For once I'm happy that my job has been deemed "non-essential" I'm off work for the first day since I moved to Springfield.  The grind has taken it's toll but i met it head on and conquered it.  Putting up good numbers in the gym, staying busy and work and keeping my eye on the prize of testing week that will come up in just a few short weeks.  Last week I started phase 3 of One Man One Barbell, this week I kept the ball going with week 2.  When I knew that I would get a couple days off I decided to come home, and today I spent some time with the barbell at CrossFit Mokena.  Heavy set of triples at 225 followed and a 225 hang power clean to get a missed split jerk.  

Felt good to be back with that crew and spend some time just lifting.  It was a day off all around, no MetCon, no OMOB, no work.  Just me and the niece during the day, and me and the barbell at night.  Followed that up with a big dinner, finally getting ahead of this hunger feeling I've been having.  All it took was some massive meals of Broccoli, Shrimp, and Beef.  Now to stay positive as I move forward during this government shutdown.

The schedule has been in place for a few weeks now and I am starting to feel settled in.  I'm finishing week one of the Whole 30 and while I feel a bit less stamina while at Capital City I expected that at this point of the month.  Here's a few pictures from the week that show some of the work I've been doing.  It was week 3 so I will sum up the heavy lifts for the week's program.

Shoulder Press heavy sets were at 135, Deadlift Heavy sets of 420, Back Squats at 295, Front Squats at 240.  Loved the heavy work but ready to get the third cycle started sot hat I can test next week.  I worry that these posts don't do my training justice.  A few pictures and a quick bit about the week is hard to capture what's been going on.  The heat finally broke and so it is no longer a test of your ability to maintain through the crazy heat and humidity everytime you go in to workout.  Today actually felt cool and the workout was enjoyable because you didn't immediately sweat through everything just warming up.  I'm still working extra pullups, dips, and other movements to strengthen the shoulder.  Today I did Bear Crawls, and then the WOD was Jackie so I was doing lightweight Thrusters and then Pull ups.  I did the actual pull ups this time and while it took almost two minutes longer than the ring row time I felt better about the outcome.  This week is a great chance to recharge and find a balance with my body before pushing into the last phase before testing.

With two jobs and two different sets of programming to complete you can imagine that I am a busy boy.  The rest of week 2 went well, back and front squats without a lot of surprise other than a lot of soreness.  Also I got one of the best compliments in a while. "You squat more than any other person I know" felt good to hear that.  Finished the week out with some Clean and Jerk work, a day of Bear Complex where I hit 215 and just missed 235 and then three days in a row off to let the body get ready for week 3.  Hit the ground running today, which also happens to be day 1 of a Whole 30.  Should press was good, heavy single at 90% and then the EMOM of 2 reps and I did a strict pull up each minute.  I'm working on strength in the shoulder still so that was a good way to get some in.  Afterwards it was deadlift time.  Heavy single at 420 shown here and the percentage sets had a set of 10 dips between them during the rest.  I'm taking the advice of StrengthCamp on that one. Deadlifts and Dips was one of the combos that will help you get stronger faster.  The WOD was only 9 minutes but it was rough.  It's been mid 90's with 90% plus humidity.  Made the short workout seem long.  Can't wait to get the rest of the week done and then deload next week.  I'm planning some fun lightweight skill things.  Deadlift day will get Axle Deadlifts to mix things up.  One more phase then it's TEST Time.  Looking forward to some great numbers.  

Guess who finally had a day off work.  The first one in a while, and it was put to good use.  Spending enough time at the box to get kicked out because people want to go home.  Nothing like almost 3 hours of fun times.  Started with Shoulder Press, then to the Partner WOD, and finished with some Deadlifts.  Love working on the strength side of things, and wish that I had more time to do it.   Heavy set today of 3x380 and then EMOM at 295.  Starting to feel that the 500lbs lift is right around the corner.  I'm also missing getting Cleans in, other than the ones during the WODs I haven't had a chance to really work on them in over two weeks.  I need to find a chance to correct that problem.  It's another 70+ hour work week so we will see how things go.  One of the guys is trying to convince me to come in at 5:15am.  I don't think there's enough coffee in the world to get me to come in that early when I've got 16 hours of work to get through that day.  Getting up at 4:45 when you know that you're not getting to bed before 11:30 and then working at 7 the next morning.  Um, not so much.  I'm also going to clean up my nutrition.  People that know my eating habits know that I'm not a "dirty" eater but I've been having some stuff that is outside of what I normally have and while it's delicious as you can see in these pictures I've got a little bit around the middle.  I don't know if it's just me thinking it's there or if it is actually there.  All my clothes still fit fine, and working outside all day means that I'm needing more food than before anyway.  But I'm going to do a Whole 30 starting next Monday.  So I need to finish the Kill Cliff I've got and eat my bacon this week.  Such a horrible thing to be required to do I know.  Let's see how that the next few weeks progress as I cut out the crap, lift lots of weight, and try not to hate my overly s

So what happens when you work two jobs, train everyday, and have no internet at home? Well you kind of lose your online presence.  I'll try to update here, but it seems these posts are more and more going to be general progress reports, and my Tumblr/Instagram/Twitter/Facebook will take the brunt of updating because they offer a quicker format, and one that I can do from my phone since Weebly for some reason don't include a friendly posting option on the app.  I got all the training done for the week and even managed to get some good numbers, even while putting in 3 days of 16 hours and a total of 75 working hours for the week.  I am pretty proud of everything and the week felt good.  Deadlifts were good and strong and I believe that I'm set to be really close to getting the 500lb lift when testing comes next month.  As for the other lifts my squat is better and I am keeping better technique throughout the lift.  Fronts are still getting better but they are still way behind.  Seeing myself on video has helped and working mobility has been a big plus too.  From now on I'm going to try to video all the One Man One Barbell work and put together week in review videos.  

These are from the end of last week, since I worked all weekend and didn't get a chance to blog about it.  Nothing special ending the deload week other than some tempo squats and a trail run.

So it's time to start the second Phase of One Man One Barbell.  I tested the Shoulder Press last week to see where it was since that's kind of touch and go with recovery.  Hit a 15 pound increase in the three weeks I was doing the strength.  Crazy to think that I was able to gain so much.  It is still a good way to get back to where I was before the injury.  But I'm on the mend and I'm getting much better.  Today's work was fast and good for the press.  Then I also did the deadlift strength as well.  The lifts were actually feeling pretty light.  It's amazing what a week of deload will do to help you get ready to hit the ground running.  Today's work was great and I was happy to get back to lifting heavier weight.  After strength work was done it was time to take on the WOD, Grindy.  I hate that WOD with a passion, until today I had never finished it.  Today I was able to finish the workout in 23:15.   I still did the Ring Rows instead of Pullups because as much as I have gotten better there's still a long way to go before I'm doing Pullups in the workout again.  Now to make all this fit in along with working two jobs for the near future.  Let's see how that goes.  

Deload week from OMOB continues and as it does I'm enjoying coming in for a quick WOD at Capital City everyday.  I like the extra strength work too, but getting a chance to come in and out and be on my way is nice.  I've been bouncing around to a few different classes and seeing old friends and pushing myself to see what I have in the tank everyday knowing that I'm doing a lighter workload.   This week has held some interesting combinations that have challenged me in different ways.

Tuesday:
6 Min AMRAP
3 Thrusters @115
6 Pull-ups (Subbed Ring Rows for Shoulder)
9 Box Jumps @30"
Then immediately following 2 Min max Sit-ups
Score: 3+17/42 situps

Wednesday:
Strength - Shoulder Press
5-5-3-3-1-1
WOD
12 Minutes EMOM
1-4 Row for Cal 
5-8 Max Burpees
9-12 Kettlebell Swings 1.5 pood
Every minute 30 seconds max effort/30 rest
Score:
58/25/83=166

Great couple days, been good to get some time in doing the workouts in the morning, I'll miss it next week when I'm doing both jobs.  I think that the schedule is going to get very interesting very quickly.  We will see how it goes once I hit full swing come Monday.  I won't be testing next week so I'm going to add 10 pounds to the calculated max numbers and work from there.  I'm planning on doing a full test in month 3.  I want to give the cycles time to have an effect and to see how my shoulder holds up to the workload.  I do have a couple of observations so far, first that I know that I have added significant strength already.  Today in the shoulder press I lifted more than my previous max was when I started cycle 1.  My endurance to keep going during these lifts is up as well.  The inclusion of doing reps every minute for the last month has instilled confidence in my ability to keep picking the weight up even when I'm dead tired.  

Seems like things are going to take a post every couple to three days routine now.  I don't have internet at the place and I doubt I'll be making it somewhere to post everyday when I am working two jobs and putting in work at Capital City.  Today was the first day working out with the C3 crew and i have to say it was great.  It's been a year since Zack and I did strength work together and it's funny how quick you fall back into a routine with a workout partner.  Since it's deload I did nothing for OMOB.  Instead I did the box programming.  5x5-7 reps deadlift rest 20 seconds, 5x10 KB shoulder press rest 60 seconds.   Deadlift finished with 5 reps at 335, and did 1 pood Kettlebells in each hand.  Good shoulder work, and strength set all around.  Conditioning was a straight up row.  2k for time.  Finsihed in 7:47, not bad, as long as I'm under 8 mins I'm happy.  Afterwards Zack wanted to put in some Shoulder Press work since that's a weak spot for him.  We did 3x3 superseted with 3x12 of incline rows.  Not bad at all and really feeling good being back with that group of people.  Looking forward to getting more progress as the week goes on.  That's it for today.  Wonder what the rest of the week has in store.  Phase 

Busy week feels like it flew by but also feels like it took forever to make it through till today.  I don't know how it can be both but I'll try to sum everything up in a quick post and then leave things open for a longer post now that I've finished all three load weeks of One Man One Barbell and next week is the deload.

Thursday Barbell Club, Snatch Pulls, Cleans from floor, and a Hang Clean for good measure.

Power/Push Jerk 155x3 keep making progress with the shoulder.

So what did I do this week? Well to start off I squatted every single day, sometimes twice a day.  I did a ton of shoulder stuff thanks to the programmed WODs from Em.  Posted a sub 9 minute Jackie, 30 reps of Bear Complex, lots of pullups, and finished the week with McGhee.  Overall a great way to end my time at CrossFit Mokena before moving to Springfield for the next four months.  But what about my One Man One Barbell work, well that went as planned.  The Deadlifts were horrible, 330x2 a minute for 15 minutes was rough.  The Back Squats weren't so bad, the had work squatting if paying off for sure, they didn't feel nearly as heavy as I expected.  I'm still working on my Front Squat technique.   I believe that my feet are too close together and that's forcing a slight move to the toes.  Also I'm working on staying more vertical throughout the movement.  But even those reps didn't feel too bad till the last couple minutes.  I have enjoyed the work for the last three weeks.  I'm looking forward to a deload and then seeing where to go from there.

You know what I did after doing nearly 100 reps of some sort of weighted squat yesterday, why I did some more squats today.  Tuesday morning was time for the barbell crew to do some Snatch.   It was my first day doing them since I hurt the shoulder so I went pretty light and stayed in the power position.  Felt really good to get back to another lift that I haven't been able to do for a long time.  The Barbell Crew is always a fun way to spend a little time, and by little I usually end up there 2 plus hours.  The time flies by and I will miss that time moving weight some such a great group of people.  After finishing the Snatch work and the accessories, which included Back Squats today. It was time to get going on the OMOB week 3 for the Deadlift.  I had been looking forward to this knowing that it was going to be a time to pull some decent weight from the floor.  After the squats yesterday, the barbell work today, and the squats that were a part of this I knew I was in trouble.  Heavy single for the day was 410, then my EMOM work was 330 for 15 minutes.  You have not hated your life till you try to move 330 for 30 reps when your hands are killing you from the last two day's worth of work, and your legs are jello from all the squats.  But I made it through, I feel one of the key components to this training is the mental side of things during these every minute rep schemes.  Just pushing yourself and picking up that bar everytime the timer beeps is huge.  It isn't always the prettiest rep, but I make it past it and get myself ready for the next round.   Afternoon workload included what?  If you guessed squats you were right.  More of them, this time from the front, and then a nice little outside workout.  Lap on the track, KB Snatch, Air Squats, OH Lunge.  At the end of the day I collapsed into a chair and didn't move for a couple hours.  Even know I'm pretty sure that I won't make it out of bed in the morning.  I know that I'm going to pay for the volume I've put my legs through, but I'm pushing on to finish this week.  It's my last week up here for a while so next week I'll be doing my deload back at Capital city, and then I need to get ready to start another cycle.  I think that I'll be swapping out a couple of choices for some different ones, and seeing how that goes.  A few captures from today, don't I just make awesome faces when I lift heavy stuff?