Tuesday: Squat, Erg & Ice (7th OLAP)

Today was light squat day, and I was thankful that it was light because I'm starting to hurt.  The hamstrings are still complaining, and the right knee has been painful since heavy day.  I really don't want to back down before the Masters Nationals, so I rolled out the hamstrings on lacrosse balls and coated both legs from butt to patella with Blue Heat.

Blue Heat and balls powerlifting porn.  Actually if you imagine this several times smaller
and with the balls also blue, that's pretty much what my genitals
 looked like after today's ice bath,

After getting all my parts mostly working, I did squats:
5 x 75 (75 was on the floor after the 5:30 class, and if it's going to be that easy to be lazy, well...These were also the most painful squats of the day, but now everything was really working.)
5 x 135
8 x 170
6 x 210
5 x 250
4 x 265
3 x 285
3 x 305
3 x 305

I'm sure I need to remember metabolic conditioning work, so I looked into the Max Effort Black Box and found:

40 Squats at bodyweight
1,000 meter row

With 185 pounds on the bar, I finished in 7:58.  I was disappointed that I had to break up the squats since I've done 33 at 185 before.  I will remember to try this again on fresh legs; it was fun, and I can probably break 6:00.  I also think it would be fun to do this weekly over a month and wave the squat intensity up to 75 or 80 percent while trying to hold the row constant.  185 is less than 50% of 1rm for me, and while it's no joke for forty repetitions, I'd like to see how far I can push this.

If you're counting, today's squat volume was16,065 pounds, just over 8 tons.  All of this was under 80% of my competition 1rm, but it felt heavy to me, so I thought I should be proactive and take an ice bath.

Ice

I tried this last summer after doing a squat cluster, and it seemed to work.  The ice bath on a March morning seems worse than on a July afternoon, but I did ten minutes with twenty pounds of ice.  Bad though it might be, it's better than forgetting to wash your hands before going to the bathroom after applying Blue Heat.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll find that it was effective.

All I could tell this morning was that it gave me cold feelings.

Fourth OLAP & Accusatory Bands

Yesterday, Tuesday, was light squat day.  I got started at 6:40 am and did:

5 x 45 (high)
5 x 45
5 x 135
8 x 170
6 x 210
6 x 250
5 x 265
5 x 285
5 x 285

I decided to again follow my own rule of squatting the bar x 5 until I can get five good reps, and it took two tries.  I did all the squats in Chucks.  Lately I've used O-lifting shoes for squatting, and I wanted to feel the Converse again on a light day.  I'm not sure what I'll use at the meet.  While I like the lifting shoes, I feel they force a wider stance to recruit the hamstrings.  In the Chucks I had no problem feeling everything engage like I want; the problem is that today I still feel the hamstring insertion in a painful way.

I finished about 7:15, and in some sense I should have done metabolic conditioning afterwards, but I knew it was a day to exert the minimal effort and go home since I was feeling neither good nor energetic.   What I like about my event based training is that I always know what my competition goals are.  Essentially I'm trying to PR both the squat and the deadlift in May while holding the bench as close to my former maximum as possible.  I could tell that doing conditioning was going to fry me, and it's not what's driving my desired adaptation, so I had no qualms about calling it a day.


Late this afternoon I was at the gym alone, and as I came out of the rest room I saw this:

To a powerlifter, a cage with bands is a beautiful thing, erglike in fact to me, and on seeing the blue band I thought I really should do some heavy reverse banded squats on heavy day.

But I kept looking and I saw the red band and the purple band.

And the red band spoke.

"Aren't you supposed to be doing banded pull aparts?"

And the purple band spoke.

"Aren't you supposed to be working the rotator cuff?"

And I knew they spoke truly.  So I did minimal rehab work; half a pie is better than none.  I've had no dietary sins for five days now.


I left work early today for a long lunch so that I could train jiu-jitsu at Dark Horse BJJ.  It was cold when I left work, but after training and some very light rolling I had to drive back to work with the windows down.  I remember some winter days driving back from Easton BJJ Boulder with the windows down and snow on the ground, and that's only one simple thing I've dearly missed about Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Look for my new BJJ blog coming soon.

Annotating a Training Plan

So far 2012 has been about reeling, free-falling, getting weak and fat, and using residual strength and conditioning to erg a couple 500's.  In a sick way I enjoy the 500's, and I thought it would keep people from noticing I've been doing nothing.  I don't know if I fooled anyone else, but in the end I couldn't fool myself.

I can forgive myself for being dejected even to the point of inactivity over the shoulder problems, but it's really past time to start doing whatever I can still do.  Apparently though I needed somebody to shove me.

A few days ago I got an e-mail from xxxx xxx informing me that I was her accountability partner, and that if she didn't do her proposed running, I was to make her jump rope for 20 minutes.

I thought that was a great idea, so I told her "sure," and by the way, you'll kindly force me to row a half marathon if I don't submit a training plan to you before Monday at 5:30 am.

What follows is a succinct, but good enough for my use, plan.  We haven't figured out punishments for me straying from the path yet, so for now it's just the plan with my comments appearing in braces.

Training plan targeting USAPL Masters Nationals May 4-6, 2012

{I wouldn't do shit at this point without a competition to focus on.  I looked around and found this and realized I'd be a moron to miss it.  I'll be lifting with the best in the US, and no matter how I perform, watching those other guys is going to keep me going for years.}

Performance Goals:

{ I'm not a fan of these, but I wanted at least something concrete.}

Compete at bodyweight of 182.6

( Entirely reasonable.  I have to stop being the Pillsbury Doughboy.}

Squat 400+

{ Under USAPL rules this is both ambitious and realistic.}

Deadlift 400+

{ This is entirely reasonable as long as that much weight can hang off my shoulder.  This one has to be fudgeable because if I start getting injury pain in training, 135 is also a fine deadlift.}

Bench 225 or more

{ This is the old "hold what you got" approach.  I seem to handle 225 fine.  It's hard to accept this after  benching 260 three months ago, but I have to quit blowing up chasing too much too soon.}

Behavioral Goals beginning Tuesday 2/28, approximately 9 weeks out.

{ These are the good ones.  I should be able to do all this stuff even if I can't handle the training loads I  would like to. 9 weeks isn't really arbitrary; 8 week cycles are good for me and I'll end up with a deload  week.}

Squat twice a week, Tuesdays and Sundays

{ I've been doing well on the twice a week cycle I've been using.  Do not fix what isn't broken.}

Deadlift and Bench Thursday

{ Pulling once a week is somewhere between enough and too much as long as you use the weight you  should be using.  It's possible to be more ambitious with the bench, but not in my current position.}

At least three WoDs per week, 10 minute cut-of

{ I have to stop being fat.  10 minutes or less will allow my to keep the intensity up.  People who insist on  doing long ass WoDs will have the opportunity to look at me and face the truth.}

No being stupid here. WoDs will be only exercises producing no shoulder pain.

{ This one is critical.  I haven't thought it out yet, but I suspect I'll be doing endless wall ball shots, box  jumps, kettlebell swings, and a few other movements.  This will not satisfy CrossFit ADHD, and I don't  care because I don't have CrossFot ADHD.}

Rowing is always acceptable as a WoD.

{ No Shit.  Still have to keep it under 10 minutes though.}

Minimum of one intense erging WoD per week, either one of the three, or as an extra fourth.

{ It's not all powerlifting.  I have to get ready for sculling, and the 2013 indoor rowing season is only 11  months away.}

Every day: all the shoulder prehab/rehab stuff I hate.

{ I'm not offering any bets on any of this.  If I did, this is easily where you should bet against me.  I hate  playing with the bands, but this is where I decide if I'll eventually bench 300+ or retire from lifting.}

Diet: Entirely Paleo approved beginning 2/28

{ I'll miss the free bagels and doughnuts on Tuesdays.  I'll also feel, look, and perform better.}

Calories will be set to 2730.

{ This is in another blog somewhere.  It's not too low and it allows a nice steady loss of fat. }

In the not improbably case of hunger on heavy lifting days, the calorie cap will be ignored as long as there is a downward trend in body fat.

{ This is in another blog somewhere.  I don't believe in being hungry although I can and will do that if I'm  not  making it to 182.6}

Absolutely no refusing to eat vegetables – no VLC.

{ I've learned that I'm not in that population that should be doing a very low carbohydrate diet.  I can and will go into ketosis if I have to, but I'm pretty sure I won't have to if I mostly follow the plan.}

That's it.  I'm ready to quit sucking now.