It is; it always is. But it's supposed to be all wintery and shit up in the north. Winterfell, The Last Hearth, Deepwood Motte. Not down in The Reach!
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This was one of the most memorable weekends of my life. The American Open, Icemageddon in Dallas, a normally two hour drive from Dallas to Wichita Falls taking seven hours and passing literally hundreds of cars, trucks and semis abandoned, flipped over, spun out, stuck in ditches, or crashed into each other. We spun out twice, both times at 8 MPH and there was a 1.5-2 hour stretch where we did not exceed 12 MPH.
This or similar was not an uncommon sight for the first 5 hours of the drive:
Attachment 3680
THEN the seminar. Then introducing Nick to whiskey and The Big Lebowski. Etc.
Training, however, took a hit. I missed Friday altogether, as planned, but couldn't make it up on Saturday since we didn't get in to WF till after 3pm (was planning to lift during lunch break; we got in the car in Dallas around 8am). So I squatted and pulled at lunch on Sunday, but then am missing today again because we watched the big lebowski till 2am so couldn't wake up early enough to train before heading back to the airport. I'll figure out how to get it all in for the week, and let Nick talk about his AO performance and lessons learned. I'll chime in there.
Sunday, 12/7
Squat
315x5x3
Notes: Felt good to get under 3 plates again. Felt fine, looks fast and explosive on video.
Deadlift
430x5
Notes: Despite having to pull in my higher heeled shoes, these felt pretty good. Fast and in good position for all 5 reps. The road back continues to go well. I finished the set of 5 just as Rip came back from lunch, and his comment was "What is that, a bodyweight set of 5?" Always good for a nice ego boost!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EktYWdbhJHA
Looks good Wolf.
Thanks Kong.
Literally hours. The first half hour was bad, the next four and a half hours were a hellish nightmare I hope to never repeat. The picture only shows one out of literally hundreds that we passed flipped, spun out, crashed, stuck in ditches etc...
For sure. Offline.
Very rough day of training today. I have no doubt my lack of sleep and food, the travel, the Icemageddon Death March and accompanying stress took a big toll that may not dissipate for a while. In addition to the crappy barbell at the gym. Hopefully I'll be fresh and back in tune next week.
Bench Press
345x5
Notes: This was extremely hard. I think it's due to the factors I mentioned above. Pretty sure I bridged my butt off on a couple reps, but not sure.
Press
195x5x5
Notes: Harder than expected as well. This was easy last time I did it about 2 months ago. Just didn't have the mojo today. Did gear up a little better for the final two sets and they weren't quite as bad.
Chins
8,8,8
Notes: Decided given the factors above and how weak I felt, I didn't go up but stuck with 8 reps. Not nearly as easy as they were last Thursday.
Squats and Cleans today in the freezing cold.
Squat
325x5x3
Notes: Pretty easy. Didn't feel as centered over mid-foot as I did on Sunday, but no problems.
Power Clean
95x3, 125x3, 145x3, 165x3, 185x3, 195x3
Notes: On the easier side, but the cold didn't help.
That's all folks. Planning to go back to the gym later for some rowing.
Solid day today. I still need a little more recovery from last weekend, but feel much, much better.
Press
225x5
Notes: Last one was hard, but not as hard as the first time I did this maybe 5 weeks ago. And this time it was on shitty gym bar, with the plates slipping and sliding.
Bench Press
315x5x5
Notes:
Once again with the plates slipping and sliding, but got these all solidly.
Chins
9,9,9
DB Row
110x10
Armzzzz
Tris: Standing OH EZ Curl Bar Extensions: Bar + 90 x 12, 8
Bis: Alt DB Curlz: 50x8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Hlb_wMmxo
Solid pressing Wolf. Hope the back is healing up well!
Today felt hard but looked easy upon watching the vids afterwards. I seem to have lost my feel of having a heavy weight on my back or in my hands, and what grinding through a hard rep actually feels like. I'm sure it'll return as I continue to ramp the weights back up.
Squat
335x5x3
Notes: The ground where the rack is is uneven, unless you barely step back from the hooks, so I was very distracted by being so close. Thing were easy, but the distraction led to more knee slide than I'd like. Afterwards, a random dude said "Those were really nice squats!" Thanks, random gym dude,
Deadlift
445x5
Notes: The whole floor was uneven, and all the places I could end up standing were lower than where the plates sat, so these were at a deficit no matter where I put the bar. Not a huge deficit, probably an inch, but that's not what I want when still rehabbing back from a back injury. But I wasn't going to not pull, so I just did them Felt hard, looked easy.
C2 Erg
30s / 90s x 6
Approx Paces - 1:50, 1:47, 1:45, 1:40, 1:28, 1:35
https://www.youtube.com/watch?edit=vd&v=ff2MUf5za84