Geezer's Long March Toward the Elite Sneaking Up On the Finish Line

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 228.

Rounds today of speed bag, hand ball, side bend, arms only SciFit, side ball toss, heavy bag, and stretching.

Average HR was 126 bpm @ 82% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Things are proceeding apace with the Special Olympics. I attended a monthly planning meeting last night and am now cycling up the Olympian I am training in powerlifting for the qualification meet at the end of this month for the Illinois Games in June. Both to be held in Bloomington, IL.

I also am beginning to get the Mark Limited (see below) on my forehead as the strength training coach for Team Lightning. Now, I'll also be training and coaching the shot putters.

I was informed that the training session changed from Thursday nights to Tuesday at the Marion Gold's Gym. A mom is bringing her Olympian up from Vienna, and the Carbondale Gold's is too far for her. It interferes with a previous social engagement with my buddies that night, but I am confident they will understand.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 236.

1st Cycle, Week 4. Deload/Recovery. 5 reps 40%, 5 reps 50%, 5 reps 60%.

Incline Press: 75-95-115.

Hammer High Row: 150-185-220.

Deaadlift: 130-165-195. I had to find two identically colored collars for this. A grey and a black one on either end would have resulted in disastrous bar shui. The disturbance in The Force would have caused the Earth to fall into the Sun.

Average HR was 112 bpm @ 73% of MHR. I also ticked over entirely into the Excellent category on my Fitbit.
.
On the Special Olympics front, I got a call from John's father about a last minute change in competing. It seems if John can safely deadlift and squat half his previous totals he can still take a gold, so his father and I will be working with him to see if he can get his numbers in the two lifts to 150 lbs. or so. His father tells me John is nervous because of his hernias, so some careful assessment is on the program for this morning at the Marion Gold's. If he seems physically good to go, I'll be trying to incrementally get John past his nerves.

More on this later.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Great session. I had this whole incremental loading plan ready in case John needed to get started light. But I asked him how he felt and he said "I'm good!" So he wanted to open the deadlift with 135. Which he crushed. He went on to up the ante to 145 and then 155 with ease. This was an opening confidence building session and he can do way more he thinks. So do I. He lifts Sumo style, which I am not crazy about, but no sense in trying to effect a big change as yet. If at all. I did get him to adopt a neutral neck position by having him look down at a 45 degree angle instead of up. He said he liked it and it felt stronger. Progress is accomplished a little at a time. Next step is to get him to adopt a narrower hand spacing to ease the pressure on his power back.

The squat session went just as well. We declared victory for the day with a top single of 155 again. His dad says this total along with his bench press will get him a gold. His form in this lift is generally good as well. He uses a low bar position, his depth to just below parallel is good, and he leads out of the hole with his hips for textbook use of hip drive. He looked up, and as with the DL, I coached him into a neutral neck position by adjusting his eyeline gaze downward to about a foot off the floor at the bottom of the mirrored wall facing the squat rack. Maybe not much else to work on with this lift.

Benching not so well. He couldn't make a single with 155 and I think it was because of a poorly timed support tricep exercise which took some of the juice out of his lockout. Lesson learned.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 226.0.

Rounds today of speed bag, pullups, arms only SciFit and rowing, dips, heavy bag, hanging leg raises, stretching. Funny how dips and pullups got so much easier minus 40 lbs. of fat.

Average HR of 132 bpm @ 86% of MHR. In related news, my VO2 max shifted right still further to the 39-43 range and my resting HR has dropped to 54 bpm. A huge drop from June last year when it was in the low 70's.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 225.4 (new digital scale has .2 lb. increments).

2nd Cycle, Week 1. 5 reps @ 65%, 5 reps @ 75%, as many reps as possible @ 85%.

Bench Press: 140-160-183/6. I broke out my fractional plates for the top AMRAP set.

Hammer Row: 270-310-355/6.

Hammer Leg Press: 460-530-600/8.

Stretched.

Average HR was 110 bpm @ 72% of MHR. The weight loss is starting to take some steam out of my upper body strength. Those 6 reps were tough. Good thing I am closing in on 220.

I took the long way home via Airport Road and spotted several dozen wild turkeys strutting around brazenly since their hunting season is a month off as of yet.

[57bergstrm]

Looks good, also quite heavy leg press 600x8

[Mark E. Hurling]

Thanks Bergs.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I trained John again tonight. He was hesitant to try 160 in the squat. He was nervous about his hernia, but he blew past 145 like nothing and agreed to give it a shot. He blew through that too, but you count small victories a little at a time. He's regaining his confidence and his father told he had squatted over 300 so he needs to get back.

He made 155 in the bench with ease as well. No doubt because he hadn't already done some tricep assistance beforehand.

Likewise, the deadlift was easy too. He hit 160 in that with plenty of room for growth. I got him to move his hands in closer together and he agreed it made the lift easier.

I got the Team Lightning Bolt ball cap. Very cool.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 226.

This morning's outing consisted of speed bag, medicine ball slams, elliptical, rower, cable crunch, and stretching.

Average HR was 124 bpm @ 81% of MHR.