Press, DB jerk, kb swings

Press 2x5,1x5+ (go to failure on the last set using push presses)
2x5x135#
7x135# (last two reps pushed)


DB Jerk 3x5
70# dumbbell used for all reps

125 KB Swings for time:
6:33

MOB- 1 min couch and glute

COMMENTS:

Presses felt really good. Enjoying training this way but feeling really sore the last few days. Going to deadlift for the first time in about 5 months tomorrow.

1 Mile TT, pushups, pullups

1 Mile Run
5:56

FM Chin Ladders
2,2,3 X 3 (21 total)

FM Pushup Sets throughout the day
185 total


MOB- 2 min couch stretch

COMMENTS:
21 seconds off my all time PR for 1 mile run (senior year of high school, ~25lbs lighter than I am now). I'm larger and fatter than I have been in a long time, but it's good to see I can still go sub 6.

Nutrition on point today.

Squat, GHR, Conditioning

Squat
5x45
5x135
5x225
5x275

GHR Sets
12, 12, 16


Conditioning WOD done with Dan

3 Rds for time:
250m Row
7 DB snatches each side, 50#

4:43

MOB- 2 min of couch, some glute work
COMMENTS:

• General: I was supposed to do three squat sets but I got the leg cramps I normally get when I haven't squatted in a long time. Being that it's been four months, I didn't push it.

Press, Sprints, Pushups

Press
3x155#
17x95#

Pushup Sets
40, 30, 25, 20, 15

5 ~70 yard sprints, 1-2 minute rest

MOB: 3 min of couch stretch ea side

COMMENTS

• General: Definitely easing back into things. Was pleased that my press didn't go down too much, although all my lifts suffered with no lifting all summer. The high rep set surprised me.
• Nutrition: I'd call my diet plans going forward primal. I'm keeping things that work like whey and have no aspirations of being totally strict. Wanna lose some weight though.
• Body: I have a nagging tightness in my shoulder that has been a problem for a few months.
• Sleep: 7-8 hours
• Reflections: None

Beast of the East

I'm back from the best summer of my life. Colorado was more than I ever could have asked for it to be and I'm being honest when I say I couldn’t feel more blessed. The people I met at CCO were the highest quality of people I have ever surrounded myself with and it was amazing getting to grow as a person around them. On top of my amazing experience there, I spent a week road tripping home and going on a cruise. This was the greatest 4 months of my entire life, hands down. This summer was the palate cleanse I needed to get my life back on track, and I fully intend to do this going forward.

 

My senior year of college starts tomorrow. This is amazing to me, seeing as I started this blog before I even left for college in June of 2010. I still remember that version of myself so well, and many, if not all aspects of my life are different at this point. My future plans right now are looking to go one of two ways-

 

1.      Two more years of grad school to get my masters in Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology

Or

 

2.      Move out to Colorado on a permanent basis and start teaching and coaching.

 

Both have potential to be great decisions but they both have drawbacks. If I had the perfect situation, it would be getting a fellowship in Colorado for my master’s, but I’m finding this to be unlikely. Ultimately I’d be dumb to turn down free college education so if that opportunity presents itself (I’d like to think I have a good chance), then that’s probably the route I’ll go.

 

I have more plans after the next 2-3 years in my mind but I don’t want to put them down on paper yet. I won’t know what my future holds until around March 2014 so I have some time to just stew, which sucks for my psyche.

 

 

Training wise, I spent a lot of this summer working on the bodyweight movements. I got pretty good at ring pull-ups and dips and did a few “metcons” every now and then, but nothing crazy. My diet went to shit. This summer was so much more than exercise and nutrition that I can never even consider this to be a negative, more just a reality of the situation I was in. When I go back to CCO next summer I’m hoping I can set it up to incorporate training and nutrition a little bit more into my lifestyle, which will take some preparation.

 

I am leaning towards following a more CrossFit style of training going forward. At this point in my life, I’d rather be extremely lean and get more muscular slower than be big but holding excess weight. My training will ramp up in intensity in the coming weeks and months and I’m really looking forward to putting my body through the ringer (in a safe manner) and seeing how the old machine responds.

 

Until next time.

BostonStrong

I ran a marathon on my school's track on Wednesday night (106 laps) to raise money for the victims of the Boston bombings. We raised over $1200 dollars and I made the news. I'm so happy to be an American. God bless all those effected.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/springfield_college_student_be.html


http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/hampden/springfield-college-students-are-running-for-boston

http://www.cbs3springfield.com/story/22071685/springfield-college-student-runs-1-man-marathon-for-bombing-victims

Check out the last link for a live news interview.

I'm Headed out West!

Training recently has been bodybuilding stuff mostly. I've had a sore shoulder the last week so I've been taking it easy. Going to hit some hot yoga for the first time tomorrow morning in about a month.


Besides that- got some amazing news. I'm moving out to Granby, CO for 13 weeks this summer beginning on May 29 to work as a camp counsellor. I went through two interviews and my three references (including this guy) solidified this dream job for me. I'm so excited to go out there and see if it's a place I would actually like to live. I'll have two days off a week to travel to see different parts of Colorado and check out some grad schools while I'm out there. Needless to say I haven't been this excited in probably two years for anything.

Other than that, I'm making moves with my music career too. I'm performing for the first time at the end of April. I'll be opening a small perfomance on campus with a guitar and singing piece by John Mayer, singing two other songs, and doing a skit song with another girl. I've never done anything like this so I'm extremely excited for a new opportunity but nervous as well.

My life has been prioritized recently as such: school, work, the future, music, training. I wouldn't even call it training because I have no goals in mind at the moment. It's been on the back burner for over a month now and I'm okay with it. I'm very excited to develop some other elements of my life I had slacked on, and grad school is right around the corner, so I need to get my GPA as high as possible to ensure I get into everywhere I apply. I'm getting paid well, studying a lot and playing a lot of music, and I'm a lot happier than I have been in the past.

With the Colorado news, I know that I will not lift weights for over 3 months, a tough pill to swallow indeed, but will be a good experience. They will be here when I get back, and I'll be a beast on the gymnastics rings, with bodyweight exercises and at trail running and hiking. I'll probably be the leanest I've ever been!


Anyway, that's my spiel. 10 weeks until I leave for Colorado, and I'm sure I'll post between now and then. Hope all are well.

A Year In Review- 2012

2012 was not the year I had planned that it would be. Ask me last December where I would've been writing this now, and I would've told you a 100 mile run completer and a powerlifting meet competitor. Today I stand as neither of these. The following is an attempt to recap the year at hand.

Jan-April
This was the beginning of the end of my ultra career. I started off 2012 HOT by hitting a 52 minute PR on my GAC 50k Fat ass run, coming in at 4:58. I had not run in three weeks prior to this race and had not been doing very much running training at all. Like I mention in my post, I got lucky, which was a theme with my entire ultra career. I stopped loving running ultras after I ran 50 miles in 2011 and it took me almost a full year to realize my head was no longer in it. My last run was at the TARC Spring Classic in April of this year, where after completing about 10 miles I dropped from the race and headed home. I was having a knee issue that had been bothering me for several weeks prior to that and I knew that my head was not in it at all. I had to come to a decision to eliminate running from my life for the time being. My body was beaten up, I had muscle imbalances galore and I had made my heart issue worse from stressing over doing something I wasn't loving anymore. It was less difficult than I thought it would be to ditch the ultra lifestyle- it was no longer for me. Do I miss ultras now? No. But more on that in a bit.

May-August
I spent the summer working as a lifeguard and had plenty of time to train most days. I had the best job I could have ever asked for this summer. The majority of my training during this time period was powerlifting with body building movements thrown in. I experimented with a few routines, including a repeat of doing a 5 week trial of Layne Norton's program that I ran in 2011 with good results once again. I will likely do that in the summers because I enjoy it and it's a nice break. I did not do too much of note in training this summer besides aesthetically grew, which has been a goal of mine forever. I also did a few weeks of CrossFit at a local affiliate but did not like that because of the programming choices of the coach and quickly decided it wasn't in my best interest.

September-End of The Year
Probably the highlight of my year was hiking Mount Washington to the summit at the end of September. This was probably the one thing that makes me say "You did something that no one else is doing right now" throughout the entire year. I used to get that feeling a lot. In my mind, 2012 was a complete failure because of the choices I made. I no longer am an athlete- I am a normal person. This is my own fault and is something I am working on. Mount Washington was something I will never forget. Hiking has become part of my life and I enjoy it a lot, enough that I am looking at graduate schools away from where I want to go just so I can spend more time in the mountains. I feel better that I gave up ultras because of my enjoyment of hiking. I can still spend time with nature and get away from society for a while, just at a slower minute per mile pace. This is right up my alley and will (schedule permitting) become a bigger part of my life in 2013. Not for goals, not for aesthetics, but simply because I love being outside and hiking is one of the few times I ever feel totally happy anymore.

Besides this, I ran Johnny Pain's Gladiator program with good results. I now program very similar to how he does because I do believe in it. If I begin personal training soon, I will use many of the movements I learned from him. I am still getting stronger, which if for nothing else, makes me happy.

This was also the most significant part of the year because of my heart issue. I had to take three weeks off completely from training to get medically cleared to exercise because it continued to get worse. I am still waiting on the results of this, but I know it is mostly stress related.


End Result
2012 in my mind will forever be a year to forget, but it will be viewed as a stepping stone. I did a complete 180 of what I once was- a kid who would work his ass off to reach his goals to someone who had no goals and messed up priorities. I can kick myself as much as I want and feel poorly about myself for my lack of inspiration but I truly believe everyone needs to go through these growing pains to become a true adult. I am one year away from being in the "real world" if I so choose to avoid grad school (which sometimes sounds appealing) and even though I did not become someone I want to be physically this year, I have grown emotionally, mental, academically and spiritually on a higher level than I ever have in the past, or ever believed was possible in any given year. The 2012 end of the year Ben is more of the adult I will spend the rest of my life as than the beginning of the year guy could have ever imagined possible. I went through many more downs than ups this year, and all I can do is look forward to figuring it out for the best in 2013. A post will soon follow with a general outline, but I am not 100% sure how effective that will be because I have failed to adhere to templates in the past.

End of Gladiator

I wrapped up Gladiator today about 2.5 weeks short of completion. I haven't had a lot of motivation to complete the workouts as prescribed because I haven't been training with anyone and since I fell off a bit I opted to call it a day on the program.

Plain and simple I loved the program. Johnny Pain knows what he's doing and it will reflect how I train in the future absolutely. The other main reason I opted to stop was because I wanted to start training in a more powerlifting manner so that I can have the most success at my first meet. I will be doing this meet on March 23 in Rhode Island. I will be competing in all three lifts and signing up for it as soon as I get some cash in a few weeks from the holidays.

I'm going to finish out the year running a cycle of 5/3/1 so I can kind of go on auto pilot with training because I have a high volume of school work over the next few weeks, the most I've ever had in fact.

Come 2013 I'm still trying to decide where I want to go. The first 4 months will be dedicated to powerlifting. I am going to attempt to break the deadlift record at my age and weight class so at least I have a goal I'm shooting for.

Here was today's training- lots of bodybuilding-ish stuff but that's cool for now. Just want to feel like I'm working hard on each set, and get stronger in the process.

Press
Worked up to 8x140# (PR)

DB Press
3x10x35#

Face Pulls 3x20
50#

EZ Bar Curls
3x10x50#

DB Shrugs 3x10
100# DB's

I haven't died

I keep making broken promises about updating but I've just been really busy with everything recently. I will be around and updating my 2013 goals pretty soon. Got some new stuff in the works. Should be a good end to the year.... got some stuff planned between now and Dec 31.

Need to catch up

I'm like two weeks behind on blogging. Hoping to edit it in here in a bit. Finishing up my second week of the brute strength phase of Gladiator on Saturday.

Couple days behind. 68, 67, 66

Press/pushpress til failure (like first week)
150x5x2, 150x5 +3 PP (PR)

Heavy DB Jerk
3x5x75# PR

Curls
45# DBs for 12, 12, 8

______
10/19
Heavy DB Row 3x5
70#


RDL's 2x 4-6
5x225# overhand grip
6x225# with DL grip

Weighted Chins 2x6-8
2x6x20#

Did some shrugs
_____



Need to make up my sprints, had too much work to do on Saturday so I'm a day behind. I'll finish those up and max rep burpees in 3min today then be back on my grind for week 4 tomorrow. Last week before the next phase begins.

70 + 69

Tuesday 10/16

Back Squat 1x5+
8x315#

AMRAP 3 95# Front Squats
56 reps with a little calculation miscue, probably more like 3:10 but I was fumbling with my watch.

FM Close Grip Pushups 5x16

__________________________
Wednesday 10/17

1 Mile Time Trial

5:55 (10 seconds off 2 week ago time)


Chin Ladder 3x1234, (1,2)

COMMENTS

• General: I was so absolutely sore from the front squat medley that my leg power sucked in the run today. I didn't expect to PR from the get-go but I was pleased with sub 6.
• Nutrition: Good. I've been eating a lot more protein. I ordered another 10lb bag.
• Body: Pretty beat. My legs and lower back are really sore and I'm run down.
• Sleep:8 hours
• Reflections: Get a relaxing day tomorrow but 2 workouts with bikram yoga and a lot of shoulder/pressing work. Not too much going on with classes the next 2 days so I'll be really focusing on relaxing and taking some needed downtime.

71 (?)

Incline Bench Press 2x6-8
180x6x2 (PR)

1 Arm DB Bench Press 3x6
65x6x3 (PR)

50 Dips (Modified on bench)
22, 19, 9

Conditioning: 3 Rounds For Time of:
6 DB Push up to Rows 35# (1 pushup and row on each side counts as one)
40 single unders
6:11


Chin Ladder 3x1234, (1)


COMMENTS

• General: PRed on everything from when I did these lifts on day 1 which was nice. The conditioning needed to be modified. I still really am not too good at pushups but I'm definitely improving.
• Nutrition: Good today
• Body: Overall feeling really good.
• Sleep: 8 hours
• Reflections: Hell week of work again this week. Finishing up one of the hardest classes I will have to take in my major 2 Wednesday's from now and this is the grind portion of the course. Almost there though so it feels good.

Catch Up 74-72

10/11
Barbell Clean and Press
3x5x155#

DB Clean and Press
3x5x55#

30/30/30 Row x 2 rounds

100 Single Unders


10/12
Power Rows with barbell 3x3
225#

Deadlift 2x4-6
2x5x385#

Yates Rows 2x6-8
2x8x165#

Curls
2x12x45# DB's



10/13
5 rounds of 10 burpees immediately into a 100m sprint for time, 2 min rest between efforts

38, 38, 37, 38, 38 (seconds)


COMMENTS

• General: Forgot to blog a few days but all caught up now. Been working really hard and feeling good.
• Nutrition: Off this weekend
• Body: Tired right now. Will feel better after a good night sleep.
• Sleep: 8 hours
• Reflections: Where did my blog views go? I had 13-14k and now I have 2 all of a sudden. What gives?

75

800m Sandbag run with a 40# weighted vest hoisted over my shoulders
3:40 (Done in the indoor track at SC)

Chin Ladder 3x1234

COMMENTS

• General: This was pretty brutal. One I will do a lot more in the future even after this program is over because it's fast and gets you going.
• Nutrition: Great once again.
• Body: Good. My hips were a bit tight after the run
• Sleep: 7-8 hours
• Reflections: I'm going to a wake on Friday morning and have a lot going on tomorrow so I may miss my training day on Friday. I'm not really sure what's going to go on but I've got bigger things that need to be taken care of. If I miss a day I'll count that as my rest day and train on Sunday.

76

Front Squat 2x3, 1x3+
2x3x255#
5x255# (PR)

RDL's 2x8-10
185x2x10

6 Sled Pulls with 2 plates in the case for 50m


200 Single unders

15:15:15 on the rower for 4 rounds

FM Dive Bombers 5x8

COMMENTS

• General: Good day. Front squat was a PR by a lot as I don't really ever front squat.
• Nutrition: Clean
• Body: Overall a bit sore from yesterday.
• Sleep: 9 hours
• Reflections: Not too much. Tomorrow's work out is going to ruin me.

77

Dumbbell Bench Press 10-8-6+
70# for 10
75# for 8
80# for 9

Weighted Modified Dips on Benches 2x6-8
1 Plate on thighs x2x8


4 RFT:
10 Clapping Pushups
25 52.5# Dumbbell Swings
5:47

Chinup Ladder
1234x2, (1,2,3)

COMMENTS

• General: Took a lot out of me today doing this session. The dumbbell bench press was surprisingly taxing.
• Nutrition: On point. Weekend wasn't as good.
• Body: Overall tired. Trying to catch up with my sleep to help this
• Sleep: 8 hours. Need to catch up
• Reflections: Long weekend of questionable. Need to be more careful. Going strong all week. Walked 3-4 miles with Contois yesterday at a good clip. Good catching up with him.

79 + 78

Press/Push Press 2x5, 1x5+- On the last set, go to failure with the press then do a few push presses on top of that
2x5x145#
1x6x145# Press + 3 Extra Push Presses

1 Arm DB Jerk
3x5x70#

70# KB Swings x 125 For Time
6:22

FM Dive Bombers 3x7

______________________________
Today:

Heavy Double DB Row 3x5
5x60#
2x5x65#

Deadlifts 2x4-6 (strapped)
365x5x2

Weighted Chins 2x6-8
17.5# by 6x2 (Lighter and form focus)

Rowing Intervals 15:15:15- Light, Medium, All out, 45 second rest between rounds
50 Total calories rowed

Chin Ladder
1234x2, (1,2)

Curls 2x12
40# DB's

COMMENTS

• General: SO SORE. Loving this program. Got sprints tomorrow and a rest day Sunday.
• Nutrition: Has been on point all week. Highly motivated
• Body: Tired and adjusting to volume. Very beat and sore.
• Sleep: 12.5 hours last night lolol
• Reflections: This is what training feels like. I had forgetten.

1 Mile Time Trial. 80

Quick Post today. Just want to log that I did my first 1 mile time trial in about 2.5 years (may have done it in between a few times but not all out)

5:35 in high school. 18 years old at 180# and 775# CrossFit Total

5:45 at age 20, weighing 205# and with a 1085# CFT (probably higher just current PRs)

Strength works.


Going to bikram yoga tonight. Got a killer wod tomorrow too. Enjoying doing more than 3 work outs a day. Lets go