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!

Enough on the thighs already!!

As if 150 jumping squats Thursday weren't bad enough, yesterday was "Tabata Something else".

I don't really  get muscle soreness very often - so when I do, I am usually pretty darn sore.  I can always rely on the jumping squats workout to leave me a bit hobbled for the next couple days.  However, I have learned that taking the next day off just makes it worse.  By Friday afternoon, the soreness had set in, but it was not nearly to the extreme that it was last time we did this one. (last time it felt as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to my quads, this time, it was mere crowbar).  So, I was pretty optimistic that Tabata Something else would work 'em though.

Tabata Something Else: Pullup, Pushup, Situp, Squat - done in Tabata intervals.

Tabata intervals are another one of those innocent sounding things.  20 seconds work, 10 second rest - for 8 rounds - then onto the next exercise - no rest in between.  Really, doesn't sound horrible, it's only 20 seconds after all.  Don't be fooled. Rounds 1-4 are all fine and dandy - but when you get to the last couple rounds, those 20 seconds are forever.

I started with Squats - after the first painful 5 or so, my thighs went numb until the end.  I ended up getting in 102 squats. Which, ain't too bad considering!

Pullups - jumping/minis on the low bar.  I'm slower at these because I do really try to get as much hold/pull time as I can.  I got in 40.

Pushups - First set I cranked out 10.  Then came the voice.....That's right - the big bad voice that you must obey when at the gym - Jonathan.  I, as proud as I am of my pushup, have apparently spent my time cheating.  I needed to do full range of motion - in other words, basically kiss the floor.  That 2 inches makes a HUGE difference!  I ended up only getting anywhere from 3-5 in per round after that.  Final pushup score was 39 - this is odd - I've never done less pushups than pullups!!

Situps - I ended up doing 84 I  believe.  

Final score: 265.

Ironically, the 3 times I've done this one, my score has remained basically the same. 263 the first time and 265 the next two times. Modifications - very different.

This morning, as I got out of bed and tried valiantly to walk to the kitchen for my morning cup o' coffee, I realized if we were doing anything squat related I was gonna be in deep doo-doo.   250 squats in 2 days, 150 of them jumping - had my thighs screaming at me in a big bad rage.

I look - hmmmm...Turkish Getups for weight - ok - not so bad.  Read on - 3 sets of 30 of them.  Ok - not so good.  That's 90 TGU's.   90 -Nine - zero.  Darn tootin' close to 100.  Ok - no worries....it's not squats, although that "lunge" part where it's all legs getting up - may hurt a bit......

Oh, and I forgot to mention the kicker - like doing the bear, you are not allowed to set the weight down to rest.  We started these with a low weight, because we were about to do a plethora of them.  I used the 8kg kettlebell for sets 1 and 2.  It wasn't too bad - although holding your arms up that long, you do feel the burn.   Set one I did 10 each arm then the last 5.

Set 2, I broke it into 3 sets of 5 per arm.

Last set, I decided to try the 12kg - knowing I was getting tired of holding that darn-tootin' KB up for so long, I broke these into sets of 3.

I don't think I did too bad.  Probably could have gone a bit heavier - or done the 12kg for more sets, but first time doing this, I just didn't know.  Next time, I want at least one set with the 16kg.  As I suspected, the up part of the TGU did start inflicting it's torture on my thighs.  Now - I'm hoping that with tomorrow off, and plenty of rest, I'll be able to walk like a normal person again, and not do the gimpy, hobble dance that I've been doing!