Quest for Fire

[Oldster]

Awesome lifting, man!

What really caught my attention is your diet. I've not heard of some of the stuff you include! Love the vodka though...

[Erok]

Awesome lifting, man!

What really caught my attention is your diet. I've not heard of some of the stuff you include! Love the vodka though...

Hey! Validation! Thank you! I guess food is like another hobby. It started getting me into trouble, though. That's what led me to Starting Strength in the first place: I wanted to keep eating whatever I wanted, but 'burn it off'. And it worked, up to a point.

[Erok]

TL;DR: Thinking out loud because I'm nervous.

Well, it's that time of year again. I will be entering the local strongman challenge, to take place Saturday, June 2.
This is My Year of Redemption. (Cue 'Top Gun Anthem' by Steve Stevens, Harold Faltermeyer)

Goals:

1. Don't zero out any events (again).

2. Don't come in last (again).

Weak Points:

1. Conditioning. Duh. Last year's comp took place on the first hot day of the year. I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees - oops, wrong event.

2. Grip Strength/Endurance - I did well in the sled drag (2nd event), but had no grip strength for the rest of the day. Farmer's Walks (last event) were an actual joke.

3. Strength strength. I've been working on this, but there's no way I can add twelve inches in height and gain a hundred fifty pounds. No practical, way, anyhow.

Strategery:

1. Condition. Duh. I freaking suck at it, and hate it, so I have to do more of it. No way around it, just through. If there's one thing strongman teaches us, it's that we have to learn to hate our lives occasionally for 60 seconds at a time. (Cue 'Take My Breath Away' by Berlin)

2. Cut Some Damn Fat. The permabulk days are over. I've been practicing my 'diet', and am a bit more confident. If I can somehow get below 200#, I'll be in the lightweight class with the other manlets. Much better than competing against the Seven-Foot Corn-Fed Wisconsin Farm Boys. I mean, seriously. Jeezuz.
Those guys are huuuge. (Cue 'Playing With The Boys' by Kenny Loggins)

3. Stop Using Straps, or: Use Straps Judiciously. There's a balance between working the grip, building the back, leaving weight on the floor, and hurting yourself. Gonna ride that razor's edge. (Cue 'Mighty Wings' by Cheap Trick)


Programming:

I, being a self-styled Runnysauce Man, tend to overbook myself.
Suffice it to say, I've carved out four Days Of The Week for training: Wed., Thurs., Sat., Sun.

Saturday is the traditional Events Day, and I see no reason to change that. (I need to develop the habit of going to bed early Friday anyway.) This brings the question of what the heck to do on Sundays. Well, I've learned something else useful and true:

Every day is a Recovery Day, so fuck it.

Seriously, I'm always recovering from something, whether it's yesterday's curlz or last weeks' deadlifts. You are, too, unless you're one of those fabled 16 year-old Example Novices who drinks a cow dry every day. Might as well train.

So, I've got this (Cue 'Through the Fire', by Larry Greene):

Wed: Strength Day, to be filled with the lifting of Dead Weights from The Floor, and the Pressing of Things Overhead.

Thur: Strength Day II, to be mostly concerned with the Loaded Deep Knee Bend, and the Pressing of Things in All Manners, with the intention of Looking After the Growth of the Shoulder Girdle.

Sat: Events day - Log Clean & Press, Sled Drag, Stone Load, Tire Flip, Farmer's Walk.

Sun: Recovery day, which will consist of the Flushing of Blood to Parts of The Body, General Development of the Legs Arms and Trunk, and Variously Conceived Devices.


Anyway, that's what I got. If you read this far, I can't believe you don't have more important things to do with your time. Go read something by Neal Stephenson.

[BrooklynJerry]

Looking for food ideas!

[Erok]

Looking for food ideas!

I'm all about broth right now. Keeps me from succumbing to whatever virulent infection is in vogue.
Get yourself a good butcher, or find an Asian food market, and 'stock' up on the ugliest animal parts, which should also be the cheapest. Should. I'm talking:
feet
necks
wings (these are not as cheap as they should be anymore)
tails
knuckles
anything with little meat, and lots of bone, tendon, sinew; white/silver/grey stuff.
Throw it in the biggest pot you got, cover it with plenty of water, and add just a little vinegar to help dissolve the bones.
Add vegetables if you want - I keep the peels and ends from onions, potatoes, etc. in the freezer until I have a full bag.

Bring to a rolling boil, then simmer for hours. (If you're concerned, you can skim the foam off the top. Doesn't really matter.)
When you go to bed, cover it and turn it off. Come back to it the next day and repeat the boiling. This continues until the bones crumble apart and the connective tissue dissolves or turns to mush. Takes me about two days to make broth, and I use a pressure cooker. ymmv.

Strain into jars, keep them in the freezer. Or, you can keep boiling it uncovered, and make broth concentrate (Chicken Jelly), which you can add freely to any recipe.

We've dedicated one of our soup pans to broth duty. Heat it up with salt, hot sauce, garlic paste, ginger root, and serve in a mug. Good anytime.


Other than that, it's been eggs over-easy, beef & pork roasts, and frozen veggies lately. Nothing too fancy. Oh, just thought of a couple beef ideas.

[Erok]

Chuck roast - it just looks like a giant, cheap steak, doesn't it? it's tough as shit, though. Here's what I've been doing.

trim it how you want, in whatever shape you want (i go for the marbled parts, trim off the skin & most of the fat, and get a tenderloin look or a cube shape). rub it with salt. let it sit as long as you dare.

set it on a rack over a pan, and put it in the oven. heat gently at 200 degrees or less for two-ish, two and a half-ish hours. it will turn ruby red and dry on the outside. it shouldn't shrink, or lose much juice if at all. pretend like you're making yogurt, or incubating fertilized eggs.

get your steak pan hot, add some grease, and quickly sear the chuck on all sides (if you go cube shape, you get 6 sides!). slice across the grain. I've had good luck with this so far.

[BrooklynJerry]

Thanks for the tips,.I will for sure try the Chuck Steak. Unti two weeks ago I had never heard of bone broth,then at my.daughters house I saw her bring a can of bone bone broth in with her shoping.My mother used to use large knuckle and shin bones to make her beef soup.I remember they.would eat the marrow from inside the bones,I never did.Looked yucky to me as a kid.

[Erok]

I remember my little sister and I would fight over the bone whenever we had some kind of meat for dinner. (A funny sentence, in or out of context.) Always loved marrow, and now the hipsters have discovered it. Look up "bone luging".

[Erok]

Wed., 2/14. 217.8#.

DL: 135x8, 225x4, 315x2, 405x1, 435x1 PR. once it got above the knees, I started doing that wobbly shaking thing, and felt my lumbar start to round. Once I got it locked out, I held it for as long as I could, FOR GLORY. #hookgripmasterrace

OHP: all the racks were full, so I stayed on the platform and cleaned, er, I mean, standing-reverse-curled these: 95x8, 135x5, 155x1, 175x1,
then back down to 135x3 to try an actual power clean,
then 195x -, -, oh, who am I fooling? I can't power clean.
Then, a rack opens up, so I quickly strip the bumpers off, carry them over, slap them on and: 195x -. well, got it up to the nose.


Wife had an office party, so I got the leftovers: meatballs (made by descendants of actual Swedish grandmothers, so they're the good kind with grape jelly), queso with jalapeno potato chips, and lots of eggs over easy to fill in the cracks.



Thurs., 2/15. 218.2#.

SQ: 45x..., 135x8, 225x5, 315x1, 365x1, 415x-. Dang. Haven't failed a squat in a long time. I say that every time I fail a squat, but that's because it's true. Really, though, this squat was failed before I even got under the bar. Was not able to clear my mind, no one was yelling at me, did not have enough caffeine, did not have my lucky shorts on, and the wind was blowing the wrong direction.

Bench: 45x..., 135x8, 175x4, 205x1, 225x1, 245x1 PR. I dunno. Whatever. It's Bench Press. Who cares? Maybe I should treat the rest of my lifts like a redheaded stepchild.


Mushroom Cheeseburger soup (with eggs on top). Gawd, yes.

[BrooklynJerry]

I just learned something new,thanks. If
I happen to be in one of the bars in Williamsburg or Red Hook I won't be dumbfounded if is see this .