Gillman's Folly of Enthusiasm

[mkgillman]

After competing in my third powerlifting meet yesterday and being largely dissatisfied with the results, I'm starting a log to try and identify more areas I can improve in my programming, training, and diet. I am also someone who tends to figure things out when I'm trying to explain the problem to others, maybe by keeping a log I'll be able to more fully formulate my plans and identify errors more quickly.

Vitals:
34 Male
198 lbs

PRs
Squat: 425 (gym) 410 (meet)
Paused Bench: 300 (gym) 275 (meet)
Deadlift: 455 (gym) 435 (meet)

Current Goals:
I have another USAPL meet that I am going to do on the May 31st, my bare minimum goal is to get the 1200 total that alluded me yesterday and I really want to walk through the door gunning for =>1300. I am planning on ramping body weight up to ~207 over the course of the next six weeks and trying to stabilize at a lean 205. I'm figuring that this should allow me to cut down to hit weight at the next meet and not get too far under.

To complicate both the lifting goals and weight gain, I am also going to be training for a singlespeed mountain bike race in the middle of April and throwing in a moderately serious racy-type bike thing at the end of March. I was able to balance out both lifting and cycling last spring with fairly decent results, but I am certain that there is room for improvement if I have a more rigorous approach.

Training Template:
Starting tomorrow I'm going be a four day split consisting of:

Monday:
Bench 5x5
CG Bench 3x5
Tricep Pulldowns: 3x10-15


Tuesday:
Squat 5x5
Deficit Deads 3x5
Chins 4x5, then last set AMRAP

Wednesday:
Prowler work or cadence work on the bike

Thursday:
Bench 1x5
Press 3x8
LTE 3x8-10

Friday:
Squat DE x2x10
Deadlift 1x5
Barbell Rows 4x10

Saturday:
Prowler or HIIT bike work

Sunday:
Longish ride

The plan is basically taking right off the template on page 151 of PPST:3 with some slight adjustments and with more conditioning work thrown in. I found that it is very possible to have a significant chunk conditioning work thrown in with a four day lifting split as long as I'm watching my diet very closely and keeping the bike work focused more lighter load intervals and form work at the very beginning then slowly going to more the hill training or sprint drills.

At some point in the next few days I want to put down my thoughts on the meet yesterday and try to flesh out my training template for the next 14 weeks a little more.

[kel]

Good luck with your next meet!

I noticed you do not have a "true" rest day. I don't envy that schedule :O

[mkgillman]

I'm completely terrible at taking days off. I feel lazy and sluggish and get irritated very easily. Most of the time I try to take an off day my wife kicks me out of the house until I get some exercise. I am trying to be smarter about the process now, the prowler work and cadence stuff on the bike takes about 20 minutes and doesn't really impact recovery that I've noticed.

[mkgillman]

24Feb2014

I have decided that off time after the poor showing at the meet wasn't going to happen. I am (trying) to cut weight off the main lifts and be smart about it, but we will see whether or not I am being overly aggressive.

Bench - Hard pause on all reps

45x5x3, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x1, 235x5x5 - Bench felt just plain terrible on pretty much every set. Right pec was tight and generally feeling beat up. Wasn't feeling like I was getting my shoulders and arch set just the way I wanted it and felt like that was messing with my contact spot on the chest. The last reps of the 4th and 5th sets felt like they were harder than the should have been at this weight, but weren't really sticking. Whatever, got it done.

CG Bench

135x5, 205x5x3 - For as lousy as bench felt today, these were nice and smooth. No complaints.

Tricep Pulldown

100x15, 110x15 - This is the first time I've added these into my program so was playing around with the weight a bit. First half dozen reps felt way, way too light. Last five reps felt like my arms were going to explode. Think I might like this addition.

[idlehands]

Good luck with your next meet!

I noticed you do not have a "true" rest day. I don't envy that schedule :O

Try talking to him every day and feeling like a couch potato every time i get the "Prowler sucks, reps are done" text

[mkgillman]

25FEB2014

Squat
45x5x3, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2, 275x1, 315x1, 325x5x5 - Man, it is nice to be able to squat and really focus on fixing little form details. Worked on keeping my knees forward as long as possible on the eccentric portion. Under heavier loads my knees had been flying back and I was losing all my power.

1" Deficit Deadlift
135x5, 225x3, 275, 295, 315 x 5 - Working up to find a decent starting weight. No belt and DOH grip on all sets.

Chins
5,5,5,5,8

[mkgillman]

Cadence Work
Road bike on rollers. 8:00 warm up, 2:00 work set, 3:00 recovery

Briefly, in case anyone is wondering, this consists of two minutes of pedaling at as high a cadence (max RPM) in a moderate gear as possible without the hips bobbing in the saddle. The premise behind it is getting the necessary flexibility, form, and endurance to comfortably pedal at as high a cadence as possible. Since there are two ways to go faster on a bike, pedal faster or turn a bigger gear, this is to help pedal faster. Squats are for the bigger gear.

I need to get off my lazy ass and get my cadence sensor pulled off the bike that has been broken for almost two years and moved onto this bike so I can more accurately assess training instead of just screwing off in the garage.

[mkgillman]

27Feb2014

Bench
45x5x3, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x1, 255x5 - May have started off a bit on the heavy side for a new cycle, but every rep was smooth

Press
45x5x2, 95x5x2, 115x2, 125x8x3 - And I may have started these off a little on the light side, but press felt really excellent today.

L Chins
3x5 - Killing time while creepy bro guy was using curl bar

LTE Complexes
85x10x3 - Also do 8 cg bench reps and curls after every set because why the hell not?

[mkgillman]

28Feb2014



Squat

45x5x3, 135x5x2, 185x2, 225x2,255x2x10 - DE, 335x1, 375x1 - This is my first attempt at doing the DE squats and I was really trying to concentrate on rattling the plates at the top of each rep. Those sets felt fine, don't know if it is something hugely useful yet, but it was a solid work set. I want to do a heavy single every week, nothing too strenuous, but I always feel I need a little bit of work with a heavier bar. I was pleased that my knees stayed fairly locked through the rep, not sliding back right out of the hole that I had been seeing in heavier reps in the last month or so.

Deadlift

135x5, 225x3, 315x2, 385x5x2 - Another lift I tried to deload and have a solid starting point for this cycle. Really tried to focus on both setting tight on each rep and sitting back to keep the bar in contact with my legs all the way. Reps felt heavy, but looking at the video, were pretty good speed and decent form.

Rows
135x5, 155x8, 175x8, 185x8 - First time in a long time doing these. Tried to keep form very strict with each rep stopped on the floor. 185 may have been a little bit much for the first time and I'll probably start there next week.

Thoughts on the first week

I'm having fun with the new program. Most days I'm in and out in about an hour or so and feel that I can give the right amount of attention to each lift. The load feels like it is well spread throughout the weekly cycle with sufficient recovery. I am having fun with the higher volume assistance work as well. It is nice to have something at a higher volume and it gets me totally swole, bro.

Looking at the starting weights, I probably did about as well as could possibly be expected. I probably started bench a bit too high and I have a suspicion that may catch up with me pretty quickly. I need to keep a close eye on how that feels next week and may microload for a couple of weeks to slow it down, probably starting with volume day and seeing where intensity settles.

I think my squat form was solid and easily maintained through all the work this week. I really want to focus on that, especially at the beginning of this cycle as I feel that really messed up what I could have done in the run up to the last meet.

The biking will be interesting as I'm going out on a long ride tomorrow. Cadence was good on Wednesday and I actually got the sensor moved over so I can have a little better log from here on out. Sunday will likely be prowler reps.

Diet is odd. I'm losing weight and eating more. Problem is that I need to eat even more than that. On the grocery run this week I'll probably pick up a couple gallons of milk and just use that to solve the problem. I really wanted to be around 201 or so today and was below 198 this morning. Beer and steak for the weekend.

[mkgillman]

1Mar2014

Long ride on snowmobile trails today with a buddy. We wound up doing about 22 miles with five lake crossings. Felt really good to be on the bike again and held together pretty well on a 3+ hour ride. Didn't push any of the climbs very hard, but did get a couple of nice snowy/icy descents.