11/25/13 Monday November 25, 2013 (PR 32kg, 2H SW 44kg)

7:55am - Original Strength and Primal Move - 30 minutes

8:25am - Kettlebell warm up ("Standard")

1/2K halos - 8kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)
1/2K pullover - 12 kg, 5X each leg

1/2K halos - 12kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)

1/2K pullover - 16 kg, 5X each leg
Roll to press (TGU start) - shoulder cam shafts, each arm

Arm bar 12 kg, 1+1

8:40am - Training session - Focus on PR 32 kg, 2H SW 44 kg

TGU 16kg, 3/3

TK PR 16 kg, 5/5, 2X

PR 24 kg, 3/3
PR 28 kg, 2/2

9:00am interruption - phone call.  Resume 9:30am

PR 32 kg, 1/1 - 8X (PR for reps) (used socks on the hands)

2H SW 32kg, 5 (warm up, felt ok with the socks on the hands)

2H SW 44kg, 10, 10X (on the minute, 10 minutes) - 100 total reps (same as last week)

9:55am - Complete

Notes -  It was a good day.  As I journaled on Friday I had experienced a tear on my right hand under the callous on my R middle finger after snatching Friday.  Lots of tough hand work lately, and the dry weather combined with not getting that callous properly filed down led to this issue.  I took care of it over the weekend and in the evening Sunday saw that the loose skin had dried up so I clipped it off and continued treating the area with Neosporin.  It was feeling WAY better than on Friday, as were my callouses generally since I started using more of the Corn Huskers Lotion I had (should have been using it all the time).  I determined it would be a good idea to use some socks around the hands today (Tracy Rif style, cut off socks worn around the callous area, with fingers and palms of hands exposed as normal), just to protect the area.  I did that and things went well including the swings, which was what I was mostly worried about.  I probably did not need the socks for heavy presses but due to the clean to the rack, it was a good idea.  I really felt good on the presses, feel like the technique is getting dialed in nicely.  I had more reps in the tank on the 32kg which felt good to know. Eventually it will be very good to try and do some either / or military press or long cycle with the 32kg, seeing if I can stay tight and get multiple reps.  For now, singles practice is good and totally appropriate to where I am at.  On the heavy 2H 44kg swings today I focused on clamping down hard on my lats, which really helped particularly because I did not have my normal feel on the bells due to having the socks on, and this lat engagement helped me feel that I had control of the bell.  Frankly I need that clamped lat feeling on all of my swings, and I need to make that a focal point of future practice.

11/24/13 Sunday November 24, 2013 (11 mile run around the lake)

Drove down to Portland on Friday, back today and had to get in this final training run before the Seattle 1/2 marathon on Sunday December 1.  Ran nearly 2 hrs for this one, basically in the dark in the evening.  I have had to do that several times for the training runs, which is not preferred.  Got through this one, didn't have much of a warm-up/stretch out and I was certainly concerned about my feet having already spent a lot of time driving in the car the last couple of days.  Left hamstring was sore/tight for the first couple of miles, which was odd, but it loosened up.  Did not notice the arches acting up until the R arch started to about 1 hr and 15 minutes into the run.  I played with my running gait and stride, trying a few different things to change up the stride and finally settled on really focusing on my glutes and driving off of the left leg each time my foot planted.  This seemed to help a lot.  Naturally with my stride I put more force I think on the R hip and that transfers down to the knee, ankle, foot.  My R ankle has been tight and it has been difficult to get it as flexible as I want.  With that said, it is pretty clear that building up the miles has helped and my body has been responding sufficiently such that I know I will be ok for this race.  I am a little concerned about running the whole way on concrete, something I have been able to avoid pretty much in training.  As long as I get a lot of lacrosse ball and other work on my feet this week, I should be fine.  I am really going to concentrate on getting some work done on them every day so they will be as flexible and loose as possible for the race come next Sunday morning.