ExRx.net

Rest day. Worked on the bike, ate liberally and enjoyed some good company. Have been doing yoga yesterday too and will probably do some more now.

I expect my stable weight to be in the low 77s for this weekend. A lot of different things have been overlapping, but casting some average spells here and there, I came up with a 39% LBM/61% BF loss since the first decade of April when I set my PBs. Seems so textbook that it must be statistic lies...

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I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

The day had unforeseen developments and I had to skip my lift session. Bike's still in pieces. I hope tomorrow will be a more productive day as far as training is concerned. There's still weight to be lost and progress to be made, and I just wish I could make it all fit in.

Going to do some yoga now. This song came to mind, dunno why.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

Lifts:
Squat: BWx15 + 60x5 + 70x5 + 80x5x3
Bench: 26x10 + 30x5 + 36x5 + 43x5x3
Row: 41x12x3

I loathe myself for being still struggling with this damn squat. Bench & row were Good Enough(tm).

Sprinting, or how I stopped worrying about seized cups in bottom brackets
Synopsis: I went running.
Tagline: He ran and he sprinted! and then his calves felt like... WOOD!
No splints, biking has improved my conditioning overall so this session was more than satisfactory. Actually I was positively impressed that biking has got me so far. If only I was still able to properly articulate my feet... we'll see tomorrow about the knees.

Post workout weight was 75.9, it's not damn hot but moist enough you could squeeze a puddle out of my shirt today.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

Pieces are finally here, now for the fatidical moment i.e. will everything fit and work well ?

Did some more running today, knees were OK when I woke up but later when working out I had to take walking rests because of some slowly growing pain on the external surface of the knee, first the right one then the left joined in. Probably something going on with the ITB. Not sure whether I should take some NSAIDs tonight or have trust in the "natural healing power" of my body.

It may seem new-age-y but lately the thing managed to pull off a couple surprises.

I'm so grateful to have discovered weight lifting I can't really believe how much better I feel, it's so weird that I'm almost expecting some epic injury to fall off from the sky and put me on a wheelchair or maybe from some passing plane overhead an engine will get unhinged and fall through the roof over my bed with me in it (that is the bed, not the engine)

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

Doh, second skipped work out this week. The good news is I almost put back the bike. I feel totally cooked up today, like a microwave oven and I'm the "ding!"

edit: BTW this was yesterday's song.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

Lift day:

Squat: BWx15 + 50x5 + 60x4 + 70x3 + 80x5x3
Press: 6x10 + 26x5 + 30x3 + 33x5/4/4
DL: 70x5 + 80x3 + 90x5

Bad weather = no sprinting today.

I woke up terribly tired this morning and felt exhausted all day long. I decided to train nonetheless, and as a consequence I literally dragged myself from set to set and from lift to lift. In the squat I focused on keeping the back as tight as possible. In the last month, it seems every single time things look OK at some weight and I feel confident about increasing the weight, I'm in for a disappointment cos as soon as I go ahead something in my form falls apart. The caloric restriction isn't helping one bit, and by the looks of it I'll just have to endure, regardless of how depressing it is.

As expected my stable weight is now very close to 77 kg, but I feel a bit bloated probably from going a little overboard with carbs.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

Meh, birthday party yesterday, woke up at 78 kg, but I managed to shed most of the water weight by the evening (when I stopped the -digital- needle at 75.8), and this was the recipe:

Lifts:
Squat: BWx15 50x5 60x4 70x3 80x5x3
BP: 26x10 30x5 36x5 44x4/4/3
Row: 42x12x3

This weekend I gave myself much more time to recover, and the squat seemed to benefit a lot from it. I'll be working at this weight until I'm happy enough anyway. BP was a total defeat, maybe I just didn't put enough stress on the upper body last week. The row was Good Enough(tm)

Sprint: bike's back on the road, had the usual 10+20+10 session with the centerpiece being 20" sprints + 1'40" recovery. Everything feels different, so while I tried to give it all, I found hard to gauge level the effort because of the different sensations. I think I'm faster now, and average and top HR going up seem to confirm this as they've gone up. This was the second test run for the bike, the first one was simply delirious. Tomorrow a check is in order before going out.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

Went out pedaling and was back after about a hour. The local administration has fallen in love with underpasses in recent years and the deeper ones are steep as hell! Took a wrong turn and ended up having to do a particularly bad one 3 times. Average HR was only a handful BPMs lower than yesterday's.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

And here we go again! Soon this phase will be over. I'm not quite sure whether I'll stop 'cutting', maybe I'll just up a bit the calories. In summer it's so much easier to shed fat and I would only benefit from it, so I don't want to waste this chance. Still, I'm pretty fed up with the lack of progress on the lifts.

Lifts:
Squat: BWx15 50x5 60x4 70x3 80x5x3
Press: 6x15 26x5 30x3 33x5/4/3
DL: 70x5 80x3 90x5

Squat is finally coming along but still a bit slow halfway through. In the past I've been pushing past these things but under the given conditions it might just be wiser to stick with 80 for one last session. Press is regressing, ugh. I was pressed (no pun intended) for time and likely have skimped on recovery. Also, the DL didn't feel too hard but I didn't pay enough attention about form in some of the reps.

Sprinting went as usual, including the damn headwind and people taking up an entire lane for no good reason.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

6/23: bad weather, no biking, only did some light work on the bench press in preparation for today. Probably not a bad choice considering how I felt when I woke up. Did some light yoga yesterday evening though.

6/24: Lifts:
Squat: BWx10 + 50x5 + 70x3 + 80x5x3
Bench (very wide grip): 26x5 + 30x5 + 36x3 + 43x4 + 42x5/4
Row: 43x12x3

Squatting felt easier than the the last time, almost a wasted session. Rowing was not hard but I wasn't as accurate in the movement as the last time in all the reps. I'll be rowing just once next week so I'll probably increase the weight nonetheless and try to be more concentrated. Benching was weird. Maybe I'm just not used to a very wide grip, it felt harder instead of easier. What I'm sure of is I'm getting soreness in places I don't usually have it, will see how it is tomorrow morning.

Sprinted as usual.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

6/25, went to the wedding, ate a lot of fish, drank some good wine and had the cake. Good fun. No counting or other boring stuff!
6/26, mostly rested, I felt so tired.

6/27: today will be lifts only. I still feel tired.

And now for the colored charts:


Grey vertical lines are 1 each ~30 days with lighter lines for weeks. Horizontal lines are 1 kg, right scale is in pounds but not exact. Red dots are actual weight readings from the scale, blue line is an average, green ones account for dispersion.

update

It was an ominous day. I felt so down that 1h before the session I carbed up a bit. Thought that would help but it did not, so with 10 minutes to go, a coffee was my second try. That was better, so warm up here we go!, despite some sort of discomfort in my left knee. It wasn't until I hit the work weight that I realized the extent of my tiredness. To add some cheap thrill, my knee decided to give out a loud crack at the 3rd rep. Tried to pull myself together somehow, psych me up, but halfway through the second set it was sadly clear the only sensible choice was to give up. Being sensible is not my strong suit, so I put on the belt and did the last two reps. Smooth as breeze! That WAS a GREAT idea.

Wasn't it? Turns out it was not, during the final set my performance literally crumbled and on the last rep I don't know how, my body just went sideways. It occurred to me that something was wrong only because of the screaming from my inner right thigh. For a moment my mind was somewhere else entirely and my body straightened itself up the best it could. As soon as I moved about, my left erector also loudly complained.

This scary moment got me in the right groove. Wrap it up, have some rest, lick the wounds. No wait, it's just a press, let's press a bit now. Warming up was again pretty easy. The first set looked OK too, except I could only do half the last rep and then I noticed the weight on the bar was 1 kilo short of the target. Being the considerate person that I am, the missing kilo was promptly restored and I did two other sets. Not that I ever managed to hit 5 reps in any of them anyway, but I could feel my upper back not being straight enough, and above my left kneecap a slight tingling sensation.

Finally, it was deadlift time. The pain in the back had subsided and even though I thought I wasn't going to make it, the plates went on nonetheless. You know how the story goes by now, warm up is OK then I stamp my face on a stone wall with the work weight in the back seat and no seatbelts. And so it was, 1st rep was good, 2nd half-decent, 3rd my back's all over the place. I focused and concentrated, despite my shoulders feeling like they were going to unscrew themselves and finally pulled and pulled, and behold! my back is OK! it's just the weight isn't collaborating and stays suspended above the ground an inch or so. Defeated, I put it down and called it a day.

No really it was fun. And I only think of it that way because apparently I managed to escape with only collateral damage.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

Today, lifts.

Squat: BWx10 50x5 70x3 82x5/5/4
Bench: 26x10 36x5 43x5x3
Row: 43x8/0/0

Almost got killed when out of the blue I failed the last rep of the last set. Fell slowly forward and squeezed myself out from under the bar somehow; after pulling myself together I managed to do my benching. Towards the end of the first of the row I realized there was no energy left in me and called it a day.

I have to accept that tiredness has accumulated and I can't recover fast enough. I either have to eat more, rest more or just take some time off. Maybe all of the above. It's hard to swallow. I think some part of me has an appetite for self-destruction.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

One bad session can be ignored but two in a row are a warning. So for today I had given a thought about doing some light work but eventually opted to do nothing at all (did some bike maint instead of lifting). I've increased my calorie intake and I'm hoping to be able to sleep a bit more over the weekend. Now "patiently" waiting for monday to come.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

Today is the first day in the 5/3/1 Experiment

Cycle 1 - Week 1 - Day 1 - Press
Warm Up 12x5 + 14x5 + 18x3
Work sets 24x5 + 28x5 + 30x6
Down sets 18x10x5

Assistance: Pull Down 24x10x5
Lateral Raise: (4x2)x10x5

I was somewhat surprised to see my 5+ set fail on the 7th rep, but I just checked the log again and realized it is consistent with the most recent sessions, i.e. my press strength really has decreased. Maybe it's just burn out, maybe not, my schedule is now 1 click/2 kilos off and I'm wondering, should I adjust the other weeks or just go with it?

In general, the higher volume leaves behind some light soreness my upper body is not used to, I'm not complaining though. The session was easy compared to the usual and the 70 minutes went by quickly.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness

C1W1D2 - Deadlift
Warm Up 38x5+48x5+58x3
Work Sets 62x5+72x5+82x8
Down Sets 38x10x5

Bike Sprinting 15' W/U+20' sprints 20"/1'40"+20' C/D

Carried some soreness overnight, and tomorrow I expect to have more. I might've cheated on the top work set by using too much recovery between reps.

PS: today all of my tracking stuff went astray. Scale says I'm down to 76.1 kg, the caliper claims body fat has dropped below 20% and the measuring tape insists that my waist shrank 1.5 cm overnight.

_________________
I don't know where the blind could lead the sightless
but I'd still like to witness