stepping_out

Welcome, welcome, fellow warrior!! Warrioress?

Fingers crossed for the 3rd!!!

I'm kind of thinking Titan for that reason? Although they seem to be out of the green at the moment. I do love green. The nerd-up now actually IS next week!!! Can't wait :-D

Day one was fully tracked! Even though it was challenging. We went furniture shopping (there are CHAIRS in our future!) and decided to celebrate the humongous expenditure by spending even more - on cheese. Really fantastic meal but I was only able to estimate quantities ("bit too much" is probably about accurate!). Nom nom nom. Another meal I'm quite proud off, this was last week: This is a sandwich made by frying two eggs in my little egg pan and eaten between two pikelets (a regional variety of the well loved crumpet), with a colourful salad. Super yumms. Work is stressful this week so I need to set an intention to go to the gym tonight, even though we're just faffing around for another week. I may just go to the local one, but it would probably be better to catch up with the coach - I skipped two sessions last week because I was feeling very tired and sore. Happy Monday everyone!!!

Following because the whole "not catching fire" thing seems to make this basically an anti Hunger Games challenge. Refreshing!

Hmmmmmmmmmm, is there a spreadsheet somewhere, or do I plug the new numbers into the old one? Also wondering if there is a particular reason not to have three or four (or more?) competitions per year, and to run them so that the entire year is covered? That way, people don't miss out?

Following, because OHP.

That's why I'm flying, price is roughly the same but it's 2 hrs (incl. airport stuff) vs 8!!! Although I've actually been to Scotland before, I forgot how far away it is.

It's been a crazy few weeks and I'm looking forward to things settling down again. The British champs happened and maybe I'll write that up on here at some point, but in summary, it went pretty well, happy with my result, and a great time was had with @SpecialSundae - a hot tub and fizz were involved! But I've also got a chip on my shoulder about squats, so I'm eager to get back into it again and show the bar who's boss at the next comp in November - I've got 8 weeks! Last challenge, I had a little scoring system that I ended up not using, but I do like the idea so it's coming back! My 8-week plan (this will span two challenges): 1) Fundamentals I tend to get quite tight, with some elbow pain that's new and some pain in the groin that's been around for a while. Need to make sure I keep working on mobility and such. I also want to make sure my nutrition is on point because that is very obviously linked to recovery. I've set up a plan that combines RP fitness principles with a simple portion counting approach. a - Track food using my genius system (see above). 1/4 point per meal tracked, based on 4 meals per day. 2 bonus points for a week with no missing data. --> Max 9 points per week! No demerits for deviating from the plan, the point is to track to see where I'm at. b - Stretching after every training session: -1 point for not doing this. c - Romwod: 1 point per short session (ca. 20 mins), 2 points for the long session (Thursday is ca. 40 mins). No cap on points for this, more is more. 2) Develop USP Squats are my best lift, but I've been having some problems on and off getting my gainz to show on the platform. My coach has started moving me to low bar, which is supposed to keep me from collapsing forward in my upper back. I don't know how this will affect numbers in the short term, so this will be about keeping my ego in check. a - No wussing out of low bar! -0.5 points for each rep with that little shrug that shifts the bar into the high bar position... --> potential loss leader here! That's because THIS IS SERIOUS!! [this goal has been amended] b - Training as per programme, usually this will be 3x per week unless we're tapering. 6/(num prescribed sessions) point per session for a max of 6 points per week. 3) Diversify I've been craving a bit more variety of movement lately, plus I feel like my cardio fitness is declining - not surprising, because I haven't cardio'd properly in a while. I've signed up to an intro to Nordic Walking class and I've reconnected with my swimming buddies. We've also started "cardio corner" at the gym on Saturdays, stuff like kettlebell swings and box jumps, so I'll call that conditioning. a - Cardio 1x per week (1 point per week with cardio - no extra points for more cardio) b - Conditioning 1x per week (2 points because this sucks) Dividends: For this challenge round, I'm going to get a reward if I get a minimum number of points. The reward will be a new singlet, because at the British I noticed that the Strength Shop ones did not provide very good bum coverage!!! This is the expected / desired point breakdown, for a total score of 64: 1a) 20 1b) 0 1c) 8 2a) 0 2b) 24 3a) 4 3b) 8 To give myself a little leeway, the singlet will happen at 60 points, which also happens to be the amount of GBP this will cost me!

Me!

If it really won't fit, I reckon we could wear them ;-) Not aware of any rule stating how big your belt can be!!!

Same here, but that's kind of the point!! What size is your SBD? If you're M or L, we could share mine?

I feel like this needs to be done.

Can't wait! Now I just need to test if I can schlep my lifting gear in carry on, or if I need to check baggage ;-) Other than lifting, are we planning anything where I would need nice shoes?

So this Sunday I got Skwot 150 Binch 65 Didlift 160 @BW 99.1 Back to bed!

But that would, you know, make sense?

Spreadsheets can be great. I used to work in a place where we used them, and they were actually quite essential because the work was all about tracking and updating various numbers. Sometimes, more than one number needed to go into a cell, an addition if you will. I got reprimanded for using a formula to achieve this operation. Apparently, the done thing was to punch them into a calculator and add them up that way, then enter the sum into the spreadsheet. So yeah, YMMV.

It's kind of change-up time this week because we're tapering, so I'm not cardio-ing anymore and only lifting tomorrow. In a way, that's part of reaching the main goal (comp this weekend), but really the focus now is on staying calm and collected, and not dropping anything on my toe!

Congratulations!

I'm kind of thinking that I will save this challenge for next time, as I never bothered to score things. I have been pretty close to my targets, missed only one training session overall despite much travel, lots of walking (if not in the structured format I was envisioning), even some cardio (!) about once a week, lots of stretching, and I've done lots of Huel out of necessity. But, I like the idea of actually giving points and stuff, so I'll just do it next challenge. My goals don't really change that much anyway. Although I'm going to add a development goal next challenge. I've been doing a lot of thinking about why I'm feeling so out of sorts lately, and I think I've pinned down something I want to do to at least try and get myself out of my funk. Basically, I'm going to try and nudge my career in a slightly different direction, while building on stuff I've already done, and the various bits of my work I enjoy most. Sounds good, no??? For now, my goal is to not get injured until AFTER the comp next Sunday. Lots of rest, mobility (but not too much - I don't wanna be all floppy!), easy openers on Tuesday. Also one more big week at work coming up, I look forward to that being accomplished. In other news, we finally got a microwave. It's a combination thing-o with a grill and oven, so we can use that to do small batch cooking. This is great because the oven that came with the house is terrible, and we don't want to re-do the kitchen until we know what's happening more broadly. Basically, world politics keeping us from cooking a nice dinner!!! But, sorted now, joke's on you, world!

May be worth linking up with @chickie.monkey, I think she was planning to go to Skye also. I may have missed this, have people sorted their accommodation? I have a hotel room booked but my partner most likely isn't going now, so if there's a chance to share that would be great!

I don't want to come off as too middle class, but we've decided to get a cleaner. We forego the occasional night out to afford it, but it's totally worth it. I'm a useless Hausfrau, as is my partner. They clean stuff I didn't even know needed cleaning!!! Sadly, nobody will pay me to come to their house and lift! Can I ask, the difference between, say, a clean as part of an olympic lift (usually) and a power clean is that with the power clean, you don't go into a squat? Is there a technical cut-off as to when it's considered "power"? And why is it called "power"? I suppose could just try to google this, but I don't want all my interactions to be with machines!

I'm really glad you'll be there, will be great to finally meet up it's also making me a bit calmer about things! Plus, I hear you make nice foooood ;-)

Last heavy (ish) session today. Squat 3x3@130, feeling a bit tired on those but on the plus side, I seem to be hitting depth very reliably now. One less thing to worry about! Then, bench for singles with commands. 55 (which I didn't mean to do, but was given commands anyway!), easy peasy. 60, same, so coach said to go straight to 65 - which so far, I've failed every time we've tried it so kind of wanted to do 62.5, but his logic was: you'd get 62.5 anyway, so what's the point of doing it! 65 it was, and it actually went! Not that difficult, either, so apparently, this is going to be my second attempt next week... Ohohoh! Much excite.

Wish I could give you a big fat hug, mums can be the absolute worst. You look super strong, you're so dedicated to your workouts and I bet you have a TON of muscle on you. And basically, when all the muscle is gone, you die. So f*ck the apron and all that (pardon my French, but I'm just back from Paris), you've got it where it counts.