Assessment, in the Brief.

Taking a rest day today, time out to review and consider what happened this summer. 

Was mentally focused on surviving the Filthy 50, which, while I didn't spell out a tick-by-tick training plan and instead worked more by feel, the survival turned into thrive-al as the day went better than I could have hoped. Marathons used to cramp me up, and while I flirted with the raw edges of cramping, that was only in the pool and only after 4.5 hours of work. My energy systems and endurance improved over the summer.

I lost some maximal strength, no doubt about it. Overhead pressing fell off by about 10%, and Bench pressing by about 15%. I stopped squatting at the top ranges altogether and sought depth and reps in the 5-8 range - again, at about 15% less weight than I was using. Will be seeing just how much maximal strength was lost in the next couple of weeks as this next CFFB cycle comes up and demands 3RM/5RM work.

On the composition front, only a couple notable changes:

Over the last month, all things remained equal. Got thicker in the chest and around the middle, probably because of rowing (good) and all the biking (not good), which pre-empted some of the cardio time that might have been devoted to more calisthenic work. This quarter saw a lot less MA bag work, overhead squatting, cleaning, intense wods - and more steady state work and HT. Although the HT work didn't blow me up like it might've if I'd been focused completely on sizing up. All this is a sideshow, but I admit that my ego feels some deflation when I see photos of the fat guy.

But hey, the fat guy can trash a multi-event day filled with heinous work - I learned that this quarter. Chalk one up for the ages.

Rest Day n' BTW Grippers - Mar 21

Taking a rest day today. It's deload week, but I feel like doing something everyday, if only to stay anabolic. Anyway, moot point with too much busy-ness and no time and bad sleep last night. So.

So a note here instead - got the Captains of Crush grippers and have been using them once or twice a day in the car. I was doing 80 reps with the cheap plastic-handled sport grippers (4x20 flipping the gripper 4 ways). With the gripper trainer, I can do 10 to warm up, then 5 reps with the #1, then back to 10 more with the trainer flipped. Already feeling the grip is improved when doing Deads and FtB. Dunno when or if I'll move up to the #2 and beyond, but that's what's what right now. I'll stay with this and see if grip improves.

7.5 - 2  hours - 2230/0600.