Novice LP. Session 15

BW - 224

Squat - 325X3X5

Bench - 185X3X5

Chin-ups -
 - BWX4, 2
 - Negatives (0/0/3)X4, 4, 4, 4

Squats went really well.  This is my heaviest set of 5 since February of this year, and my heaviest 3X5 since January of 2016.  3rd set shown in video.

Bench also went pretty well.

Switching Deadlift to once a week.  I'll be doing chins 2X a week and using Niki Sims progression.  The negative chins were much harder than I expected, although I was jumping up to the bar instead of stepping off of a bench or somesuch.

Conditioning. Week 5. Tempo Run

Tempo Run - 1.25 miles @ 15:00

Nice light pace.

Novice LP. Session 14

BW - 228

Squat - 320X3X5

Press - 122.5X3X5

Chin-Ups - BW
 - V-Grip - X3, 2, 2, 2
 - Supinated - X3, 2, 1

Pull-Downs - X10

Low back has been feeling achy, but Squats went great.  Either the Light Day is already helping, or am overcoming the issue with strength and technique.  If it's the latter, I will need to tread carefully.

Press felt MUCH better today that last week.  Again, the Light Day effect?

Still playing around with alternating grips on chins to extend the number of quality sets.

Conditioning. Week 5. Intervals

Intervals - 5X1/4 mile; 11:50 (2:22/interval)

My wife had friends in town, and was unavailable to run.  Pushed the pace back up into target range.  Felt good.  Not sure what she'll want to do next week.  Likely repeat the 4 interval day.

Novice LP. Session 13. Light Day

BW - 225

Squat - 250X3X5

Bench - 145X3X5

Deadlift - 320X5

First light day of the "advanced" novice LP.  Light Squats and Bench all felt great.

Had heavy DL today, as I'm alternating chins and DL.  I hoped they would feel a little bit better with the intensity being lower on the other lifts.  My low back is feeling a bit tweaked afterwards.  Trying not to worry about it too much, and we'll see what happens with heavy squats this week.  If the pulling 3 times in 2 weeks starts to seem too much, I'll scale back to once a week.

Novice LP. Session 12

BW - 224

Squat - 315X3X5

Press - 120X3X5

Chin-Ups - BW (15 total reps)
 - Overhand - X3, 2, 1
 - Underhand - X3, 2, 2, 1
 - Neutral Grip - X2, 1

Pull-Downs - X4, 7 (drop-set)

Squats went really well.

For the Press, I really had to buckle down.  I have no idea why this is so challenging and yet so far off of 137.5 which is my best 3X5.

I was just going to do overhand on chins today (I've been mixing the grip up randomly), but it was clear I just wasn't going to get enough reps and sets, so I did more sets with different grips.  Fun.

This is the last day of the regular Novice LP.  Starting this weekend, I will move into the "Advanced" Novice program by adding in a session at 80% intensity every 2nd day.  I will continue to alternate Chins and Deads every other day, adding 5 lbs. every Deadlift day.  That keeps the DL in line with Squat all the way down the line.

Eventually, I expect to move back into 531, but I want to ratchet down the periodization as gradually as possible.  I don't see the point of jumping from daily periodization to monthly.  So I will ratchet down from 3X/week increases, to 2X with the Advanced Novice.

If that starts to get un-doable, depending on how it is feeling, I will either reset and then run up to triples and doubles, reset and switch to 80% every other day (1.5X week increases), or switch to TM with 3X5 on volume day (5X5 just ran me into the ground last time).  Ideally, I would do all of the above in that order, and then switch to 531.

Conditioning. Week 4. Tempo Run

Tempo Run - 1 mile @ 11:38

Ended up pushing a little too hard, and matched the pace from the interval runs.  Need to pull back a little bit.