5/3/1 Big but Boring. Muppet prep for July 18th ScotNational

[Lordmuppet]

Diet and sleep

sleep is still pretty bad (fine quantity but no quality) due mostly to my tendency to not want to eat anything till late afternoon and then frantically wolfing down the days meals so late that i miss my bedtime by several hours. I am a muppet. No more trading sleep for food.

Food for this week wasn't as good as I hope. Assuming I eat clean today there were two missed meals in the week and one cheat meal (slice of heavenly vegan rassberry chocolate cake I got given for free after donating an old laptop to a bakery). So if today is clean then just under 90% diet compliance for the week. 2.5 missed/cheated would be 90%.

Decided to move to Boston after all. Will be there at least two years, hopefully three.

Moving back to Europe briefly first for visa, seeing family, conference etc

Anyway moving out of my place early next week and visiting New York on the way back to Europe. Diet will likely be a mess Will focus on just getting enough calories and protein.

going to do some packing errands then will do my weekly perusal of logs that interest me

[Lordmuppet]

summary for last three weeks

Has been a lot going on the last three weeks such that i have not had the energy to post here.

Moved all my stuff back to UK from Southern California. Packing ones life into two bags means throwing out a lot of stuff which was cathartic and then quite upsetting. All that i own in Southern California now is three boxes of books stored with a friend.

Spent four or five days in NYC. Love the place. Ate whatever i wanted which was the plan (after being quite strict for last few weeks of SoCal). Trained with a VeganJosh which was incredibly useful. Turns out my sumo deadlift style was not legit (grip was so narrow that shoulders couldn't come back and down). Best to find out now! The old 'frog' style was so inefficient (VeganJosh pointed out) that I'm hopeful learning legitimate sumo will actually add quite a lot to the weight once i get used to the style.

Got back to Edinburgh. Jetlag from west to east is awful. Screwed up sleep. Didn't have proper stuff in my mum's kitchen so bought that online. Has arrived now (grinder for seeds, measuring cups/spoons etc). Joined Edinburgh Uni's awesome gym (one room alone with 5 power racks and a ton of bumper plates and deadlift platforms). Going to try to join the weightlifting club there.

Whole ton of stress with Visa. Was running around town a few hours before my train to London trying to find a photo of me with all the weird specifications they wanted. Stayed in great cheap hostel in center of London (YHA by Kings Cross) and combination of push ups (with feet elevated), squats with band/pistol squat and pull ups on the side of the bunk bed to keep me honest. Felt good about this as I needed to get a travel training plan B sorted for a long time.

Got visa approved. Came back to Edinburgh and got sick as hell with this cold Usually i train on a cold but i could barely walk across the house the last few days *sigh* nevermind do pushups.

SHORT VERSION OF LAST THREE WEEKS: some (but far from optimal training), crap sleep, crap diet but I'm not going to feel all that bad about it. Circumstances have really sucked and once i'm over this cold things will get back to normal.

still waiting on official university permission to work remotely from UK.

[Frostfire]

Wow, crazy life but it will settle! Good one for being able to pack your life in a few bags - that is totally a skill not everyone can master . Good luck with the move/traveling, diet, and workouts!

[baldy]

Joined Edinburgh Uni's awesome gym (one room alone with 5 power racks and a ton of bumper plates and deadlift platforms). Going to try to join the weightlifting club there.

I used to train with that club, from what I gather its no longer still a functioning club. Have you got any contact with them?
I probably have a few contact email address if you get stuck. Also still in touch with a few ex unit20 guys who train at the
Pleasance.
Just shout and I will hook you up.

[Lordmuppet]

Joined Edinburgh Uni's awesome gym (one room alone with 5 power racks and a ton of bumper plates and deadlift platforms). Going to try to join the weightlifting club there.

I used to train with that club, from what I gather its no longer still a functioning club. Have you got any contact with them?
I probably have a few contact email address if you get stuck. Also still in touch with a few ex unit20 guys who train at the
Pleasance.
Just shout and I will hook you up.

thanks, awesomeness! I might take you up on that. The club has a website and when i turned up to talk to them they told me to come back the next day and someone from the club would be there to talk to me (was unfortunately too busy with visa crap the next day to go). So i hope it's still running. We shall see.

Is Unit 20 still running or no?

[Lordmuppet]

Wow, crazy life but it will settle! Good one for being able to pack your life in a few bags - that is totally a skill not everyone can master . Good luck with the move/traveling, diet, and workouts!

thanks It was two bags yeah An awful lot of which was my ridiculous collection of iron woody resistance bands that i hope to one day be able to justify.

[baldy]

thanks, awesomeness! I might take you up on that. The club has a website and when i turned up to talk to them they told me to come back the next day and someone from the club would be there to talk to me (was unfortunately too busy with visa crap the next day to go). So i hope it's still running. We shall see.

Is Unit 20 still running or no?

The guys I know from the club are Mark, Tom and Ali. Ask about the South African guy and hopefully they will remember me.
When I left they didn't have access to the clubs room in the gym due to building stuff. So hopefully that is sorted, some strong guys that train in the gym anyway so you will be fine.

Unit20 is no longer running (in spirit it will live forever), but if you want to do some strongman stuff there is a new place that opened somewhere in Fife I think.

[vegan hal]

glad you are back home and got through your travels despite the visa, jetlag and sickness. heal up, get that DL form rocking, and you'll be back on track soon.

[Lordmuppet]

Short version: 1) getting back into the swing of it after the cold/general crap 2) making plans for home GPP and home gym

poop training log is at my gym locker. Must remember to bring it back for Sunday logging.

From Memory

Tuesday (first back after a week of cold)

Squat 3x5 60kg felt really heavy
Deadlift 1x5 100kg very easy which it should be
OHP 35kg 3x5 felt hard as OHP always does
Chin ups: can't remember

Wednesday

tried to do some sort of GPP at the gym (weighted jumps onto bench, farmers walks with people in the way, pushing plate along the floor which didn't really work given floor and plate are both rubber). Not enough space for GPP at the gym. Though will be if I get into weightlifting club. Apparently there is some circuit room that is currently closed.

Will do GPP at home. Probably the following

Fist Push ups
Dips from a table/bed edge
Farmers walks up two flights of stairs
Sit ups
'Sandbag' pick up and carry up stairs

Thursday

Squat 70kg 3x5 felt fine
Bench: 55kg for 3x5 i think
Pull ups: ?

Saturday

Marathon 3 hour session with Darcy though that's largely down to my being a chatterbox/a lot of discussion of form. Darcy tried out Deadlifts and liked them

Squat 80kg 3x5 hard but only because I'm going super slow to try and just break parrallel rather than do my usual ATG thing. VeganJosh mentioned that 1) mine could be 6 inches higher and would still be deep and 2) if i just broke parrallel i could probably add 60lb overnight. Hope is to instantly smite Seitanic with the higher squat

Deadlift 130kg 1x5 hard but should be. Very close to what i was doing back in the states.
Maxed out CUs for friendly comp: 15
OHP 37.5kg 3x5 hard but again close to what i used to be doing

I/My Mother have a garage next door so hoping to set up a home gym situation when friends move their stuff out and it is just the motorcycle (not mine) being stored there. Minus friend's stuff there is/would be 100 square feet even giving the bike a quarter of the garage. Roof is super low unfortunately but can just press elsewhere. Anyway going to start collecting stuff on craigslist/gumtree if i see cheap deals i think.

[Lordmuppet]

Food

Living with my mother means a lot more effort being put into avoiding crap food

Been getting up at 8am like clockwork. May move that back an hour if gym gets busy.

Average sleep for the week = 6.5. Need to get better at keeping a record of stuff. Also at sleeping.

Four cheat meals and two missed meals in the week which is way too much but it is a hell of a lot better than the week before. I have all my kitchen stuff now and DHA supplements have arrived.

Notes for improvement
Need to ditch the coconut oil and start eating actual coconuts. I get enough space oil from the stuff I put on the oatcakes. God I love oatcakes.

Need to start cooking from the PN cookbook and makes stuff that tastes nice as opposed to what i'm doing now.

Need to set times when i eat. Said i would do this last week *sigh*

Anyway things going in the right direction

[Lordmuppet]

short version: lifts slowly getting back to where they were before the move

16th Aug

weigh in at 67kg
Squat 90kg 3x5
Dead con 132.5kg 1x5
Bench 57.5kg 3x5
PU 12, 3, 5

17th Aug

Squat 95kg 3x5
OHP 40kg 3x5
CUs 12, 7, 6

18th Aug: ATTEMPTED GPP. EQUIPMENT NOT HEAVY ENOUGH/NOT ENOUGH SPACE

farmers walk 3x2 lengths 12.5kg dumbells
pick up carry/load with heavy back x 3
weighted jumps with 10kg medicine ball x3

August 19

Squat 97.5kg 3x5
Dead sumo: am bloody done with deadlift sumo!
Deadlift con 'heavy' single 145kg
Bench: ran out of bloody time *sigh*. Was so exhausted that squats and dead took up LOT of time. Anyway did push ups 3x5 with feet elevated at home for some sort of make up.
PUs ran out of time and still waiting to get bar for house

[Lordmuppet]

short version: making things taste good and still an oatcake whore

Diet Followed 86% though that figure is more than a little deceptive as i think i may have only recently decided/admitted that oatcakes/spread/peanut butter constituted a cheat meal on account of the olive oil/sunflower oil spread which is space food really isn't it? Anyway now that is admitted next weeks figures will be meaningful.

Also as cheat meals go mine that's not sooooo bad right.

Dammit I just need to give in and marry an oatcake tycoon.

Started making stuff taste nice and it is good! Unfortunately blender is not up to the new challenges so am in process of buying new one that can actually crush bloody ice.

Have sourced some slightly cheaper nuts and finally got the spice situation in order (i had very few spices).

Average sleep 6.8. Quality usually good as getting it at the same time each night just about.

[seitanic]

Glad to see you've started logging.

ORM day! woot!
ORM Squat 295lb (ugly) PR
ORM Deadlift to 375lb (not ugly) PR
ORM Bench to 180lb ( PR bit ugly back was not happy. Def more in tank as i was rushing to beat the closing of the gym).

2.5 times bw deadlift

Wow, nice!

[Lordmuppet]

Glad to see you've started logging.

ORM day! woot!
ORM Squat 295lb (ugly) PR
ORM Deadlift to 375lb (not ugly) PR
ORM Bench to 180lb ( PR bit ugly back was not happy. Def more in tank as i was rushing to beat the closing of the gym).

2.5 times bw deadlift

Wow, nice!

yeah that deadlift wasn't kosher I'm afraid will replicates soon with kosher locked out DL

[Linnéa76]

Nice log! You've had some pretty quick progress with the lifts, haven't you?

Must be all the oatcakes.