ArgSki Takes a Detour

[ArgSki77]

Last few challenges have been switching focus towards getting ready for first OCR that was supposed to be in June. But we are taking a bit of a detour on the route to Sparta(n) and making a pit stop in New York. Over the last challenge, it was determined that the Spartan will now be my second OCR as I registered for a Warrior Dash in NY at the end of May(Thanks @RedStone ) Road Trip upcoming!

 

 

So goals are going to be similar to the last few challenges but adjusted and simplified a bit based off of prior lessons learned and accounting for a slightly shorter schedule before my first OCR. Also, seems like after finding the above GIF, I've been in a Wayne's World mood so at least this post turned into an impromptu Wayne's World gif party!

 

Nutrition

Goal 1 - Continue the cut

Track food and eat within cutting calorie goal 6 days per week and last day within maintenance

Seeing good success on new calorie intake. Cut from 330 to 319.7 during the last challenge. Hoping to keep up this pace (2lbs per week) which should still be possible at these weights. 6 days per week on macros and one within maintenance in order to keep a bit of sanity on weekends.

 

Goal 2 - Hit protein macros

Meet 225g of protein 5 days per week

Readjusted macros using the new IIFYM calculator during the last challenge and it gave me much more manageable macros, namely 225g of protein instead of nearly 300g. Making sure I hit new macros 5 days a week as an addition to the above cut goal that has a focus primarily on calorie intake.

 

Goal 3 - Waterrrrrr

Drink 100oz of water per day

Continuing this trend...this time more focus on the weekends which were the only times I was playing catch up or missed anytime with this challenge last month.

 

Exercise

Goal 5 - Conditioning

Do two conditioning sessions per week

 

Really liking the KB Fit classes on Saturdays so will continue doing those. Getting other cardio/conditioning sessions can be varied week by week though so need to get a little better grip on whats going on. I dont really want to restrict myself to a set schedule but I do want to make sure I map out my weekly plans and get two good conditioning workouts in.

 

Goal 5 - Strength

Do two strength workouts per week

Favorite part of any challenge...not much of a stretch goal but just want a place to track workouts and make sure that I dont slack on the lifting front.

 

Goal 6 - Mobility

Do three mobility sessions per week

Knees and shoulders have been feeling better with the little bit of mobility work I have been doing recently. But in general, since cancelling ROMWOD a few months ago, I've been failing with getting any mobility done. So adding in a couple of days of mobility to hopefully help recovery time and improve some of the issues that I have been having with knees specifically.

 

 

CHECKBOXES!!!

Goal 1 - Food

☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 2 - Protein

☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 3 - Water

☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 4 - Conditioning

☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐

Goal 5 - Strength

☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐

Goal 6 - Mobility

☐☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐

[Broba Fett]

 

Every time I hear Foxy Lady I think of this scene.

 

Following along, as always. 

[RedStone]

We are so doing bohemian rhapsody in some capacity. It cannot simply live in a dream...

 

(OMG Wayne's World!!! GAH I'M LSHDGFLIUSFH:SKJHDG!!!!)

[jonfirestar]

following of course!

 

 

 

[miss_marissa]

sup

[Mizbrek]

Well I am indeed am not worthy of following...

 

...but I'm doing it anyway!

 

[raptron]

MAKIN SHIT HAPPEN. 

[ArgSki77]

So off to a bit of a slow start with the updating this week but yesterday was a snow so I was a bit preoccupied.

 

Food was solid on Monday but a bit off yesterday. Did not want to shop before the blizzard that wasn't since all the crazy people would be preparing for the apocalypse so I was kind of scrounging for food all day and was a bit high carb and not enough protein. Back on track today though so looking good moving forward this week. Did get all my water though which is good because without my work water bottle I tend to slack off a bit. Made sure I kept a big glass next to me all day in plain sight yesterday so that I would instinctively grab a sip whenever I would adjust from working at home.

 

I debated calling shoveling snow yesterday one of my conditioning sessions because it was a brutal workout. We had about 6-7" of really wet heavy snow and it took me well over an hour to shovel the driveway and walkways. Maybe will mark it as a red check for now with the intention of trying to add another session. That made my forearms and elbows unusually sore so afterwards spent a good 30min experimenting with using my voodoo floss in those areas instead of my knees like usual. It worked out alright, got a good deal of tension out of my forearms but was really hard to wrap. After that, I was bored so I flossed knees and rolled out my calves and back.

 

This morning was really when I started feeling the arm soreness from shoveling again. It was the peak week for bench press with calculations done using 95% of previous 1RM.

 

Working Sets:

5 x 75% - 185lbs

3 x 85% - 210lbs

1 x 95% - 235lbs

AMAP x 95% - 235lbs

Got two reps on AMAP which felt good to rep some high weight considering I have been cutting for a full month now. Last time I did anything around that weight was in the middle of January at the end of the last cycle where it was a 245 double so good to be back. Next week should be a deload and then after that will be max out attempts. Looking forward to see where strength is...hoping to match or slightly increase bench considering a 10lb or more bodweight drop means wilks is improving ever so slightly by the day since last testing as long as I stay the same strength-wise.

 

Accessory was very bro-centric...dips, curls, plate raises and pullups. Dips and pullups are my main nemesis of the body-weight movements. I have improved substantially recently on dips but have been only been working on pullups in that I have been doing occasional deadhangs. Today I was able to do a 3 x 8 of pullups with a pretty heavy assistance band. Would really like to keep working on these in the upcoming months as they are prevalent in many OCR obstacles and I would like to at least have a shot at completing something like monkey bars in one of my races. Likely going to add them in following weekend conditioning classes and see if the multiple times per week helps me increase my capacity for them.

 

Conditioning was a sort of tabata circuit for three rounds. There was 3 stations of 30sec each with 15 sec rest between exercises.

1) Steel Mace Barbarian Chop - 35lbs

2) 50' Sled Push - 1 Burpee - 50' Sled Push - 1 Burpee

3) Sandbag Full Clean And Press - 60lbs

 

After each round of the three above, the 6 of us teamed up for a round of what is called The Fighter where each person has one end of the rope. Basically a sequence of 1 arm battle rope waves at different stance positions. Its hard to explain so here is the video of it so you can see the misery of this. Plank waves are new kind of sadness.

 

 

CHECKBOXES!!!

Goal 1 - Food

☑☑☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 2 - Protein

☑☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 3 - Water

☑☑☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 4 - Conditioning

☑☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐

Goal 5 - Strength

☑☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐

Goal 6 - Mobility

☑☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐

[RedStone]

8 minutes ago, ArgSki77 said:

Plank waves are new kind of sadness.

 

Hehehe I'm so glad I came across this in my feed while having coffee this morning...

 

Ain't Zero Week fun?  

[Broba Fett]

I saw that battle rope vid on FB.  Looks brutal.  I need to play with them more often. 

[Muir]

More check boxes! Following!

[jonfirestar]

that rope battle makes me want to cry your poor shoulders

[ArgSki77]

1 hour ago, jonfirestar said:

that rope battle makes me want to cry your poor shoulders

Luckily they were relatively short sets. Not that they were easy but it was really only like 30 sec per arm over the course of the whole set. It was more so that this was part of a tabata circuit so there was not too much rest so I was more winded than anything. Especially since that video was the 3rd and final round. First two rounds were a bit prettier and easier.

[Mizbrek]

That rope battle looks brutal and horrible.

I must do it.

 

 

[ArgSki77]

Feeling a bit crappy today about food decisions. Work group had a delayed Pi Day/early St Pattys Day celebration potluck. I had all good intentions. I made a decently healthy lunch dish, Sheppards Pie, because I knew Pi Day meant lots of incoming desserts. I started strong with just a bowl of my sheppard's pie but finished poorly with pizza and a bunch of desserts. I had one small piece of apple crisp pie and that kind of triggered something with the "I havent had sweets in 5 weeks" and then all of a sudden had access to unlimited sweets. Plus I had a meeting that was in the same conference room as all the food(should be banned in office ettiquete) so I spent an hour picking at random stuff since I was bored. Likely blew through all of my calories already but I pretty much stopped tracking. Just going to call this a loss on the day, eat a healthier dinner later, and move on to tomorrow. Maybe I get lucky and the carbo-loading will help out with deadlifts tomorrow morning.

 

^^^current feels

 

All the other goals havent changed much. Like I said DLs tomorrow morning...looking for a pretty solid set of pulls for the AMAP x ~90%(95% of 95%). Will also try to get in some mobility tonight for the lower body in preparation of that and to keep ahead of any issues. Knees are feeling really good after the previous weekend long mobility session so dont want to head down the wrong path with that again.

 

CHECKBOXES!!!

Goal 1 - Food

☑☑☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 2 - Protein

☑☑☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 3 - Water

☑☑☑☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 4 - Conditioning

☑☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐

Goal 5 - Strength

☑☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐

Goal 6 - Mobility

☑☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐

[Broba Fett]

As you said, at least you'll have all the energy to pull heavy tomorrow. 

[jonfirestar]

1 hour ago, ArgSki77 said:

Plus I had a meeting that was in the same conference room as all the food(should be banned in office ettiquete) 

and yet meeting where the sweets are seems to be the norm. So you couple mind numbing boredom with being sat next to piles of sugar and there is just no hope. 

[CourtnieMarie]

sorry you felt bad about those decisions, but really you jumped right into the next plan of action. i know it was probably a lot of calories but you really have been so consistent and steady that a spike in cal intake shouldn't get too crazy. maybe you can go to cut calories on saturday or sunday (when you usually have your maintenance cal day)?

 

also, HI!

 

[ArgSki77]

2 minutes ago, CourtnieMarie said:

sorry you felt bad about those decisions, but really you jumped right into the next plan of action. i know it was probably a lot of calories but you really have been so consistent and steady that a spike in cal intake shouldn't get too crazy. maybe you can go to cut calories on saturday or sunday (when you usually have your maintenance cal day)?

Turned out to not be a huge detriment. Saw a 1lb jump on the scale likely from just sheer volume. Coach wants me to have a few days off of cut level calories and back to maintenance for a little reset(based off gym performance this morning) so I may just work that into these next few days and kick off a good streak back on the cut for the real length of the challenge.

[ArgSki77]

So I alluded to it in my response to CM but this mornings gym performance was not ideal. It was the heavy week of deadlifts with at 5,3,1 at 75,85,95% respectively. The 5 rep set was 335 and perfectly manageable. 3 rep set at 380lbs was actually really good and smooth, didnt even need to reset between reps. But then everything came crashing down.

425 did not want to budge. I made 3 attempts and could barely break it off the floor. I was annoyed but wanted to get something accomplished at a high weight so I ended up skipping one of the accessory sets and doing two singles at 415. Then I kind of sulked through some hip thrusts and split squats to finish up accessory.

 

But the frustration with deadlifts turned into a "kill everything" type attitude when it came to conditioning afterwards.

12min AMRAP

25m Sled Push - 205lbs

6 Sandbag Shoulder Load - 60lbs

6 Steel Mace Barbarian Squats - 15lbs

12 Heavy KB Swings - 32kg Bear Bell(Yes, we have a grizzly bear shaped KB)

 

I demolished that conditioning...Finished my 5th full round with about 10 seconds to spare.

 

Its kind of an interesting comparison between a hard conditioning workout and hard lifting workout. This cut has been rough on heavy lifts(mainly deadlifts) but still seeing some improvement on what I consider my weaker lifts(bench and OHP). What has really kept making big strides though is the conditioning. The lower calorie intake does not seem to be affecting overall work capacity in comparison to the heavy lifting end of the spectrum. There can be a lot of volume during our conditioning sets but the weights generally are not too heavy. It turns to a lot of just trudging through and mentally convincing myself that "there are only X number of reps left" or "you can make it another 1:30 before you need that water".

 

Food getting back on track today. Going to allow a slightly higher calorie intake but also not going to go out of the way to force calories to be higher just by eating when I don't feel I need it.

 

CHECKBOXES!!!

Goal 1 - Food

☑☑☑☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 2 - Protein

☑☑☑☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 3 - Water

☑☑☑☑☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 4 - Conditioning

☑☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐

Goal 5 - Strength

☑☑  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐

Goal 6 - Mobility

☑☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐

[ArgSki77]

Ok so fully celebrated St Patty's day weekend. You can probably guess how that fared for my nutrition. Tried to stay close to maintenance but likely a bit over and poor macro balance due to alcohol. But feeling a little less stressed about the cut after a few days off and ready to get back on track for the real portion of this challenge!

 

Got a couple of mobility workouts in throughout the weekend to complete that goal. Also, snuck into the gym after brunch on Saturday and did a quick kettlebell conditioning set. Highlights included some interesting dynamic movements that combined kettlebells with boot camp type stuff. Things like "bear crawl KB drags" and "renegade row to long cycle" movements were new and interesting changes to a KB set. Made it through that workout before gallivanting around Boston for the holiday weekend.

 

Only downside from the weekend is that somehow I managed to injure my foot and am having trouble walking today. This happens every once in awhile but its particularly bad right now. I've gotten it looked at before and doctors really could not figure out what it was. They ended up saying it was just a pinched nerve of some sort due to poorly supporting shoes on hard surfaces and that my arch probably flattened out a bit to cause the pinch. Turns out I wore very similar shoes(chucks) the whole time we were out on Saturday night which was lots of walking around city and standing in bars which probably explains why it happened again. Hoping it clears up soon...may sneak out to doctors just in case to get another opinion.

 

Looking forward to starting this week/challenge off strong. Meal prepped enough for today because did not get to start cooking until 1030 last night because homework. Today's meals are basic but effective and fit cut goals once again. Going to do a more formal prep tonight so that I have enough stuff for the rest of the week.

 

CHECKBOXES!!!

Goal 1 - Food

☑☑☑☑☑☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 2 - Protein

☑☑☑☑☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 3 - Water

☑☑☑☑☑☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐  ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Goal 4 - Conditioning

☑☑  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐

Goal 5 - Strength

☑☑  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐  ☐☐

Goal 6 - Mobility

☑☑☑  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐  ☐☐☐

[RedStone]

9 minutes ago, ArgSki77 said:

 But feeling a little less stressed about the cut after a few days off and ready to get back on track for the real portion of this challenge!

 

 

Love this! I need this attitude. Good stuff, good show  And awesome that the weekend was fun!!!

[ArgSki77]

2 minutes ago, RedStone said:

Love this! I need this attitude. Good stuff, good show  And awesome that the weekend was fun!!!

This is kind of a new thing for me...I even mindlessly stepped on the scale this morning without remembering what the weekend looked like. But haven't let the increase that appeared make a difference in motivation so definitely making strides in the mental department. Also it helped that I found it humorous that my scale said my resting heart rate this morning was 49bpm. I too felt pretty close to death after a weekend of little sleep so I am glad the scale agreed  

[RedStone]

I wonder if the scale has a hangover setting that adapts measurements and generates recovery predictions accordingly...

[CourtnieMarie]

sounds like some good balance happened for a holiday weekend! glad you had time to cook up meals for today and get back on track... but homework? are you in a class? or was it work homework?