Wed 10/31 - Upper WO

Workout: Garage Gym
(165#Inc)5,5,145x6,6P
(Pullups)3x8
(85#OHP)3x7
(InvertRow)3x8
(30#Curl)10,Hx10
(35#Skulls)10,30x10
(Crunch)15
(10#RDeltFly)2x12
(Crunch)2x10

36 + 6 =  42 mins

Upper WO early this morning. Started with incline and pull-ups combo. This was a bit disappointing, but I think that I'm still not recovered from the heavy volume WO this weekend.  I upped the weight on incline and it felt heavy. I was doing this weight a few weeks ago and getting sets of 8 reps. 5 reps were all I can handle today for 2 sets and then dropped the weight and did paused reps. Pullups for sets of 8 were hard...and they definitely should NOT be. Left trap is still painful/tight from the weekend.  Although I loved the high volume WO's this past weekend, I need to reconsider the benefit if I can't recover from them.

Next was OHP and inverted rows on the new set of rings we hung in the garage. OHP was OK. Inverted rows were HARD. Don't know if my back is still THAT fatigued and/or if doing them on rings is a lot more difficult than a straight bar.  They were MUCH harder than they have ever been.  Next we did skull crushers, curls and crunches. Finished up with rear delt fly's and crunches.  Decent WO. Felt like I pushed fairly hard, but just didn't have it this morning.

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 175.4 this morning.

Sun 10/28 - Push Day (Volume)

Workout: Garage Gym
(145#Incline)7x5
(75#OHP)8x5
(50#DBInc)8,7,7
(20#IncFly)10,15x10
(30#Crunch)2x10
(35#Skulls)12,30x8
(15#LDelt)10,10x10
(Crunch)2x12

43 + 5 =  48 mins

Push day with volume and short rests. I enjoyed yesterday's workout so much, I decided to use same format for push day today. I started with incline and did sets of 5 every 2 mins until I couldn't do 5.  Since I didn't have a spotter today, I stopped at 7. I probably could've gotten another set, but didn't want to risk it. Then I did OHP for sets of 5 every 1.5 mins for 8 sets.  Next I raised the angle of incline and did DB incline for 3 sets, every 2 mins. Lots of pressing volume for me!

Then I did accessory work. I had to drop the weight on each exercise for the 2nd sets.  First I did incline fly's with weighted crunches. Then skull crushers, lateral delt raises and crunches.  Very nice WO. Lots of volume, not a lot of time.

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 176.8 this morning.

Sat 10/27 - Pull Day (Volume)

Workout: Garage Gym
(Pullups)8x6
(135#BOR)9x5
(30#SealRow)3x8
(Crunch)2x10
(30#Curl)10,Hx10
(Crunch)2x10

40 + 6 =  46 mins

Pull day with volume and short rests. Started with pull-ups and decided to do sets of 6 every 2 minutes until I couldn't get 6 reps. That means about 1.5 mins rest (30 seconds working).  Got 8 sets and was happy with that for 48 total reps.  Then I decided to do the same thing with bent over rows with sets of 5 reps. After 4 sets, I dropped the time from every 2 minutes to every 1.5 mins, so just about 1 min rest (30 seconds working). Got 9 sets of 5 for 45 reps. First 2 movements took 30 minutes, but that's a lot of work in 30 mins.

Then I did seal rows with crunches and finished up with curls and crunches.  Done in about 45 minutes with warmup.  Very nice.

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 175.0 this morning.

Wed 10/24 - Upper

Workout: Garage Gym
(145#Incline)8,8,8,7
(105#T-Bar)4x10
(50#DBShldr)8,45x,8,9
(Pullups)7,6,6
(Band)2x12
(Crunch)3x12
(30#Skulls)10
(30#Curl)10

48 + 8 =  56 mins

Early morning upper WO today.  It's not too cold yet, but it was 40 degrees this morning and the steel barbell gets fairly cold. I tried using cheap gardening gloves and they seemed to work fairly well after I cut the tips of the thumbs and pinky finger.

Started with incline and t-bar rows. Incline was decent. Tried for an 8th rep on 4th set and needed help. I should've stopped at 7. I'd like to say this was progress over the last WO, but since we were supersetting with rows, rests were longer between sets so it's not as comparable. I bumped the weight for rows today and it felt good. Then we raised angle of incline and did dumbbell incline/shoulder press with pull-ups. Pullups were a struggle after rows.

Then we did band pulls for rear delts with crunches. Finished up with some quick bi/tri work and another set of crunches.  Decent WO.

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 173.6 this morning.

Sun 10/21 - Push Day

Workout: Garage Gym
(145#Incline)8,8,8,6
(95#OHP)6,6,75x8,8
(50#DBInc)3x8
(20#IncFly)2x10
(Crunch)2x10
(35#Skulls)11,30x10,25x10
(Crunch)2x10
(15#LDelt)2x10

48 + 8 =  56 mins

Push day started with incline for 4 sets. Working out solo today, so didn't go near failure.  Felt pretty good about incline. Then I did OHP. I wanted reps to be around 8, so I dropped weight after 2 sets. Then I raised angle of incline and did 3 sets with dumbbells.  Then I did 2 sets of incline fly's with crunches. Next were skulls and crunches. Finished up with 2 sets of lateral delt raises.  Good WO.

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 175.8 this morning.

Sat 10/20 - Pull Day

Workout: Garage Gym
(Pullups)12,8,8,7
(90#T-Bar)4x8
(30#SealRow)3x10
(Crunch)3x12
(30#Curl)10,Hx10
(Crunch)2x15
(185#DeadLift)3,3,3,225x3,5
(90#PowerClean)6x3

58 + 8 =  66 mins

Pull day started with pull-ups. Decent, but I think my back is still fatigued from backpacking trip. Next we did T-bar rows for 4 sets. They aren't really T-Bar rows. It's a handle that slides on the barbell on one end and the other end is in a wood block/wedge I made. Then we did seal rows and crunches, then curls and crunches.

Then we moved to deadlift and power clean form work. Deadlifts felt good. Power cleans were a mixed bag of decent cleans and sloppy cleans. Tried one snatch and knees were NOT ready for that yet. Still sore post-backpacking trip.

Decent WO with some fun at the end.

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 172.8 this morning. Bloat finally leaving me from all the carbs on backpacking trip.

Sat 10/13 - Wed 10/17 - AT Backpacking Trip - 5 days, 61 miles - Unicoi Gap to Amicalola Falls State Park

Backpacking on the AT with Tom Coleman and Sarah.

Sat 10/13 Unicoi Gap to Low Gap shelter

9.7 miles. 6 hours. 

Started with decent climb, then rolling to down hill. Fire ready for us at the shelter. Stream right next to shelter. Colder than we expected & I think we’re going to be cold the next couple of nights. 

Sun 10/14 Low Gap shelter to Flat Rock campsite

12.2 miles. 9 hours w/ resupply at Mountain Crossings

Plan was to go 13.9 to Blood Mountain but Tom was struggling on climbs. We considered staying at Neels Gap, but pressed on to a campsite .7 up the climb instead of 2.5 to Blood Mountain. Nice campsite and a fire. Not too cold, probably 50 degrees. 

Mon 10/15 Flat Rock campsite to Gooch Mountain shelter 

14.5 miles 9 hours

Started at 8:30 & went up Blood Mountain, totally socked in. Didn’t look like many places to camp/hang. No water. Long day, feet hurt. Waiting for Tom is painful at times. Drizzle in the A.M. with fog, then cleared & got warm. A few nice views on the way. 

Tue 10/16 Gooch Mountain shelter to Stover Creek shelter 

12.9 miles 8 hours

Foggy in the morning, then cleared. Shortly after noon it started raining. Rain let up around 2pm during a break at a pretty waterfall. Shortly after we got back on trail it opened up. Walked up a river instead of a trail to the shelter. Goal was springer today, but we stopped 2.8 short. Supposed to rain until midnight. 

Wed 10/17 Stover Creek shelter to Springer Mountain (2.8) AT Souther Terminus, Springer to Amicalola Falls State park (8.8) 11.6 miles 6 hours

61 miles, 38 hours hiking.  Basically a work week worth of hiking.