Becoming a Troglodyte

[TroglodyteInTraining]

Training Day 1 - 4/1/11

Sleep the night before: Adequate. Not awesome, but about 8 hours total. Broken by coughing fits, courtesy of the schizophrenic nature of Ohio weather in early spring.

Food: At random points throughout the day - 1 bunch of red kale, sauteed with onion and garlic. An entire container of bacon-sausage gravy, containing 1 lb. each of bacon and sausage, 2 cans of coconut milk, and some arrowroot powder. 1 can of salmon mixed with an avocado, some curry powder, and lemon-orange pepper. 4 lamb loin chops, approximately 1 lb. total meat. 1 gallon of milk. 1 decent-sized garnet yam, baked as "fries" with olive oil, curry powder, and "inferno" spice. Half a pound of beef tongue slow-cooked in a crock pot with coconut milk, beef stock, curry powder, and onion (haven't decided how much of it I'm eating tonight yet). A second bunch of sauteed red kale.

(For those who haven't caught on, I might like curry powder and coconut milk.)

PWO, I had the yam, the beef tongue, and about a quart of the milk (all that was left in the jug).

Lifts!

Squat: Empty bar x 5 x 2, 75 lbs x 5, 95 lbs x 5, 115 lbs x 5, 140 lbs x 5 x 3.

Bench Press: Empty bar x 5 x 2, 75 lbs x 5, 95 lbs x 5, 115 lbs x 5, 130 lbs x 5 x 3.

Deadlift: 135 lbs x 5, 155 lbs x 5, 185 lbs x 5.

Lessons Learned: More warmup sets for the deadlift. I'm feeling the juncture between my glutes and hamstrings more acutely than I ever have before in my 34 years on this planet.

Also, people at my gym look at you funny when you use the squat rack. Sadly, that's "the" as in "singular". At least it only costs $70 a year, which I get to deduct from my rent.

[TroglodyteInTraining]

Rest day.

Slept in. Ate food: a dozen eggs, 12 strips of bacon, 1.5 lbs. of beef tongue, 2 stir-fried zucchini, 1 bunch of sauteed chard, 1/3 head of mashed cauliflower, gallon of milk.

Walked somewhere between 3 - 4 miles (5K or so) to and around grocery stores and a farmer's market.

[f4thpathway]

rest days blow

[TroglodyteInTraining]

I completely agree. Especially because Stupid Me kept thinking I should go do some sprints or pullups. Fortunately, Sick of Not Getting Results Me told Stupid Me to shut the hell up and sit the hell down.

[TroglodyteInTraining]

Sleep the night before: Decent. Especially since there was 11 hours of it.

Food: Gallon of milk, half a liter of coconut water, a can of salmon mixed with an avocado, one pound of beef tongue, two stir-fried zucchini, several handfuls of grape tomatoes, 1/3 head of mashed cauliflower, roughly half a roasted chicken.

Lifts!

Squat: Empty bar x 5 x 2, 75 x 5, 105 x 5, 135 x 5, 150 x 5 x 3

Yeah. Feel the power.

Press: Empty bar x 5 x 2, 55 x 5, 65 x 5, 75 x 5, 90 x 5 x 3

Felt good. Solid.

Something That Vaguely Resembled A Power Clean, Kinda: Empty bar x a lot, 65 x 5, 95 x 5 x 3.

Video will be on the Technique board to be deservedly mocked, ridiculed, and hopefully, assisted with.

Lessons Learned: Knurling and neck skin do not play nicely together.

[TroglodyteInTraining]

Rest day. 4/4/11.

Sleep: Awful. Woke up every two hours, on the two hours. Gave up once 6 am rolled around. This is regardless of the magnesium I took before bed.

Food: Giant spinach-celery-cucumber-radish-tomato salad, 8 eggs, can of salmon mixed with an avocado, 1/3 head of mashed cauliflower, half a roasted chicken, gallon of milk. Also a 4-way, two cheese coneys, and a bunch of caffeinated HFCS water. Translated from Cincinnatian, that's less interesting than it sounds: it's a plate of pasta covered in meat sauce, beans, and cheese, and a couple chili cheese dogs. Thus my bi-annual reminder of why I stopped eating gluten regularly has been completed. Bleh.

Messing around with some light mobility work today. Mostly shoulder stretches to ensure the impingement I used to have in my left shoulder doesn't come back for an encore appearance.

Also, due to working full-time plus classes at night, my schedule is Wednesday - Friday - Sunday out of necessity, so I'll be resting tomorrow as well. Fun times.

[TroglodyteInTraining]

Rest Day Again, 4/5/11

Weighed myself today at 212 lbs., so either my original weight of 200 lbs. was understated, I'm potentially cramming too much food down my throat for a change, or I'm rapidly turning into a bestial monster of Herculean proportions. Here's hoping for option 3!

Height remains unchanged at 6'. This will probably be a constant.

Speaking of food - giant spinach-cucumber-radish-bell pepper salad, 6 eggs, 2 cans of salmon mixed with 2 avocados, gallon of milk, and whatever I feel like cooking tonight. That turned out to just be a bunch of sauteed red kale with onion, and a couple more eggs.

Plans for the rest of the day: "Eat, drink milk, and be rested, for tomorrow we squat."

[Icarus]

Your diet and magnesium supplementation make me think you might be on a paleo type gig. If that's the case we're closer than I initially thought. I used to weigh 203 before I lost my weight. How do you prepare your beef tongue?

[TroglodyteInTraining]

You caught me - other than the GOMAD, I keep it pretty much paleo. I'm a fan of meat, what can I say?

The only thing I've done with beef tongue so far is to slow cook it in a large crock pot. Woke up in the morning, threw a couple whole tongues in, poured in 2 cans of coconut milk, topped it off with some beef stock, stirred in some chopped onion and curry powder, then dropped a couple cinnamon sticks in. Set the crock pot on low and rolled out the door. By the time I got home and peeled the skin off, those tongues shredded if you so much as brushed 'em with a fork. I was out of arrowroot powder, so I didn't try to reduce the liquid to a gravy.

For other organ meats, I'm a fan of this recipe: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/slow-...-creamed-kale/

[TroglodyteInTraining]

Sleep the night before: Decent. Not phenomenal, but decent.

Food: Two sliced cucumbers, one bunch of celery, 8 eggs scrambled in bacon grease with onions and bell pepper, 15 strips of bacon, one large oriental sweet potato, gallon of milk, 1/2 a liter of coconut water during my workout.

Lifts!

Squat: 45 x 5 x 2, 85 x 5, 115 x 5, 145 x 5, 160 x 5 x 3

Something just clicked in my head today about how these get done, and they felt awesome. I'm now very aware that I have adductors, and that they've been ignored in the past.

Bench: 45 x 5 x 2, 75 x 5, 105 x 5, 125 x 5, 135 x 5 x 3

Felt strong. Blew through these like the weight wasn't even there. In retrospect, I probably should have boosted the weight a little more after the first set of 135.

Deadlift: 135 x 5, 155 x 5, 185 x 5, 205 x 5

Had to restrain myself from punching a couple douchebags during my work set. I was set up in one of the few low-traffic open spaces off in a corner of the gym, and Douchebag #1 wanders over in the middle of my warmup sets and completely ignores my presence while setting up to do pressdowns on a nearby cable machine. Of course, he steps about three feet away from the machine with the cable before doing them, which puts his ass about two feet away from the end of my bar. Douchebag #2 then comes along as I'm on rep 3 of my work set, walking BETWEEN THE END OF MY BAR AND DOUCHEBAG #1 instead of going around. Fortunately for them, I remembered that one usually winds up with prison time for bludgeoning morons with a barbell.

Lessons Learned: People suck.