It’s not elbow speed
I hit the gym last evening, I felt a bit more fried than I should have. I think a combo of stress during the day and all those windmills and OHSs did me in early.
I took the first fifteen minutes to just get warm. I mostly just handled the bar a lot. No weight just snatch it and squat it. I moved on to some snatches. I was feeling pretty good snatching so I did some cleans, they felt, ok. I took advantage of my new phone and shot some video of myself. I was surprised how much I was not getting low. I may as well just stand up straight with the weight the way I am doing it.
Power Snatch
Power Clean
Power Clean with a Front Squat
I did a few more things before going home:
Military Stylle Bench 225 5, 7
Dips 6, 6
Alternating Standing Dumbell Press 50 12, 9
Barbell Row 60K 12, 12
I think that was about it. Like I said, I got burnt out early. I’m planning on rowing tomorrow. I’m gonna try to get providence in today.
How not to respect yourself in the morning
Last evening I ended up with a few sprints with the dog. Probably 6 of them abou 10 – 15 yards. We have found that she has no interest in fetching unless I’m right there beside her, then she’ll do it for quite a while. She hesitated on one run and I got the ball. I think she was just giving me an ego boost.
That left the hammies a bit tight this morning.
I did my abbreviated yoga routine (5 stretches in about 5 minutes) and headed out to the deck. I considered my 16K kettlebell but stuck with the 12K since it has treated me so well for these morning workouts. Ten minutes of windmill to an overhead squat. I was doing roughly one ever fifteen seconds, thirty seconds for both sides. So about 20 reps per side. I tried leaving my heart rate monitor on the chair behind me. It apparently didn’t get enough info to give me an average but my max heart rate was 141. It got a little sweat going and my traps feel really worn out, from the overhead squats, I think. It occurs to me in retrospect that 10 reps of this would make for a brilliant warmup to my other morning routines, especially as I feel driven to move on to the 16K.
I think my body is going to hate me later.
The early bird gets the worm
Getting back into the am workout after takng a long weekend with regard to them.
Sandbag clean and front squat 50lbs
11:24
Average HR 146
Max HR 158
I have no idea how many I did but it felt like a lot
Always check your equipment
I’ll say it again, ALWAYS check your equipment.
Lemme tell you a story.
It was in the mid 90s today and rougly 115% – 120% humidity. I stumbled in to the slightly cooler gym. Time to take another shot at 10,000 meters. I got to rowing andmy battery on my mp3 player promptly died, great. So I closed my eyes and just focused on feeling my body on each stroke. They got pretty strong, I was hanging out around 2:05 / 500 meters at about 23 SPM. A definite improvement, but it felt like a lot of work. I checked my heartrate monitor and was in the 170s.
The meters ticked by ever slower. My pace was strong but abou every 500 meters or so I would question if I could keep this up for 10,000 meters. 5,000 meters ticked by right shy of 20 minutes. It was a good time but it didn’t feel like I remembered the first 5,000 meters I ever did feeling, it was much harder which didn’t seem right at all. At that point, all I really could do was watchthe meters tick by.
With 2,500 meters to go I was questioning my sanity in a major way. I was also questioning my constitution. Then I began to question my equipment. I never looked at the flue, did it look half closed from here? I kinda did but I’m just making excuses, I’m sure it’s open, no one around here even uses these things, let along makes it harder. At about 38 minutes and 8,800 meters I quit, I just quit. I give. My desire to complete what was so at hand and that I had done before was overridden by the discomfort and exhaustion.
Sweat soaked, boiling hot and dog tired, I climbed off the rower. Oh look, the flue was closed 50%. That might explain a thing or two.
ALWAYS check your equipment.
EDIT: Average HR 171, max 181
I did nothing
I took yesterday off, from everything. I decided last week that I wanted a day off from work, just cuz. So I scheduled one. I had plans to do some yoga, hit some kettlebells that kind of stuff. Instead, I was a lump. I did get some other projects tinkered on, bought some books, got a hair cut, picked up some of my crap. But I got naught done in the realm of workout. I don’t feel too bad about it either.
This morning I opted for 12K of 20 of each:
2 hand swings
1 hand swings
snatches
standing press
I’ve also been trying to work on a preworkout routine. I’m using some of the basic yoga stretches, a little downward dog, up dog, some other stuff I can’t remember the name of. I’ve had a real desire to do a little yoga lately but haven’t cleared the full hour to do the DVD I have, still the little bits seem to help, especially in the morning.
Quickie
Short row
1000m warmup
2500m 9:00 average heart rate 171 max 181
500m slow
2500 10:20 average heart rate 178 max 184
500m slow
I’ve been working on trying to pull harder less often, as low as 20 SPM while trying to push the 2:00/500m mark. I can’t quite pull that hard, I have to speed up the about 24/25 spm to get there. I find that to a be really ahrd to maintain. My body seems to jsut kinda drift back toward more pulls but easier, so I try and push it back the other way. It’s good to have someone to disagree with, not sure that you’re your own ideal candidate.
Real Light
Made to row. I had some really sore legs, I thought I would feel in in the quads but I felt it in the hamstrings. I had to take a break at 2,500 meters to work them out. I only went to 5,000. Without the break it was 22 minutes with the break it was 24.
Too heavy
2 hours at Dumbarton
45 minutes of cleans with 80K. My technique is awful. I need to video myself and have some of you all pick me apart. I end up sitting up on my toes. Clearly, I am not getting my elbows through but I am catching it way too far forwad.
Probably 50 reps.
Squats 315 5X5 – man that was a lot harder than I expected. My legs are hurting serious today. I hope to bang ’em together in time for some rowing tomorrow.
Military Bench- Bw (250lbs) 3 singles
I know. sad
24K kettlbell snatches
10 X 10 per arm, plenty of rest between sets
I didn’t do my morning workout today, I should have but we got up and got rolling early, in a good way. Tomorrow morning I’ll probably do something just to check for kinks. I had hoped to do 10,000 meters this weekend. At this point, I may go row and just keep it slow fo 5,000 – 7,500.
More and More
Yesterday Morning:
I didn’t have my heart rate monitor but I didn’t push it too hard. I was using the 8K for swings and found it too be too light.
Yesterday Day:
Nada, day off.
This morning:
Average HR 136
Max HR 155
12K KB
20 2 hand swings
20 1 hand swings/arm
20 1 hand Snatch/arm
Repeat
Repeat
Tonight is Dumbarton. I’m planning on fewer pulls than I have been doing. Maybe a heavy squat and then some conditioning work.
Tomorrow I get a new cellphone (cool) and I’m planning on heading down to the Uni for a 10000 meter row.
Anvil or Hammer 