Lifts Were Heavy and WOD Was Intense This Morning
We went out for supper and drinks to Joy’s last night. With the Molly getting home later, it was later than we normally go. With that, I expected poor sleep last night, but I slept well for having drank the night before. I even slept until about 5:30 AM or so. I was surprised when I got up, and it was starting to get light out. The food and drinks were great as always. The place was a lot busier than the earlier time on Thursdays that we were going.
I drank my coffee and ate a banana for breakfast. I was pretty much ready to get out into the garage to do my heavy lifts today from the time I woke up. Out of common courtesy for them, I didn’t because of the neighbors, but I figured 8:00 am was late enough, so I got changed and headed out. I was pretty psyched up abut doing the heavy lifting this morning.
The back squats were up first this morning, and they were a fairly heavy two hundred and forty-five pounds for the three sets of five. They felt fantastic and somewhat easy for me today. The weight didn’t even feel that heavy on my back like it normally does when it’s getting up there. The first set at the working weight looked textbook and more explosive than I expected them to look. The only adventurous part of these back squats today was walking it back in and racking it. I think I was maybe stepping back in on an angle or something because the plates kept bumping into the hooks. It sometimes happens, and I am sure my poor vision is a major factor in that occurring.
Strict presses were up next for me this morning. These were only a moderate weight today at a hundred and fifteen pounds. It was nice to have something not so heavy sandwiched between my heavy squats and deadlifts today. The shoulder presses went well and quickly for me. They looked good too! I was able to keep my rest between the sets to a short minute or two today. I suspected that there was at least a possibility of these presses giving me some issues after the hundred dumbbell snatch WOD I did two days ago, but they felt great.
Finally, I had the last lift of the day for my starting strength session. Who doesn’t love deadlifts? I can’t say that it was a super heavy weight for me at the two hundred and seventy-five pounds, but it wasn’t super light either. I expected that it might feel heavier than It really should have with my legs feeling so run down yesterday. To play it safe, I kept it to five singles today after those heavy squats.
The first rep at my working weight felt really explosive. Almost too much so. I felt a slight pull in my lat at the top. It wasn’t painful, but it was more like a deep cramp, like when you squeeze a muscle too hard. I have really been emphasizing the lockout and that’s where I am certain that it came from. I decided that I would walk away if I felt any more of that cramping. Thankfully, the rest o f my deadlifts felt just as good as that first one without the extra cramp in my lat. I took my time with them today and felt great afterwards.
As I was putting my bar and plates away, I noticed that the sun was still out. I glanced at the temperature on my Ambient Weather app on my phone and saw it was about 60. I decided then that I would drink my protein and take the cushions out on the patio chair to relax a bit in the sun. It wasn’t out fully, but this time of the year you can feel the heat from the sun’s rays through clouds often enough. There were periods of that, then sometimes when it was fairly clear, and they felt even better. Honestly, the sunshine always makes me feel better. Even on the hottest days during the summer when I am miserable, somehow the sun feels good and puts me in a better mood. It’s one of the best things in life, and it’s absolutely free!
Went upstairs and looked at the vault WOD for this week. I figured since it was nice out, I might as well take the dumbbell outside and do it in the sun. It was only 12 snatches then 8 thrusters on the same side then switch to the other side for a 12 minute AMRAP.
Molly said she wanted to do the WOD with me, so she went upstairs to get changed. That makes it even better because I miss doing WODs together and this was one that we could. In the time she was getting changed, a fairly thick cumulus cloud was moving in, so we did the WOD inside to keep the dumbbells from getting wet, plus we wanted to avoid getting rained on.
I used the twenty-five pound dumbbell, so I could move faster. I’m not super comfortable with the single sided thrusters either, and with my lat from earlier and all the power snatches I did Friday it was the smart thing to do. As I got into the WOD, I was moving along really well and thought I could make the goal when saw I had 4 minutes to go and was two rounds short. I was wrong, though. Playing with such a high heart rate, I got that tight feeling. My throat was just dry and sticky, and it was more like the dry heaves. I had to get that under control, so I came up just short of the goal. It was a fun WOD, and even more fun to do it and suffer together.
Music today was Die Apokalyptischen Reiter.