Got a 3-day streak to record here. I started my deload on Friday, nixing the planned deadlift session because my back wasn't feeling too hot. The next day, it was feeling better so I gave myself permission to hit things out of order and do deadlifts.

Friday deload:

Bench press

135 x 5

155 x 5

185 x 5

Incline dumbbell press

80s x 4 x 10

Super-set with seated reverse hyper rows: 6 plates x 3 x 10

Keg curls

150 x 20

Saturday:

Deadlifts

445 x 5

505 x 3

565 x 1

Dumbbell split-squats

80s x 3 x 8

Felt strong. Most I've deadlifted in quite awhile.

Sunday:

3.02 mile run in 29:28. The first mile was 7:23, a significant improvement over the 8 minutes I've been averaging for a decade now. Quads started to cramp due to the split-squats I'd done yesterday but never progressed to the point of being debilitating.

My sister is visiting from out of town and brought her 2 dogs over. They started barking and growling at my cat so she's keeping them in a separated room, but I plan on taking them out for a walk when I get home from work and trying to gradually introduce them to one another. My cat is a gangster; rather than run away, he followed them upstairs with his tail puffed out because he was so curious and wasn't intimidated by their antics.

Overhead press

145 x 5

165 x 3

185 x 3

135 x 9, 10, 10, 10, 10

Super-set with weighted chin-ups: 30 x 5 x 10

Dips: 3 x 10

Super-set with alternating dumbbell curls: 35s x 20, 16, 18

Seeing some gains. Also looking bigger lately. Had someone comment on my arms being larger at boxing.

This morning, right after waking-up and before work, I did 10 ABCs with 50 lb kettlebells. Nonstop round, so no rest pauses. 

Got a decent amount of walking done at Great America on Saturday. Ice cream at Petals Creamery afterwards was a sugar bomb, but so worth it.

Squats (low bar)

360 x 5

405 x 3

450 x 1

(High bar) Drop-down to 405x2, 365x3, 315x8, 225x8, 135x8

Reverse-hyper leg curls

6 plates x 3 x 12

Continuing to climb back up. It's been interesting getting the hang of back squats again after spending most of this year front squatting. The weight has been feeling heavy, but as I squat out of the hole I realize the strength is definitely there to stand back up and it's not so heavy after all. I'm squatting slower than I used to, like Dave Tate's human crane analogy when talking about "strong" lifters vs "explosive" lifters.

Boxing Wednesday was a great workout. Majority of the class was drilling various partner combos with one person attacking and the other defending the whole round rather than trading off every combo. Ended with some light dumbbell work that torched the shoulders.

Thursday was a bench workout that I feel was impacted by the shoulder-intense dumbbell exercises from the day before, but my training maxes are light enough to more than account for that.

Bench press

230 x 5

260 x 5

290 x 3

Low incline bench

205 x 4 x 8

Super-set with dumbbell rows: 115s x 3 x 8, 1x10

Overhead tricep extensions

35s x 2 x 11, 9

Super-set with keg curls: 150 x 2 x 12

Sandbag carry: 200 lbs x 1 minute

Inner elbows are feeling tender but no real pain yet, if that makes sense. I'll approach barbell squats cautiously this week and switch to the curved Yukon bar if warm-ups don't feel good.

About an hour after this workout concluded, I noticed the right side of my back was hurting and it ended up getting worse in my sleep going into the next day, although it's not that bad and I'll still be able to make it to boxing today after work. I believe I wasn't bracing properly when carrying the sandbag. I was a bit tired at that point and it's been a minute since I've done sandbag carries. Lesson (re)learned, just glad I'm still mobile.

 At long last, got to spar yesterday. Up until my turn, everyone was paired with one other person, but I got called to the ring with 2 other opponents to rotate in and out with. Coach announced us as the "main event", which I got a kick out of.

I started out going 2 rounds against someone I've sparred with before. He's big and starts hot, but tends to slow down as time progresses. Right away I was landing jabs, but had some distancing trouble getting my right to land solidly. About 40 seconds in his groin guard came undone and I had to wait for his coach to reapply it. When we resumed, my right hand started landing a lot more, and I began to dig in a lot of body shots, more than I've ever landed in sparring. I felt him grunt when I landed a straight right to his stomach.

One left hook that he landed hit the back of my head and almost spun me around from throwing me off-balance but I managed to stop myself and using the momentum immediately recoiled with a rebounding straight right.

After round 2 was over, the coach announced I'm going to do 4 rounds instead of the usual 3 and he had the other boxer tag-in to face me. That felt really cool to get special treatment.

The second opponent for rounds 3 and 4 was a jacked dude who hit hard but was fairly slow. I immediately noticed that he wasn't going as hard as the first guy so I eased up on the power of my head shots, but still threw hard to the body. He did the same and while I don't recall him landing a single clean punch to my face, he landed some powerful body shots. Unfortunately, equipment malfunction plagued him too and twice we had to stop so he could have his coach reclasp his headgear.

Pros and cons of my performance:

+ Landed more body shots than ever.

+ Defense was the best it's ever been. Blocked numerous head and body shots. Didn't fall into the old rookie trap of trying to parry everything to the point that I end up reaching OUT to try and catch punches, leaving my defense a mess and tiring me out. 

+ Managed to balance aggression with staying relaxed.

- Feet are too jumpy sometimes, throwing me off balance.

- Left hook still falls short a lot of the time.

- Should have initiated in-fighting more for practice when I go up against the tall dude who wasn't here this time.

Deadlifts
415 x 3
475 x 3
535 x 3

Zero'd 530 the last 2 times I tried so I was very pleased to get this so easily.

Had to head out to Costco before they closed so I called it a night here, and then this morning I hit 15 ABCs with the 50 lb kettlebells.  My elbows have been feeling a little raw lately and my back was sore, but they didn't cause any pain.

I figured out what's been causing pain in my left forearm: leaning for long periods of time on my standing desk at work. Glad to have identified that.

 Overhead press

135 x 5

145 x 5

165 x 7

135 x 4 x 10

Super-set with neutral-grip chin-ups

Bw x 10

30 x 3 x 10

Banded tricep pressdowns: 2 x 20

Dumbbell curls: 35s x 2 x 20

Since I only hit 175x4 last week, falling short of 5 reps, I opted to make that session the 3 week and this session my 5. So for overhead press, it'll be a 3/5/1 this cycle.

Felt stronger across the board in this session and 135x4x10 was a marked improvement from last time.

Got a new phone and used the new camera to take a few shots mid-session.

Also wanted to add that my computer ate up an entry I was typing about going on a 2 mile run the other night. First mile was 8:06.

 Did a 5 minute shadowboxing round with the oxygen restriction mask. Halfway into the round, I grabbed a pair of 3 lb dumbbells to box with them. Following this were 2 rounds of 5 minutes on the heavy bag. Went on a nice, long evening walk with my girlfriend afterwards to grab a slice of pizza. Before leaving, I ate 3 eggs in bone broth and a charcuterie plate of salami and olives so I wouldn't be hungry enough to want more than 1 pizza slice. Just an example of how I'm controlling carbs even while gaining weight these days. 

I figured out what has been causing my right forearm to badly hurt: leaning on my standing desk at work. It hasn't actually hurt while doing it, but the other day when I changed position I felt the same pain intensified and it all clicked. On the other hand, my bicep pain is gone when I do curls, although I have not tested it with power cleans this week, which has been a bigger pain trigger.

Saturday:

Bench press
215 x 3
245 x 3
275 x 5

Low incline bench press
185 x 8
205 x 3 x 8
Super-set with bent-over dumbbell rows: 115 x 4 x 8

Overhead tricep extensions: 35s x 2 x 8
Super-set with alternating dumbbell curls: 35s x 2 x 20

---

Sunday

Squats (low bar)
315 x 3
385 x 3
430 x 4
Drop-down to 365x8, 315x8, 225x8 (high bar)

Romanian deadlifts
315 x 2 x 8

Reverse-hyper single leg curls
6 plates x 20

Getting used to heavier weight again for both the bench press and the squat.

 Had an excellent 2 days of boxing. On Wednesday we partnered up and worked on body shots, followed by shadowboxing with dumbbells. During stretches at the end of class, coach looked over at me and asked "Have you always been flexible" because I was touching my toes.

Thursday was a real grinder. We did calisthenics and dumbbell exercises for most of the class and he frequently announced that he's not starting the timer until everyone has started after many of us were already going. During the bit where we partnered up, it was nonstop reps of the same combo on the shield. After my first turn, my partner said "Nice, those muscles are functional!" We ended by throwing as many jabs at the shield as possible over the course of a round with our partner counting. He remarked that I got around 200.

I was planning to bench today after work but yesterday's class had a lot of grinding push-up reps and taking the 3 lb dumbbells to near failure. I'm thinking I'll do my roadwork instead and lift tomorrow.

 Saturday was largely a rest day at Capitola, but I did get in some great ocean swimming on an unusually waveless day. I swam out an appreciable distance (well past the point of losing ground contact) and it ended up being about a 10 minute swim. Since I tend to sink like a stone and have to power through the water to stay afloat, it was a good workout. Got a lot of walking in before heading home.

Sunday:

Overhead press

135 x 5

155 x 5

175 x 4 + 3

135 x 8, 8, 10, 8

Neutral grip chin-ups 

Bw x 10

15 x 10

30 x 10, 10, 10

Band pressdowns: 3 x 10

Super-set with keg curls: 3 x 10

Monday:

Deadlifts

375 x 5

445 x 5

505 x 6

Kettlebell split squats: 50s x 3 x 10

Super-set with reverse hyper single-leg curls: 8 plates x 3 x 10

The 6th rep of 505 came after a rest-pause and was a hard-fought rep. Felt amazing to hit.

On the other hand, my press performance was weaker than expected but it was my first time overhead pressing the Texas bar rather than the axle in awhile and I seemed to find my groove with it in the later sets of 135 by bringing in my elbows and feeling greater tricep activation.

Later on Monday evening, went on a 39:51 jog over 3.28 miles with Elizabeth. 

Also played a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and was surprised to find that I'm already at chapter 9, near the end of the game. Since I trained hard the past 2 days, I'm making today a rest day and am looking forward to digging into the endgame with an edible when I get home from work. Just 45 more minutes...