HLM. Week 11. Day 3. and Week 12. Day 1.

W11.D3.
BW - 222

Safety Squat - 250X5, 5, 5, 5 @ 8

Press -
132.5X3 @ 9
122.5X5 @ 7.5
125X5, 5, @ ~9
120X5 @ 8.5

Deadlift -
345X3, 3 @ ~8.5

W12.D1.
BW - 218

Squat -
335X1 @8
315X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @~8 (last set @9)

45 degree Incline Bench  - 165X5, 5, 5, 5 @8

Chin-Ups - BWX4, 3, 3, 2 @~9

BB Rows - 215X3, 3, 3 @8

Conditioning - Treadmill Sprints - 20 second sprint / 120 second walk; 7 rounds

Nagging quad pain is playing hell with my squats.  W11.D3. also just seemed to be an "off" or "down" day in general.  Press top-strength was underwhelming, although back-off strength was higher avg. intensity that previous.  Deadlift was definitely down.

Then I went out-of-town for 3 days.

I hoped that the extra day off would help with the quads, but not really.  Squat strength on W12.D1. was definitely limited by pain.  Was hoping to work up to a triple @ 8, but ended up doing a single @ 8 (no video) and doing triples for the back-off.  These intensities are disappointing, but at least I hit another 2-year BW low coming off a wedding trip.  Anyway.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to handle much volume at a decent intensity for back-off sets of 5, so I decided to use the "fatigue drop" / "RPE Stop" technique of doing volume sets until the RPE rises a certain amount.  In this case, I dropped to 3's @ 8, and did them until I hit a 3 @ 9 with that weight.

The high-incline bench was taken on this day, and I hate the gym's other incline bench because it's got a curve at the top that makes it much closer to a flat bench.  I was at the gym earlier in the afternoon than normal because I'd take an extra day off after our trip, so I dragged a particularly sturdy DB incline bench over to a power rack and used that instead.  Actually may be my favorite incline set up I've used at this gym.

Chin-Ups and rows were fine.  Rows felt a little weaker than last week, but no big.

Top-Sets and or final volume/back-off sets shown.

Conditioning. Week 2. Hill-Sprints

Hill-Sprints - 10 sprints

Despite the 20+ minute walk to the hill, and some mobility work, the adductor strain that began with the Death Sprints of last Thursday, and escalated with Squatting on Sunday, lashed out violently against me on these sprints.  I tried to push through, but only managed 10 sprints, lopes really, in about 17 minutes. 

I was fairly afraid that I would wake up this morning hardly able to walk, but the pain has abated a great deal and with no pain medication.  I believe the long walk back from the hill, plus a healthy walk later in the evening to meet some friends may have helped. 

Obviously, I will now have to hold off on any running for the next few days.  Today was going be an off/walking day, and I may still walk.  Tomorrow was supposed to be my chance to get the flat sprints right on distance and intensity, but that is completely out now.  I will do some walking today and tomorrow, an upper body lifting session on Thursday, and then I will see on Friday or Saturday, after more walking and mobility, if a light jog seems do-able.  This sucks, but what can you do?

Conditioning. Week 2. Lower Body

BW - 205

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X4
155X4
185X3
225X3
265X2, 2

Deadlift -
135X4
185X4
225X4
275X4
285X4

Push-Ups - BWX25, 15, 15, 10, 10, 11; 86 total reps

Rope Extensions - X25, 20, 20

Crunches - X75

Okay session.  I programmed for 3 sets of 2 with 265.  However, all reps but the very 1st were slow, and my left adductor started feeling really sore after the 2nd set, so I stopped.  I think the adductor is still feeling blitzed from 'The Sprints of Death' last week.  I remember being surprised at how sore they were for about 24 hours afterwards.

Deadlifts were all fast.

Push-ups were okay.  Next week I'll shoot for 90 in the same amount of sets or fewer.  Shoulder felt fairly stable throughout.

Speaking of the shoulder issues, I programmed to alternate weekly between weighted and BW dips here, but to be on the safe side, I'm just doing push-downs.

Got all the crunches in 1 set.  That's fine.  I'll just keep progressing them as a single set.  Think of it as a 'light' day, as opposed to the decline sit-ups on the other day.

Conditioning. Week 1. Upper Body

BW - 205

Cuff Work - Lots (capsule stretching, band dislocations, pull aparts, 5lb. plate "cleans," front raises with various grips, band external rotations)

Bench -
BarX20, 20
95X6
115X6
135X6
155X8

BB Rows -
BarX15
95X10
135X15, 12, 15

Chins - BWX10, 5, 5

Decline Sit-Ups - BWX10, 10, 10

Being very careful with the shoulder since I seemed to re-aggravate it by sprinting (!).  Just tried to run through a sequence of everything I've ever done for shoulder cuff and shoulder prehab.

That included an extra warm-up set with just the bar, and more reps and smaller jumps on the warm-up sets.  Originally I programmed for 12 reps of 155, which would normally be slightly challenging but completely do-able.  Everything was very tentative today, and I cut it at 8.

The lay-off and tentativeness about the shoulder seemed to cut into my rowing as well.  This felt more like a neuromuscular issue than a strength issue.  My mind just didn't want to let my body "get after it" today on these.

Chins were okay, though.  Programmed for 20 total, and got it in 3 sets.  Hoped to go over on the last set, but 5 was the limit.

The crunches I did in my BW circuits in the last block did not set me up well for decline sit-ups.  Originally hoped to do 60 or so total reps, but had to bring that down, and will adjust my programming for this block accordingly.

Conditioning. Week 1. Sprints

65* yards -
10 sprints; 0.10 - 11 seconds; 30 seconds rest
3 minutes rest
5 sprints; 0.10 - 12 seconds; 30 seconds rest
3 minutes rest
3 sprints; 0.10 - 11 seconds; 30 seconds rest

*was supposed to be 55.  I used a GPS app to measure it in an empty field.  I could tell the app was unreliable, but I went with it even though the distance looked WAY long.  Checked the distance as best I could with google maps this morning, and it's no LESS than 65 yards.  Woof.

Well this was a surprise!  I was supposed to start off this block doing 3 sets of 10 on sprints, waving time and distance every week.  This week I was shooting for sub 0.10 second sprints, but I couldn't make that no matter how hard I tried (see the *note above).  After the 5 sprints, I knew I was in trouble, and after the first set of 10, my midsection was cramping so hard, I knew there was no way I'd do another set of 10, so I called an audible and did 10, 5, 3 instead.  So that gives me a baseline of 3 sets, 18 total sprints.  Next week, I'll try (getting the distance right and) upping the volume to something like 21 or 22.  I'd at least like to be hitting my target 3 sets of 10 by the end of this 5 week block.

Oh, after two weeks off from pressing, and a week off from training at all, these sprints were enough to bring my shoulder pain screaming back.  Great.