woof.

I've been sick.  It's been a long week.  My productivity at work wasn't great last week and I feel like I'm super behind.  I've eaten my weight in kimchi and some full-fat yogurt here and there, but the antibiotics are still kicking my ass (and my digestive system) a little bit.  We traveled up to visit the inlaws this weekend and my diet wasn't ideal - I ate far more dried apricots and almonds than was necessary, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things, gorging myself on dried fruit and nuts in a movie theater beats the many, MANY other things I could have gorged myself on. 

Pretty sweet theater, though.  Why doesn't Philly have one of these?

I don't have a ton to say, except that I want to curl up in bed with a bagel or maybe some nachos.  Instead I'm going to drink a buttload of water and do my best to force myself to be a workhorse today.

Training log:

Tuesday May 8: strict press, peak of three. 55-65-75-80-80.  Yep, tripled my prior (and honestly, probably current) max.  This is not my strongest lift, but my shoulders feel like they're a little stronger than they were.  Metcon, 5 rounds of AMRAP 60 seconds wallballs (20/14lbs), 60 seconds handstand pushups.  Half-assed the wallballs.  Total reps 87, as RX'ed.

Thursday May 10: clean & jerk. 63x2, 83x2, 103x2...and then I started pulling with my arms. 103x1, 108x1, 108x1...and then two sets of 5 clean pulls at 108lbs.  Woof.  15lbs under my max.  I went to a morning class and had to rush to get to work, so I wasn't sad to skip the metcon (50 bar facing burpees for time).

Friday May 11: deadlifts, peak of three. 145-185-215-235-255.  Fast and easy to 255; 255 was heavy but still fast enough out of the bottom that I was satisfied.  Fran (21-15-9 thrusters (95/65) and pull ups): 7:40 as RX'ed.  54 seconds slower than last week's time.  Like last time, broke the 15 thrusters up into 7 and 8 - but I failed THREE TIMES to squat clean the bar for my 8th rep, which ate up a bunch of time.  Post-Fran I felt awful - sick and nauseated - not sure if it was due to the workout or to the nasty shot of antibiotics I got in my arm earlier that day, but I had a coconut water and ginger Larabar afterwards and felt much better.

Monday, May 14: another morning class. back squats, peak of 3.  85-115-135-155-175 easy.  Could have gone up to 185, but I decided to skip it and planned to take two sets in today's metcon - 20 rep back squat.  Last time we did this I did 115 and 125 and remember it being fairly easy, so I planned to do 135 and 145.  Should have done the extra work set instead, because I wore a belt and FRIED my lower back on the 135.  Easy weight for my legs, though.

Home Stretch

And we have officially entered the last week of this season's CFCC BCCC.

Like last time, it's now time to crack down and eat only the cleanest crap imaginable. Lean meats and greens only, baby, other than my up-to-thrice-weekly leptin refeed. No more snacking in the afternoons (this will save me about $20-30 in buffalo jerky).

What's a leptin refeed? To borrow a great explanation from Mark Sisson:

"The purpose, as I see it, of carb refeeds is the restoration of leptin levels in the dieter. As we know, caloric restriction reduces leptin levels. With lower leptin comes increased hunger and reduced adherence to a diet. Cravings arise. Energy wanes, immunity suffers. The lack of leptin elicits the cascade of hormones that down regulate metabolism and energy expenditure. Your muscles use less energy and become more efficient – but weaker and less effective. Menstruation and fertility become issues. Dropping calories even more just makes the problem worse. You need to restore leptin, at least for a bit, to right the path. A carb refeed can help you achieve this."

The rest of Mark's post and the comments are very informative - I highly recommend you check it out.

Anyway, what this translates into for me, at the recommendation of my oh-so-wise coach, is to have something starchy on the same day as a longer metcon - over ten minutes. Usually, this is a sweet potato with cinnamon, cayenne pepper, chili powder, paprika and salt - no butter necessary, and it's goddamn delicious. Last night, I had about 3/4c of baba ganoush (eggplant, lemon juice, olive oil, tahini, paprika).

(Incidentally, I had that baba ganoush, together with chicken shwarma meat over a salad, around 9:15 after a 24-hour fast AND a 12 minute metcon that kicked my ass. Nothing has ever tasted so good.)

So, here we go. Until next Tuesday, I'm suspending my love affair with all kinds of red meat (steak! lamb! ground beef! pork [no, contrary to what the Pork Council's ad campaign would have you believe, this is NOT white meat]) and replacing it with plenty-o-smoked salmon, fish, chicken, shrimp and scallops (most of which I have in my freezer). My love affair with collard greens and kale will continue. Bacon...I'll miss you this weekend, but we'll be back together soon.

And you better believe I'm going on a bender at Sweet Freedom bakery when I'm done.

Workouts:

- Monday, January 30: greasing the groove with pull ups. 2 strict pronated grip pull ups, with mini band, every minute on the minute for ten minutes. 20 pull ups, easy. Next week, bodyweight for these. Back squat, peak of 20 (yes, 20). I did two sets - 115 was really fast & easy, so I took my second set at 125. Still pretty fast, and while it got tougher for the last 3 or 4 reps, I didn't see Jesus, so if we ever do this again I'll start higher. Doing 20 reps with 66% of my max doesn't suck.

- Tuesday, January 31: strict muscle-up skill work. Couple false grip ring pull ups with mini band and with no band - not there yet unassisted. Couple band-assisted muscle ups - these feel REALLY weird. Light + mini easy, light band less easy but still up. Metcon: 12 minute AMRAP of 3 forward rolls, 6 burpees, 12 double-unders, 15 air squats. Lesson 1: when you do a lot of squats Monday, air squats on Tuesday are kinda painful. HOLY CRAP. Lesson 2: my double-unders go to crap when I fatigue. 5 rounds + 6 burpees, as RX'ed.