5/1/13; 1030-1230hrs; Bishan Gym
Mood
Before: Great. Smolov again.
During: F this shit. Seriously. The intensity was high. Doable
but I had to dig really, really deep. Gonna need to up my game to get through
next week.
After: Relieved. I never felt so happy after a training
session before. Then again I don’t think I’ve been this depressed during
training before. Smolov took me to places I’ve never been to and I don’t think
I had ever wanted to. And it’s still not over. F this shit.
Training
Warm up: Did the shoulder savers warm up. After squatting
the day before I had a bit more experience approaching my warm up squat sets. I
knew what to expect – the stiffness, soreness in the upper body, so I tackled
them before they surfaced. Did more stretching with the broom stick to get the
bar into position and I didn’t get too worried when the first few warm up squat
sets didn’t go too smooth. It helps me to keep my mental game on track else I
would go nuts before the work sets.
Work sets: First 2 sets were done unbelted and felt great. Tight,
good form, and explosiveness out of the hole. But after the 2nd set,
the flu came in. And the forearm pain showed up too. The timing couldn’t have
been better. Mentally I was done. Yes, throwing in the towel and calling it a
day did cross my mind but somehow smolov was and still is so alluring that I
couldn’t quit. I don’t know why but I just couldn’t and wouldn’t quit. And so
it went on. 8 more sets with the belt on. I wore the belt more to get my head
back in the game. The ritual of belting, getting into the zone, focusing. It all
helped.
Assistance: Nothing done. I was totally smoked and just
wanted to do nothing; which was precisely what I did.
Miscellaneous
Training partners are important. You may not like them, you
may not talk to them outside of training but they are important during
training. This point was driven into me on Friday and again today. If not for
my training partners I might have just walked away, called it a day and quitted
on smolov.
They will call you out, push you over the edge, talk shit
with you, make you rage, spot you, belt you up, load the plates and you will do
the same for them.
This is one of the wonderful things about training. You meet
all sorts of people from all walks of life, everyone with a story to tell, some
happy, some sad, some out of this world. But everyone is brought together with
a common passion for training. And you just know who they are. Many people go
to the gym but not all of them train.
Training partners come and go, and sadly I’ve had quite a
number with whom I no longer train with already. Some became friends, some
started as friends and the rest, well, remained as training partners. Bottom line
is you need them and when you find them, treasure them. Treat them with respect;
offer them the same level of help and dedication that they offer to you if not
more. No man is an island.
Another thing to touch on is sickness. Today the dreaded flu
bug came. Goodness knows from where but I’m hit. I used to think that flu meant
that I had reached the state of overtraining such that my immune system was
weakened and recovery compromised hence the flu. I also hypothesized that this
occurs concurrently with a lack of calories. I still don’t know if these
theories are valid but given my current training program and diet, it does seem
plausible. So to counteract this flu, recovery has been made a priority since I
squat on Monday, like it or not. Getting more rest and more calories is
underway for the weekend.
Diet
Breakfast/preworkout: 2 scoops protein, creatine, 4 eggs, 2
slices wholemeal bread. 1 cup kopi o kosong ti loh before hitting the gym.
Lunch/postworkout: 1 scoop protein, 1L Magnolia chocolate fresh
milk, some glutinous rice. Drinking so much milk lends itself to much flatulence.
Best not to be consumed 6 hours before training.
Teabreak: Was super hungry after waking up from my nap. Didn't feel like eating eggs or protein or anything that’ll remind me of training so I
had glutinous rice, fried rice and guava.
Dinner: Indian food. The works. Can’t see the point in
listing it here but here goes. 1 cup teh tarik, mee goreng, kambeng soup, roti prata,
mutton murthabuk, some mutton briyani. Yup that’s about all. Had a great bloat
going on after that.
Supper: 2 scoops protein and 1 scoop full cream milk powder.
Makes for great dreams but I keep waking up to piss.
