Full body: Heavy weight

Man, did I overeat yesterday! We had our family Thanksgiving dinner at the Black Forest Inn (Conestogo) all-you-can-eat buffet. I'm not a big fan of buffets because the food tends to be overcooked or dried out under the hot lights, but the quality of this meal was top notch. For most of the evening I stuck to my Paleo-style diet. I had a slice each of turkey breast and prime rib, a little stuffing, some carrot bake (it tasted like pureed sweet potato, so it probably had butter and/or cream to make it so rich), roasted peppers and zucchini. Then I went back for another serving of everything except the beef. No apple pie on the dessert table - probably for the best! - so I had small serving of carrot cake, some grapes and strawberries. 

I always feel compelled to go back for more at a buffet, as do many people, so I went and grabbed a few slices of melon and a small oatmeal raisin cookie to finish off. So that's it, all washed down with a Diet Pepsi and some decaf coffee. Other than the carrot cake and cookie, everything was pretty much a healthy option. The problem was eating more than I needed to! Sure, it's Thanksgiving so I'm not beating myself up about overindulging for the first time in months, but I felt fit to burst when I'd finished. Still, it all tasted sooo good!

Katie Hogan

On to today's workout: I was eager to try some heavy deadlifts using the new bumper plates because I figured I could drop the weights from the upright position, rather than trying to lower it and keeping good form. I thought that would help me to conserve some energy that I could use to lift an extra round or two with more weight. Oops! Got that wrong...

Deadlift - 1 rep max:
135 (10)
165 (6)
185 (5)
205 (3)
215 (1)
225 (1)
235 (1)
245 (1)
255 (1)
265 (1)
275 (1)
280 (F)

I was doing fine up to about the 235lb set, dropping the bar after the lift (or after all the lifts in the early, multiple rounds). Then I found that the bar was slipping from my grip. There's something on the rubber bumper plates that leaves a greasy feeling on my hands - perhaps because they're new - so I started to use the wrist straps. Of course - and this is going to seem bloody obvious now - you can't drop something that's tied to your hands! I started to loosen my grip of the 235lb bar then went "Oh, shit!" and quickly tightened my fingers around it when I realised I'd probably dislocate my shoulders or wrists! From that point on I just did my regular style of deadlifts and lowered the bar slowly from the standing position. In the end I finished 5lb less than my PR. I just couldn't budge the weights at 280lb. On the plus side, I got some admiring looks for lifting the huge-looking 45lb weights, even though I've lifted narrower but heavier weight plates before!

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Drop set pull-ups (30lb db - bodyweight)
6-4, 5-4, 3-3, 3-2

It wasn't until I started typing this that I realised I should have done 5 sets, not 4. Oh, well...

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10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 for time:
Power clean and press @ 75
Dips
Time = 15:18

I used a 10lb bumper with a 5lb metal plate on each side of a 45lb bar, which I'd moved closer to the dip station. I could have used a standard 10lb plate instead of a rubber one, but I figured the latter would mean I didn't have to bend so far to grab the weight. That worked fine until the first time I threw down the bar and the thin, rubber 10lb plates buckled. I worked up a good sweat doing this routine and other gym users seemed to clear a respectful space around me because I was throwing the bar down from the top of the push press!

Sometimes when my workout doesn't go as well as planned I get frustrated or feel disappointed. However, even though I wasn't as successful as I could have been today - not hitting my deadlift 1-rep max and forgetting to do a set in the second routine - I still felt good about today's session. I had fun and felt relaxed, so perhaps I'm just in a holiday mood. Happy Thanksgiving!

Upper body

Felt a bit bleh today following 2 days with an upset stomach. Researching this online I found that it might be due to a nutrition imbalance in my diet; i.e. not the right balance of protein to healthy fats. 

I've been eating a lot of Paleo-style meals the past few weeks, but not a strict Paleo diet, which doesn't allow for dairy nor peanuts (you'll take the apples and peanut butter from my cold, dead hands!) Basically, I've cut out starch almost completely, not because of the long-term health benefits suggested by some advocates, but because most of the time when I eat bread, pasta or rice I tend to feel bloated and uncomfortable. I don't think this is an allergy, just a mild intolerance. 

I've felt much better over the past month or so and, crucially, I haven't felt weaker when I do my workouts. I actually ate a sandwich - with decent quality whole wheat bread - yesterday and it didn't cause any problems. Anyway, the protein/fat problem wasn't a deliberate attempt to cut out some fat, too. This might just have been something I wasn't paying proper attention to the past couple of days.

Update: After my lengthy hypothesis about why I have a dodgy tummy, I actually think it's just a stomach bug and nothing to do with my diet!

Anyway, onto today's training, which went better than I expected, especially as I was feeling a little drained.

Drop set pull-ups (30lb db - bodyweight)
6-5, 5-4, 4-2, 3-2, 3-2

A bit better than last time.

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Superset:
Incline bench press @ 95 x max: 6, 4, 3, 4, 4
Push-ups - max: 10, 9, 7, 8, 9

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For time 20-15-10-5
Neutral pull-ups
After each set do 5 wide-grip pull-ups
Time = 11:12

Rather than go flat out and try to get through as quickly as possible, I tried to use more controlled movements. Comparing this score to about 5 months ago, that certainly paid off, with a 3:50 4:50 improvement. However, back then I did a bit more pulling routines beforehand - today's included pushing - so that might make a difference. Also around 5 months ago I did a similar routine, reversing the wide-grips and neutral pull-ups.

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Amrap 10:
10 push-press @ 75 (initially from the ground)
10 dips
Score = 3 rounds + 10 push-press and 7 dips

The last set of push-presses was pretty mental! No idea where that energy suddenly came from.

I'm really looking forward to my first Terry Fox Run tomorrow, alongside Madi. She has another one at her school on Thursday, so I'll be returning the favour and joining her on that one.

Jogging, kayaking and self-indulgence

Cher and I went away for a few days at a friend's cottage in Kearney, ON. This was our annual "Round the World" weekend, attended by four couples, including the hosts. Each couple chooses a country and prepares a meal from it. This year we did Spain; other couples did Italy, France and Greece. It's the one weekend each year when I have to completely ignore my diet and just indulge myself. That being said, this year's meals weren't too bad - not too heavy on the fat, and only some of the desserts had too much sugar for my taste.

Our meal - Sunday brunch - consisted of tapas: red peppers stuffed with minced pork, onion and Spanish rice; boiled asparagus wrapped with salmon, Spanish omelette (eggs, of course, potatoes, onion and herbs), plus an apple and walnut salad with mayonnaise dressing (half fat olive oil mayo). A little starchy - due to the rice and potatoes - but plenty of protein, healthy fat and fibrous carbs.

I always try to balance the culinary indulgence with some exercise. As I expected, I was awake long before everyone else in the cottage, so I went for a run around town. It's pretty small - population: 800 - so I pretty much covered every street, which took me about 45 minutes. Because I've been trying to take it easy the past few days, I didn't really run as fast as usual, but there are plenty of hills, so they were challenging.

Lake Perry, Kearney, ON

When I got back, I had some oatmeal - oats, milk/water (my usual semi-skim wasn't available), raisins, ground flax, and apple sauce - then one of the other guys wanted to go kayaking. I've never done this before, which was obvious due to my complete lack of direction with the oars. I'm also scared shitless of water because I'm a weak swimmer. Even though I was wearing a life jacket, whenever the kayak wobbled slightly from a slight wave, I thought I was going to roll over (never even got close to happening - just my fear) and it was then that I realised I had no idea what to do if I ended up under water. We were kayaking for about an hour and even though I wasn't paddling quickly, I must have done some work as my pecs were pretty sore the next day. Perhaps I might start kayaking down the Nith!

I started to go for another early morning run on Sunday, but about 10 minutes in, my left knee started to hurt a bit (OMP), so I walked the rest of the route.

Overall, the weekend was a good balance of culinary treats and self-discipline.

Full body: Heavy/moderate weight

Quite frankly, I don't care who the
strongest man and woman are, but
I'm looking forward to the new
swimming component at this year's
CrossFit Games.

Deadlift 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
185, 205, 215, 225, 235 (2)

The last few times I've done heavy deadlifts, I was aiming for a 1 rep max. This time, I went back to my previous 3 rep routine to see how I'd fare. The last time I did something similar - full rom deadlifts - was back in May, when I got up to 220lb.

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Alternate sets:

Bench press - 4 x max reps @ 125
(small bench, 6 holes - 1 hole lower than usual)
8, 8, 8, 6

Weighted pull-ups - 4 x max reps @ 35
5, 5, 4, 4

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3 rft:
10 Dumbbell rows @ 80 (per arm)
10 True push-ups
10 Traveling lunges @ 60 (per leg)

Time =16:03

The lunges killed me; they cost me a lot of time because I had to take fairly long breaks, albeit only 1 or 2 per set. With the db rows, I switched arms each time I got fatigued; for example, the first set was 6 reps left arm, 6 with the right, then 4 left and 4 right.

I was already exhausted before I trained today, and the bike ride between home and the gym was probably the slowest ever. Not sure what I'll do tomorrow, so I'll have to see how I feel when I wake up. Right now my arms are toast.

Something I've noticed over the past couple of days is that I can't seem to stop eating - I'm always hungry! Recently, I've been trying to cut back on starchy, processed carbs throughout the day, perhaps just as part of one meal. I've done this in the past, but not replaced the calories from those carbs with anything else, and thus lost weight (and energy). This time I'm making sure I have enough calories to fuel me all day. I'm still eating carbs - plenty of fruit and veggies - plus a lot more lean protein. My post-workout snack on Monday and Tuesday - at 10:00am - was a big bowl of plain 0% fat yogurt with two cups of mixed berries and a teaspoon of honey. By 11:00am, I felt more than ready for lunch. Today I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich on two slices of wholewheat. Let's see if that makes a difference.

My favourite meal at the moment is at Swiss Chalet - half a chicken with a side of mixed vegetables. So far, I haven't noticed any drop in my ability to train, especially this week, the first one following the new training program.

Pushing

Personal training with Paul

Flat bench press: 5 x 3-5
105 (5), 115 (5), 125 (3), 130 (2), 130 (2)

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Barbell push-press: 5 x 3-5
75 (5), 85 (5), 95 (4), 100 (3), 100 (3)

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4 rounds for time:
10 x db bench press @ 42s
10 x dips
Time = 23:18

When Paul explained the last routine to me I thought I'd get a better score, although I had nothing to compare it to. That being said, I'm not too disappointed because I gave it everything I could and this felt tough. Also, I think I set PRs with the first two routines today.

Conditioning (plus some diet notes)

My glutes are still incredibly sore from Tuesday's leg session, so today's conditioning workouts were really just about grinding out the reps. Everything today felt like it was in slow motion, but I'm just pleased I got through it. I started with 10 minutes of leg stretches to loosen up my quads and glutes.

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For time:
30 box jumps @ 24'
30 burpees
30 dumbbell swings (two-handed grip)
30 jump squats
30 push-ups
30 sit-ups
30 bench-supported lateral hops @ 24" (per side)

Time = 15:28

The first 2 moves felt slow, but the box jumps were unbroken and I only took two short breaks during the burpees. Surprisingly, the sit-ups were the hardest because it hurt my butt so much to sit down. When I lowered down flat on my back it hurt my glutes even more. I had to struggle not to shout out my favourite swear word with every rep.

This was loosely based on one of Paul's routines, but without the rowing. Also, I added the lateral hops at the end.

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Cindy:
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats

Score = 13 in 20:03

Not my best score by any means, but as I said earlier, I just wanted to push out the reps today. The last time I did Cindy was back in January 2011 for a score of 13 plus 5 pull-ups (my PR), so not too bad by comparison. I was sharing the pull-up station with another client, but it didn't really affect my score. He was doing pull-ups while I was doing push-ups and squats.

Overall today's conditioning wasn't to the same intensity of recent weeks and the scores aren't great if you look at them out of context. However, I'm just pleased that I managed to push through the pain for these two routines. A pain in the ass is not to underestimated!

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I commented yesterday that I seem to be hungry all the time. The answer to this is blindingly obvious: Eat more! Looking back at what I've been consuming over the past couple of days, I don't think I've had enough (healthy) fat. 

My pre-training breakfasts always consists of 3/4 cup of oats, 200ml 1% milk, 1 tablespoon of Sun Maid raisins (the only brand that isn't baked in oil), and 2 tablespoons of apple sauce. That's only 1% fat from the milk, so it's no wonder I'm hungry within an hour. 

I'm not consciously reducing my fat intake; that's just how it's worked out from what I've been eating recently. Plus my conditioning workouts have been more intense over the past few weeks - perhaps not including today's - so my metabolism has probably increased, too. No need for panic, but I just need to be more aware of what I'm eating every day.