Biked 65 minutes

Thur., Nov. 18, 2021

1. one-armed SW, 28kg (10+10) x5. <–up to shoulder, with some braking and accelerating at the top
2. slo-mo TGUs, 28kg, (2+2) x2, 1+1
3. chest-to-bar pullups. 8-7-6-6-5.  <–on the last few sets, I had to bend my knees to touch my chest on the last rep

1. one-armed swings, 28kg, (10+10) x5. Shoulder high, with a light braking and accelerating action at the top.
2. slo-mo TGUs, 28kg, (2+2)x2, 1+1
3. chest-to-bar pullups 8-7-6-5-5. One-minute rests.

Completed the workout in 32:10 minutes. (I should be measuring the total rest time, so that I don’t create a perverse incentive to…Read more

Two (?) kettlebell workouts this week, consisting of:

1. Swings, 40kg x20-25. 5 sets.
2. Slo-mo TGUs, 28kg (1L, 1R). 5 sets.
3. Chest-to-bar pullups, 1 min. rests. This last workout was 8-7-6-5-4.

Gradually I’m adding reps opportunistically to the swing sets, just because I can. Keeping the rest periods compressed. Ditto with…Read more

Tue., Nov. 2, 2021

1. 40kg swings, 21 x 5.
2. slo-mo TGUs, 28kg (1L, 1R) x5
3. chest to bar pullups, 7-6-6-5-5

Walked 4 miles. (No pack.)

Thur., Oct. 27, 2021

1. 40kg swings x20. 5 sets.
2. Slow-motion TGUs, 28kg. (1L, 1R) x5.
3. Chest-to-bar pullups. x7, 6, 5, 5, 4.

In the TGU, I used to have this “hitch” on the L side after the roll when sitting up. The kind of hitch where your feet come off the ground and you need body English to…Read more

1. 40kg swings, 5 sets of 20
2. Slo-mo TGUs (1L, 1R) x5. I bumped up to 28kg.
3. Pullups, 7-6-5-4-3, rests of 1 minute.

I’ve done fuck-all for cardio lately.

30-min. run

Fri., Oct. 22, 2021

1. 40kg swings, x25, 25, 22, 21, 20. Rest periods not fixed.
2. slo-mo TGUs, 24kg (1L, 1R) x5. Rest periods not fixed, but short.
3. chest-to-bar pullups x6, 5, 5, 5, 4. 60-second rest periods.

Friday: Half hour of improvised yoga flow and pistols in airport.

Saturday: 5 sets of pullups (11, 5, 5, 6, 4). These were basically AMRAP sets.

Monday: walking with leg weights

Tue., Oct. 19, 2021

swings (2 hands, Hardstyle) (10L, 10R) x5 sets: 36kg, 36kg, 40kg, 36kg, 32…Read more

Huge fucking Bataan death march of a backwoods hunting trip. In the week that followed, just walked a few miles every day or two.

Tue., Oct. 12, 2021

Tom has put me on a base-building program of swings, TGUs, and pullups, with LSD workouts. Today I started with…

1. 32kg swings (10L, 10R) x5. (I did these swings GS-style.)
2. 28kg…

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Ankle-weight walking, 55 minutes.

Walking with ankle weight, 50 minutes. Without ankle weights, 60 minutes.

Tue., Sept. 2021

KB “dirty work” with 24kg. 1-minute warmup, one 14-minute set at 25rpm. I think that’s the longest set I’ve done with more than 16kg or 17kg. Total volume of 525 poods.

Rucked 26 miles with 9200 feet of elevation gain.

Worst fucking insomnia of my life. Went for a 30-minute ruck.

Thur., Sept. 23, 2021

Quick KB workout. Minute-on, minute-off with the usual cluster (3 swings, 1 CPP) using 24kg. (Tried 28kg for one pair of sets, but it was too much to hold without over-gripping.) Unlike past such workouts, I was really doing just one…Read more

5-hour hike with 4500-ft. elevation gain. Nice and slow, inside my MAF zone the whole time, felt hugely energized the rest of the day.

Sun., Sept. 19, 2021  171.6 lbs. (!)

KB “dirty work” ladders with the usual routine (3 swings, 1 CPP) with the 20kg. 6-8-10-12-2-4-6-8-2-4 minutes, for a total 62 minutes with a 1:1…Read more

“Dirty work” with 20kg. 3 sets of 10 minutes each in 40 minutes. In the sweaty heat, callouses were a problem so I did 20 swings, 1 clean, and 6 push presses. Because of the faster tempo and short rests, my HR got up there at the end.  Total volume: 1000 poods. (Damn, no wonder I breathed so hard. That wa…Read more

Sat., Sept. 11, 2021       167.6 lbs. (PR*)

* i.e. for purposes of my time working with Tom.

KB “dirty work.” Today was a true “light day.” Tom has been working with me on the idea that, “It’s what you can sustain, not what you can take.” (More on that in his recent interview below…) Intellectually tha…Read more

• the bar being a little bent
• the plates varying some in their actual weight, throwing balance off a little
• with the thinner bar, the COG sits on your hands/shoulders in a slightly different place
• stiffer bar without the flex of an Oly bar
• no rotating sleeves

Lighter day with the KBs. My palms were still irritated and threatening to tear. So I split each minute: 15 swings (30 secs) and about 10 push presses (30 secs). 21 kg for 2 sets of 10 minutes each, with about 8 minutes of rest in between. Pretty tough.

Total volume: 650 poods

70-minute ruck.

3 hour hike, 6 miles, 2400-ft. climb

A few changes here:

1. The tide of stress has turned. This has been a year of epic drama and stress, with this past 6 weeks being another high-cortisol chapter. However, most of that is getting ironed out now, and none too soon for my liking.
2. At my GF’s suggestion, I’ve begun using Noom for logging my food. I…

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Just a 2.5 mile walk.

Tue., Aug. 31, 2021

Crap workout today, so I didn’t push it. I was scheduled for a “minute on, minute off” day, and I thought I’d use the 24kg, figuring I could keep that going for 30-40 minutes pretty comfortably. Nope. The first set with 24kg didn’t feel good, so I dropped all the way down to 20kg,…Read more

I made an 18.5kg bell and did one 46-minute set that I ended to spare a callous that felt close to ripping. I was aiming for a fairly quick workout, so to amp things up, instead of doing three swings and a clean & push press, I alternated that with three swings and a clean and a simple press. (This was a G…Read more

3pm: cassava tortilla, eggs, salmon, hummus. (4 blocks)

7pm:

For today’s “dirty work,” I’d planned to move up only to 18kg, but since I only had 1kg of fractional magnetic weights, I went all the way up to the 20kg bell. Ladders of (3 swings + 1 OALC PP) for 2 time ladders of 2-4-6-8 minutes. That made a total of 40 minutes…Read more

Day of huge emotional stress. Just did an easy 3-mile walk.

Sun., Aug. 22, 2021

Serious hill rucking, 1 hour 45 minutes. I was careful to stay pretty much in my MAF zone.

Laughably short ruck. I think I only got in 15 minutes.

Tue., Aug. 16, 2021

KB “dirty work” (concerning which see Tom’s article “Dirty Deeds”). I love this stuff. Today was 17kg (using some magnets) for (OALC PP + 3 swings) x 12 minutes, 12 minutes, and 22 minutes. Total of 46 minutes under load, and 730 poods of…Read more

Time is a blur here: I did three search & rescue exercises or callouts, had the parents-in-law over, slept in a sleep lab (no fun), and made an offer on a house. I’m not sure what I’ve even eaten, except that it was much, much less bad than it could have been.

I did fit in a morning of hiking and a 28-minute…Read more

2-3 hour ruck.

I ate an excess 3-4 blocks at night. I’ve been having a flareup of sleep trouble (restless leg syndrome), and it struck me so I ate more at 11pm to get the blood sugar bump to knock me into sleep. It works, but obviously it’s a terrible tactic. I’m visiting a sleep specialist on Thursday to find a better…Read more

No exercise, but light housework all day

2pm: steel-cut oats, ff sf Greek yogurt, protein powder, berries, pecans  (5 berries)

5pm:  same thing

7pm: salad, ground beef, wonton noodles, berries, EVOO. (6 blocks)

9pm: Still hungry AF. 2 more eggs and some beef.   (3-4 excess blocks)

I thought the oat/Greek yogurt/pecan thi…Read more

Tom has moved me to the “Dirty Work” program, where the centerpiece is extended sets of OALC PP, drawn out with extra swings in between reps as active rest. God I love this! I really like GS-derived training, like Federenko’s “KB pentathlon,” and this really hits that spot. And boy was this humbling. I was thinking maybe I’d…Read more

4pm: ff sf Greek yogurt, peach jam, peanut butter. (2 blocks)

6pm: eggs and egg white, salmon, almond tortillas, kraut, zucchini, tomato sauce (11 blocks)

8:30pm: ff sf Greek yogurt, peach jam, peanut butter. (3 blocks)

Tue., Jul. 20, 2021

2pm: chili (6 blocks)

4pm: ff sf Greek yogurt, berries, peanut butter (4…Read more

Felt like crap all day. Still not recovered from the mountain death march. Search & rescue callout all afternoon/evening.

PM: Tri-tip, bean salad, little bit of bread & humus. (About 9 blocks.)

Later: Sheriff’s office dropped off cheesburgers and fries for us in the field. I pounced on both like a puma. (No pretense of…Read more

Backpacking trip

AM: ff Greek yogurt and sunflower butter   (This was totally macro-unbalanced: a lot of protein and fat but only miniscule carbs)

noon: supermarket chicken tenders (8 blocks)

PM: 4 RX bars (8 blocks)

Sat., Jul. 17, 2021

Backpacking trip, cont’d

AM: oatmeal, whey powder, RX bar. (6 blocks)

Lunch: f…Read more

IF’ed til dinner, then had a good dinner out, pretty much macro-balanced except that I had dessert too.

Fri., Jul. 15, 2021

10am: chili  (2 blocks)

2pm: ff Greek yogurt, strawberries, pecans. (4 blocks)

5pm: almond tortillas, eggs & egg whites, cheese. (4 blocks)

6pm: trail mix (not sure how many blocks–this wasn’t…Read more

4pm: low carb tortilla, egg & egg white, salsa, cheese (2 blocks)

7pm: engagement/anniversary dinner – bread, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, pudding, ff Greek yogurt, strawberries, whey protein (not measured–this was a splurge)

Continued laziness–no exercise.

4:30pm: ff Greek yogurt, blueberries, a little peanut butter (4 blocks)

6:30pm: salmon, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, wonton strips, pine nuts (6 blocks)

8:30pm: ff Greek yogurt, blueberries, a little peanut butter (6 blocks)

Tue., Jul. 13, 2021

Crawling

3:30pm: salmon, pistachios (2…Read more

5pm: Low carb tortillas, egg whites, ff Greek yogurt. (4 blocks)

7pm: salmon, cabbage, broccoli, wonton strips, pine nuts. (6 blocks)

9pm: ff Greek yogurt, strawberries, whey protein, peanut butter (4 blocks)

No exercise. Hot and lazy.

Jul. 5: TON of ff Greek yogurt; a little bit of granola and peanut butter; lentil soup and veggies.

Jul. 6: Pistols. Rucked about 3 miles. Gyros with much…Read more

Backpacking for three days. Heavy pack, lots of miles, lots of trail mix and oatmeal, followed by two glorious fish burritos when I got back to civilization.

Wed., Jun. 30

3pm. plain fat-free Greek yogurt; strawberries; protein powder (4 blocks)

6pm. egg whites, almond tortillas, kraut      (4 blocks)

9pm. 2 eggs, egg whites, low-carb tortillas, ff Greek yogurt, strawberries (8 blocks)

Thur., Jul. 1

Exercise: pullups, AMRAP x5; pushups, AMRAP x3.

5p-10p: 4 whole eggs; fuck ton of fat-free Greek yogurt; salad with ½ tbsp olive oil, 5 blocks of pine nuts, and fairly generous balsamic; 5 blocks (7.5 oz) of ground beef

My macros got all messed up for the day, with a huge imbalance of protein (20+ protein blocks) and very little carbs or fat. That fat-free Greek yogurt…Read more