[Mister C]

2511
This morning's fun in the sun was workout #38 from the Greskull conditioning book.
10 mountain climbers
1 burpee
25 rounds
5:01

Finished off with:
Accumulate 60 seconds in the L-sit position (parallettes):
22/13/10/12/3

Notes:
Should have got that routine under 5 minutes, but did 15 mountain climbers during 1 round. *facepalm*
Actually, should have done this a lot faster anyway, but I'm hardly firing on all cylinders right now, and conditioning's not really my main focus. And I stopped every 5 rounds to mark them off so I didn't lose count. And I'm sure I can think of more excuses.
Liked that routine, good one for travelling. Will give it another go when I'm in better shape, and maybe try the suggestion in the book to "if you're a stud, feeling ballsy, and only take a few minutes to knock this out, wait a minute or 2, then repeat the process for another set." Wouldn't that be fun?
Annoyed not to get the L-sit done in 4 sets, just lost my balance at the end of the 4th.

[Mister C]

4611
Deads:
2 x 5 @ 130kg

Floor press:
2 x 5 @ 50kg
1 x 15 @ 50kg

Weighted chinups:
2 x 7 @ 20kg

Notes:
Having a go at something Greyskull-ish in terms of strength work.
Greyskull specify 1 set of deads to failure, but since I know from experience that's a good way for me to hurt myself, I'm going 2 sets of 5.
Doing floor press since I don't have bench facilities.
Still figuring out exactly how I'm going to work this in, but enjoyed it.

[Mister C]

7611
Finally got round to going to the adults class at Basingstoke Gymnastics Centre. Great facility, really well-equipped, loads of kids and teenagers there with killer abs, doing ridiculously impressive things.
Started off doing lots of forward rolls, rolls to handstand etc. This succeeded in making me super-nauseous after about 2 minutes, so I had to spend about 15 minutes sitting out and observing.
Then we went on the parallel bars, doing swings, moving up and down from the initial support position to the top-of-the-dip position, and playing with progression to the shoulder support position. Good fun.
Then onto the rings - started off with muscle-up progressions, then German hangs and skin-the-cats. Then we moved on to swings on the big rings, a lot harder than they looked.
Finished off with some tumbling over blocks and stuff. Again this made me nauseous(!), so didn't do that much of this. Asked the coach how to get over this, he said just to stick with it, and sit out when I felt it so I didn't chuck up on his mat!
All in all good fun, although I still felt sick when I went to bed. Will certainly go back, might go to one of their "Freestyle" sessions where I can work on stuff that doesn't make me want to resurrect my dinner.

[moose]

Cool!

[Mister C]

You know what? It was pretty cool (ahem, apart from the nearly vomiting bit).

9611
In the garden today for an unsstructured gymnastics practice session: muscle-ups, ring dips, skin-the-cat, German hang, tucked back levers, various ring complexes, rolling pistols, one-legged box jumps, handstands.
Finished off with a quick metcon of:
20 double-unders
20 seldgehammer swings
5 rounds
4:21

Notes:
Enjoyed the whole "doing-what-I-felt-like" vibe of this session.
Was pretty strict on the muscle-ups. Also had a couple of lightbulb moments on the rolling pistols and the handstands (realised I needed to stop my right leg from pulling me over by actually paying attention to what it was doing!).
Metcon was hard work, my conditioning's taken quite a hit. Oddly I'm not actually that fussed about it.

[FK Pimp]

moose, on 08 June 2011 - 03:29 PM, said:

Cool!

agreed - on my list of post Tri activities, Keep us posted how you get on. I think Schwinners is also still going to adult classes.

Are you SPSing C?

[Mister C]

Think Schwinners had to stop because he moved jobs.
Will be there mate, but not competing this year. Will be officiating/lugging stuff about/helping/getting in the way for the morning.
How about you?

[FK Pimp]

the same - see you there.

[Mister C]

Look forward to seeing you there buddy.



11611
Squats:
2 x 5 @ 87.5kg
1 x 8 @ 87.5kg

Press:
2 x 5 @ 45kg
1 x 11 @ 45kg

Finished off with some L-rope climbs (8-foot rope, seated start) and handstand practice.

Notes:
That session got more and more enjoyable as it went on. Found the squats hard, especially the max reps set. Might have got a couple more reps, but wasn't feeling too confident. Could tell I've not squatted much lately, which needs rectification.
Pressing was hard, pleased to get into double figures on the max rep set, bloody hard work though.
Felt strong on the rope climbs, zipped up there! Handstands are improving too, think I managed to hold one for a mighty 5 seconds!
Really enjoyed that session, just shorts and shades on in the sun.

[Mister C]

17611
Felt dodgy at the start of the week. Did some gymnastic practice yesterday while dodging showers, but that's been about it. Back to it properly today though.

Deads:
2 x 5 @ 132.5kg

Floor press:
2 x 5 @ 55kg
1 x 11 @ 55kg

Finished off with 5 x 3 ice-cream makers and some handstands.

[Mister C]

Right, the deads/floor press workout I did on Friday left me utterly spent, so time for yet another reappraisal. It seems that lifting heavy knocks me on my backside, and I don't even want to consider what metcon work would do to me, so having had some consultations with a wise man for the next month (at least), there's going to be no lifting heavy and no metcon; in fact I'm only going to be doing what I feel like doing, and at the moment that seems to be unstructured gymnastics sessions in the garden, and long walks. Anything else seems to leave me totally exhausted for several days, so that seems to be what I'm left with. Might do some work capacity/GPP-type stuff when I feel particularly energetic (!), and hope to be doing some sprints, but walking and gymnastics it is for the time being. Oh, and eating.

18-19611
Rest

20611
4-mile walk

21611
4-mile walk.
Gymnastics practice - finally got pull-overs on my scaffolding (yes, I know 5-year-olds can do it) so that was pretty pleasing. Handstand work is progressing too. Chucked bar muscle-ups into the mix as well.

[Mister C]

What mate? The fact that I'm finally realising that rest is not necessarily a 4-letter word?!

23611
More gymnastics, more handstands and pullovers, and some rope climbing.


24611
5-mile hike - Bagnor and Boxford, gorgeous countryside.

[Mister C]

25611
Gymnastic session at home - rope climbs, ring complexes, headstands (pathetic!), handstands (improving all the time), pull-overs (got these sorted now, very chuffed).


26611
4-mile walk.

[Mister C]

27611
Gymnastics session in the garden today.
A bit more structured today - 2 sets of 3 reps of:
Bulgarian dip to L-sit
Inverted pullup
Support to hip raise
L-hang to German hang
Leg raise to 5-count L-sit
Skin-the-cat

Finished with more handstands and pullovers.

Note:
Doesn't look like much, but my arms are killing me now!

[Mister C]

28611
5 mile walk - Woolhampton and Midgham.


29611
More fun with the rings today. Complex of:
Muscle-up
Dutch dip
Bulgarian dip
Hip raise
L-hold to inverted L-hold
German hang
Back lever support (lower from upside down hang with straight body as far a strength will allow).
7 sets of this complex.

Finished off with handstands (getting far more consistent with these) and kip-to-support on the rings (got 2 at the end of the session).

Notes:
Deliberately keeping the volume quite low on the gymnastic work, since it's a new skill and I don't want to cause too much wear-and-tear on the joints, and because I'm still pretty knackered. Good fun learning new skills though, was very happy to get the kip-to-support during my first sesson trying them.

[Mister C]

Quick update:
Since mid-last-week I've been exhausted again, so took it easy. Not been doing much, just some walking (which I've been enjoying a lot, partly because we're looking after a friend's dog), and mucking about in the garden with a bit of gymnastics, although not much of the latter. Just been doing a few handstands, pullovers and the odd ring muscle-up. Today I went for another long walk with the mutt, and tried some Pose running with my new Merrell Barefoot shoes - nothing much, a few 400 metre jogs, but I think I picked up the technique pretty well, and quite enjoyed it. The shoes are great too.
After my energy levels dipped again last week, I set myself a challenge not to do any formal training this week. So far so good, and wierdly, I'm quite enjoying not doing anything, and taking the pressure off. In fact, I'm getting the compulsion to train much less, but at the same time I'm thinking a lot about what to do when I do re-start. Instinctively, this feels like the "right" thing to do, so won't be doing anything structured for a while. Feel like I might have a little more energy, but what I do feel is some nebulous sense of getting better.
Oops, this has become less a training log, more a diary/confessional!

[FK Pimp]

It's good to share bud.

[Ed Flood]

Have you done any reading on adrenal fatigue, Chris? Granted it's a kind of catch-all term naturopathic witchdoctors apply to general malaise but apparently there is a link with chronically elevated cortisol and if you're getting towards the end of the Ph.D chances are that cortisol levels are high (*shudder* flashback!) even without doing metcon style stuff and pursuing PBs.

[Mister C]

Funny thing is, I've had my cortisol checked and it's apparently within normal limits. I've done quite a bit of reading, and corresponded with some researchers in, overtraining syndrome, and that seems to fit with my symptoms. Unfortunately there are no biomarkers for it, so I can't get a definitive diagnosis, but 3 weeks of no training and I'm certainly feeling better, so I guess the cure of rest is working.
And I'm only halfway through my PhD, so plenty of time for my cortisol to hit the roof!