Out of Jail

I had a lot of business to attend to Thorsday, but still I managed to get in three good workouts. First was the shuffle, a 3.01 mile zig-zag made-up-as-I-went route. That cool air that blew in Wednesday afternoon was still here. It felt amazing out there, and I did not even sweat.

At the pool, which is still unheated, I swam

2,450 47:11
10 X 50 @ 1:16
150 back 3:37
5 X 50 @ 1:16
150 back 3:28
total: 3,500 yards = 3,199 meters.

At Plate City, I did my second session of density training on the bench press. Leflore Steel had just finished my Swiss bar in time to save my shoulders. The day off and the extra stretching bailed me out. The Swiss bar kept me out snap city jail. What is a Swiss bar? you ask. It is a multi-grip bar that has several hand positions allowing for different grip widths and different grip angles. I know, a picture is work a thousand words. I'll post one later. The different hand positions allow for a neutral grip which greatly reduces pressure on the biceps tendon.

They made me this thing about a year ago, but I took it in to get it worked on. The stops were too narrow causing it to hang up on the j-hooks and making me fear it would fall on my face. They removed the old stops and put them out two inches wider on each side. Now I have a great bar. The session went like this:

8 X 108 warm up
5 X 123 the density block starts here
5 X 123
5 X 123
5 X 123
5 X 123
5 X 123
5 X 123
5 X 123
12 X 108 cool down
12 X 98 narrow grip, cool down

The density block was the eight sets of five. Remember last week? I did 120 pounds and the whole block took me 10:45 to complete. That established the baseline. The reason I went up in weight is the Swiss bar weighs 38 pounds as opposed to 45 for the Olympic bar. So the weight either had to be two pounds lighter or three pound heavier. Anyway, this time I completed the block in 7:54. Do you see where this is going? There is a conditioning component being added in here. Eventually, this might transfer to the water, not for a swim like Chicot, but for a fast 200 or 500 in the pool the ability to deal with lactic acid, to do a lot of work in a short period of time is paramount. And these are my swimming muscles, the pectorals, the shoulders, the triceps. 

Yeah, I know, you're smart. You noticed that I increased both volume and intensity, and I just told you a couple of days ago that that is a no no. Well shoot me. Really, I had no choice. Well, I do have some eleven pound plates that could have evened out the weight. But with the neutral grip, I thought I could get away with it. And I did. The volume and intensity were increase by adding three pounds to the bar. The intensity was shot through the roof by cutting the time from 10:45 to 7:54. Next week, I will probably pull out my elevens and go to 125 and shoot for just under 7:50.

Well, I made it through the week still pretty much in one piece. My arms did not fall off, Wilson. I'm not bragging. God has taught me not to do that. But I feel He helped me to have some restraint, to train hard and still get well when something was beginning to go wrong. And Providence gave me my Swiss bar back just in time. Thank you, Jesus.