5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 2. Carries

Sunday:

LRB Diet - Week 9

BW - ???

AM:
Steady-state - 20 minutes

PM:
Wife Carries - 1/4 mileX2

When I started lifting, my wife would sometimes ask me what my goal was, and I would joke that I thought a man should be able to carry his woman for 2 miles over un-even terrain.  I even did a cycle of farmer's carries once with that in mind, but that fell away as I tried to stay focused on the basics. 

Recently, she asked me how far I thought I could carry her now, and partially inspired by a recent CNP article on Tom Hardy, I decided to try some piggy-backs.  I have a 1-mile route in my neighborhood I often use for conditioning, and I thought I would go for a 1/2 mile carry.  Luckily, the route is easily broken down into 1/4 miles, because that's all I could manage.  We then walked another 1/4 mile until I felt recovered, and I did another 1/4 mile carry.

The good news/bad news is that no one part of my body felt much more fatigued than any other.  This was a whole body effort, and pretty much everything was giving out at once rather than having one "weak link."  That both reinforces my confidence that I'm keeping my training well-balanced, and that I still have loads of room for improvement in every area.  With that said, it's now a day later, and my biceps are more sore than they've been in a long time, so this obviously provides a different type/degree of stress than all the rowing and chinning I do.

If the wife is willing, I may start alternating this with hill-sprints as regular conditioning.  It's also pretty fun and pretty funny.  There is a bar right where we stopped yesterday, and I collapsed onto a bar stool and treated myself to a giant ice-water, and a gin-and-tonic for my troubles.