Wed 1/8 - Lower (Great RDL)

Workout: (LA Fitness)
(RDL)185x8,225x8,245x8,8,8,8 Great!
(LegPress)4PLx25,6PLx5x20 V. Good. High reps were brutal!
(60#LegCurl)3x10
(35#LegExt)2x10
53 mins + 20 w/u = 73 mins

Went to the gym tonight with Sarah after work. Holy crap it was packed. Found a treadmill to warm up on for 10+ mins. Went downstairs and the 2 leg press machines were taken, so we started with RDL tonight. Felt great. Warmed up with 185, then first working set at 225#'s felt pretty easy. I bumped up the weight to 245#s and did 4 sets. Kinda wanted to do a 5th set, but this was enough. This was some good work. By this time, a leg press machine opened up so we jumped in. Since we were sharing the press, I only used 6 plates so we didn't have to change so many out every time we swapped turns. Despite the lighter weight, this was a shit ton of work. I did 1 warmup set of 4 plates x 25 reps and then did 5 sets of 20 reps with 6 plates. Talk about a burn in the quads! Did the reps with a good quick tempo, not locking out at the top to keep tension on. These are killers. Sarah agreed once she started using the same technique :)

Leg extensions next up, but quads were on fire, so we did leg curls (hamstrings) first and then I finished up with 2 quick sets of leg extensions.

We didn't have a ton of time tonight (no time for abs), but the first two movements (RDL & leg press) were the meat of the WO and both were really good. I was very pleased with RDL tonight.

Nutrition:
I weighed 177.0 this morning. Fairly good nutrition day today and kept the cals at about 3,000 again today. Upped the fat with some peanut butter and almonds. Still not high enough though.  Trying to fuel some growth :)

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	234	408	51	3,016
	Calories	936	1633	457	3,026
	Percent	31%	54%	15%	`

Tue 1/7 - GBR Upper

Mon 1/6 - Rest day. 
Ate about 2,600 cals. Weight was 179.2. That's fairly heavy for me, but not feeling pudgy really at all.  Bought a pair of 34" waist jeans and had to return them and get 32" one's. Nice to be close to 180 pounds and still be in smaller jeans than I wore in college, even late in high school

Tue 1/7 - GBR Upper
Workout: IronBound 12/24
(115#OHP)7,6,6,6,95#x10 Very good.
(155#BOR)4x10 Good
(Inc)70x8,75x8,7,6 Weight bump - good
(170#Pulldown)4x8 Weight bump
(LegRaise)3x12
(70#OHTri)12,11
(40#IncCurl)10,9
(10#LatDelt)2x15
(10#RearDelt)2x10
(35#IncFly)3x10
(35#Rope)12/5,5,5,4
75 mins + 10 w/u = 85 mins

Lightened up overhead press today for some higher volume sets. They didn't turn out to be much higher volume, but felt good. Was hoping for sets of 7, but couldn't hold those reps. So, I dropped to 95 for a 5th set and getting 10 was tough.(14mins). I lightened BOR a bit too as 185 felt real heavy last WO. 155 felt good, but 10 reps across sets was real work. (13/27mins). I started with my regular (lately) 70# DB's for incline, and first set felt fairly easy so I bumped to 75#'s. These were NOT easy and reps dropped off after 2nd set. Good work and hopefully I can work back up to 4x8 with 75's. (13/40mins). I bumped weight up on pulldowns and reps were good (and tough). Supersetted these with leg raises.(12/52mins).  That made up the bulk of my WO today. Note it includes a vertical press, vertical pull, horizonal press & horizontal pull. Balance...

The rest of the WO was some accessory stuff. OH tri's were good. I did incline fly's for the first time in a long while and they felt good. Not much to note about the rest.  Very good WO. Exhausting though. I didn't work out until later in the day and I don't think I ate near enough to fuel this WO.

Nutrition:
I weighed 177.6 this morning. I want to keep maintenance to slight bulking calories for now and ride this wave of great WO's and hopefully some growth. I'm getting stronger on main lifts, so good things going on while not packing on a lot of fat. Good nutrition day today, other than the fact that I probably need significantly more fat in my diet and less carbs.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	228	450	27	2,974
	Calories	913	1800	241	2,954
	Percent	31%	61%	8%	`

Sun 1/5 - Pull Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(185#BOR)5x8 Good - felt REALLY heavy today
(135#BOR)2x10
(160#Pulldown)5x8
(90#IsoRow)3x10
(40#IncCurl)9,8,8
(65#SeatRow)2x10
(145#RevGripPull)4x10
(HangLegRaise)4x10 Good - real high raises
(10#RDelt)4x12
(85#BBCurl)7,7,6
(Crunch)12,12,10
(Bicycle)60
96 mins + 10 w/u = 106 mins

Sarah and I started with bent over rows and 185#'s felt heavy as hell today. Much heavier than last WO. I think RDL's were still in my back from Friday. They were still good, but had to us a little more body english than I'd like. The drop sets at 135 felt great.(19mins). Pulldowns were good. Have to get back to some pullups, plus I'd like to see where Sarah stands on them now that we've been doing a fair amount of back/pull work the last couple weeks. We used the iso row machine at LA Fitness today, and I just don't like how it feels very much (golds is better), so we did 2 sets of seated rows after these. I went too heavy, and Sarah pointed out that I was leaning back too much (good partner). We supersetted incline curls w/ the iso rows. These were good, but heavy. 

Reverse grip pulldowns were good and I supersetted with hanging leg raises. Abs are getting stronger and did raises really high and controlled. Hell on my shoulders and elbows though. I did rear delts standing w/ 10# plates again. These seem to hit 'em well. Supersetted with heavy barbell curls. I should switch these earlier in the routing every other WO.  Finished up w/ crunches, alternating one leg raised at a time and finished off the abs with 60 bicycles. These really finish them off and burn lower abs.

Another really good WO. Not as pleased with BOR today, but got the job done.

Sarah and I took a few videos in the gym today. Sarah's back is getting pretty defined. I showed her the video and she was impressed. Glad to see what we are doing is working for her and she also seems to be enjoying working out with me a lot. She's a good partner, but I have to give her a bit of a hard time now and then when she pouts if she misses reps in a set. :)

Nutrition:
I weighed 175.2 this morning. Ate a lot today to help recover (build) from the last 3 big WO's Fri-Sun. Didn't want weight dropping so low this morning. I may have over compensated today with sushi, a fair amount of eating and then shrimp stir fry at Sarah's w/ her family.

Sat 1/4 - Push Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(125#OHP)5x5 Wt. bump. Very good
(85#OHP)11,9
(70#DBInc)4x8 Good
(65#DBBench)10,9,8
(165#DecCGBP)10,9,8,8 Very good
(LegRaise)4x15
(10#LatDelt)3x12
(30#FrontDelt)3x8
(30#Rope)15/+5,5,5,5
(160#ChestFly)2x12
79 mins + 10 w/u = 89 mins

I bumped the weight on OHP and every rep from the start felt pretty heavy. Very pleased I got all sets at 5 reps. Started each set at 2.5 mins.The drop sets were really good for some more volume. After pushing pretty hard on OHP, I warmed up w/ 50# dumbbells for incline and they felt HEAVY. I almost didn't try sets with 70#'s. Glad I did because I was able to get 4 good sets w/ them. If I can hold the weight w/ incline as I keep progressing with OHP, I'll be thrilled. That's the goal for this pressing training block.  Bench was also good today. Lots of good pressing.

Decline close grip was good today, but I can't yet get sets of 10 across. I'll keep trying, but triceps are fairly fried by this point. Supersetted with leg raises here.  I did lateral delts with 10# plates again, keeping them really controlled. These seem to stimulate the delts better than heavier DB's. I also lowered the weigth on front delt raises because I felt last time I was swinging the weight up too much.  Good delt work.

Finished up the WO with myo-rep rope pushdowns and 2 sets of chest fly's.  Great push WO again today. Very pleased with how WO's are going lately.

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.0 this morning. I'm probably back down from huge carb load during vacation, but ate a lot today. I should stabilize next week when back at work full time and see where I stand at that point. No hard cut in the near future.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	214	370	45	2,741
	Calories	857	1479	407	2,743
	Percent	31%	54%	15%	`

Fri 1/3 - Lower

Workout: (LA Fitness)
(LegPress)8PLx4x15 Good
(235#RDL)5x8 Weight bump. Very good
(35#LegExt)3x10
(55#LegCurl)3x10 Weight bump
(LegRaise)3x15
50 mins + 20 w/u = 70 mins

Warmed up well on the treadmill and did warmup sets on leg press of 2Platesx20, 4PLx15, 6PLx15 and then did 8plates 4x15 for my working sets. 6 plates didn't feel quite as easy warming up as the last WO, but I went with 8 plates anyway and glad I did. These felt good. Started sets every 2.5 minutes, so did that work in 10 mins, but rested a good couple of 3-4 minutes before moving into Romanian Deadlifts.

I warmed up on RDL w/ 135# and then 185#. I bumped the working set weight to 235#'s today and it felt really good. I was considering doing one additional heavier set of 5 reps, but lower back has been a little tender, so I played it safe. Very good work. Some issues with calluses that I need to shave off tomorrow.

Finished off the WO with one-legged leg extension and then leg curls (bumped weight by 5#'s on leg curls). Leg curls were supersetted w/ leg raises. I did hanging leg raises today. These seem to work better than using the captain chair, but they are just hell on my elbows and shoulders.  Another very solid lower WO.

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.8 this morning. Fairly good nutrition day today.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	229	378	36	2,763
	Calories	914	1511	320	2,745
	Percent	33%	55%	12%	`

Thu 1/2 - Rest Day

Much needed rest day. Rest from heavy workout load, and rest from heavy eating!  I weighed 179.0 this morning. Gotta reign it back in a bit, but not ready to start cutting yet. I want to drop a little carb weight and stabilize, then go from there.  I'm making good strength gains and want to keep that going for a bit.

Nutrition:
I weighed 179.0 this morning. Ate cleaner and leaner today (that wasn't hard compared to the last two weeks though...)

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	217	273	27	2,206
	Calories	867	1091	242	2,199
	Percent	39%	50%	11%	`

Wed 1/1 - WO & 5K Race

WO: Press and Core (LA Fitness)
(SmithOHP)95#x15, 115#x10,10
(60#Inc)3x10
15mins

Core Circuit:
(CableCrunch)5x10
(LegRaise)5x10
(25#RussianTwist)5x12
(Crunch)8,6,6,6,10
(Bicycle)0,0,0,20,20
Started each circuit at 4 mins = 20 mins

Sarah and I went to the gym early so we could get a WO in before the New Years day 5k race. We'd been in the gym the last 3 days with WO's of Legs (Sun), Push (mon), Pull (Tue) so I didn't know exactly what we should do in the gym, but wanted to start the new year with a WO. So, we did a little pressing and a great core circuit.  The smith overhead press was great. It really isolates the shoulders. First set was too light, but next weight was great. We both had to go lighter than normal on incline because of OHP and because we were using very short rests due to time constraints.  Ab circuit was really good. Mental note: Start with leg raises so abs are fresher each circuit.

Race: 2014 Rotary Resolution 5k & 10k
Results: http://www.amazingracetiming.com/results/2014/2014-rotary-resolution-5k-10k/249-results-5k.html

The race was fun. Cold, but nice day for it. Race started at 10:30am which gave us time for the gym in the morning before hand.  Sarah ran with me, but she could've run faster. Neither of us had been running much since she did the Richmond marathon because we've both been dealing with IT band issues.  Our first mile was 8:18 and my quads were dead already. They were still sore from heavy leg day on Sunday. I'd gone heavier than I had in months and just didn't recover. I don't know the other splits, but I think 2nd mile was pretty slow.  We both finished first in our age groups in 26:34, me in the "old man" division, her in the young pup division :) 
Great was to start the new year. After the race we stopped by her folks house to say Happy New Year and then went for Sushi at our favorite place, Dolce coffee and sushi shop.