John’s Ramblings

After taking yesterday off, I was back on it today.  Luka’s Workout “C”:

I’m happy, especially given the fact that I haven’t done any Escalating Density Training since November!

I could begin to feel the DOMS coming on all day yesterday, but I didn’t manage to get in a workout until 5 p.m.  Ideally, I’d like to get the workout in before the soreness really sets in but my work schedule threw a wrench in those plans.  So I spent a little extra time trying to limber up with front and side lunges, inchworms, and overhead squats.  I didn’t end up doing a formal workout, but randomly did 3 sets of:

• Overhead double kettlebell presses, 2 x 16kg
• Bent-over kettlebell rows, 2 x 16kg
• Double kettlebell squats, 2 x 16kg

That was all it took, and after 25 minutes I was pretty well cooked.  Had trouble getting out of a chair after dinner, and mounting the stairs to go to bed.  I was still pretty sore this morning, so I chalked today up to recovery, and will get back on the diet of iron tomorrow.

I didn’t go out and ride my bike in 30 mph headwinds yesterday.  Go figure.

I decided to dust off my “Luka” workouts that he set me up with last year at Hocevar Performance.  Because this was the first workout of this kind in several months, and because of the emotionally draining weekend prior, I opted for the one workout that didn’t involve a stopwatch.  I thought it would be best if I went by feel, rather than by the clock.

Workout “B”:

Warm up:

• Front Lunges
• Side Lunges
• Inchworms
• Romanian Deadlifts
• Overhead squats with pole

I knew I would be down on reps and weight in a few spots, and between my fatigue factor and the 30 mph headwind, I only did 1/2 the sprints as I had done previously.  I felt good (and tired) at the end but I didn’t manage to hurt myself.

As I looked to post this workout this morning, I found that the last time I did this workout was 11/21, and instead of bodyweight rows I had been doing blast-strap scarecrows (which I labeled as “deceptively hard”).  This was actually the workout where I managed to pinch a nerve doing those same scarecrows, rearranging my life for 5+ months.

I am glad I did the rows last night, instead.

While the kettlebell swing challenges that Terri and I have been doing for the past two months have been great at keeping us active, the workouts have been a bit monochromatic.

When we were working out with Luka once a week, we could count on being introduced to new strength and interval training methods on a regular basis.  Now that we’re “rolling our own”, it’s time to change things up a bit while also keeping short term goals in mind… namely the 3 day Century Ride of the Centuries at the end of May.  240 miles of riding over 3 days isn’t necessarily a problem, unless of course you haven’t had your ass on a bicycle saddle for a couple of months.

With my grip issues continuing to resolve themselves, I am also wanting to get back into my Viking Warrior Kettlebell Snatch training.  The problem really isn’t finding stuff to do, it’s finding the time to do the stuff.    First things first, so I’ll try to get in my remaining 555 swings over the next couple of days to complete the 6,000 swing challenge for April.  Then it’s going to be saddle time, as weather and schedule allows.

Getting more riding time will also help with the work I’m doing on the newly formed Bicycle Task Force for the City of Auburn.  We’ve been charged with brainstorming ways to 1.) defined the connections for cycling through Auburn, 2.) leverage bicycle facilities to increase recreational opportunities, and 3.) how do we utilize the bicycle infrastructure (in particular the Interurban Trail) as a conduit to bring cyclists to local businesses.  I’ve been riding around the area for about 7 years now, but there are several areas of the City that I’ve never ridden through, or just plain avoided.  Time to multi-task by doing some exploring & training at the same time.

In fact, I would be heading to the airport to fly to Minneapolis right about now in order to attend the RKC (Russian Kettlebell Challenge) Certification workshop.  Injury, then money scuttled that plan, so here I sit in my bathrobe and bed-head-hair sipping coffee instead.  I think I’m “over” the disappointment for the most part, and I’m ready to move on with whatever life has in store for me next.

The shoulder/nerve injury continues to improve.  I’m still doing stretching rehab exercises (when I remember), and the grip in the left hand is slowly improving.  I no longer have that ache in the shoulder and neck, and so I’m off the ibuprofen regimen as well.

For the month of March I was invited to a 5,000 kettlebell swing challenge on Facebook, which I in turn challenged my wife to do as well.  After we successfully completed that challenge, we stepped it up by forming our own challenge for April: 6,000 swings.  The pace is 200 swings a day, and if you miss a day you are REALLY in a hole!  The downside to this challenge is that it gets to be all-consuming, and the tendency is to do just the swings.  I’m having to diversify my workouts by breaking up the swings into sets of 20 or so, then sprinting, pushups, windmills, or other exercises in order to break things up and not be so monochromatic in my efforts.

As of yesterday, I am 30 behind the pace at 4,170 swings, and Terri’s just a few behind me.  To add a dimension to gauge the effort, we’re tracking “weight moved” as well as number of swings.  So far I’ve moved 92 tons just doing swings.  Not bad for an old fart.

My bike is still neglected.  I better make some time to get my ass in shape before Memorial Day, when I’ll be doing 3 days of riding in Pendleton Oregon.  Century Ride of the Centuries, here I come, ready or not!

We went relatively light on the workout on Monday in anticipation of a much heavier Tuesday.  Luka did not disappoint.

Warm-ups, including some special “glute activation” drills.  If your trainer is taking extra time to activate your glutes, you can bet there’s going to be some lifting involved.

Double Kettlebell Clean-and-Press: 4 sets of 5 reps, 2 x 55lb KB’s

Barbell complex:

• Front Squats
• Lunges
• Thrusters
• Cleans

Dumbell Tabatas (20/10) 8 minutes:

• Goblet Squat
• Swings
• Clean & Press
• Squat Jumps

No more Tuesday nights with Luka for a while.  Sad.

…make Veal Piccatta, because it’s a high protein/low carb alternative to lemonade.

Our workout life & goals have just undertaken a huge shift.  I’m just now getting my mental-arms wrapped around the changes in store, but the bottom line is that our cash flow picture has changed significantly so we are curtailing expenses where possible.  Among the things on the “discretionary expenses” list that are to meet the budget axe are:

• Weekly Tuesday night training with Luka at Hocevar Performance, and
• My date with the Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certification Workshop in April.

This is a huge shift.  The RKC was my next big goal.  Tuesdays were the highlight of my workout week, my chance to “lift heavy shit” and mold my aging  protoplasm into something that looks halfway decent when naked (no, there will be no pictures).  I was just feeling like I was “turning the corner” on my recovery from the pre-Thanksgiving nerve injury, so now this second dose of adversity forces me to do a complete reboot on the training regime.  Terri is as devastated as I, as she was seeing changes in her body that she has never had in her entire life.  We are determined to get back to the gym as soon as possible, but short of holding a “Send a Calnan to Training” telethon on the public access channel (maybe this is where I should sell those pictures), the timeframe for our return to Prowler-Pushing and Tire-Flipping on Tuesdays is not clear.

The new training regime isn’t established yet, but it’s basically going to be Terri and I training each other 3 or 4 times a week.  I still have 5 weeks of bootcamp training to go, so my Monday/Wednesday/Friday mornings are scheduled for the next month.  With the equipment we’ve managed to acquire over the past year, we should be able to devise some pretty good kettlebell complexes, bodyweight sessions, and the occasional heavy lifting on our own (accepting donations of an Olympic Trap Bar, if you’ve got one laying unused in your garage).

With Spring apparently upon us (things are blooming, and the frogs are back!), we may even dust off the bicycles and start putting in some saddle time.  We haven’t led any rides in months, and I owe a friend or two a hilly ride to Black Diamond/Green River Gorge.

The next few months will probably be more of a mental than physical challenge.  We need to stay focused, even when the future gets foggy.