MacFhearchair's off-season anti-slack

[Alan H]

Friday I made it back to the gym as planned.

I was a lot weaker; possibly due to muscle soreness sustained from Monday's work out. I did squats, deads, and bench presses but I don't actually remember any of my numbers, and I kept getting dizzy after dead lifts. I'm breathing right and I'm focusing on proper form. *shrug* I hadn't eaten a lot on Monday (I go through periods of higher and lower food interest and I try to give my body what it wants most of the time) so that could definitely be part of it.

I did 25 KB swings @ 25# and some ab-torture in the form of alternating cross-crunches, hanging leg lifts, jack-knife style sit ups, and head stands. I had a TON of energy, but it felt more ballistic, like I wanted to run an obstacle course instead of weight lifting.

I plan to go back tomorrow and do some climbing and a couple quick sets of lifts.

I found a dirt/wood chip field near my house that could potentially serve as a nice place to practice throwin'. I have a suitable practice stone and a LWD weight. I have a fork that needs to be prepped, and I need a sheaf, but I could theoretically start practicing that soon, too.

It occurs to me I could grab a 30lb kettlebell and use that as a WOB practice weight. It's only 2lbs too heavy, right? Hmmm...

I've pulled all the other cabers off, but "your" caber is still out at the field. It may be joined in a few weeks by the VERY cut-down, Cardinal Caber. That thing will feel very much like the caber you had at Ventura...short but very heavy. It used to be 16 feet, it's now 11 feet, as I cut off the cracked part. I'll get some fiberglass tape around the big end and leave it out there this winter for you to bust a gut with.

[MacFhearchair]

I've pulled all the other cabers off, but "your" caber is still out at the field. It may be joined in a few weeks by the VERY cut-down, Cardinal Caber. That thing will feel very much like the caber you had at Ventura...short but very heavy. It used to be 16 feet, it's now 11 feet, as I cut off the cracked part. I'll get some fiberglass tape around the big end and leave it out there this winter for you to bust a gut with.

Yeah, if I randomly go missing, check the field. If you find me lifeless under a caber, know that I died doing something I loved.

[Alan H]

I actually have another present for you, which I need to remember to bring, soon....

[MacFhearchair]

Oooh a present? I'm looking forward to seeing that plaid you mentioned.


Tonight was pretty good! I did squats at 135 - like six of them. I did 40 lb dumbbell bench presses (so 80 lb total) and I did some landmines with an unloaded 45 lb bar. I don't know anything about form so I just kinda messed with it for a while. It's surprisingly challenging.

...but I reached a new milestone on deadlifts.

Two hundred.
...and five pounds.

Then I went and did two challenging climbs (a particularly nasty 5.10a and a normal-ish 10b) and another one that wasn't so challenging (5.9) except that I had worn myself out on the weights. I hung out in a sauna, much to the pleasure of my muscles, for about 15 min after, and then got on my bike and rode 3 mi home.

And now I'm about to pass the heck out! I was going to stay up and watch a movie or something but I think I might just fall over instead.

[MacFhearchair]

An update, but first a story (copied over from a post I put on my FB wall yesterday night):

Tonight I (while working out with a female friend) finished up a set of 185# deadlifts (after several 135# squats and other such nonsense) and was doing a set of landmines when a fellow comes up and asks if we have anymore sets to do.

Of course I offered to hand over control of the rack right away and started picking up the plate on the floor and arranging to put the bar back on the rack. The guy starts telling us that we really ought to use a different set of weights next time because the solid weights are less ideal than the rubber ones for deadlifts, and also there's no reason we need to do them in the rack (he said this without noting that a crossfit class was in full swing making the rubber plates unavailable to us anyway). Then he takes the bar away from me while I'm lifting it to re-rack it and says "I've got it".

I walked around for a while feeling really bad about this, and I wasn't sure why. Then I asked a member of the staff if the facility particularly cared whether or not I used rubber or solid plates for deadlifts. When they confirmed they did not, I thought about the situation for a while, and then I went back to the guy at the rack, and here's what I said:

"Thanks anyway, but just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I need weightlifting advice. I do this a lot, and I'm pretty comfortable with how I do it, and I didn't ask you for help."

He immediately began stumbling over himself apologizing and explaining that's not what he meant etc. etc. I sort of waved goodbye with a half-smile and walked off, and I felt pretty bad - maybe he wasn't being sexist, maybe he really thought he was being helpful?

...and then it occurred to me that the likelihood of him telling a pair of dudes to go deadlift some other weights next time was pretty minimal, and my intuition that I'd just gotten mansplained was probably pretty accurate, and anyway, I felt better for having stood up for myself when the way someone treated me made me feel bad, instead of just sucking it up like I often do.

Tl; dr : gym-time can be kinda unpleasant for women sometimes. Asserting oneself can help.


...so as you can see, I got to the gym last night and I did some lifting. I also did some ab torture and already I'm noticing results. Woot.

Last week was a bit of a bust. I tried to lift on Wednesday after a good lifting session on monday, but the muscles in my hips would NOT have it. I did some other stuff and on Friday I had a medical procedure and no exercise happened at all.

Today I went out and did some throwing. I can pick the candy caber so easily now it's almost a joke. Seriously, I lost grip on it at one point and caught it with my fingertips and controlled it. It's stupidly easy for me to manage now, but my technique in pulling is still assy because I can only turn it a small subset of the time. Granted, I was racing against sundown and giving myself NO TIME between picks and pulls, but I'm strong enough that my ratio should be better even still. ...dammit.

I really want to measure my LWD - I have a sneaking suspicion it's over 45 feet on some of these throws.

Stones can bite my ****. ...but I did a few practice tosses. That rock I found is heavy enough, but the shape is pretty bad. I'll keep looking.

I really miss 2x weekly practice. I miss it hard.

[RogerWS76]

The early darkness is killing our Wednesday night practices until the Government decides it's time to change the time again. Very much missing them AND the guys too!

[Alan H]

Soon there will be a big mo caber out there that will challenge you to pick it, even though it's only 11 feet long.

[MacFhearchair]

Last week was a bit of a bust due to holiday travels and adventures. ...That's sort of expected, right?

I missed Monday because I was still adventuring, and got back to the gym Wednesday night, making 9 be the total number of days in my break from lifting.

On Wednesday I surprised myself by bringing my squat max all the way up to 160 and doing a set of 90 lbs total in dumbbell bench presses. I was going to move up 100, but some nard lost one of the 50lb dumbbells. Grr.

On Thursday I surprised myself by getting hit pretty hard with DOMS from Wednesday's lifting - is 9 days really long enough to justify that? wth?

Then tonight (Friday) I thought I would take it easy since the DOMS is still making itself known etc etc. Well, lo and behold, the squats were going really well, so I kept moving up and I did it - I squatted my bodyweight for the first time ever - 165 lbs. I did it 3 times before I failed out, too. woo!

I also demonstrated that I can still deadlift 205 lbs, albeit only a couple times. Presently, 75 lbs is a challenge for a set of 5 overhead presses, and I can do a roughtly 130-lb chin-up. Someday, I'll do a freaking chin-up (like, the first one since childhood).

We're getting there.

[Martin Roy]

Nice work, Jessica. You'll see a real difference next season. Keep it up.

[Alan H]

Nice! Bodyweight squat ain't no joke, and a triple, too! All of this is going to translate to more footage on the field next season.