Erick the Red comes in from the cold.

[Erick the Red]

Week 3, Day 6:

Saturday.

1. 3/3.  Spend a lot of the day reading Cryptonomicon again, but also spent a lit of time outside working on the yard.  Stopped because the blisters were coming back, and I need my hands healthy to lift weights.

2. 6/7.  Family had sodas with dinner (we have been separated all week, so it was a little party), I had water.  But we made homemade pizzas and I ate far more than was probably healthy.  I also did not eat the ice cream sandwiches.

3. 6/7.  Evening session of ten minutes is better than nothing.

[Erick the Red]

Week 3, Day 7:

Sunday.

1. 3/3. "No rest is worth anything except the rest that is earned."

2. 7/7. Eggs, hash browns, bacon for breakfast.  Leftover homemade pizza for lunch. Steak and fresh vegetables for dinner.  I should track calories better, but it is such a hassle.

3. 7/7. Afternoon made time.

[Erick the Red]

Week 4, Day 1:

Monday.  Half way through six weeks.

1. 0/3. Worked hard in the yard after work, edging the sidewalk and sweeping up debris.  I hope the blister heals before I have to deadlift.

2. 1/7. Cup of milk for breakfast; celery, carrots, and cheddar cheese for lunch, homemade chili for dinner.  Blew my buffer already with ice cream.  I need ot hold off until later in the week!

3. 1/7. Morning and afternoon.

[Erick the Red]

Week 4, Day 2:

Tuesday.

1. 1/3.  After warm-ups, working weights: squat 195x3x5 (half rep on last rep of last set because I felt like I would have failed a full-depth rep); overhead barbell press: 85x3x5; deadlift 215x1x5.  Talked to a nice young man who was just starting Stronglifts.  I was able to show him my book of progress since early April, going from an empty bar to the numbers I was lifting today.

2. 2/7. Nothing special today, craved a treat occasionally but I already burned that bridge this week.

3. 2/7. Morning and afternoon after work.

[Erick the Red]

Week 4, Day 3:

Wednesday.

1. 1/3. Will aim for Tu, Thu, Sat this week.  I need to run a little bit too - I just signed up for a charity 5K in a few weeks.

2. 3/7. On more than one occasion, if not for this Challenge I would have bought crappy food today.  So good job Nerdfitness.

3. 3/7. Morning and afternoon, on schedule.

[Schmopey]

Looks like you're getting the consistency down, way to go!

[Erick the Red]

Week 4, Day 4:

1. 2/3.  Bowled two games in the afternoon as a part of an office "team building" activity -- I passed on the birthday cake however.  This managed to put my right glute into a bad place somehow.  Against my will, I went to the gym in the evening anyway hand had a pretty good time -- my leg didn't get in the way in any case.  After warmups, my working weights were: squat 195x3x5 (first time I repeated a weight with the squat, but this time the last reps in the sets were max efforts but done with proper form, instead of shorted because of fear of failure); bench press 135x3x5 (squeeze the bar, make it "frown"); barbell row 135x3x5 (explosive pulls off the floor each time).  I usually run for five minutes to warm up, but I ran another mile at 8:30 min pace at the end.  Hard mile, felt like the end of a long run.

2. 4/7. Another day of barely-overcome temptation.

3. 4/7. Twenty minutes in the morning, but I listened to music after work becasue it was that kind of day.

[Erick the Red]

Week 4, Day 5:

1. 2/3. Rest day.

2. 5/7. Muddling through.

3. 5/7. Morning session, but nothing later in the day.

[Erick the Red]

Week 4, Day 6.

Saturday.

1. 3/3. Ran for twenty minutes in the morning, still got hot.  Surprising amount of soreness in the quads, none in the calves (usually the reverse).  Decided to rest the rest of the day instead of going to the gym.  Got out the hedge trimmer and worked on cutting back bushes, and then raked and gathered up the detritus with a little help from the kids and a couple neighbor friends.

2. 6/7. Had to take the kids out for ice cream to pay for the yard work.  Did not eat the frozen yougurt and toppings.

3. 6/7. Studied scripture in the evening before bed -- not ideal but still something.

[Erick the Red]

Week 4, Day 7:

Sunday.

1. 3/3. Rest day.  Sat and read "Cryptonomicon" for a long time, then after I finished that, studied "Starting Strength" some more.  Trying to understand the auxilliary exercises enough to properly insert in to the program (I have so far only been doing 5 major exercises in A and B days).

2. 7/7.  Food has been harder this week than in any previous week.  I found myself wandering in the kitchen, looking for I know not what.  Ate a banana as I had been craving fruit.

3. 7/7. Studied in the evening again.

[Erick the Red]

Week 5, Day 1:

Monday.

1. 0/3.  Should have exercised, to help exercise out the sore quads I still had from Saturday's run.  Took a nap instead.  Sleep is important for healing, right?  Plan to lift Tuesday and Thursday, and run again Saturday.

2. 1/7.  Ate a big bowl of oatmeal (single ingredient on package) mixed with protein powder for breakfast with some slices of peach.  Lunch was leftover from the day before, some chicken soup, with cucumber and tomato salad.  Dinner was shredded pork, sauteed green peppers and onion, cheese, and sour cream.  Family had homemade fudge as a treat in the evening -- I had a cup of milk.

3. 1/7. Studied in the evening.

[Schmopey]

Way to go with staying strong against the fudge! Many years ago, I had to learn to make fudge because I had eaten the entire pan my mom had made for her Christmas cookie trays.

[Erick the Red]

Read a little about ketogenic diet yesterday on reddit.

Some of the stories are really impressive.

I don't have a problem believing that a program like this can be successful.  Eating enough meat and eggs to maintain muscle, while minimizing "wasted" calories seems to make sense, and no one has ever said that eating a lot of vegetables is going to be bad for you. 

I don't have the goal of single-digit body fat though, so while it is impressive I don't think I will go that far.  Right now I just wan to get stronger and look better.  Maybe I will move more in that direction someday.

[Erick the Red]

Week 5, Day 2:

Tuesday.

1. 1/3. Good session at the gym. Working weights: squat 200x3x5, overhead bar press 90x3x5, deadlift 225x1x5. The squat was really heavy, and for the first time I reall felt a "fight or flight" queasiness, a fear when looking at that bar before the third set. Strange. The OHP was hard on the last reps, especially getting tHe shoulders to "shrug" up to lock into the high position.  I am really liking the deadlift, I wish that I could do it more often.

After lifting I ran on the treadmill for two miles at a very conservative 10:00/mile pace.

2. 2/7. Food was good.  No serious cravings.  I'm saving the "cheat" meal for later in the week, and sometimes that is what gets me through a weak moment.

3. 2/7. Morning session.

 

According to http://www.strstd.com/ my calculated one rep maximums for the following exercises are:

Bench press: 160 (Novice)

Squat: 234 (Higher novice)

Deadlift: 264 (Novice)

Overhead press: 107 (Novice)

Novice is better than untrained.  I hope to push to get to intermediate before I stop making steady progress on the linear progression track.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Read a little about ketogenic diet yesterday on reddit.

Some of the stories are really impressive.

I don't have a problem believing that a program like this can be successful.  Eating enough meat and eggs to maintain muscle, while minimizing "wasted" calories seems to make sense, and no one has ever said that eating a lot of vegetables is going to be bad for you. 

I don't have the goal of single-digit body fat though, so while it is impressive I don't think I will go that far.  Right now I just wan to get stronger and look better.  Maybe I will move more in that direction someday.

 

Don't have to stay on it that far down. Seth has had some real success with it if you want to talk to a nerd with experience.

[Erick the Red]

Week 5, Day 3:

Wednesday

1. 1/3. Rest Day.

2. 3/7. No terrible issues.

3. 3/7. Morning study.

[Erick the Red]

Week 5, Day 4:

Thursday

1. 1/3. Had planned to lift today, but discovered that it was a holiday and hte gym is closed.

2. 4/7. Breakfast at home, 4 eggs with cheese and tomato salsa.  Car trip to visit some family about two hours away.  Ate roasted almonds on the way (almonds, oil, salt, roast at 300 degrees F for thirty minutes, stirring every ten).  They had a big spread, and most fell within my food limits.  Avoided the bread buns, the "frog-eye salad" (contains pasta, maybe? not appetizing in any case), the flag cake and the coconut cake.  Lunch was late enough that we did not have a formal dinner - I just had two cups of milk. 

3. 3/7.  First real stumble in this area.  Silly really, with the holiday I just forgot to make time for my third goal of meditation and spiritual study.

 

Maybe it was the fireworks going off, but I had a strange dream last night about breakfast cereal.  Pouring out bowls and bowls of the stuff, putting milk on top and consuming it.  I haven't eaten the stuff in a long time (years?) so why the sudden interest?  Even in my dream I know that this was my once-a-week buffer meal.

[Erick the Red]

Week 5, Day 5:

Friday

1. 2/3. Long walk in the rain in the evening after kids are down.

2. 5/7. Blew my buffer meal on a pizza.  Terrible vice, it wasn't even that good.

3. 4/7. Morning study.

[Erick the Red]

Week 5, Day 6:

Saturday.

1. 3/3. Morning ran 25 minutes.  Afternoon lifted: working weights: squat 200x3x5, bench 140x3x5, barbell (Pendlay) row 140x3x5.

2. 6/7. Food went all right.

3. 5/7. Evening study.

[Erick the Red]

Week 5, Day 7.

Sunday.

1. 3/3. Rest day.  Spend a whil reading "4 Hour Body".  A unique of (to me) offensive attitude with interesting ideas.

2. 7/7. Fasted through the morning, ate at 5:30pm.  Ate a lot.

3. 6/7. Evening study, which has seem to become the norm on weekends without work to provide the structured day.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Yeah, 4 hour body is a bit brash at times, but some of his ideas are sound. I kinda wanna do the bulk routine he does at some point now that I know what I'm doing with weights.

[Erick the Red]

Yeah, 4 hour body is a bit brash at times, but some of his ideas are sound. I kinda wanna do the bulk routine he does at some point now that I know what I'm doing with weights.

I really do appreciate his "do the least that you can get away with" attitude to things.

It made me realize that I am for sure not getting the calories and protein if I really wanted to bulk.

I will have to start tracking again.  Maybe I can make it more fun -- I just have bad memories of the stress of counting calories.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

I really do appreciate his "do the least that you can get away with" attitude to things.

It made me realize that I am for sure not getting the calories and protein if I really wanted to bulk.

I will have to start tracking again.  Maybe I can make it more fun -- I just have bad memories of the stress of counting calories.

 

I'm in the same boat on counting. I hate it, but if I want to lose weight or even reliably maintain it, I need to count. I really like livestrong.com/myplate for it if I have to do it.

[Erick the Red]

Week 6, Day 1

Monday

1. 1/3. Ran for twenty-plus minutes, including one large hill.  Plan to lift on Tuesday, rest Wednesday, run an office-sponsored charity 5K Thursday morning, and then lift Thursday evening if I am up for it, rest Friday, and lift again on Saturday.  So my sixth challenge week should go out with a bang in this respect. 

2. 1/7. Eggs with cheese for breakfast, leftover homemade chili for lunch, venison stew with potatoes and carrots for dinner.  Had a few slices of bread that my wife baked as well, falling under the heading of "homemade" but I know that it was a technicality and I probably shouldn't make a habit of it.

3. 1/7. Morning study.

[Erick the Red]

Week 6, Day 2:

Tuesday

1. 2/3. Lifted at the gym. Working weights: squat: 205x3x5 (last set slightly easier than the second, but I had to psych myself up for it); overhead barbell press: 95x3x5 (but I botched the form on the last reps, so not really 5); and deadlift 235x1x5 (my grip was slipping on the 3rd rep, but I took a second and reset and finished the set).

2. 2/7. Lost my buffer meal to fast food, another nemesis.

3. 2/7. Morning study.

 

I have been steadily working at a "90% like Stronglifts" workout for four months now. 

The overhead press has already stalled once, and again on Tuesday, but that is the one expected to fail first. 

My squat has stalled though, and I had hoped that it would go on for longer.  I am adding five pounds per week at this point (lifting twice a week, so every other attempt).

My bench press may still have some room to go up, my form is getting better and that has helped.

My deadlift almost failed today, but I understand that the grip goes first for that one.  I may need to just switch to an alternating grip (hands pronated and supinated) and continue for a while.

My barbell row is actually pretty strong.  I could not pull that much slowly, but as an explosive assistance exercise to the deadlift, the Pendlay row is not bad.

 

Using strstds.com, my calculated 1RMs are:

Bench: 166 (novice)

Squat: 240 (between novice and intermediate)

Dead: 276 (novice)

OHP: 113 (novice)

 

Using the "rule of thumb" that the ratio between OHP:Bench:Squat:Deadlift "should be" 2:3:4:5, some observations from my working weights:

Press and Bench are good relative to each other.

Squat is strong relative to everything else.

Bench and Deadlift are good relative to each other.

So I don't feel too bad that my squats are slowing down, and frankly terrifying almost every time I get under the bar.