Getting Back On Track: 26 November 2016 - 19 December 2016

It's been almost a month since I've written anything here, which might lead you to believe that I've either disappeared, given up, or just been a lazy shit who hasn't been training. As it turns out, none of those have been the case. What I have been is ridiculously busy and lacking in the motivation and energy to write down what I've been up to, so rather than break it into a bunch of different posts, I'm just going to bring the state of the blackbird up to speed all at once.

Moving Sucks

26-28 November were occupied by the move to my new apartment. This was its own special kind of hell-workout, because my old place was on the 3rd floor of a building with no elevator, and my new place is also on the 3rd floor of a building with no elevator. I had movers come to take care of the furniture and the bulky stuff that I couldn't carry on my own, but in my infinite wisdom I thought I'd just go ahead and handle all the rest myself. So we're talking easily over 1000 lbs of crap that I carried down three floors of stairs, loaded into my car, and then unloaded and carried back up three floors. Books, computer equipment, weight plates, dishes, you name it. The sad thing here is that I really thought I had gotten rid of a fair bit of stuff and didn't have a lot of extraneous junk to deal with. By the time I finished moving the last load, I was physically and mentally spent - and I still had to unpack it all.

Psytrancing At Elevation

01-04 December were travel days. I spent a couple days in Phoenix visiting friends, dealing with some business, and getting my hair recolored, and then I went to Denver to visit some other friends and go to their psytrance event on Saturday night. Anyone who knows me knows that I am all about the full-on 140-145 BPM psytrance, and I danced my ass off for basically the whole event. So I'm calling that my first at-elevation workout. Maybe it's not running or lifting weights or swimming or any sort of "formal" exercise, but I have to think that shaking one's ass and flailing around like a banshee for 6 hours, pretty much non-stop, ought to count for something. My entire upper back and shoulders were sore the next day.

Back in the Gym

Once back from my Phoenix/Denver adventures, and with my new apartment slowly getting organized and decluttered, I started finding the time to get my ass back into the gym and back to formal workouts. Also, during the previous couple of weeks, I'd fallen off the nutrition wagon a little bit, and I'm sure I wasn't getting sufficient protein or supplementation, because, well, it's just really easy to forget about that stuff when you're up to your eyeballs in more pressing affairs. However, the thing I have to remember is that if I'm really doing this shit, I can't sacrifice the data collection aspect of my training. So...

06 December 2016:

Workout type: heavy objects, light cardio
Muscle groups: chest, triceps
Group 1:
DB bench press: 45x20, 45x20, 50x15, 50x12
Pushups: 20, 20, 15, 12
Group 2:
Cable fly (3 position): 5x10x3, 6x10x3, 7x10x3, 6x10x3
Seated chest press: 110x20, 110x20, 120x15, 130x12
Group 3:
Seated dips: 20, 20, 15, 12
Tricep pressdown: 9x20, 9x20, 10x15, 12x12
Cardio:
Treadmill @ 2.0% incline, 15 minutes, 1.15 miles
Biometrics: [weights | cardio]

07 December 2016:

Workout type: heavy objects
Muscle groups: shoulders, back, biceps
DB shoulder press: 35x15, 35x15, 45x15
3-way DB raise: 12.5x15, 12.5x15, 12.5x15
Seated row: 90x15, 90x15, 90x15
Lat pulldown with flexible bar: 90x15, 90x15, 60x20
Machine bicep curl: 30x20+10 half, 30x20 + 10 half, 30x20
Incline press: 90x20, 90x20, 110x20

10 December 2016:

Workout type: skiing [raw data]
Top speed: 22.8mph
Distance: 12.4mi

11 December 2016:

Workout type: skiing [track 1 | track 2]
Top speed: 24.2mph
Distance: 20.55mi

13 December 2016:

Workout type: heavy objects
Muscle groups: legs
Warmup: 0.7 mile run
Barbell squat: 95x10, 135x8, 220x8x3, 240x5, 260x2x2, 315x1
DB walking lunges: 30, 40, 40
Standing 1-leg curl: ?x15, ?x20 (I didn't see the weight setting)
Biometrics: [warmup | weights]

14 December 2016:

Workout type: heavy objects
Muscle groups: chest, triceps
Bench press: 45x10, 135x5, 225x4, 245x3, 275x2, 280x1
DB incline press (2 grips): 35x15x2, 35x15x2, 27.5x15x2
Tricep pressdown: 60x20, 60x20, 60x20
Hanging leg raise: 30, 30
Biometrics: [weights]

17 December 2016:

Workout type: skiing [track 1 | track 2]
Top speed: 26.4mph
Distance: 26.94mi

18 December 2016:

Workout type: treadmill running (1.5% incline)
Distance: 3.0 miles
Time: 40:05
Biometrics: [track 1 | track 2]

19 December 2016:

Workout type: heavy objects
Muscle groups: back, biceps
Group 1:
Lat pulldown: 135x20, 135x20, 140x15, 145x12
1-arm DB row: 50x20, 50x20, 50x15, 50x12
Group 2:
Seated row: 10x20, 10x10, 11x15, 12x12
DB hammer curl: 35x20, 35x20, 40x15, 45x12
Group 3:
Machine bicep curl: 9x20, 9x20, 10x15, 11x12
External rotation: 3x20, 3x20, 3x20, 3x20
Biometrics: [weights]

And, with that, we're current on workout logs again, and hopefully I'll start making the time to keep this updated more frequently and accurately. I've got a few non-training-related topics to comment on, too, but generally, I'd say things are pretty good.