Alan H's 2012-2013 OFF-season log

[Martin Roy]

I always wear sweatpants when lifting at the gym and I get scrapes on my shins as a matter of routine when pulling. If it becomes more than just an annoyance I'll probably tape the area or put on some sort of sleeve under the sweats for added protection.

Ahhh...the price we pay.

[Alan H]

Well, the old shin guards have self-destructed in the sailing bag, having sat there unused for about 6 years. Oh, well. I have requests out to all the labs on the first floor of my building...if they empty out a 2+ liter polyethylene reagent container and it didn't contain some godawful thing, please to pass it on to the guy in the kilt. I'll cut it up and rig it with some elastic. That, under some kneesox will probably do the business and will cost next to nothing.

[o1d_dude]

Bring some athletic tape to the gym and before pulling wrap a few turns around the areas of the barbell causing the problem. When you're done, pull the tape off and no one is the wiser.

[MacFhearchair]

Soccer shin guards? There should be some cheapie ones in the world somewhere.

Congrats on your recent PRs, coach. Always helps to be reminded it's not all for naught.

[Alan H]

OK, I got plastic #4 food bottles from the Burrito Bistro and cut them into shin guards. That, under knee sox, seemed to work....seems good. I'm only deadlifting "big" for another 3-4 at most 5 weeks, so this will carry me over.

Today, hips are tired from big squats on Monday and the hang clean PR on Wednesday, but I wanted to DL for form. Lucky for me there were a couple of young, enthusiastic lads doing outrageous squatting at the rack next to mine and they kindly shot video so I could check form. MUCH better at 225, perfectly acceptable. At 345 My angle of my back to the floor changed a bit as I started the lift, but it was *Immensely* better than what I showed you all, here. So this is good.

BTW, I walk over there every day, that's a 10 minute brisk stroll....

Stationary bike ... 4 minutes
Deadlift ... 6 x 175 / 2 x 4 x 225, form is good / 2 x 3 x 275 (straps) / 2 x 2 x 315 (straps) / 2 x 1 x 345 video, still OK, not as good as @ 225.

OHP ... easy day... 6 x 135 / 3 x 4 x 155
hammer wind ab crushers .. x 9 each side with 10 lb ball.
windmills ... 2 x 8 x 25
bench dips ... 2 x 8 x BW + 50 pound dumbell in my lap
lat pull downs ... 3 x 4 x 205, barely got the last one to nose level! I counted it anyway. Normally I'd try 3 x 6 x 195, but it's time to push the weight and move up out of this area.

rev wrist curls .... 2 x 8 x 15 each wrist, left wrist is noticeably stronger than right wriste.

[o1d_dude]

If you think of the deadlift as grabbing the barbell and pushing the floor away, you will get the legs firing properly. If you think of it as grabbing a barbell and lifting it off the floor sometimes we don't get the form right.

I noticed in your video that you spent a lot of time standing bent over the barbell with straight legs before you actually did the lift. It might be worth experimenting standing up straight while getting your foot spacing and location and then unlocking hips and knees so you can drop into the proper pull position, grab the bar, and pull.

Nothing wrong with using straps. They prevent elbow injuries from gripping too much.

[Alan H]

Yesterday was "Santa Cruz Day". It ended with a 2 hour run though and re-run through of the Brahms piano, cello, clarinet trio, which was a blast, as was catching up with the pianist, whom I haven't seen in 20+ years!. The middle of the day was spent with Marty and Steve and Joe at Shaffer park. As Marty wrote in his log, the two-spin is so *there* for him, and he launched one that absolutely was past his current PR during practice.

This was only my third throwing outing since Ventura, so I didn't have high hopes for distances. I mostly just wanted to go through the motions and spend some time with the 56 pounder.

28 weight for distance.... went OK, most throws around 48 or so, maybe a little bit more. I need to drill the first turn and sprint phase. Gee, big surprise.

42 (actually about 44) for distance. Wow, my first throw was a bomb! Probably 34+. The others weren't quite so good but everything well over 30. Again, need to drill

56 for distance. This thing is so flippin' heavy that I can only throw it about 5x and I'm done. However, it is such hard work that it's pretty certain that if I keep at it, I'll get stronger. This one event was worth driving down there...After falling down on my first throw and then staggering around like a drunk on my second, Steve said that I should just throw it single-spin/sprint phase like I just showed him. Son of a gun but my first attempt like that was 23 feet, and the next two were 21 and change and mostly in control. YAY! That's pretty flippin' good for a nold guy who never throws the widowmaker.

Braemar stone...we used Marty's "perfect braemar" which is *exactly* 22 pounds, has a great handle and a little notch for your jaw. Did about 5-6 throws, everything around 26 with maybe one out over 27. Nice.

Open Stone....did 5-6 throws. Shuffle feels really slow, I'll have to practice it. Standing throws were good and I got serious arm speed on one of them. All those were about 32 which is great.

Hammer.... did 5, 16 pound hammer throws, getting tired, here. Nothing to report, my timing isn't quite there. I don't have the power to go for ginormous radius, I've tried and tried and tried and whenever I do that I throw about 70-72. I've I just go slow on the first two, catch the ball way behind me on the last one, sink and STICK it, I can usually break 80. Today everything was about 77-78.

Caber ... did one with the wood caber, about 14 feet and 45-50 pounds. GREAT womens A caber. Then tried the 12 foot steel light pole. That thing is short so it's not hard to control, but when it comes time to pop it, you realize that it really is 80 pounds. Then did three attempts with Ken's monster light pole...17 feet and easily 120 pounds, maybe 140. I missed the first pick, got the second pick but lost it on the readjust, then picked it, ran it up and got a respectable pull on the last one. It took Ken and Dave Brown about 7 tries, each, to turn that thing, so if I can give it a respectable Go, I feel good about it.

Was absolutely thrashed after this 2 1/2 hour practice. There won't be any big squats today!!

[Alan H]

Just out of curiosity, I looked up some B class scores

ecklarkb, who is an XMarks member but doesn't post here any more, took second in the B class at Ventura with the following marks, and Lance Creed took 6th out of a field of about 10:

------- Eckarkb ------Lance----- My current marks on a pretty good day
BS : ... 28' 6" ..... 27' 1.5"..... 26-27
Open Stone: .. 39' 7" ..... 37' 2"..... 34-35
HWFD: .. 28' 7"..... 26' 10" ..... 23 .. thinking positive here
LWFD: .. 56' 6"..... 48' 1" ..... 50-52
22 Hammer: .. 68' 5"..... 64' 1" ..... 65-68
16 Hammer: .. 79' 11" ..... 84' 3"..... 79-82
WOB: ....... 12 ........ 11........ 11

upshot is that while I won't be winning any trophies in the B class, I won't look grossly out of place, either. The So Cal B's are a strong group, comparisons to Nor Cal B's marks at some Games -Dixon and Monterey - which had a really big B class, I'm solidly mid pack. I acutally might have won the B's at Dixon! So in other words, I won't be embarrassing myself in the B class in Nor Cal, at all.

This is reassuring!

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My legs are really feeling it, climbing steps at work this morning. This is a sign to back off a bit. I plan a big DL pull on Friday so will be taking it really easy on the legs today and Wednesday.

[Martin Roy]

I'm feeling it, too, after yesterday. It just proves, again, that gym strength isn't the same as throwing strength.

[RogerWS76]

AND ... when you get to 12 on the WoB (and I KNOW you will) with that 56 lber ... 14 will be a piece of cake when you throw the 42 again!!!