MarkKO's training log

[MarkKO]

First five kilometre weighted vest walk today, actually 5.06 km but whatever, came in at 45 minutes and 58 seconds. Very comfortable pace, so it likely won't be too long before 45 minutes falls. It'll come down to that first kilometre, if I get that in under nine minutes and 20 seconds I'll have a good shot.

I'll need to start looking at a heavier vest or a rucksack.

[MarkKO]

Haven't trained since Friday, if that even counted.

Monday through today haven't been able to eat breakfast; not because I feel sick, something in my head simply does not want a bar of eating at that time. As a result I've been eating well under the 4800 calories, but somehow my weight is finally smack back in the middle of the maintenance range. Some of that is a larger than usual dinner, but I think something else is up.

Anyway, what with work being busy and me being way more mentally engaged in it, I think I need to significantly streamline my training because a fairly large part of me not training yet this week was knowing I wouldn't have enough time to do even half of what I had planned. Somehow that makes it seem not worth doing at all, which is stupid but there you go.

So this is what I'm going to do

Monday SSB squat
1x90% TM
5x65%, 5x70%, AMRAPx75% (week 1)
5x70%, 5x75%, AMRAPx80% (week 2)
5x75%, 5x80%, AMRAPx85% (week 3)
50 metres sled drags
100 total reps chest supported dumbbell flys

Tuesday bench
Monday SSB squat
1x90% TM
5x65%, 5x70%, AMRAPx75% (week 1)
5x70%, 5x75%, AMRAPx80% (week 2)
5x75%, 5x80%, AMRAPx85% (week 3)
25-50 total reps pullups
50 total reps pushups (no weight, no extra ROM)
100 total reps pull aparts

Thursday sumo DL on stiff bar
Monday SSB squat
1x90% TM
5x65%, 5x70%, AMRAPx75% (week 1)
5x70%, 5x75%, AMRAPx80% (week 2)
5x75%, 5x80%, AMRAPx85% (week 3)
50 metres sled drags
100 total reps chest supported dumbbell flys

Friday floor press with football bar
1x90% TM
5x65%, 5x70%, AMRAPx75% (week 1)
5x70%, 5x75%, AMRAPx80% (week 2)
5x75%, 5x80%, AMRAPx85% (week 3)
50 total reps barbell rows with football bar using AMRAP weight
50 total reps pushups (no weight, no extra ROM)
100 total reps pull aparts

I'll get my training maxes from what I've been doing recently, just by the old (reps x weight x 0.033) + weight formula. If it seems either too high or way too low I'll adjust to what I would guess is reasonable. Every fourth week I'll increase it by five pounds and every sixth week will be a deload that I have yet to structure.

Yes, it looks and sounds a lot like 5/3/1. There's a good reason for that. The idea is that this is something I should be able to do within an hour, maybe an hour and quarter, without fail.

[MarkKO]

Ok, TMs incoming. More a note to self.

SSB squat
506 lbs (230 kg). Seems reasonable, and is exactly what I had it set at for this cycle anyway, albeit for the bow bar

Bench
292 lbs (132.5 kg). That hurts, but so does a fucked shoulder. It's lower than I would like but it'll go up.

Sumo DL on stiff bar
550 lbs (250 kg). Probably pretty low consider I took three singles at 11 pounds less last week, but it'll go up.

Floor press
253 lbs (115 kg). That's based on my top fives this cycle. Probably pretty reasonable.

[MarkKO]

Ok, let's call this week one of block five. Feeling massively better today, although I wasn't feeling bad before. So really, that's a hell of an improvement.

Thursday SSB squat
1x457 lbs
5x325 lbs
5x352 lbs
12x380 lbs
50 m x 352 lbs backwards sled drags. Accidentally found the belt placement that lets me absolutely destroy my quads. Higher. It needs to be higher.
30, 25 back raises
30x33 lbs, 30x27 lbs, 25x22 lbs, 15x22 lbs chest supported DB flys

[MarkKO]

Friday bench
1x264 lbs
5x187 lbs
1x204 lbs
12x220 lbs which isn't the worst start in the world
11, 7, 7, 5, 5 pullups
20, 15, 15 pushups
40, 30, 30 pull aparts

[MarkKO]

Feeling VERY sluggish today, but not going to let that keep me from my weighted vest walk. Came in slower than last time but only by about 45 seconds, which I didn't expect with a first kilometre just over 10 minutes.

Waist is still at 98.5 cm, weight is still sitting in the maintenance range. I've been below the maintenance calorie range, although Carbon doesn't care about that as long as I'm sitting inside the weight range. This actually gives me quite a bit of leeway because I weigh in every morning, so I get a really good idea of if I need to push my intake or if I can back off.

Right shoulder seems to be finally back to normal. It definitely stiffens up a lot more easily but that's exactly what my left shoulder did for a few months after getting back to normal as well. That seems to be what happens so this time it isn't worrying me as much. Left quad is also well under control although I still need to keep an eye on it.

At this stage I really don't think I'll be doing the September meet, for various reasons. I think I've got a decent shot of getting some good momentum going with the streamlined training, but I also don't think I'm going to be ready to step into a peak just yet simply because I need to fall into a new rhythm of work and training. Combining those two factors makes me very, very hesitant to commit to a meet in the next few months. I would rather string together a few good, consistent months of training which will be necessity also mean I find a work and training rhythm.

[MarkKO]

Clear but pretty windy today. Weighted vest walk came in a measly five seconds outside the benchmark time of 45 minutes. I did NOT expect that the third five kilometre walk in. First kilometre was at a decent time but nothing special, nine minutes and 32 seconds. Second kilometre came in 50 seconds faster without pushing it at all. Third kilometre I deliberately worked on keeping pace and it came in around 10 seconds faster so I started trying to push a little as I figured I might be in with a shot at a good time. Fourth kilometre I managed another 10 seconds, at which point I saw I was in with a real shot at 45 minutes or less and turned on the pace.

I'm not sure if this is going to impact my squatting tomorrow. I would hope not.

Whatever it does or doesn't do, it's time to figure out whether I get a heavier vest or go straight to a rucksack because I don't see myself failing to crack 45 minutes for more than a couple of weeks.

I had the idea that I can get a decent rucksack and a 44 lbs bag of sand and just take 22 lbs out of my vest. That'll probably come in cheaper than a 66 lbs best AND let me go all the way up to 88 lbs eventually.

[MarkKO]

This week and the road to hell have similarities.

Work continues to be crazy busy, so Monday I finished too late to train; Tuesday was looking pretty hopeful apart from waking up with a pool of blood on my pillow from a nosebleed I slept through, but then the stepson got into a fight at school and my wife panicked somewhat so I decided dealing with that was more important. I have zero issue with what he did, since he didn't start the fight and gave the other kid plenty of warning to stop using racial slurs around him and to stop trying to take his hood off. The school is less happy about the black eye the idiot got as a reward for his troubles. I hate to say it but I'm secretly very proud of him for standing up for himself and coming out with not a mark on him. Then yesterday was also looking hopeful but my wife got COVID, so I ended up going straight home to take a test, get the stepson to take a test (we're both negative) and take him to his father's so he's at less risk of infection.

Here's hoping today happens.

[MarkKO]

Thursday SSB squat

1x457 lbs
5x352 lbs
5x380 lbs
11x402 lbs
50 m x 352 lbs backwards sled drags
40, 30 back raises
32x33 lbs, 32x27 lbs, 25x22 lbs, 11x22 lbs chest supported DB flys



It felt good to train. I was going to head straight home and check on my wife but she told me she was feeling a bit better so I took the opportunity.

[Hardartery]

This week and the road to hell have similarities.

Work continues to be crazy busy, so Monday I finished too late to train; Tuesday was looking pretty hopeful apart from waking up with a pool of blood on my pillow from a nosebleed I slept through, but then the stepson got into a fight at school and my wife panicked somewhat so I decided dealing with that was more important. I have zero issue with what he did, since he didn't start the fight and gave the other kid plenty of warning to stop using racial slurs around him and to stop trying to take his hood off. The school is less happy about the black eye the idiot got as a reward for his troubles. I hate to say it but I'm secretly very proud of him for standing up for himself and coming out with not a mark on him. Then yesterday was also looking hopeful but my wife got COVID, so I ended up going straight home to take a test, get the stepson to take a test (we're both negative) and take him to his father's so he's at less risk of infection.

Here's hoping today happens.

Damn dude. Hopefully it all blows over quickly, seems to be a wave of Covid going around here too, but no longer the major deal it was. I think everyone has some level of immunity these days and it is fading into serious cold status. Good on the boy, btw, there comes a point where the guy begging for it just needs to receive in order to get the message.

[MarkKO]

This week and the road to hell have similarities.

Work continues to be crazy busy, so Monday I finished too late to train; Tuesday was looking pretty hopeful apart from waking up with a pool of blood on my pillow from a nosebleed I slept through, but then the stepson got into a fight at school and my wife panicked somewhat so I decided dealing with that was more important. I have zero issue with what he did, since he didn't start the fight and gave the other kid plenty of warning to stop using racial slurs around him and to stop trying to take his hood off. The school is less happy about the black eye the idiot got as a reward for his troubles. I hate to say it but I'm secretly very proud of him for standing up for himself and coming out with not a mark on him. Then yesterday was also looking hopeful but my wife got COVID, so I ended up going straight home to take a test, get the stepson to take a test (we're both negative) and take him to his father's so he's at less risk of infection.

Here's hoping today happens.

Damn dude. Hopefully it all blows over quickly, seems to be a wave of Covid going around here too, but no longer the major deal it was. I think everyone has some level of immunity these days and it is fading into serious cold status. Good on the boy, btw, there comes a point where the guy begging for it just needs to receive in order to get the message.

It's similar here. She just hasn't had it yet and doesn't have the best diet while her work is sedentary so she probably isn't in particularly good shape; and she's only had the basic two vaccine doses so really I figure it got her pretty good. That said she just feels like shit, she can breathe fine which my understanding is really the main concern.

As to the boy I totally agree. I think the school has been pretty reasonable about it too because they accepted that he was provoked.

[MarkKO]

Friday bench
1x264 lbs
5x204 lbs
5x220 lbs
11x231 lbs
10, 3x5 pullups
20, 2x15 pushups
40, 2x30 pull aparts



It's been some week. Here's to training at least three times next week.

[MarkKO]

Forgot to mention, yesterday it hit me that the two exercises I can reliably get a good to great chest pump out of are pushups without vest and floor press. Not surprisingly, the motion of the two is pretty much identical for me.

Only really interesting to me, but I figured worth noting.

[MarkKO]

Weighted vest walk because I've been very lucky with the weather these past weekends and that is continuing. Didn't even remotely push the pace because I've had what seems to be a mild cold since Tuesday. It might be more than that but the RAT I took on Wednesday was negative so maybe it isn't either.

Time came in significantly slower, as expected, but not as slow as I thought it might initially.

[BenM]

Those RATs are not to be trusted....

[MarkKO]

Those RATs are not to be trusted....

Oh believe me I know that

I'm going to take one tomorrow and see what comes up. I don't feel bad, just a bit congested right now.

[BenM]

The wife had her second bout a couple of months ago - knew it was COVID because she sat next to someone at a Sunday lunch who subsequently tested positive, and the symptoms were the same as last time (just milder) but she was negative on multiple RATs until the Thursday AM when she was feeling better and about to go back to work.

Hope you feel better/less congested soon regardless.

[MarkKO]

The wife had her second bout a couple of months ago - knew it was COVID because she sat next to someone at a Sunday lunch who subsequently tested positive, and the symptoms were the same as last time (just milder) but she was negative on multiple RATs until the Thursday AM when she was feeling better and about to go back to work.

Hope you feel better/less congested soon regardless.

This is her first and she's gotten the classic loss of taste and general feeling like she's been run over. The first day had the added bonus of about 12 hours of non-stop vomiting which sucked. Her RAT came back positive within a minute. Mine did too the one time I had it. I'm pretty sure I'll end up getting it again now if I haven't already, I'm waiting to test till tomorrow because I don't really need to know before then. If I'm feeling like I am now or better I'll go to work anyway and just wear a mask. My understanding is that's OK to do now. It helps I'm not in an office or building with aircon, the damn house doesn't even have a front door yet where we're currently installing.

But like you said, just because the RAT is negative doesn't mean a whole lot anyway.

[MarkKO]

Weather permitted another weighted vest walk, time was very similar to yesterday. In order to not be reliant on the weather just bought a rain jacket.

Also sent various emails to suppliers and manufacturers of backpacks because it seems impossible to find weight ratings for backpacks. I suspect I'll need to get a military one, and hopefully I'll be able to source a decent used pack because if you thought training gear was expensive you haven't shopped for 'tactical' gear. Holy shit. I KNOW LEO's and service personnel aren't paid that much so I'm guessing pricing is aimed at either private contractors or violent right wingers, because I can't imagine any other group who is either paid well enough or prepared to pay that much.

[MarkKO]

Well, I have the plague. It isn't like I'm surprised. Currently trying to figure out if my lower back locking up for no good reason is a symptom or just a coincidence.