One-Oh-One & One-Oh-Two

Saturday, October 21 | I Nearly Died

Luke and I began our day with a wonderful walk at the Biltmore. I’m truly enjoying the change in seasons. I wore shorts, a tee with light, hooded jacket, and mittens. Yes, mittens. My lower body tends to get warm quickly whilst my hands never seem to thaw.

EMOM for 45 minutes; work 30 seconds & rest 30 seconds (22:30 total work time)
Deadlift + bent over row + power clean + push press + thruster, 101# + Sprint 20m (10m up & back)
Plank* in remaining time
Scores = barbell with sprint & plank hold

This was exhausting, and it got more and more exhausting as the workout progressed. In addition, the 30 seconds of rest time seemed to get decrease.

Why 101#? Why not! In addition, I did not allow thruster to be dropped from the top, i.e., I brought barbell to shoulder, mid-thigh, and then floor. What isn’t included but what also occurred was a jump over the barbell before beginning sprint and and jump to squat and plank hold. Because Lady Gaga.

For plank hold, the first 10 rounds were traditional plank. I thought, “This is too easy.” For rounds 11-15 & 16-20 I completed 1-armed (r & then l) plank, for rounds 21-25 & 26-30 I completed 1-legged (r & then l) plank, and for rounds 31-45 I alternated the 5 planks, i.e., traditional, r-arm, l-arm, r-leg, & l-leg.

As if often the case, my times for barbell + sprint improved, which meant more time spent in plank hold.

Time for barbell + sprint ranged from 18 to 13 seconds—a full 5-second difference! This had everything to do with transitioning between lifts as well as sprinting faster.

The time for barbell + sprint ended when I was in plank position, and I positioned the clock so that I could easily see this time to record as I rested.

Barbell + sprint times : 18, 17, 18, 17, 16, 17, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 15, 15, 16, 16, 16, 16, 6, 15, 15, 16, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 14, 14, 15, 13, 14, 14, 14, 14, 13, 13, 14, 14,

Scores: 10:45 & 11:45

Even though I worked for a mere 22:30 it certainly felt like a 45-minute workout!

Monday, October 23 | Twofer

I rested Sunday. Jeff and I took Luke for a short walk in the morning hours before meeting friends for breakfast. As Jeff had to be at the airport at 2:30 I spent the rest of the day with him. Luke and I went for a 4-mile walk at the Arboretum after dropping Jeff off at the airport.

It rained dogs and bad kitties this morning and into the later afternoon hours! Luke and I went for a very short, moist walk this morning. He didn’t poop. I tried to get him to do his business this afternoon, but to no avail. He finally did so when the rain stopped and the clouds began to clean. Just thought you all would like to know.

I left the garage door closed, so the bad kitties joined me for part of the workout. Uhm, and they, along with Luke, eventually left me all alone. Bad kitties!

AFAP
1, 2, 3…8, 9, 10
Wall ball shots, 20# & 10′
Floor presses, 95#
Chest to bar pull-ups

That’s 55 reps of each activity, and that was more than enough. I completed all rounds of WBS and FP in unbroken reps, but only managed through the round of 7 C2B pull-ups unbroken. By the round of 10 I had to complete the last 6 as singles. Ha! Talk about muscle failure.

Meg often looked down upon me from the top of the stairs as I completed floor presses.

At one point whilst completing FP I thought, I wonder if I’d work faster or harder if I was working out with others? Perhaps, but form might suffer, I might be more likely to get injured, and I wouldn’t enjoy myself nearly as much as I do when I work out alone.

Ain’t that the truth.

Time =

NFT
10 reps
Wall crawl + burpee + twist + burpee + freestanding handstand + twist

Uhm, and I lost count and completed 11 reps. Not that it matters, as this wasn’t for time. I’m so delighted with progress of handstands that I often held for a few seconds.

Tuesday, October 24 | Montreat

Luke and I were excited to hike this morning, given that yesterday was the first day in a as long as I can remember when we didn’t begin our day with a long walk or hike. We headed to Montreat, one of my favorite places. Luke began to whimper in excitement as soon as we took the exit off of 40 to Black Mountain. What a gloriously beautiful morning it was! Luke patiently waited for me to take pictures. We did an out and back 100-minute walk. Yup, forgot to wear TomTom (and forgot that I keep a Garmin in the car, you know, in case I forget TomTom).

I ran a few errands, including a trip to Vortex Donuts, and it was noon before I began my workout. Yup, just after eating a very late breakfast of two donuts.

Strength
Power clean
10-5-3-1-1-1-3-5-10

I like this rep scheme, as no failed attempts count you really must stay focused. I warmed up with set of 10 @ 65 & 95, and settled on 115 for first set of 10.

10 @ 115 (1,150)
5 @ 125 (625)
3 @ 145 (435)
1 @ 155
1 @ 165
1 @ 175
3 @ 155 (465)
5 @ 145 (725)
10 @ 125 (1,250)

A few things to note:
— My goal was 175, as my HPC 1RM is 170.
— I also set a goal to lift heavier weights the second half of workout.
— I recorded and reviewed all set/reps. My form did falter during singles, but lifts were nonetheless successful.
— 175# is an all time PR, not just a post-surgery PR. Yay!
— That’s 5,145 or 2.57 tons.
— What donuts?

Conditioning
NFT
5 unbroken presses, 102# and up to 3 attempts/round max height box jump until failed 5 unbroken presses or failed box jump

Why 102#? Why not! And it’s just 1# shy or 75% of 1RM (although I didn’t know that at the time).

I completed 11 rounds of unbroken presses (55 reps) and failed 11th round at box jump @ 39″, although I did try 3 times. I did, however, complete 38″ box jump, and that’s just 1″ shy of all time max height.