kwesadilo

I am also a big fan of the daylight alarm clock. The sunrise feature is nice, but the sunset feature is especially nice to help me get to sleep at night. I have also blacked out my bedroom windows so that the clock can operate without interference. That keeps me from waking up at 6 am now that the sun is rising earlier and also at 3 am when a raccoon walks past my neighbor's motion sensor light.

Week 4 update and wrap-up Lifting: Stayed at 300 for squats today. My form isn't any better, and I don't really have any new ideas. Benched 197.5x5x5 today. I knew it would be time to switch to smaller jumps after 200, and it will probably end up being faster to switch now. I believe this is the most I've benched for 5x5. Pressed 126x5x3 on Wednesday. Triumph of the micro-plates! I just realized that my goal was erroneously 125x5x5. I have never done overhead press for 5 sets, and my intention for my goal was 125x5x3. I finally deadlifted 345x5 today. My first attempt was with hook grip, and I only got 2 reps. Then I tried again with alternate grip and got all of them. Maybe the back-off sets of RDLs from last week helped? I didn't do any this week. Power cleaned 135x3x5 again on Wednesday. This time, I only used little plates, so I started from the hang position and didn't touch the plates to the ground between reps. It was less awkward, and my height was OK, but my arms were getting a little bit tired from catching and hanging onto that much weight. Got 3, and I only needed 2. +3 STR. Yoga: Did 2 full-length sessions, with the Sunday one again being late at night. I foam rolled but didn't do the whole routine, because I wanted to get to bed at a reasonable time. +2 DEX. Running: I actually ran twice last week. The first one was on Tuesday. I ran about 3.5 miles on the sidewalks around where I work. It was significantly hotter and more hilly than my initial benchmark run. My average pace was 15:40, including several times when I had to stop for a few minutes at traffic lights. +3 STA. SICP: I did 2.5 hours on Saturday and 3.25, so I actually came out a half hour ahead. I also finally finished a long section that had been dragging on for awhile. Hopefully I'll be progressing more quickly now. +2 WIS. Overall, this went pretty well. I wish my squats weren't so funky, though.

Week 3 update Lifting: Squatted 300x5x5 today. Some of my sets had OK form, but most of them were too far forward. For the past week or so, I have been using an especially low bar position. This seems to help the bar path a little, but it is also hard on my elbows and makes me feel like I am about to drop the bar. Today, I had the bar back in my trap "shelf," and it was more comfortable, but my form was worse. Given the bar path I'm observing, I think my knees might be coming too far forward. There are some interventions that I will try on Wednesday that will hopefully help. Benched 200x5,4,4,4,3 today, which is one less rep than last time. Maybe I should just drop to 197.5. That worked well for overhead press. Speaking of which, pressed 124x5x3 on Wednesday. The plan is working. Same deal as last week. I followed it up with 2 sets of 8 RDLs to get more volume. Power cleaned 135x3x5 on Wednesday. A fair number of the reps were awkward, and I ended up not letting the bar touch the ground between reps during some of the sets. Lacking bumper plates, maybe I should get comfortably above 135 using smaller plates, then learn to use big plates when it's an easy weight. I'm going to do 135 again this week. Yoga: Did 2 full-length sessions, although one of them was late Sunday night. Did not foam roll. Running: Ran 2 miles in the park on Tuesday. It was nice. I don't think I've run on a proper trail before. SICP: I only got an hour done this week, so now I have a 5.25-hour deficit. On both Saturday and Sunday, I got up fairly early, went for a walk to warm up for yoga, and then sat down to read when I got back. I've started another self-education project, and I'm reading Don Quixote, which is actually pretty entertaining. However, it is not one of my goals, and I spent a significant amount of time that I could have been reading SICP reading Don Quixote. I'm still going to do some of it this week, but I need to devote more time to programming.

Week 2 update Lifting: Squatted 295x5x5 again today, but almost all of my reps had good bar path. I focused on keeping my lower back tight, but I'm not sure if that was what helped. Benched 200x5,5,4,4,3 today. I thought about just going up to 197.5, but I figured I'd give 200 a shot, since I've been making 5-lb. jumps for a little bit. Previously, 195 was the most I had ever benched, so the fact that my jumps get smaller after 195 shouldn't be surprising. I'm not sure if I should drop to 197.5 next week or try to get 200 again before I drop down to 2.5-lb. jumps. Pressed 122x5x3 on Wednesday. It felt kind of lame to go down in weight, but hopefully switching to 2-lb. jumps was a good idea. Attempted to deadlift 345 again today and could only get 1. I did some grip exercises yesterday afternoon, and that might have been a bad idea. Maybe I need more pulling volume. Power cleaned 130x3x5 on Wednesday. I'll try 135 next week. Hopefully, the change to full-size plates won't mess me up to much. Yoga: Two full-length sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Foam rolled on Sunday. Running: Calculated my ventilatory threshold as 141 bpm, so I set my HRM to that and "ran" a little over a mile at a tragic 15:10 pace. I had to stop and walk every few minutes. Hopefully, I'll get faster before too long. SICP: Did problems for 2 hours on Sunday, then got distracted. That means I have a 15-minute deficit, which is much better than I'm usually doing by this point.

Week 1 update Lifting: I squatted 295x5x5 today. Some sets had OK bar path, and some were not great. I don't think any of them were really terrible. I still haven't exactly figured out what makes the bar come forward. I benched 195x5x5 today. This was pretty solid. I haven't done overhead press since my last post. I deadlifted 345x4 today. I couldn't even budge rep 5 off the ground, but at least that's progress. I haven't power cleaned since my last post. Yoga: I did full-length sessions on Saturday and Sunday, and I foam rolled. Running: Although I gave myself a pass for the first week, I actually attempted to run on Saturday. I drove to the high school track, but it turned out there was a track meet. Then I started to drive to another track in a park, but there was a traffic jam on the highway, so I just went back to my house. I did walk around for a little with the monitor on, and it seems to basically work. SICP: I'm starting off with a bang. I did 3 hours and 45 minutes on Saturday and Sunday. For some reason, I felt much more focused than usual this weekend, and on Sunday, I was actually done with everything I intended to do hours before bedtime and could read and get to bed early. I went to bed around 1:00 am on Saturday morning, which is a little earlier than I usually go to bed on a weekend, so I woke up earlier than usual around Saturday. I think the early start might have helped. I wonder what would happen if I went to bed at 11:30 pm like I try to on work nights? (... he posted at 11:40.)

This is going to be mostly the same as last time. I'm getting a late start, but on Monday, I was shopping for fitness-related stuff, so I'll allow it. Tuesday was just drinking. Don't worry about it. Goals Lifting: Last time, I had lifting goals that, while perfectly plausible, were sufficiently optimistic to be thwarted the first time my program was slightly disrupted, which happened almost immediately. I will be more conservative this time. I intend to accomplish at least 2 of the following: Squat 300x5x5 with good bar path. Long-time readers will note that I was already squatting 300 lbs. at the beginning of last challenge. I discovered a form issue, and I have deloaded a bit to correct it. I did 285x5x5 with acceptable form on Monday. Bench 200x5x5. On Monday, I did 190x5x5. Overhead press 125x5x5. I did 122.5x5,5,4 today. I just got other micro plates that will allow me to make 1-lb. jumps, and I may start using them during this challenge, but this will still be in reach if everything goes to plan. Deadlift 345x5. This was my goal for last time, and I was able to do 340x5 a few weeks ago, but I've been on 345 for 2 workouts now. The first one, I couldn't even budge it, and this Monday, I got 2 reps. Power clean 135x3x5. I haven't had a power clean goal for awhile, because my wrist has been sore, and I've been taking it easy, but my wrist seems pretty well behaved these days. I've gotten up to 135 before, but that makes the plates touch the ground at the bottom, and that throws off my whole movement. Obviously, this is going to be a problem going forward, so I need to figure out how to power clean from the ground. I did 125x3x5 today. This is worth 3 STR. Yoga: Do 2 full-length yoga session per week. This is worth 2 DEX. Running: Run at least once a week in weeks 2, 3, and 4. I just got a heart rate monitor, and I'm going to try to train at my ventilatory threshold. That's supposed to be pretty easy, if boring, so hopefully this won't interfere with my lifting. This is worth 3 STA. SICP: I almost got in a groove last time, so I want to keep up the momentum. 3 hours of reading and doing programming exercises per week. This is worth 2 WIS. I've set the point values for this challenge based on 10 points per level, because 15 felt like grade inflation for a lot of my goals, and they're totally made up.

Week 4 update Lifting: Last Wednesday, overhead pressed 120x5x3. This Monday, which I will count for the sake of consistency, I again squatted at a work weight of 300 lbs., trying to get my bar path vertical. I am told that my bar path was vertical during my warmup, until at least my set of 240x3. 270x2 felt pretty good, and then I accidentally did 270x5 instead of 300. My next 2 sets were 300x5, but my bar path was starting to look pretty janky, so I dropped back down to 275 and did 3 more sets. For those of you keeping score at home, that was 5 more reps than usual at 90% of my work weight or above, which unfortunately will become relevant later. Of my 10 reps at 300, 4 were vertical, and the rest were not to varying degrees. Of my 5 reps at 270 and 15 at 275, 11 were vertical. I can do it when I focus on keeping my chest up and letting myself sit back, but it's hard to keep my back angle from lowering when the bar is heavy. Maybe I should drop down to 270 for my work sets to try to fix this. Then I benched 185x5x5 without incident. Then I attempted to deadlift 345 and couldn't break the bar off the ground, even with alternate grip. I dropped to 340 (what I did last week), and got 2 reps. I don't know if it was my unintentional extra squat set, not sleeping or eating enough, or what. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back in the groove next week. I did not even get close to my squat or bench goals, and my overhead press goal is still at least 2 weeks out. I did at least attempt my deadlift goal, but it came to nothing. I'll give this +1 STR. Yoga: Did two 30-minute sessions on Saturday and Sunday and also foam rolled on Sunday. The yoga routines were pretty easy, and I felt a little more limber than usual on Monday, so maybe it's doing something. Nailed it. +4 DEX. Weight: On Saturday, I weighed 186 lbs. at 17.04% body fat, which seems somewhat plausible from a visual point of view. My appetite felt somewhat reduced last week. I think it's picked up this week. If my poor deadlift performance yesterday was due to not eating enough, I'd like to fix that. Gained 2 lbs. of the intended 5 and stayed within my body fat envelope. I'll give this +1 CON. SICP: Spent 2 hours on Saturday and an epic 4 hours on Sunday to close this one out. I had a slow start, but I made my goal. +3 WIS.

Week 3 update Lifting: Not too bad of a week. On Wednesday, I overhead pressed 120 lbs. for 5, 5, 4, 4, which was annoying. I normally only do 3 sets, but I was hoping that I could get another set of 5 after a breather. It didn't work. Today, I squatted 300x5x5 with somewhat more vertical bar path. I think the main trick is keeping my upper back extended, but even when I focus on that, I don't seem to be able to consistently keep the bar over my mid-foot. Also today, I benched 180x5x5 with form that felt pretty solid and deadlifted 340x5 using hook grip. I'm not sure what determines whether I can use hook grip or need to switch to alternate. I think dropping my squat intensity probably helped. I was afraid after last week that my deadlift would start to leave my hook grip behind, but it held up at least for this week. Yoga: Did 30-minute sessions Saturday and Sunday, although I didn't do any foam rolling last week. Weight: On Saturday, I weighed 185 lbs. and measured 16.47%. My overeating efforts were thwarted last week when the snack fridge at work ran out of these salami-wrapped cheese sticks that I have found to be the most convenient, calorie-dense, healthy thing I can eat between meals. Regrettably, I resorted to chips and other things best not spoken of on a couple of occasions. However, I saw today that they have restocked the pepperoni-and-cheese sticks, so I'm good to go for this week, even if gaining 4 lbs. in the next 6 days is unlikely. SICP: I spent 30 minutes last Monday, an hour last Thursday, 15 minutes on Saturday, and 30 minutes on Sunday. This made up my deficit from week 2, but now I'm another 3 hours in the hole, so I need to do 6 hours this week. Not a very productive week.

Yeah, well, the calipers are not to be trusted. Based on looking at pictures, I'd put myself somewhere around 18%, but I use the calipers anyway, because the measurement does seem to move correspondingly as I get fatter or skinnier.

Week 2 update Lifting: It's been hit-and-miss week, modulo the decrease in intensity on Mondays. Last Wednesday, I overhead pressed 117.5x5x3 for the first time. Today, I squatted 300x5x5. It wasn't too hard, but video evidence revealed that my bar path is significantly non-vertical. I need to focus on sitting back more. I benched 175x5x5. My form felt OK, but I had a little bit of elbow pain at the bottom. In my later sets, it seemed like I could fix something about my upper back bracing after rep 1, and I wouldn't have any pain for the rest of the set, but I couldn't figure out what I was doing well enough to do it for rep 1. At the end of my workout, I got a new deadlift PR of 335x5, albeit with alternate grip on my second attempt after the hook grip gave out after 3 reps on my first attempt. Yoga: Did 30-minute sessions on Saturday and Sunday and also foam-rolled. Hopefully increased mobility will improve my dubious squat form. Weight: I'm headed in the wrong direction. On Saturday, I measured 183 lbs. and an even more implausible 15.9% body fat. My appetite was somewhat diminished while I was sick, and I guess this was the result. SICP: I spent 3 hours on Saturday, so I'm still 2 hours and 15 minutes behind. Almost all of my cold symptoms were gone a week ago, but I still have an occasional cough, which is kind of annoying. I hope that lifting too much and not eating enough didn't exacerbate my condition.

Week 1 update Lifting: Last Monday was pretty awesome, but it's been a bit mediocre since then. Attempted to overhead press 117.5x5x3 on Wednesday but only got 5,5,4. Today, I squatted 330x5x5, but it took forever. I tried to bench 195 but couldn't even get one set of 5. I might have been able to do more, but there was no one there to spot me, so I did some lighter bench sets after that. Then I tried to deadlift 335 and only got 2 reps after failing to break it off the ground the first time. I'm pretty sure that doing 5x5 at weights that I was previously doing at 3x5 is not sustainable. I should drop down like 10% like I was supposed to. Unfortunately, this will basically torpedo all of my lifting goals. That's not my preferred outcome, but this seems like the most likely path to long-term progress. Yoga: I did not do any sessions last week, as allowed by my goals. I went through a weird series of cold symptoms all through last week, but I think I am now coming out the other side of it. Weight: I weighed 185 lbs this morning. I forgot to weigh myself or take a body fat measurement this weekend. SICP: I spent 45 minutes working on this on Sunday. As before, I will attempt to make up lost time in subsequent weeks.

I've been working my way back up to my previous PRs for awhile now, and around the end of the last challenge, I pretty definitively reached the end of my ability to do linear progression. Unlike the first time that happened, I'm switching to an intermediate program and not spending 6 months resetting, developing bad form, and injuring myself. Tonight was my first proper heavy workout in a heavy-light-medium program, and it went pretty well, considering that I seem to have come down with some kind of cold today. New PRs on bench (195x5) and deadlift (330x5). That hasn't happened in about a year, and obviously, I'd like to keep that going. Goals Do at least one of the following: squat 340x5, bench 200x5, overhead press 125x5, or deadlift 345x5. These are all plausible, considering my current lifts, but I'd be pretty surprised if they all just behaved. Nevertheless, if I can do at least one of these things, it will mean that I'm not totally stalled. My current 5RMs are 325 for squat, 195 for bench, 117.5 for overhead press, and 330 for deadlift. 4 STR Do a full-length yoga session at least twice a week for weeks 2, 3, and 4. This week, I may attempt to do 2 sessions, but I don't want to over commit myself in light of my busy schedule and cold. I've been slacking off on this lately, and I'm feeling stiffer than I used to. 4 DEX Gain 5 lbs while keeping my body fat percentage below 18%. When I measured on Sunday, I weighed 184 lbs. and had 16.84% body fat. I continue to regard the body fat numbers I get with my skin-fold calipers with some suspicion, but hopefully they are at least internally consistent, so I'm using them as a reference. Last challenge, I gained weight for the first time in awhile, and I think it helped my lifts, so I want to keep doing that without letting it get too out of hand. 3 CON Spend at least 3 hours a week working through Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. I didn't quite do this last challenge, but I did better than I've done in awhile. 3 WIS Broadly, the theme of this challenge is to keep doing what I've been doing and don't lose momentum.

I filled out the challenge retrospective. Don't know where that goes.

Week 4 update Form: Already done. On Friday, I noticed that if I grip the bar harder during overhead press, the pain in my left wrist goes away, so I will probably keep doing that. It also seemed to help for bench today. Unfortunately, this method does not work for power cleans that rack too low. +4 STR Weight gain: I was a little worried that I was going to dip back under my goal weight before the end of the challenge, but I weighed 181 lbs. on Sunday. Nailed it. +4 CON Taxes: I did my federal and state taxes on Tuesday and my local taxes on the weekend. This one is done. +3 WIS SICP: I did 2 hours on Saturday and another hour on Sunday, which leaves me 2.5 hours short of my goal. I'd call this 75% done, but fractional attribute points are annoying. +2 WIS

Week 3 update Form: I went to the bench clinic last week, so this goal is in the bag. I've been focusing for a few weeks on keeping the bar from hitting my chest too far down, and this reinforced that. I'm not going for a totally vertical bar path, as was advocated by the trainer in the clinic, but I've definitely benefited from a bar path that is more vertical that I have been doing for awhile. The bar stays balanced at higher weights, and my elbow pain is getting better. Weight gain: When I weighed myself on Saturday, I was 182 lbs., but by this morning, I was back down to 180. If nothing else, this proves that the scale is a fickle mistress. I feel like I ate a little bit less last week than the week before. I might want to turn the dial up just a little bit. Taxes: No progress. SICP: I did problems for 5 hours on Saturday, taking care of this week and leaving 2 hours less in the hole. Now I need to do 5.5 hours this week.

Nice job on meal prep!

Week 2 update Form: I went to the squat clinic last Wednesday. It wasn't quite as helpful as the deadlift clinic, because the trainer talked for the whole hour, and then I had to go, so he didn't get to see me squat except goblet squats with a kettle bell. He did suggest that my ankle mobility was more limited than might be desired, but I'm not sure that was a useful piece of information. Nevertheless, I have made some modifications to my squat form that seem to be useful. Firstly, I have become more intentional about keeping my hips from leading my knees. I had gotten in the habit of letting my hips bend significantly before unlocking my knees, and then my hips would also start extending before my knees on the way up, and I would be unbalanced. Over the last couple weeks, I've tried to have my and knees unlock at the same time, which seems to help with heavy sets and reduce back pain. In the last couple workouts, I have switched to unlocking my hips a fraction of a second before my knees, and that seems to completely eliminate any low-back pain. The second change I've made is to focus more on bracing my trunk, and that has definitely helped. I think keeping my hips where they are supposed to be has also made it a lot easier. Weight gain: When I weighed myself on Sunday morning, I weighed 179 lbs. I have almost reached my goal. I pretty much pulled 180 lbs. out of thin air to put myself on an upward trajectory. Now I have to decide whether I want to continue to eat at the same level, which will presumably result in significantly overshooting 180. I should probably take a body fat measurement. Taxes: No progress. SICP: Worked for an hour and a half this weekend. I spent a substantial amount of time that could have otherwise been spent on SICP fixing my computer, because the programming environment for the book has lain dormant for some time and fallen into disrepair. This work is ongoing. Nevertheless, I am now behind by 4.5 hours. I need to spend more time during the week working on this.

Week 1 update Form: I went to the deadlift clinic last Wednesday. I didn't really learn anything new, but it was good to have someone else look at my form, and I think focusing on back extension has helped me this week. Weight gain: I weighed 176 lbs. this morning. My scale doesn't do fractions, so it's hard to say whether I'm behind or ahead. I've been trying to eat more, and it feels like I have been. I get breakfast and lunch at the cafeteria at work, so it's hard to count calories, but I've been finishing a full plate of food in less time and getting hungry for more snacks in the afternoon. Taxes: I believe I have located all of the W-2s and 1099s that I need to do my taxes. This task was accompanied by much procrastination and gnashing of teeth. SICP: I didn't do anything this week. I hope to make up for it next week.

Thanks. It's been awhile. Glad to see the lights are still on.

Nice going!

Awesome! I got to see a bunch of friends from college, and I didn't have to scrape ice off my car.

I've been messing around for a long time and not posting due to holidays and other logistical challenges. I just got back from vacation, and I should have a long stretch of uninterrupted workouts ahead of me. Seems like a good time to start doing challenges again. Fitness Goals Work on my form. My lifts haven't really gone anywhere for quite some time, and I'm suspicious that I have developed form issues. As luck would have it, my gym is having clinics on the big 3 lifts over the next 3 Wednesdays, so my goal is to attend those clinics. Improving one's form isn't very quantifiable, and I don't actually know that there's anything wrong, so that's probably the best I can do in terms of a form goal. If we're still doing attribute points, this will be 4 STR. Gain weight. I think another reason my lifts have stalled might be that I've lost a little weight in the past few months. I weighed 175 lbs. on Saturday, so we'll call that my starting weight. I want to gain 5 lbs. in the next 4 weeks. I might amend this with a body composition requirement, but I don't have a recent body fat measurement right now. 4 CON. Lift Goals Do my taxes. I have all of my W-2s and friends, although I'm not 100% certain where they all are right now. I want to have my taxes filed 4 weeks from now. 3 WIS. Spend 3 hours a week reading SICP and doing exercises. I've been slacking off on this for a long time. I need to get back into the habit of learning new stuff. 3 WIS.

Week 4 status Lifting: Lifted 3 times last week. My work gym was even open the day after Thanksgiving. This goal is complete. +3 STR. Mobility: Did 2 full-length yoga sessions and a foam rolling session. This goal is complete. +3 DEX. Projects: Did SICP exercises for 3 hours, although I didn't make a ton of progress. That brings me to a total of 5 hours and an average of 1.2 hours per week, which is pretty pathetic. I barely got anything done. No points. Rust removal: Scheduled rust removal last week, technically completing this goal. However, I got into a car accident over the weekend, destroying all parts for which rust removal had been planned and rendering the quote out of date at best and in all likelihood irrelevant. This was a pretty epic failure, and I'm awarding a spot bonus of -5 WIS.

Week 3 status Lifting: Lifted 3 times last week. My elbows have been pretty consistently sore during squats for the last week. My hand position looks OK, but I'm a little concerned that the bar might be slipping down my back during the set, and my hands might be sliding under it. Mobility: Finally did 2 full-length yoga sessions and a full-length foam rolling session. Projects: Did SICP exercises for about an hour again. Hopefully I'll be able to make up for all this slacking with some serious work over Thanksgiving break. Rust removal: Went in for a quote over the weekend. Now I just have to remember to call to schedule during business hours and figure out what I'm going to do for a car in the meantime.

Week 2 status Lifting: Lifted 3 times last week, with an assist from the facilities people at work, who kicked me out early on Friday to move the furniture. Mobility: Did one short yoga session, one longer one, and one foam rolling session. Projects: Did SICP exercises for about an hour. Rust removal: I think I have found a body shop that will suit my purposes and is well recommended, but I haven't gone in for a quote yet.