I felt like dirt friday and when my alarm went off I just stayed in bed! I can not even remember the last time I didnt get up for a workout :/ I generally go regardless of how I feel but it had been such an emotionally draining week and my head was trying to explode and it was really a pointless workout at I was beginning a new program this week and it just felt right to stay in bed. And I didnt regret it at all!!
Saturday was the funeral and making sure that Devri got food and was doing alright until it was time to go home. Then I went home and laid down and did not much of anything the rest of the day. It was a good change to not have to do much of anything and I definitely needed a day like that. Sunday was church and several emergencies and more rest :) I feel so lucky to have gotten to rest as much as I did.
Ok, so now on to this current training program. I have rambled some about it in my videos. Relentless, where do I begin. Last fall I happened upon a few links on a couple of pages that I followed by powerlifting/weight lifting people about this Relentless Detroit. I clicked on a link and did a bit of research and it was a very legit group of people who were putting on a powerlifting event to raise money for families that had children with cancer or were terminally ill. I contact Tommy Westoff who was in charge of the event because I couldnt get stupid paypal to work and he told me about Relentless and I was hooked on wanting to help support it as much as I could.
Currently there are two meets, one in Detroit in the fall and one in Minnesota in the spring. By the time that Minnesota rolled around I was pretty much in tune with how to support the different lifters and enjoyed watching the live stream. A few weeks after the meet was over I received a message from JJ Thomas asking if I was going to lift in Detroit. Now I had received this question a lot by various lifters that I had supported but had always told them no because, well, because. It is easy to say no than to step out on a limb and put yourself out there by saying yes. Well JJ didnt take no for an answer and he pretty much said he was going to pencil me in and you and I both know being penciled in is pretty much saying, you are doing it. Honestly, as much as I am not ready for such a thing physically, it is something that I had on my list of things that I would like to do. Sometimes it takes a great cause to make you get yourself ready because Relentless isnt about me, it is about God and the children and how could I not want to make it my first meet?!
With this on the table, I knew I needed help because I know nothing about how to prepare for a powerlifting meet. And it is about the children but I still have to do my best and I refuse to not be prepared for that. So lucky for me, I had the opportunity to go to a Paul Carter, Lift-Run-Bang, seminar in Tucson. I was able to meet with him for about an hour before to go over my deads since I was only going to be able to attend the one day. Being completely honest, I do not care for his online persona. I had been told that he was actually nice in person and he was. He is very soft spoken and extremely helpful as he has the eye for knowing exactly what you need to do differently to fix your lift. I wish I could have actually spent one extra hour of one on one going over squats and bench and then I could have left. :D My introvert, boring, dont like to lift around others, personality would have gotten way more out of that. Yes, I know, not wanting lot lift around others is probably the biggest reason I said no all those times :)
I asked Paul if he would be interested in writing my programing and he actually agreed even though I am not a very nice person :) Knowing that nutrition is as important as ones lifting program, I contacted Nick Shaw, Renaissance Periodization, to do my nutritional programing. Now I know that one does not have to go to these extremes to lift in a powerlifting meet but I am very busy, too busy and there is not much energy, let alone mental energy, left to put into what I should lift and what I should eat. Maybe the only good thing about working ALL the time is that it affords one the financial ability to pay for such things so I dont have to think about it! And, I do better when I am being babysat because I tend to go way too easy on myself and let myself get away with less than what I should. When I am accountable to someone else than I do not want to let them down and so I try to at least meet if not exceed their expectations.
Thankfully by saturday I was starting to feel better and sunday was almost normal other than a nagging cough. I got to bed at a decent time and the phone never rang and I woke up about 2:30 and dozed on and off until 4. I tried very hard to manage my time better than usual because the volume on this program is way way more than I make myself do, once again, hence the reason I need someone else to tell me what to do.
The program is broken up in to two lower body days and two upper body days. Mondays are squats and deads, tuesdays bench and rows, thursdays are front squats and stiff legs and fridays are OHP and bis and tris. It is a good thing squats and deads are on monday because I am not sure I would have it in me to do them any other day!!
squats and deads
because of the volume, I did not do any treadmilling!
squats
*45# for 20
*95# for 10
*115# for 8
*135# for 5
*155# for 4
*175# for 3
*185# for 2
*205# for 1
*165# for 5 sets of 5
low bar squats will take a bit to get used to. they are killer on the wrists and they make me feel like I am leaning way too far forward.
I need to work on being more explosive, I suck! I try to hard to think of everything that I am supposed to do and then I go so slow that nothing works.
deads (standing on a 45# plate)
*245# for 5
*275# for 4
*315# for 2 and a FAIL
I actually stopped after the second one and started to walk away and just couldnt let myself not try! I still failed but at least I tried. I know that that really isnt acceptable either but it is better to have tried and failed than to have never tried.
*245# for 3 sets of 3
Im a mess!
I was so done but there was more left to do. I am telling you, I generally take lots of time in between my sets because I am inherently lazy but with this, there is so much volume I dont stop. It is load plates and go. In fact, I have decided to change my morning schedule! Suzy hold the boat! For me to change, it has to be a good reason and the fact that it will soon be hotter than the surface of the sun in the gym and I figure it is pointless to get up and shower, go sweat to soaking and then shower again. So now I am going to get up, put on a ball cap (keep my hair out of my eyes and collect some sweat) and work out and then go home and shower. If nothing else I am sure the kids will be very happy about it because I will be home more of the time when they are up and getting ready for school.
one legged leg press
*90# for 5 sets of 5 each leg
I have done 200# one legged presses before and I tried it but I couldnt do it without cheating so I dropped weight and did them slow and full range of motion.
HLRs
*2 sets of 30
It was a monday today at the office. We are short staffed and will probably remain that way for awhile because Devri is unsure of how long she will need to be off and we had an employee quit and my cousin is coming in a few weeks and we have another girl who is going to vet tech school coming as well in a few weeks so then we will be good. I tell the girls that we just have to work extra hard.
Today we were on it and did great and we had one of our clients who is a lion hunter come down with two dogs for surgery. One of them had been shot in the paw after the bullet had gone through and killed the lion. The bullet was embedded under her main pad.
We finished with surgeries before noon and got everybody off to lunch and the afternoon went smoothly even though it was really busy as well. I am very blessed to have a great team of people working for me and they all just get in there and do what needs to be done with no whining and no drama! It makes work good despite the fact that it is crazy busy.
