Deth

I had a good night’s sleep last night. I didn’t sleep long enough because the neighbor’s car beeping woke me up, but I’ll get used to it. She’s not the sharpest tool in the drawer, and I don’t think she knows that you don’t need to unlock it to remote start it. Other than that, it was really pleasant to sleep with the window open. The fresh outside air is just so soothing compared to the stale inside air.

I only had Brooke here for a few minutes today. We played with the fart machine a little. She wanted to play UNO but we didn’t have time. I asked her at the bus stop how long she could stand one foot. She had fun trying, I think.

Once I got home, I got changed and headed out into the home gym to get my strength work done early, but the heat really built up. I didn’t feel like dealing with being too sweaty with those.

The squats went really well for me today. I was getting super deep on them and easily did my three sets of five at 200 pounds. Since my core is feeling better, I decided to get some more work in, so I did my two extra sets. Each one looked as good as the last. As I always do, I record some videos of my sets with my phone to keep an eye on my technique. My back squats looked as close to textbook as I will ever get, I think. The other good thing about my squats today is that they didn’t feel heavy like last time. It’s a fairly light weight for me to be back squatting, so it shouldn’t have given me any problems, and didn’t. I did take my time and get plenty of rest between sets to enjoy myself and relax my brain.

I moved on to strict presses next. These were light at just a hundred pounds, and they felt great. I kept the rest between my sets short and easily worked my way through the programmed three sets of five and then did two additional sets. My only small observation with these today is that the left plate kept bumping into the top of the rack. Either I was walking out unevenly or the rack has shifted. The latter is more likely because I tend to push the one side in further when reracking weights. My phone videos of the presses looked great, so it wasn’t a form issue. I was just off center or twisted in the rack. I couldn’t quite tell which it was.

Finally, for my lifting session today were the light deadlifts. I did five triples at 245 pounds. They felt surprisingly good for as much as my legs have felt like they have been dragging since I was sick. Like with the squats, I took ample rest between sets and took my time working through them. I made it a point to rest longer than I needed to. My form checks video of the deadlifts looked great.

I recovered for an hour or so before heading back out into the garage to do the WOD I chose to do today. By that time, it was pretty warm out into the 70s and the dew point had crept up to the upper 50s. During the summer, this would have been a nice cool and refreshing day, but my body more prepared to warm up during the cooler weather and not yet adapted to the heat yet. I’m still in winter mode.

The WOD was ten rounds of ten each of dumbbell power cleans and burpees. I’m not proficient or efficient with dumbbell power cleans and a hundred of them is a lot, so I compromised on the weight and used the thirty pound dumbbells. They felt good. Enough weight that I could “feel” it, but not so much weight that it’s tough. Too light and my form turns into just curling it. These were the quick and easy part of the WOD for me.

The burpees were for me today were the part that really slowed me down. It wasn’t necessarily the burpees themselves that gave me issues. It was the fact that I was pouring sweat. I was leaving a puddle on the floor, so I was somewhat taking turns between my hands or feet wanting to slip out from under me. It was just humid by this point and the floor being on the ground is still pretty cool and not warmed up, so it’s damp to begin with before. It gets sweaty this time of the year if the dew point is high enough. I did them more slowly and carefully than I might normally have done.

That final round, I was feeling a little puky, though. By that time, my heart rate was in the mid 170s and I was trying to go all out and finish the WOD in under twenty minutes. I had to break the burpees when I wasn’t certain whether it was just a cough or a gag, though. You know how it is when your body is trying to self limit your heart rate when you’re pushing it to the brink.

I didn’t even come close to making their goal time for my score, but to be honest, I thought they were off base on that goal. For me the cleans took about twenty seconds. If I am really, really pushing it I can hit 15 to 20 burpees a minute, but that’s not sustainable for very long and especially not if there are other movements in the WOD that require some focus like the cleans. To go that fast, I have to basically through my feet out from under me and hit the floor hard. And with it being slippery today, that wouldn’t have been a smart thing to do with the garage having so many objects that I could hit kick accidentally. I’ve kicked the rig in the past and certainly wouldn’t recommend doing it.

Music today was Paradise Lost