!
Equivalent av. 500m split time: 01:27.0

Mon 03/01/2011

500m row on me pop's C2:
Time: 01:28.0 - PR!
Trying to get a sub 1:28 but lost it in the last 100m. Slid off the seat a bit which didn't help.
Damper set on 10 which is a drag factor of ~ 200.

That placed me 51st in the C2 online log ranking thingy for my age group. I'll need to shave a teeny bit off this to get in the top 50, so that's my new goal for the 500m sprint.

I'm going to start taking creatine again now. It'll be interesting to see if it helps me rowing times any.
 
"I think my healing has been going well so I should be able to squat tonight or sometime over the weekend. I am not looking forward to the intense DOMS that I know awaits me."

Squats are good -- even with the DOMS to come. Although, as a last resort, you might want to start light and slow...

And get that creatine rolling in!
 
Welcome back, Lol! Good luck with your lifting!

As TR said - load up the creatine and see how things get on. I think the DOMS will indeed be crazy intense - but there is nothing better than that.
 
Fri 07/01/11

'Tis good to be back folks!:)

Well, this evening I pulled off a first for me: I managed 4 muscle-ups on my chinning bar! (PR) Two singles and a double. I am sooo chuffed. :) Now I know I can do them, they will definitely feature in my workouts from time to time.

Bench:
20 x 40kg wu
15 x 60kg (132lb)
15 x 70kg (154lb)
15 x 70kg (154lb)

I strapped my wrists (not tightly) for the work sets just to be on the safe side.

Low-bar Squats:
15 x 60kg (132lb)
15 x 60kg (132lb)

Taking TR's advice (that's my excuse anyway!) decided to quit there and see how the old pins fair tomorrow. Focussed on form going nice and deep. I could definitely feel a good burn in my quads, adds, hams and glutes; my lower back is nice and pumped now too. Shoulders got a good stretching and it felt good to be under a bar again. It's seems like an age.

Hands actually got sore from the muscle-up attempts; they have evidently softened up. I can't remember the last time I had sore hands! :)
 
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Sat 08/01/11

C2 Rower Interval Session:

10 x 100m sprints; 1 minute rest between sprints

Times:
21.9
20.9
18.8
18.1
17.5
16.9
17.9
16.4
16.1
16.4

Damper set on 5 for first 5 intervals and 10 for last 5.

Spannered meself on the 9th interval so ran out of steam on the final 100m. All was going well till the final 25 metres; power dropped off for the last few strokes.

Steady, gentle rowing during 1 minute rest periods. 1 minute felt too long for the first few intervals but by the end it was disappearing all too quickly!
 
Mon 10/01/11 (2nd binary day of the year!)

Decided to do more of an aerobic session as my legs were still stuffed full of DOMS! Hope to squat again tomorrow.

C2 Rower Session:
5k Row (ugh!)
Time: 19 minutes 24.0 seconds
Average pace: 1:56.4 seconds/500m
Drag Factor: 145

Splits:

Dist Time SR HR
5.0k 1:55.1 31 188
4.5k 1:56.6 30 186
4.0k 1:56.2 30 184
3.5k 1:58.0 31 182
3.0k 1:57.5 30 179
2.5k 1:58.1 30 173
2.0k 1:56.9 29 169
1.5k 1:57.0 30 170
1.0k 1:55.3 30 -
0.5k 1:53.4 39 -

For some reason, Heart Rate didn't record for first 1000m. Monitor shows a steady increase for the rest of the distance. Pace slowed down a bit in the middle section; I was obviously getting fed up! Stroke rate reasonably consistent.

I found keeping my pace to sub 2min/500m was quite hard as my cardio fitness is off right now. (According to the readout, my heart rate was 188 by the end of the session!) This is almost 40 seconds off my best 5k time (about 4s/500m slower than my best 5k pace) but I'm happy I got through it without a problem; a little soreness in me groin toward the end and that was it. Last 5k I rowed was back on 21st November '10.

While I rowed, I watched a cool Horizon TV prog on Helium as a superfluid for mind and body stimulation. :)
 
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Thats still good going on the rower champ! That thing is never easy. I only ever use it during cutting periods and do pyramid training on it, which is really good for blasting away that stubborn layer of fat.
 
Wed 12/01/11

Legs still sore from last Friday's 2 light sets of squats!

1k C2 row warmup: pace ~ 2:00
2 x 500m C2 row: pace ~ 1:30

Shoulder dislocates using plastic pipe.

Bench:
20 x 40kg wu
15 x 60kg (132lb)
15 x 75kg (165lb) @ RPE 9 - this was close to my current 15RM. Not sure if I'll make 15 reps with 80kg next time.
11+2,1,1 x 75kg (165lb) - M-S style set with very short rest after the first 11 reps and then between clusters.

Wrists wrapped for work sets. I'm using a fairly close grip for all my benching now. It seem to be kinder on my right shoulder.

Low-bar Squats:
10 x 60kg (132lb)
15 x 70kg (145lb)
15 x 70kg (145lb)

Oly shoes.

Short and sweet but my legs still felt thoroughly hammered. It's taking me a little while to get my groove back. These felt better than the 60kg session last time; a bit more weight often helps with stability. My shoulders aren't used to the stretch yet. I need to get back to daily dislocates.
 
Thurs 13/01/11

TR, in the spirit of 15s, I set out to do 15 muscle-ups as part of my workout tonight. :)

Shoulder dislocates and overhead air-squats for warmups.

Bar Muscle-ups:
4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 2, 1, 1 - total 15 good reps.

Chuffed to get four consecutive m-u's from the get go.
It took me 20 mins to get all 15 reps! I had lots of failed reps too. It's actually worse to try a bit too soon and fail. I should do better next time.
Rhomboid on my left side is suffering so I need to do a tennis ball massage on that area.

Handstand Push-ups:
13, 7 - 20 total reps

I was surprised I made 13 consecutive reps, esp. after the m-u's.

Kroc Rows:
15 x 56kg (123lb)
Right then left. Chalk; no hook grip. Hard!

Chins:
15 x bw

Only very short rest after Krocs. These and the Krocs were very metabolically taxing.

So, tonight was good: 4 consecutive bar muscle-ups is a PR; 15 muscle-ups in 20 mins is a PR too. Now I have something else to beat.

Tomorrow I may do a CrossFit workout that I spotted on their main site the other day:

Complete as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:
Row 250 meters
25 Push-ups

One guy did 9 rounds + 129 meters! I should manage each 250m row in around a minute or less, at least to begin with, but I think the push-ups will start to get really tough after a couple of rounds. Getting on and off the rower and pushing buttons takes time too.
 
Fri 14/01/11

As expected, I opted to do the CF metcon I mentioned yesterday.

Dislocates, lunges, air squats for warmups.

Complete as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:
Row 250 meters
25 Push-ups

Rd 1: 1:34
Rd 2: 1:37
Rd 3: 2:11 - from this round onwards, I had to break up the push-ups
Rd 4: 2:28 - messed up resetting the monitor
Rd 5: 2:22
Rd 6: 2:33
Rd 7: 2:07 - pushed hard on this round so made up a bit of time.
Time: 14 mins 52 secs

So, I managed 7 complete rounds. With 8 seconds still on the clock at the end of round 7, I decided not to bother getting back on the rower. Wuss!

My push-ups let me down; I only managed 2 rounds without breaking up the reps. By the third round I could only manage 20 consecutive reps and from then on it got harder and harder. By round 7, I had to group the push-ups into sets of 5.

Only one mess-up on the rower: accidentally pressed the wrong button on the monitor when attempting to reset the distance to 250 and added an extra 1k by mistake. Took me at least 15 seconds to reset it back to 250m! Doh!

Pouring with sweat afterwards. Short but sweet. Fun workout. :)
 
Sat 15/01/11

Sub-4 min, 1k C2 row, shoulder dislocates, air squats for warmup

Low-bar Squats:
10 x 60kg (132lb)
15 x 80kg (176lb)
15 x 80kg (176lb)

1 x 110kg (242lb)
1 x 120kg (264lb)
1 x 125kg (275lb)
1 x 136kg (300lb)

Oly shoes.

Did a few paused singles just for fun. It's been a long time since I had 300lb on my back. I paused it quite easily but, then, it was only a single.


Chest sore from yesterday's 175 push-ups and back still sore from previous days muscle-ups, so I decided to give chins and dips a go in order to get some blood flowing around to help ease soreness.

Muscle-ups:
2 x bw - just to see if I could still do them!

Chins:
10 x bw

Pull-ups:
10 x bw

Dips:
25 x bw
20 x bw
10 x bw+10kg (22lb)


A couple of goals:

I am fairly close to managing a proper one-arm pull-up with my right arm. I would like to be able to do one with each arm and possibly two with my right.

I would like to get my dipping strength back up to where it was. Now I am lighter, this will translate to lifting a higher percentage of my bodyweight than previously. I am going to aim for bw+135lb to begin with and hope to one-day manage bw+bw (currently ~180lb).
 
Mon 17/01/11

Dislocates for warmups.

Had a mate visiting so got him to do a bit of lifting.

Bench:
20 x 40kg
10 x 60kg
14 x 80kg (176lb) @ RPE – I might have made the 15th rep if I had wanted to burst a blood vessel or two, but I didn't!
12+3,3 x 80kg (176lb) – short M-S set

Dips:
20 x bw+10kg (22lb)

Chins:
20 x bw
10 x bw+10kg (22lb)

Muscle-ups:
1, 1, 1 x bw – for demonstration purposes only.

HSPU:
12 x bw

These felt harder than I would have liked and so, as I was still sore all over from my recent training, decided to leave it there.
 
Sorta looks like you're getting very close to feeling normal lifting-wise, Lol. Is that a fair guess? You're doing some very nice repping, all things being equal.
 
It's been a crazy week. I've had little time to train but I have done some rowing.

On Wed 19/01/11 I did two 1k rows back to back, both with split times at around 1:45. To beat my current best 2k time I'll have to keep a consistent 1:45 split or quicker. Even 1k at 1:45 pace is unpleasant and the thought of having to push through the pain for another 1k is a real psychological battle. I actually feel the adrenaline start kicking in as soon as I think about it!

On Thursday 20/01/11 I got a PR in my 250m sprint.

250m C2 Row in 0:40.4s *PR*
Av. pace: 1:20.8/500m

I beat my previous best 250m time by 3.1 seconds.

My average power output was 661.7W and my peak power was over 700W for quite a bit of the time. Stroke rate was high at 46 SPM, which I don't think I could sustain for a 500 m sprint yet. That's what I'm going to aim for though.

Even if I drop my pace down to 1:25/500m I'll still beat my previous 500m sprint time by enough to put me in the top 15 of the world C2 online-ranking for my age group. To get in the top 3, I'd have to get a time of 1:21.2 or less. That's completely nutty and entirely out of my league unless I grow another lung!

I'm heading out of town for a couple of weeks and I'm not sure what sort of training facilities I'll be able to find. I'll probably have to make do with body-weight, CrossFit type workouts. That'll mean burpees, dips, chins & muscle-ups (if I can find a bar), pistols, running, cycling, swimming... all good stuff. Going to try to get time to fit in some weights tonight before I go.

Tim: I would say that I feel back on track but I am very aware that I am but a shadow of my former self in the strength department. I've lost a lot of weight since I was lifting heavier stuff so my challenge is to get my numbers up as much as possible without adding much bw. I think ~185lb is a good weight for me. I can perform better gymnastically (which is not saying much) and running is much less of a chore. I need to continue to work on my cardio fitness; I want to better my brother's C2 row times. I am stronger than he is in the lifting department so it's my cardio that lets me down at the moment; but this year I WILL beat his 6:56 2k time. :evil grin:
 
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