Grab yo'self a barbell sista!

After all the recent frustrations, we have a plan - it may not go anywhere, or do anything, but I feel like I'm at least trying.  Shockingly, everything seems to always come down to food these days.  Now we are going with 5 "feeding opportunities" a day.....and upping the calories.  All I can say is Good Lord!! it's alot of food. Although, it was rather humorous this morning as I was walking into work, having eaten breakfast already, but still carrying 4 or 5 tupperware containers with food in them, I spotted the person next to me, carrying their one little containeer of salad.  It felt so disproportionately wrong, it was darn near laughable.  However, I'm game.  Theoretically it makes sense, so we will see what the outcome is later.  Suffice it to say, I have tabled my frustrations for now.

Yesterday was a new one:
Back Squat - 3/3/3, Bench Press 3/3/3, Pullups 3/3/3 least resistance or for weight.
I will say, I think my confidence on Squat and Bench is a bit shot, so I probably didn't go quite as heavy as I should have.  Mentally though, I needed to successfully get 3 in for all rounds.
Squats - I started at 175, no problem, although my knees were still a bit on the wonky side.
next round 195, still ok, not fabulous, but ok.  Last round 215, the good news? I didn't fail, but they weren't exactly pretty.
Bench Press - I started at 125, no problem, next round 135, apparently better looking than the 125, last round 145.  Well, I only got in two.  DRATS!  I wanted 3, but it just wasn't going to happen.  Not tonight.
Pullups - this is were things got a bit more interesting.  All pullups were deadhang.  First round I used 1 red and 1 mini - no problem (it's only 3 after all!), round 2, I went with a single red.  I got in 2 and 7/8 (this is according to Jonathan - so almost there, but not quite..) Last round I did two minis.  The three pullups were not an issue (I'm not certain which is stonger, 2 minis or one red).  Then I got a bit cocky and decided to try one mini.  Big time failure!!  It's amazing that one tiny little band can make that big of a difference.  Overall, I felt pretty good about the pullups, so despite the bench failure, the night ended on an up note.

Tonight was  "Barbell Hell"!!
Tabata intervals applied in turn to: Push jerks, Cleans, SDLHP, Floor Press, and Deadlifts.  With a one minute rest between exercises.
I was debating on where to start on this.  I think if it had been anything but Tabata I would have tried the 95lbs.  Because that whole Tabata thing was thrown in there, it put a new level of hell into the whole workout.  So I did everything at 85#, except for the Deadlift, which was a joyous 185.  Here's my night:
Deadlift -Holy moly, the 185 felt heavy to begin with - perhaps I should have done some Deadlift warmups before starting......  hmmm - ya think??  I started off the first round getting 7 or 8 ...after that though,  I slowed down - way down - at some point I determined my goal was 4 for each 20 second interval.  My final Deadlift score was 34.  A tad bit more than 4 per round.....sorta. 
Floor Press - The hard part was getting the bar up.  But round one, I cranked through, getting in 12 or 14.  After that I slowly deteriorated.   By the end, getting in 3 was a struggle.  My final score was 39.  Not quite 5 per round on average.
Clean:  These were full on squat cleans, none of that wussy power clean stuff, pull the bar up, land in a full squat and stand up.  First round I got in 3, after that it was 2 per.  Although there was one clean that I forgot the stand up part on...WHOOPS! Funny what exhaustion will do to your brain!! End score was 17.
Push Jerks: At this point, I was suckin' wind.  My body was pretty depleted, but had to keep going....I started off, round 1, pretty good- I got in 5.  It was hit or miss after that, some round I got in 5, but one round, I know I got a measly 1 in.  Final score - 31.  Not quite 4 per round on average.
SDLHP : Doing these at the end was rather miserable, I must admit.  My arms did not want to pull them up at all, I knew that - the hips did their work, but I had a bit of a block on my right arm, that just said no.  They weren't terrible, but they hit about mid chest.  Jonathan told me to go higher, so I tried and in the end got about 1/2 of them really high.  End score 35.

So - in comparison to last time:
Deadlift:  last time  35 at 140#, this time 34 at 185# - YAY! about the same, much heavier!
Floor Press: last time: 60 at 70#, this time 39 at 85# - hmm?? not really sure how that relates, I think it's ok..
Cleans: last time: 37 at 70# power cleans, this time 17 at 85# full on squat cleans.  17 is fine - full squat cleans are a billion times harder and take alot longer!
Push Jerks: last time 60 @70#, this time 31 at 85#, ok - this was kind of a dramatic difference. 15 lbs should not have cut the reps in half - the difference - I started with Push Jerks last time, so I was totally fresh, not in the delirium I was in tonight (may be BS, but I'm going with it!).
SDLHP - last tiem 51 at 70#, this time 35 at 85#   those are some big 15 pounds, all I'm gonna say.


Not terrible.  Considering that from the cleans on, I felt all the food I've been stuffing myself with, and continued on without vomiting, I'd say downright good!

Full Moon Fever

This week has been the perfect storm for going plum crazy!

Between  the full moon (and this one one wickedly nasty full moon!!) being overstressed, and over-hormonal, then add in an ever growing frustration with pullups and it's just a nasty combination.   To say I've had my evil crazy twin take over, would be an understatement.  However, I have come to the conclusion that when I get too close to the pullup, or it becomes too much of a focus, it's a bad thing for me.   I need to do the peripheral battle with them.   The last week or so, has been really frustrating.  I think the focus that the Melissa Byers blog has put on them is playing complete mental games with me. Pullups have the ability to completely screw with me.  When I focus on them too closely, I end up focusing on what I can't do, not what I can.  What I have yet to accomplish, as opposed to what I have.  The negatives shine through rather than the positives.  I end up going to a completely defeatist zone in my head which is not where I want to be.  When I left Tuesday night, for instance, I was barely able to do one decent pullup, the rest were just a bunch of "keep pulling", where I wasn't even close to getting to the bar.  I've been in this place before...over and over and over again.....for about a year now.  This is where the pullups bring you down.  Yes, last night I was in the mini bands, and not the big blues, but a band nonetheless. Yes, rationally, you can see there has been some improvement, but overstressed, overhormonal Ellen is not very rational, so frustation hits, as does self defeat.  On the other hand, if I keep them in my peripheral vision and they aren't the be all and end all... if they stop being the holy grail of CF, and the measurement that you are measured by (ok, again, rationally, not really true, but this is stressy/hormonal me)  then I feel better.  They simply become my nemesis - the thing I have to continue to work on, but not the be all and end all.  Despite the plethora of other factors affecting me this week, I know pullups have this effect on me, because I've been here before.......felt the frustration and the negativity come through, so I need to put the pullup back on the peripheral.    I'll still defeat the beast if it freakin' kills me - but the death of the beast will have to be a byproduct for the sanity of myself and those around me.

Last night was snatches.  Yesterday was a strange day.  My whole being was off.  I woke up weepy at 5am - before I had even gotten out of bed, and was in a very melancholy mood all day.   I'm chalked it up to the freaky hormones of a 40+ year old, until I saw Lisa V - who was basically in the same state.  So, it's got to be the moon - the dastardly moon!  In reality, it probably was the moon - there was not one person that I encountered yesterday, besides maybe Patty, that was their normal self.  Everyone was sad, or cranky, or quiet, or melancholy, or angry......no one was really in their right mind.   Even at the gym, normally an escape from the moodiness, a way to get rid of frustrations of the day, had a tension that was palpable.  So snatches didn't go so well.  I did 75/75/80/80 - but my form was all off. Residue from the moon/pullup negative mindset, I'm sure.

Tonight was a turn around, phew!! It's about time.  I'm not a big fan of moodiness, so when I'm around alot of it, or I know I'm moody, I don't particularly enjoy it.  Tonight was barbell hell.  Rich talked me into adding 5 lbs to my last weight (I was hesitant, just because I wasn't sure how I was feeling about things after the last couple of days).  So I did all of these at 70# except the DL's which were 140#.   We've rounded the bend.  Tonight I did better on everything except the SDLHP with an extra 5 lbs (last time 65#/135#):

Tabata intervals applied in turn to:
- Push jerks  - 60  (last time 56)
- Cleans  - 37    (last time 32)
- Floor presses - 60  (last time 55)
- SDLHP - 51  (last time 58)
- Deadlifts - 35  (last time 24)
With one minute rest between exercises.

So, at least I'm leaving on a high note.   Now, one last day of work, then I'm off to relax on the beach with a MaiTai and a cabana boy!  AH vacation!

....a little bit of creativity in these!

It's Tuesday night, and so far, two new workouts this week.

Yesterday was one of those workouts where you leave feeling totally buff.  You know the ones - think, Kettlebell hell. Your arms are all pumped up and as a female, you think it's a good thing that you suddenly have some rock solid arms,but then, wait.......perhaps it's not such a good thing.  Are big bulging biceps truly a feminine trait??  Not sure, but after these types of workouts, one thing you know for sure, you'd rather have the rock solid arms, than the usual wings flappin' in the wind!  The ultimate goal - happy, little, tight, arms when relaxed, then when workin' 'em they turn into totally ripped jock arms!  Someday...

I speak now of Renegade Rows - 10 reps for 7 sets - for weight.  This was a bit like the sweet harlot that is Renegade Rose takes advice from Lucifer himself.    It doesn't sound so bad, and in reality, I would take this one over any running workout anyday, however, it wasn't exactly pleasant.  There is no breaking up that 10 rep set.

I ended up doing 20/20/25/30/30/30.  I felt pretty good about it, and left with some major Popeye arms!

Today - Barbell Hell - a happy little modification on Kettlebell Hell.  Which means - the evil Dr. Tabata strikes again!  Tabata intervals of Push Jerk, Cleans, Sumo Deadlift High Pulls, Floor Press and Deadlift for total reps. These can be done in any order. I did:

Push Jerk 65# -  56

SDLHP 65# - 58

Floor Press 65# - 55

Cleans  65# - 32

Deadlift 135# - 24

Did you notice my tapering off at the end?? Yep, by the time I got to DL's, I was toast, and my back muscles were starting to cramp a bit, like they do with Linda.  This was a toughie, and it was uber-hard the last 3 rounds of each Tabata cycle.  Strangely enough, I think the most difficult was actually the Floor Press - I started out the first couple rounds kickin' it - with 10 or 11...then tapered off. I think the last round or two I only got in 4 or so in the 20 seconds. Peculiar!

So - if Jonathan holds to his threats - and tomorrow really is Murph/Smurf,  then it will be confirmed that either he's must be drinking beer with the devil himself!  HA! It's 

ok!  Bring it on the ass-kickers!  Hawaii is calling in a mere 5 weeks!!