Block & Pull Cycle 2018, Training

Block & Pull Cycle 2018: Week 4

BP18.W4.D1.0122

  • Blocks (above the knee): Pull + Sn (1+1): 2 @ 75% / 161, 2 @ 80% / 172
  • Blocks (above the knee): Pull + Clean (1+1): 2 @ 75% / 244, 2 @ 80% / 260
  • Clean Pull: 3×3 @ 80% / 295
  • Pause BS: 2×3 @ 65% / 325, 3×3 @ 70% / 350

I am STILL recovering from those freaking deadlifts.  Holy hell am I old and broken.  As has been the case recently, my lower back started to get extremely tight again and lock up toward the end of the snatches.  It became a bit too much for me on the clean complex that I did not attempt the lifts at 80%.  On the 75% clean complex, they just felt so rough.  I knew moving up in weight would not make things better.  The clean pulls felt abnormally heavy.  I couldn’t believe that I had days where a 295 CJ felt easy!  The only thing that really felt good this morning were the squats.  Live to fight another day.

BP18.W4.D2.0123

  • Jerk
    • 3 @ 70% / 228
    • 3 @ 75% / 245
    • 2 @ 80% / 261
    • 2 @ 85% / 277
    • 2 @ 90% / 295
  • Hang PC (below the knee): 2×2 @ 65% / 211, 2×2 @ 70% / 228
  • Heaving SB: 3 @ 65% / 140, 2×3 @ 70% / 151

“So are your workings longer now?”  I was asked that this morning and while I know they didn’t mean anything negative at all by it, it was evidence of me just taking too long to get through today when it shouldn’t have.

BP18.W4.D3.0125

  • Blocks below the knee: Pull  + Sn (1+1): 2 @ 80% / 172, 2 @ 85% / 183
  • Blocks below the knee: Pull + Cl (1+1): 2 @ 75% / 244, 2 @ 80% / 260
  • Sn pull: 4×3 @ 90% / 215
  • FS: 5×2 @ 75% / 315

I think today was the first day in a while that I have felt really good and recovered from those deadlifts.  As I was getting warm for the snatches, I knew I would be able to move like I wanted and didn’t have the same issues with my lower back.  Earlier in the week, I didn’t even attempt the final set of clean pulls & cleans because I knew they weren’t happening.  Today they felt fine.  There is something about the doors at the gym that when I walk through them I lose all ability to do math.  So I wrote 215 down as my 90% snatch instead of 195.  And then to make it worse, I loaded 225 on the bar for the first 2 sets.  When I wondered why they were so heavy, I went and looked and dropped to 215.  Still, all of them should have been done at 195.

BP18.W4.D4.0126

  • Jerk balance: 4×3 @ 55% / 180
  • Push jerk BTN: 4×3 @ 60% / 196
  • Hang power sn (below the knee): 2 @ 65% / 140, 2 @ 70% / 151
  • Pin BS above parallel: 4×3 @ 60% / 300

The BTN push jerks were supposed to be done from the split, but given how jerks BTN work on my shoulders, I kept it simple and just did push jerks from BTN.

BP18.W4.D5.0127

  • Snatch: 2×65, 2×85, 2×145, 2×160, 2×175, 185, 195, 205
  • CJ: 2×155, 2×185, 225, 255, 275, 295, 315 (PR), 325 (PR)

This weekend has really be difficult for my family and I.  On Friday we had to make the difficult decision to put our dog down.  He would have been 15 in March.  But as my wife said, we have to continue with our routine and that will help the healing process.  I wanted to come in hours earlier than I did.  If Gina hadn’t had to go grocery shopping early, I would have gone in around 6am, worked out, and left.  But thankfully there weren’t too many people there.  Just didn’t feel like talking.

All that being said, this 240kg total came out of nowhere and was a total shock.  I kinda wish I had gone up just one more time on the snatch, but felt my chest dropping and wanted to end on a positive note.  On the CJ, my main focus was 315.  I wanted to go 275, 295, 310, 315.  After I hit 295 pretty easily, I loaded the bar with 310 and was happy with how it felt.  I didn’t get my head through enough on the jerk but it was still good.  When I was walking around about to load 315, Matt walked by and said “was that a really easy 315 PR?”  Turns out, I cannot do math and what I thought was 310 was 315.  So I went up to 325 after that.  I had a bit of a press out on my left elbow, but I fought like hell to save that jerk.  No way did I want to lose another one behind me after doing all the work to stand it up.  Amazing at just how much heavier it felt holding it overhead.  I was supposed to work up to a heavy FS after all of this, but mentally I was done and exhausted so I skipped it.

The 240kg total was 10kg over what I would need to qualify for Masters Nationals.  Still in disbelief.

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