11/29/12 - snatch/bsquat & hammers

Am weight = 275.2lbs

Training#1 @ 430a

hang snatch up to 155x3x2
hang snatch pulls 225x3x3
back squat 435x4, 435x5, 435x6

and done. No stepups today, knees were on fire and overall fatigue creeping up to record high levels. Was supposed to be 435x5x3 with max rep on the last set. First set of 4 was demoralizing, just couldn't push it. Pulled it together on the 2nd set and made up the missed rep on the 3rd set.

Training#2 @ 645a

16# hammer
*winds x3
*full x16, best of 131'8" big training PR

Took a couple winds to loosen up after the squats and it was feeling good. Very whippy and long. First toss was 114' with nothing on it so I knew it was going to be a good day. Started getting after it after the 3rd or 4th toss, working on speeding up the 3rd wind. Nice and stead first wind into a smooth 2nd wind with a wide orbit then an ridiculous 3rd wind and big finish. Hit a couple 128s and a bunch of 125s with a 129 in the mix. Kept missing my finish either early or late which made a huge difference in where the hammer fell. Decided to slow it down just a tidbit and hit one out at 128 again straight down the pipe. Sped it up just a tiny tiny bit and nailed the 131'8 for a big PR. As soon as it left my hands I knew it was going to go 130+. Big focus here was to keep my hips moving. Catch it high, sink my hips and drive my right knee in to get it moving then get long on left side and immedately sink hips again. Slow to fast was also a focus here. Don't kill the 2nd wind, keep it smooth and kill the 3rd. Making progress here. No predictions but I definately feel there is more int he tank.

11/28/12 - stone/wfd

Training @ 640a

15.5# braemar stone x 12, best of 47'

Making changes here. Staggered my left leg back more to open my hips better. Focused on leading everything with my right hip. Also worked on my reverse a bit as it was previously decreasing power output. Had some really good tosses, avg about 45ft. Improvements ftmfw.

56# wfd
*1 turn x8, avg 41-42
*full x11, best of 45ft, one at 44 and a bunch at 43ft

Working higher effort throws here to dial in timing for a big pull. Still need to sink a little bit more and reach for a longer pull. Moar improvements. Satisfied.

11/27/12 - ppress/deads & hammer

Training#1 @ 430a

Push press 250x5x2, 250x7
Deads 525x5x3
Box jumps/db rows/db curls x2 sets

Training partner nailed 10 reps with his last set of deads. I could have done the same but every effing rep made me feel like I was going to vomit. No bueno.


Training#2 @ 645a

16# hammer
*winds x5
*throws x22, best 128'

Started picking up the speed on the last 4-5 tosses. Training PR at 128' felt solid. Looking forward to getting after it even more.

11/26/12 - fsquat/cgpress & hammer

Training#1 @ 430a

Fsquat 350x5x2, 350x8
Cgpress 300x5, 300x4, 300x3
Gms 225x10, 275x10
Pull-ups/dips x2

Training#2 @ 640a

16# hammer
*winds x6-8
*full x10, best 122

Getting more consistent with the hammer: sink hips / drive right knee in / long left side

11/21/12 - stone/wfd/hammer

Training @ 345p

15.5# stone
*standing x5-8, 40-42ish
*full spin x5-8, 45-47ish

Not really into the stones as of late so I just put the work in. Did figure out that I'm raising my right leg too high off the ground. I've known this and keep falling into bad habits until someone points it out. On my very last rep, kept my right close to the ground and more of a sweeping motion. Right foot landed, kept turning, hit the block. Good toss.

56# wfd
*1 turn x5-6, 38-42
*full x6-8, best of 46'10" training PR

28# wfd x5, best of 82ish

1 turns were feeling solid, especially after taking most of the week off from training. Was really focusing on getting low and leaning a bit to my right side for a long pull. Switched to fulls and the magic started. Two throws under 40ft. Avg about 42ft with a couple at 43ft. Then on my last one I just wanted to get low and really hit a long long finish..........and that happened. Stepped over the trig but it flew over the cone I had at 45ft. Tweaked my left knee a tiny bit, just some old patellar tendonitis so nothing new. Finally broke that 45ft barrier and felt what a big throw should feel like. Looking forward to things to come on this one. Went onto the 28 at this point. Went 3 in the high 70s and 2 in the low 80s. Need to work with the 28 more so I can dial in my timing for a big throw. I swear the 82 footer landed around 85, but there wasn't any divots around (was throwing into dirt) so I just went with the next closest which was 82. Meh, whatevs. There's a big one in there lurking.

16# hammer
*winds x2-3 to loosen up
*full throws x6-8, 118-122ish

Working on catching the ball high then immediately dropping my hips and pushing my right knee in then getting super long with my left. Very smooth, just slow. Looking forward to adding some speed to this soon.


Great training day out with Adam Brezina and Brandon Hall today. Looking forward to the next time we throw together.

11/16/12 - stone/wfd

Training @ 6a

15.5# stone
*stand x6-8
*full spin x6-8

meh
56# wfd
*1 turn x5
*2 turn x3

Cop showed up and told us someone called regarding suspicious activity in the park.

1) We aren't in a park, it's a water retention basin.
2) We aren't breaking parks & rec regulations
3) We have permission from parks & rec dept to be there.

Officer was cool about it and said we could keep throwing but he had already taken up most of my allotted time and I need to get to work. Was a bit annoyed about that.

11/15/12 - snatch/ bsquat & hammer

Training#1 @ 430a

Power snatch up to 205
Back squat 455x3x2, 455x5
12" box step ups 135x8, 225x8x2
Db rows x2

Meh, just putting work in.


Training#2 @ 630a

16# hammer
*5 winds no release x8-10
*3 winds w/release x12

Working on driving the right hip and dropping my hips to sink the ball while staying long on the left side. Coming along.

11/13/12 - ppress/deads

Am weight = 269

Training @ 430a

Ppress 265x3x2, 265x5
Deads 550x3x2, 550x6

Today was one of those days. Push press warmups felt ok but the first work set at 265 felt miserable. Stiff, low energy levels and just didn't "want" to be there. Last set was a max rep but 5 reps was def not max reps. I'm fairly certain I could've gone to 8 if I had the desire to really push it. Stopped at 5 because the lockout felt hard. This is a 5 rep work set for me in about 3 weeks, so hitting this for 5 makes me confident for my next cycle after I deload next week. Deads felt good once I got going. I've gotten into a terrible habit of using straps because at 5am, I'm so lazy I just don't want to put any effort where it isn't needed. I'm going to start chalking again. I just feel more in-tune with the bar without straps. Deads weren't easy but they certainly weren't hard. Again, just stopped at 6 here because I didn't have the WIM. Probably could've gone to 8, possibly 10.

Skipped hammers today, like I said, one of those days. Went home and relaxed for a bit with the Mrs and played with the kiddo some before heading into work. Tomorrow is my 4 year wedding anniversary so there will be no training and I'm taking the day off. I'll hit some snatches/squats/hammers on thursday, then some stones/weights friday and stones/weights/hammers/caber saturday and done-zo until the week of the 26th (outside of some deload type stuff, maybe 2 light weight sessions and 2 light throws sessions early next week).

11/12/12 - fsquat/cgpress & hammer

Training#1 @ 430a

Fsquat 370x3x2, 370x6
Gms 225x10, 275x10, 315x10
Cgbench 315x3x3
Pull-ups bwx5x5

Db overhead tri ext x3


Training#2 @ 645a

16# hammer
*5 winds no release x10
*3 wind throws x14

Keeping a focal point right in front of me at all times, especially the first wind. From there focusing on dropping my hips and pushing my right knee in to drive the ball. Lift the ball, eyes to the sky, drop, push the knee on the 2nd wind. Then extend to my left, lift the ball, watch the ball, drop the hips, push the right knee and big finish. Getting much more natural. Very slow movement getting high 1-teens. Going to do the same tomorrow then see if I can get after it on Thursday without missing the finish. If I start missing the finish on then I'll slow it down again. Focus here is to nail all the positions then as soon as the ball is above me, catch it, drive it and finish the hell out of it. Very happy with how hammer is coming along just in the past 2 weeks with the added hammer practice.

11/9/12 - snatch/bsquat & stone/wfd

Training#1 @ 430a

Power snatch up to ugly 205x3
Bsquat 430x5x2, 430x6
12" box step ups 135x8, 225x8x2


Training#2 @ 640a

15.5# stone
*stand x6
*south African x6
*full spin x8

Just getting the reps in here. Spoke with MattV for a while and came to the conclusion I'm driving too hard with my right leg and that's why I'm over-reaching.. need to focus more on driving/sprinting with my left leg. Focus on "walking through" the spin. Going to try to fall onto my right and bring my left around fast, similar to Jacko Gill. From there I can progress a bit more. Definitely need to get this reaching issue under control.

56# wfd
*one turn x6
*full x6
28# wfd x4

One turns felt good, need faster feet to get into a position sooner for a big finish. Faster feet -> more push to zero -> faster implement -> bigger finish. Drifting 6 or so inches forward on my first spin. Need to fix this as I'm stepping over the trig by about 6" at the front. Also focused leaning over my right side and getting a real long pull/push on the weight. I definitely like this. 28 was good, feeling tired so the throws weren't great.

11/8/12 - ppress/deads & hammer

Training#1 @ 440a

Push press 250x5x2, 250x8
Deads 520x5x2, 520x8
Db rows x2

Great day. Not much accessory stuff but meh, whatevs. Push press felt really solid. Deads started out feeling heavy but got lighter with each set and rep. The rep out for both was pretty fun. Conditioning is shit. Need to get on this.

Training#2 @ 630a

16# hammer
*5 winds no release x 8-10
*3 wind throws x16

Spending a lot of time watching Larry Brock's hammer videos. His tech is flawless. Working on catching high, driving the ball down then pushing it with my right hip before pulling it back up. Need to focus more on sinking my hips on the down stroke so I can get more hip behind the ball to drive it faster. Slow reps today and for the next couple sessions, just drilling the movement pattern in then I can start getting after it. Changing focal point to dead I front of me helped a lot. Not twisting my hips to the right so much is letting me drive the ball better. Need to work on staying long on the left side though without sacrificing orbit angle by leaning back too far. Good practice.

Haven't been paying attention to calories, but I was about 276 last night after dinner. Workouts and throws are both up. I'd really like to maintain here so I'll have to start paying attention to calories again soon. Blegh, sick of counting.

11/7/12 - fsquat/cgbench & hammer

Training#1 @ 445a

Fsquat 350x5x2, 350x8
Cgbench 300x5x2, 300x3
Pull-ups bwx5x3

Good sesh, very happy with the front squats, looks like I'm making progress here again. Cut the accessory as I'll be training 3 days in a row this week. Will add back in next week. Cg bench was ok, bummed about the last set.



Training#2 @ 630a

16# hammer
*5 winds no release x 12-15
*3 wind throws x6-8

Working various things here:

fixing focal point
sinking hips to drive the ball down
pushing right knee in to drive the right hip to drive the ball left
getting under the ball quickly so I can stay long

Every rep was iffy, hard to put it all together, but I'm getting rid of bad habits and forming new good ones so I'm happy with the practice.

Beard pic - 36 days

11/4/12 - Tucson Games

Tucson Highland Games A Class

Bs – 33+ (2^nd)

Os – 47+ (1^st)

Hwd – 41’7 PR (1^st)

Lwd – 78+ (1^st)

20# Sheaf – 27’

Hham – 94+ (1^st)

Lham – 114+ (2^nd)

Caber – 2:30ish (3^rd)

WOB- 16 spin (1^st)

Overall 1^st

Well, that was a fun games. Haven’t had that much fun in a while. Lots of talent moving into the As as of late and it keeps you on your heels. It was great seeing the guys and hanging out.

Bs- ugly piece of shit 24.5# AZ stone (which I thought we got rid of and replaced with a decent 22 pounder). Couldn’t get a good handle on this thing. I went 35+ with it in Phoenix the first game of the season. Just lacking explosion here today. Good enough for 2^nd which is fine because there’s no way I wanted to take extras with that piece of crap.

Os- meh, the trouble ensues. Went 46+ for the W and then took extras and went 47+. No PRs here. Was just focusing on getting my right foot down, staying low then bringing my left foot down very quickly. I tend to progress pretty quickly and with all the recent changes I just didn’t have enough time. I will have some very big ostone numbers next season though.

Hwfd – went 39+ on my first attempt, just walking through the positions. Fouled my second at 43+ and I can’t remember my third. Took the extras and finished with 41’7 which is a PR. I should be happy but there is much more in the tank here as I wasn’t really able to crush the finish on any of these. I had a decent sprint and just blew by the push on the finish.

Lwfd – blegh 78+. Was getting great speed on the sprint but again missing the finish. Not unhappy with this but not happy with it either.

20# sheaf – Cleared 27ft without much of an issue. Went to 30ft afterwards and had missed on accuracy. Was either peaking in front or behind the bar. Only spent about 3 weeks practicing sheaf so it’s time to invest time time and get good at it for phoenix next year.

Hhammer – playing with a new grip so not really focused on the normal stuff. Just trying to get longer on my left side for a smoother pull and I think I’ve taken that step forward. Watched a video of the Celtic Giants in Norther Ireland from 2005 and noticed that Vierra only has 2 fingers of his right hand touching the hammer and the other two fingers are wrapped around his left hand. Gave this a shot and was getting very long. Felt great. Didn’t put anything on it but still dropped my first one at 91ft and second at 94ft, good enough for 1^st so I passed my 3^rd since I knew Adam would give me a run for my money on Lhammer.

Lhammer – Just worked on hitting positions and really only increasing speed on 3. I think I went 109, 112, 114 and Adam hit 115 on his last one so he took the cake. Going to be working hammer a lot this off season too. Now that I’m getting more comfortable with the positions, it’s time to take A LOT of throws and work on getting them fast.

Caber – 18ft 100#s, by now we were all pretty tired and this caber def felt more like 150#s than 100, lol. It had gotten windy all of a sudden so we were chasing a hell of a headwind when running. I think only 4 of us turned the caber. Neither Adam nor myself turned the 1^st attempts so we took a deep breath and figured we had to actually try on our 2^nd and 3^rd attempts. I think I got a 2:30 or something on both 2^nd and 3^rd. Both attempts I had a great pick and really good run, then I put the caber into position on my hip, stopped and pulled… both times the headwind slowed the top of the caber down so much, haha.. oh well..

Wob – 16ft spinning. First time ever spinning. I attempted a spin in phoenix 2011 and that was just silly. I cleared 12 and 13 standing. It was a long day, 9^th event and we were all tired so I decided to just have some fun. Chalked the shit out of my thumb and went for it with the spin. Cleared 14 and 15 easy. Then Adam wanted 15’6 to go for a PR and he crushed it. Then I spun 15’6 and 16’ again pretty easy. Jumped to 17 and just couldn’t get it. I would have it the bar on one of the attempts but my peak was off. This was pretty fun so I’m going to play around with this learning the accuracy. It’ll be a nice tool to have in my box.

Overall had a great time on a great field. Thanks to Rich Wells for putting on a great and fun games like he always does. Thanks to my teammates Adam Brezina and Jake Nicol for pushing me and having a great time. Thanks to Stewart and Torgersen Injury Law (1800ourlawyer.com) for continuing to support us and allow us to keep having fun at all these games. We’re very proud to and grateful to have the chances to represent the company the way we do. Props out to Ed Brown, my training partner, for putting together a solid performance. Tech is looking much improved. Had you not DFL’d hwd by fouling completely out, I think you would have gotten a pretty good placing. Thanks to my family for coming out and supporting me and taking care of my little boy while he runs all over the place. Big big big thanks to my always supportive wife, hauling our (almost) 2 year old 2 hours away from home and out on the field while being 6.5 months preggers and still looking so damn fine while doing it. Love you always sweetheart.

Now, it’s go time. Off season is going to be big this year. Contemplating increasing calories to maintenance now and making some real progress. I’ll take a week to decide for sure if that’s what I want to do or not. First games of the year will be Phoenix in March 2013. I’m going to label that a “Game of PRs” for me. Haha..

11/2/12 - sheaf/ostone/Lwd

Am weight = ?

Training @ 545a

20# sheaf x15-18

15.5# full spin ostone x18

28# wfd x12-15

Sheaf = moar legzzz. Cutting my explosion really short by not getting a lot of leg drive. Tried pushing the bag away from me in the pendulum rather than straight down, though still not getting enough leg drive. Was trying to throw over a light post and was about a foot under it for the majority of the throws. I’m assuming the post is 30ft, but I dunno. Def need more legs though.

Ostone = need a faster left leg. Watching the video over and over again and I’m just blowing right over top of my left block. Instead of using my left leg to stop my left hip, I’m just jumping up and everything is falling to pieces. Just need more reps, lots and lots more reps.

28# wfd = I’ve been asking a few of the high caliber wfd throwers (approx the same height as me) what their strength and deadlift numbers were when throwing huge hwfd and lwfd numbers. I asked big Dan Williams how much he was squatting when he went 48’10” with the hwd in Tucson 2010. His reply: 715… Holy shit. Chatted with Francis Brebner beifly yesterday and he said he just did 400-500 for reps and topped out around 600 on the deadlift. This gives me hope. He said I’ve got a lot of potential on the weights, I just need to get over on my right side more to create a longer pull. This got me thinking. I wasn’t even going to throw wfd this morning but I wanted to try what he was suggesting. A longer pull, so more of an oval/ellipses shaped orbit, rather than circular. Score. First couple reps I hit it after the first spin and had a huge sprint forward, right over the trig, haha. Had to dial that back a bit but tried to get a super long pull on the finish and the results were great. I’m day 5 in a row training and squatted yesterday. My back is crushed and I’ve got no energy. Was dropping these at 78-79ft pretty consistently and moving much much slower than I am used to. I felt like the weight was moving so slow. Looking forward to spending more time with this and hopefully taking my wfd to the next level.

Tucson games on sunday. Time to stretch/foam roll/ice bath and get some solid end-season marks.

For your enjoyment (or mine, meh):

11/1/12 - snatch/bsquat & ostone

Am weight = ?

Training#1 @ 430a

Hang power snatch up to 185x3x3
Bsquat 405x5x2, 405x6
18" step ups 135x8

Snatches felt solid, good warmup for squats. Going to start hitting these much more often. Squats felt good.

Training#2 @ 630a

15.5# stone
*stand x 8
*full spin x 18-20

Standing throws are a wash, going to need to dedicate some serious time to them if I want to get up over 40 next season. Spins are getting better, well, the transition is at least. The front is absolutely terrible, but I'm piecing it together. I'm trying to think of the sprint/drive phase as less of a sprint/drive and more of a very fast step. So, slow out of the back, a very wide right foot sweet, then kick my right foot to the right and pull it in some and JUST before I touch down, start moving my left foot. If I try to "jump" onto my right foot, my right leg has to absorb that impact and the foot stops turning. By being more patient on the sprint and staying on my left longer, I'm able to keep it turning. Now things to work on: be more patient before finishing and separate better. Positive stone session. I hate stones a little less now.