A marathon swimmer lifts so he can swim long

[IronMike]

Great swim on Tuesday and today. Great lifting session yesterday.

Squat: Went light today: 3x5 @ 200#. Perfect form.
OHP: 1x3 @ 85#, 1x3 @ 90#, 1x1 @ 95# and 1xMax @100#. Managed 3 @ 100# and no more.
Bradford press: 3x6 @ 45#
LPD: 4x8 @ 135#
Seated db clean & jerk: 3x8 with 20# db. Need 22.5 db!

Did some pacing sets in the pool on Tuesday that went well, 3000 total. Today though, holy crap. Aiming at doing 20 x 100 USRPT aiming for 1:37 on 2:00 interval. First failure early on set #8. My arms were freaking dead. Failed again at #11 and decided to just move on to a cool down, 2000 total. Arms still dead here 3.5 hours after getting out of the pool. Yikes.

Yards this week: 5000
Current bests:
Squat: 225 (3RM)
OHP: 105 (1RM)
DL: 325 (1RM)
Best thing heard today: Myriad Harbour by the New Pornographers.

[IronMike]

Spent Friday through Monday in NJ helping my dad prep to move. Did get a workout in on Saturday at the Gloucester County YMCA.

OHP: 12x1 @ 80#
Squat: Did 3 reps @ 225# w/o a belt and my form was crap. As this was DL heavy day, decided to drop down to 185# and did 2x5 with good form.
DL: 4x5 @ 235#. Very tiring.

Back home early afternoon Monday (God, I hate driving alone) and on Tuesday got a workout in. This starts DL week 10 and OHP week 8.

OHP: 4x3 @ 85# and 3x1 @ 90#
Squat: 3x3 @ 225#
Seated row: 3x8 @ 140#

Traveling again so unsure about how much I'll get to do till back home Saturday afternoon. Will try to get a swim or two in in the hotel pool. For that, I strap my ankles in velcro attached to surgical straps and swim in place for an hour or more. Boring, but gets my pool time in.

Yards this week: 0
Current bests:
Squat: 225 (3RM)
OHP: 105 (1RM)
DL: 325 (1RM)
Best thing heard today: Geraldine by Glasvegas.

[IronMike]

Restarted OHP week 8 and DL week 10 this week as I had a trip last week with no gym access. All the same except seated row went up 5#. Squat also different.

OHP: 4x3 @ 85# and 3x1 @ 90#
Squat: 1x3 @ 225# then 2x5 @ 205#
Seated row: 3x8 @ 145#

Yards this week: 0
Current bests:
Squat: 225 (3RM)
OHP: 105 (1RM)
DL: 325 (1RM)
Best thing heard today: Jolene by Dolly Parton.

[IronMike]

Great swim on Tuesday. Been a while so just did a couple thousands, get the kinks out.

Then yesterday went to the gym to lift. I was excited because it was the day to test a new 1RM for OHP. But I started with Squat. And there the trouble began. After Monday's fail, I decided to go backwards in the NLP, and do 3x5 @ 210#. First two sets went fine, felt strong. First rep, third set when I was down, felt what I thought was a weird cramp on the top of my left thigh, inside near the knee. Went down for rep two and it definitely felt like I popped something. I racked the weights and stopped there. Felt sensitive the rest of the workout, so took ibuprofin right after and last night before bed. Felt it mostly when I was going up stairs and if I did body-weight squats. But this morning it feels pretty good. Not sure what I'm gonna do in re: squats tomorrow.

Best news was my new 1RM in OHP: 115#. w00t!

Squat: 2x5 @ 210#, 1x2 @ 210#
OHP: w/u then 1x85#, 1x105#, 1x115#. Attempt at 120# failed to get much past my nose. Should have tried 117# or 118#.
Bradford press: 3x6 @ 50#
LPD: 4x8 @ 140#
Seated db clean & jerk: 3x8 with 25# db.

So maybe tomorrow take it easy on legs? I'm sked to do DL tomorrow with a main set of 4x3 @ 250#. When I went through the motions of DL last night, I felt that pull in my squat. Anyone have ideas for tomorrow? Do light leg press? Do body weight squats? I don't want to lose my DL fitness. What do you think?

Yards this week: 2000
Current bests:
Squat: 225 (3RM)
OHP: 115 (1RM)
DL: 325 (1RM)
Best thing heard while writing this: The Slow Descent into Alcoholism by The New Pornographers.

[IronMike]

Friday's workout:

OHP: 3x3 @70#
Squat: 3x5 @115#
DL: 3x4 @250#

After Wednesday's scare, I didn't want to put too much weight on my quads. It felt fine on Thursday, even after my wife dragged me on a 4-mile hike. But I didn't want to tempt fate. Not sure what I'll do Monday. Maybe continue the slow return with 3x5 with 125 or 135?

The DL felt great. Heavy but easily lifted. Next week is 4x1 at 265#. I still have 6 weeks on this program but only 4 more on the OHP program. I want to sync them up at some point. Still aiming to DL 405 in September at the Y meet.

Swimming-wise, didn't do much more. Wasn't really in the mood. Today however I did go to the beach. The sun peaked out this morning so thought I'd try it out. Need to acclimatize to the cold water in prep for Boston Light this August. Last year the water was 57F at the start of the race. Today the water was 46F. I managed to stand thigh-high (with some waves reaching above the cockles) for 15 min which is a record for me, previous being around Halloween when I did 10 min in 51F. After 15, I dunked myself and then got out. Feet were frozen for a few minutes, wasn't even sure I could drive home, but they thawed quicker than I thought, thank God.

Yards this week: 2000
Current bests:
Squat: 225 (3RM)
OHP: 115 (1RM)
DL: 325 (1RM)
Best thing heard while writing this: Inside Out by Spoon

[IronMike]

Good workout.

OHP: 3x3 @92# and 4x1 @98#.
Squat: 3x5 @185#
Seated row: 3x8 @150#

Squat felt great! Didn't feel anything in my quad. Gonna do NLP from 185# back up to where I was before by 5# till that can't be done then 2.5#.

Yards this week: 0
Current bests:
Squat: 225 (3RM)
OHP: 115 (1RM)
DL: 325 (1RM)
Best thing heard while writing this: Hard Times by Run-D.M.C.

[IronMike]

Welcome to May.

Squat: 3x5 @190#
OHP: 1x5 @80#, 1x5 @92.5, 1xMax (aim for 5) @97.5#.
Cuban press: 3x4 with 9# dumbbells
LPD: 5x6 @145#
Dumbbell front raise: 3x8 with 10# db

Yards this week: 0
Current bests:
Squat: 225 (3RM)
OHP: 115 (1RM)
DL: 325 (1RM)
Best thing heard while working out today: Golden Brown by The Stranglers.

[IronMike]

OHP: 8x3 @75#
Squat: 3x5 @195#
DL: 4x1 @265#

Yards this week: 0
Current bests:
Squat: 225 (3RM)
OHP: 115 (1RM)
DL: 325 (1RM)
Best thing heard while working out today: Bohemian Rhapsody by...well, if you don't know, who the hell are you?

[IronMike]

Great day, although I'm a dork.

OHP: Was scheduled for 2x3 @92# followed by 5x1 @98#. Did what I thought was 92#, then started the 98#. Looking at the weights, I'd realized that what I thought was 85# on the bar was actually 95#. So I had done 2x3 @102# and one rep of 108#. Fixed that right quick (damn it was so heavy) and finished with 4x1 @98#.
Squat: 3x5 @200#.
Seated row: 3x8 @150#

Yards this week: 0
Current bests:
Squat: 225 (3RM)
OHP: 115 (1RM)
DL: 325 (1RM)
Best thing watched while writing this: GoT episode 4

[IronMike]

Great workout yesterday and did a couple of swims this week, so far.

Squat: 3x5 @205# Hurt.
OHP: 1x3 @86.25#, 1x3 @98#, 1x max(3) @103.5.
Cuban press: 3x4 with 10# dumbbells
LPB: 5x6 @145#
Dumbbell front raise: 4x8 with 10#

Swam on Tuesday. A nice 3100 yard workout. Thursday after work went to the beach. Very windy and cool, 51F air temp. I'd gone there about 10 or so days ago and the water was 46F, so upper thigh and 15 minutes was as far as I got. This time, the water was hovering between 59-60F and was very wavy. It was warmer to just get all the way in so I bobbed around for a bit, treading water to stay warm. Then for about 5-10 minutes some birds, I think shearwaters, did acrobatics right above the waves and right near me. It was awesome. Dunked myself before getting out; figured I'd been in at least 15 minutes. And rode the waves in. Checked out my phone and sure enough I was out there 25 minutes! Good step toward acclimating myself to the cold water. Then hilarity as I tried to get my swim robe towel-thingy on while the wind was whipping it everywhere. Then trying to get dressed under it while every piece of clothing I picked up tried to fly away. Before long I succeeded and went to the car where my lovely wife was waiting for me, out of the cold!

Went to swim this morning. 1500 yards in they kicked all of us out because, wait for it...there was no chlorine. WTF? Apparently a couple days ago the readings were too high so they put neutralizer in. Too much though as we were just swimming in human sweat soup. Gross. Going to go puke now and then take a shot of vodka to clean out my system.

Yards this week: 4600
Current bests:
Squat: 225 (3RM)
OHP: 115 (1RM)
DL: 325 (1RM)
Best thing heard while writing this: Alexa reacting to the radio station I'm listening to advertising that listeners can use Alexa to listen to their station!