Kimchi and Chocolate

Not feeling my absolute best for the past few days.  I'm on a round of antibiotics now.

Killing off all of the bacteria in my body means eating plenty of this:

Authentic (a/k/a mixed by rubber-glove-covered hand and not even remotely pasteurized) kimchi from Sook Hee's Produce.  "I put the kimchee in an extra bag for you, because it's stinky."  Yes, Sook Hee, it sure as shit is.  But it's chock full of live cultures, and I need probiotics to reestablish my gut flora while I'm killing the nasty shit off.

Yogurt, too.  Yesterday I drank my coffee black and had some full-fat Fage yogurt as my third meal of the day.  Low fat dairy is complete and total bullshit.  I don't do much dairy these days - about a tablespoon, maybe two, of heavy cream in my coffee, and the occasional piece of cheese or dollop of yogurt if I'm having chili.  But never, EVER again will I consider drinking skim milk or eating fat free cheese.

Operation: Get Strong Without Getting Fat is getting interesting.

I generally train six days a week - four weeknights, at 6:30 or 7:30, and two or three classes between Saturday and Sunday.  That means that during the week, I usually end up eating dinner around 9 or 9:15 once I'm home from the gym and have had time to throw something together.

This week, I'm shuffling my meals around so that I'm done eating for the day around 5:30 or so.  That gives me a couple hours before I work out - I don't do well working out on a full stomach.  And then, just before class, a little hit of this stuff:

 

Yes, experimenting with chocolate as actual fuel.  Instead of just "something that tastes goddamn delicious."  The idea is to break the emotional, mental, "OMG TREAT" connection, and consider chocolate, like anything else I eat, as something with [potential] benefits aside from just being tasty.

So, we'll see how this goes.  I do know I've been putting up some good numbers and have been feeling pretty lean, so if this week is a bust I can always go back to my 9pm dinners and indulgence-only chocolate.

Log (aka "HANDSTAND PUSHUPS FOR DAYS"):

Saturday May 5: first running metcon in a while.  We did some POSE running drills on the way to Washington Square park, looking like total tools the entire time.  At the park: 800m run, then 10 rounds of 10 HSPU/10 pistols, then 800m run.  I scaled the pistols to 20 walking lunges; did the first 10 HSPU's against a tree, but it took me forever so I scaled those to regular pushups.  I was pretty damn tired when it was over, but as usual wish I'd sucked it up. 25:51. I didn't track my time too closely but am fairly sure I kept my 800s under 4 minutes each, which is just fine with me since that's the longest distance I've run in a REALLY long time.

Sunday May 6: double session Sundays.  Gymnastics - strict HSPUs, 8x3 with band assistance: 1x3 average/light band; 4x3 light/light; 1x3 light/mini; 1 mini/mini (one HSPU only - failed on the second); 1x3 light/light.  Metcon: 5 rounds for perfect form of 5 ring v-outs, 5 strict L-raises, 5 handstand walkups from plank, 5 pike v-ups. Scaled to 3 rounds since I planned to stay for the regular session.  Ass whooped regardless.  Abs not so strong.  

Regular session: "Hope."  A variation on Fight Gone Bad. 

uh, woof.  Especially those thrusters.  Score: 171, as RX'ed.  

And I thought I was lousy at Fight Gone Bad.

Monday, May 7: more fun with double sessions.  Back squat, peak of 3. 95-125-145-165-180.  We haven't back squatted in a WHILE - other than the Total and a random day where we did sets of 20, I can't find anything in my log on this since December or January.  Feeling pretty confident about my goal of 200.  Metcon: AMRAP in 3 minutes of back squats (225/135), immediately followed by max unbroken kipping pullups. 21/9, as RX'ed.  And then...gymnastics...for more work on kipping handstand pushups.  I did a few sets with a full ROM and, while everyone else was doing the metcon, did 30 more to an abmat in sets of 3-5 each.

CFCC BCCC AGAIN

You know, I wasn't going to do this again.  I've learned so much from the last two BCCCs - how to eat for leanness and for maintenance; how certain foods make me feel; how eating to cut fat is NOT helpful to my strength levels; how fantastic greens are; how a tablespoon or so of grassfed heavy cream in my morning coffee is unbelievably delicious AND makes me a very, very happy person.

So when I saw that the BCCC (Swimsuit Edition) was coming up, I really didn't think I'd do it again.  Especially since I'm not really feeling the need to lean out more.  I mean, if I woke up one day with another inch off of my waist and hips, I wouldn't cry about it, but I'm happy with how I look, and I'd rather have cream in my coffee and chocolate on the weekends than drop more weight.

But...PhillyGuy is doing it this time.  And it's supposed to be all new and improved and stuff.  And when everyone started posting pictures of their meals in our facebook group...I just got too jealous.  So yesterday over brunch at Cafe Lift...

(prosciutto frittata. baked eggs with roasted peppers, prosciutto, onions and gorgonzola cheese. side of hot sauce.) ....I bit the bullet and decided I was in again.

So here's my goal for this one: meet my primary strength goals of a 300lb deadlift and 200lb back squat by June 30, WITHOUT getting fat.  I took a couple of my own measurements this morning and then met Meghan at the gym before classes today to get measured, both of which confirmed I'm just about the same if not a touch leaner: just under 29.5 inches at the smallest part of my waist (my tape) and 30.25" a little higher up (Meghan's tape); 38 and 1/8 inch hips (Meghan only - down almost 2 inches from my post-winter-BCCC measurements, but that could be just due to tape placement).

(For the sake of convenience, I'd also like to keep my weight below 150 so that my 300 pound benchmark will also be a 2x bodyweight deadlift.  But I don't actually care how much I weigh...I just want to deadlift double whatever it is.)

So...those are my goals for BCCC, round 3.  I'm REALLY, REALLY hoping to meet my strength goals.  With just about 60 days to go, it's time to train hard.

Log:

Thursday, April 26: cleans. 63x2, 83x2, 103x2, 113F (WHAT) - rested 30 seconds and power cleaned 113. Took 113 again for a single and got under it this time.  Ended with 118, which got up really easily, but again I barely got myself under it in time. Woof.  What happened to that magical week I just had where I PRed both of my oly lifts?  Fark.  Metcon: 60 yard shuttle runs - 6 total, rest 90 seconds between. Rounded to seconds, since we don't have a clock with smaller increments: 16/16/16/16/15/15.

Friday, April 27: beach muscle Friday. Bench press, peak of 2: 65-85-100-110-115-120.  Definitely a PR, since we never bench and back when I did, I always did sets of 8.  Metcon was REALLY fun - a team workout where everyone on the team had to do at least one 30" farmer's walk with the handles, plus the entire team had to get 100 strict pull ups. 15 minutes total.  Score was our average farmer's walk weight, based on everyone's heaviest carry.  I realized we cannot do math - we initially thought we killed this, but then someone realized we were counting the handles as 50lbs each, rather than 50lbs total.  Womp womp.  (This means that last week, when I thought Amber and I carried 320lbs, we actually only did 270.)  Still - I walked with 230 and then 290.  Tried and failed to get 330 off the ground.  Also contributed 10 pull ups.  I LOVE partner workouts.

Sunday April 29: double-session Sundays.  Started with gymnastics, doing some skill work for the muscle up. Ring dips (1 bodyweight; 4 or 5 with a mini band...these are still really hard for me); jumping muscleups; band-assisted muscleups - 2 or 3 with light band; 2 or 3 with two minibands, plus a couple of failures where I couldn't get up out of the dip all the way.  Metcon: 15 minute AMRAP of 5 jumping muscleups, 7 burpee tuck jumps, 12 hollow rocks.  7 rounds total.  

Regular session: turkish getups.  Having a lot of fun with these now that I'm using a barbell.  33lbs, 43lbs, 53lbs.  I shared a bar with Amber and told her my goal was to get bumpers on there because it looked cool.  We succeeded.  I had planned to skip the metcon but then got peer-pressured into doing it anyway.  Karen - 150 wallballs for time (20/14), with an 8:00 cap.  I kind of half-assed this, using a 10lb ball and completing 133 wallballs at the cap.

And then I ate steak and eggs.

Mixto - skirt steak, two eggs over easy, mixed greens.  Fabulous.  Here's to challenge number 3.

GOAL: SMOKED.

I killed my goal for the total.

By 35 pounds. (And no, that's not my bar.)

Squat 165. Deadlift 230 (!!). Press 75.

And then I went to costco and restocked on protein and veggies, since I was down to about a quarter of Friday night's rotisserie chicken and a head of romaine.

Now that I have 9 pounds of chicken thighs, 4 pounds of steak and an entire smoked salmon, plus those 24 figs hiding in the back...I'm good for a couple days.

More on the total later. I need to do something about the tumbleweeds of dog fur that have gathered in my corners before they turn on me.