With the weekend here, today was a good day to power clean and we aren’t talking about anything that involves a vacuum cleaner! Specifically, the WOD called for Hang Power Cleans, 7×1. My PR for this is 175, but I missed two attempts at that weight today and settled for 170 lbs.

After lighter weight warm-ups, I lifted 7 sets at 1 rep each and dropped the weight to do 5 sets of triples.
135/155/160/165/170/175f/175f/, then 135×3/135×3/135×5, which was 77% of max, and finished with 145×3/145×3, at 83% of max.

Doing cleans my way, with a barbell was considerably harder than using a vacuum cleaner and other household implements for power cleans but much more fun and satisfying.

This was a good day to do some back squats. I needed to improve at the bottom of the squat, in the "hole". To do that, I went to 60% of my 1RM which, at 165# is a moderate weight for me. Six sets, 5 reps each, all with good form and deep in the hole on every lift. Without a coach there to tell me otherwise, I would say I had pretty decent form.

Just to make it fun, there was a one minute rest between between sets, except that there was no rest. Instead, I filled the time with 3 pull-ups and moved on to the next set. In about 20 minutes, the workout was over.

This is another progression lift for clean and jerks and I am starting to get the hang of it. The trick of this lift is to get the weight racked solidly against the front of the shoulders before you perform the squat. The correct way and the wrong way to do this lift can be found here. There is no effective way to spot this lift, so if you miss the lift and have to dump it, just push it away. Since I am using steel plates, I did not want to create a commotion if I had to dump. As it turned out, I still got a PR and had good control throughout each lift.

I was probably somewhere in between and got my  best numbers to date as my form improved since the last time I did this. 95/115/135/155/175/185/200/205pr/. In between each set, I did 3 reps of dead hang pull-ups.

My intention tonight was to go to the track and run at least 3 miles (12 laps). I did go to the track and ran 4 laps and my lower back was giving me fits, so I decided to come up with a second option that involved  some running and metabolic work. On the fly I came up with this little kicker!

For five rounds,
2 laps on the bleach stairs (at OCC track)
30 push-ups, legs elevated
Ascending box jumps up the stadium stairs.

Time was about 19:33

Afterwards, I did a couple of sets of dive bomber push-ups and 50′ lunges. It turned out to be a fairly challenging workout. It definitely got the heart rate up high enough.

Now that I have been powerlifting and learning the Olympic lifts and their progressions for just over a year, there are concessions, sadly that must be made to age. So, am I too old for this? Are you?

This article by Brooks Kubik, of Dinosaur Training addresses the topic. I do wish I would have started smarter weightlifting when I was a younger lad.

Deadlift Day today. It seems that I have been doing these on Sunday, so for now, I’ll plan on a DL workout each Sunday until, well, I decide not to, I guess. (Click on the link to hear Mark Rippetoe describe the start of the lift).

What I did today is 5 sets with 5 reps each at 265# which is  70% of my 1RM. There was a 1 minute rest between each of the 5 sets.

Next week, same weight but 6 sets. I will take it up to 10×5 and then start again at 5×5, but at a heavier weight. This is a progression I picked up from Stephane Rochet. It will be interesting to see what this does to my 1RM lift.

It was time to get out of the gym for a couple of days. The weather was great, time to skate! For the first time in a while, I went down to the beach to skate"pier to pier"; Newport to Huntington, 12 miles. I was looking forward to a pleasant skate but by the end of it, I wanted to punch somebody. One person after another mindlessly wandering around not paying attention including a wayward SUV that veered into my path. Another reminder why I rarely skate at the beach anymore.

So for today, a 3.5 mile run. No matter how often Val tries to talk me into running more, it ain’t happening. I used to enjoy it, now I can’t wait until it is over!. By the time Val has run 3 miles, she is getting warmed up and finding her pace. By the time I have done half that distance, I am saying to myself, "Are we done yet"? Nah, I’ll do it from time to time like everything else. At least with skating, I can cover distances much faster and that is much more fun. By the way, the 12.2 mile skate took 59 minutes and the 3.5 mile run, at a 9:30 pace was finished 33:15 later.

So two days in the sun and breezes and a little outside cardio. Not bad, not bad at all.

At various postings I have made reference to and linked the Warrior Diet as a superior diet regiment. In a previous blog, I documented my experiences from a starting weight of 223 # down to 190#. Whether you work out or not, WD is something I highly recommend you take a look at. Ori Hofmekler has a new blog addressing the Warrior Diet and the Anti-Estrogenic Diet.

Learn how to eat right, eat healthy and lose stubborn belly fat.

(This is a PSA. I get no $$, perks, discounts, product or anything. I just happen to believe strongly in what Ori has here. So go. Now)!

Still getting your Iraq news from the alphabet networks? The dinosaur media (newspapers)? You are missing out on much of what is really happening at the ground level. They are good at giving you news of the latest US casualties and how badly everything is going. “Fair and Balanced” Fox is busy covering Paris Hilton after giving Rosie a rest. Even the dreaded “far right talk radio” doesn’t provide the story over there.

At this moment there is a major offensive against al Queda in Iraq and it should be big news. Here is where you can get the real story. Go to The Fourth Rail. Also go here.
At both of these blogs you will get the good news with the bad, but at least you will get the good too. Both of these guys are embedded with the troops and are highly respected journalists.