Swoleosis

Well, National Championships have passed and I had to sit this one out because I wasn't competing earlier this year. However all the pent up excitement and rage and irritation of not competing can just be stored up for next year. Like saving the leftover rage jam for another breakfast.

Anyhow since the rest of the fencers have been away I've been having a ball at lifting. Let me tell you about some of my favorite workouts from the past three weeks.

1st on the list might of been my favorite: start out with a 100m hill sprint, then move to 40 pull ups, 50 push ups, 50 body squats, and 50 sit ups. In between each excercise is another 100m hill sprint. It doesn't sound that bad, but if you can't complete a set of excercises then you once again have to go for a 100m hill sprint while you rest. For example, I got up and did about 10 pull ups...then I had to stop, so instead of sitting resting I had to go do the 100m hill sprint. Best 23 minutes of my life.

Another fun one was the 100s. I come in and its just laid out for me. 100 pull ups, 100 push ups, 100 body squats and 100 sit ups as fast as I can. And at first the back end doesn't seem so bad, but those pull-ups...not gentle.

Finally was today's workout. It was a pretty fun one and little different from the rest. 100 jump ropes, 50 upright row (just the bar no weight), 50 bench press (just the bar) 50 body weight squats and 50 sit ups. 5 times.

So, while I haven't been able to practice with the other fencers for the past few weeks I have definitely had my hands full trying to contract a case of swoleosis with these awesome circuit workouts.

No joke...I might sleep all weekend.

-JP

Intense Month

June has been an intense month. Each fencing practice is a solid 2 hours with few breaks. Lifting is fun, but punishing; by the end of the week all I have energy to do is sleep all weekend. Besides that I've started more work with my nutritionist so now I'm adjusting my diet in order change my Body Composition to decrease the fat and gain as much muscle as possible.

When I first arrived I thought if I trained hard and just ate a crap ton I'd be able to put on 15 lbs muscle and get to 180 by october. Of course now I've realized that my weight goals will be more challenging, mostly by the fact that the most benefit I'll be seeing in the next few months is burning my fat and building muscle. Basically this means that my weight may not increase much past 162 lbs, but if I change my body composition I can get it so that I'm 162 lbs of muscle...as oppose to being mostly muscle but with some fat in there. To get an idea at the moment I'm apparently between 8-10 % body fat, by the time I'm finished I'll be somewhere between 5-8% body fat and weighing 170 lbs. That would be an absurd increase in power, and speed.

So.....for now; two practices a day and I'm eating more quality calories and carefully monitoring my carb/protein/fat intake depending on where I am during the day in relation to my workouts.

I'm excited to see where all this nutrition takes me....but I'm also excited to go to eat breakfast tomorrow morning. Dining hall closes at 8:30...which leaves a lot of time to fantasy about food I'm not eating anymore.

-Hungry like a hippo

JP

100 kg

So this week on friday during my lift I did a clean dead lift with a total weight of 100 kg. In case you don't know what that is, the bar sits on the floor and you essentially grab it with a clean grip and stand up.

I was more than a little proud of myself, especially since last week when I got to my last set I could barely get 100 kg off the ground, but this week...I did a whole set.

Okay so some of you aren't impressed by those numbers but since I'm 5'9'' 166 pounds, and for me that means that I'm getting stronger. Even if its a little bit, I'm starting to crank up the weight on nearly all my exercises. On top of that I'm losing inches in my waist, and I can tell I'm gaining muscle. So after 6 weeks....I'm not displeased.

Other than that I'm meeting with my strength/conditioning coach and one of the nutritionists to make a plan to meet my weight goal. Tentatively I want to be 180 by the start of my season (mid October). This meeting is going to 1) see if that's realistic 2) get a plan to make it happen. It's going to be fun to put together a plan to become a chizzled man-panther.

-Tired n Hungry

JP

Restful Weekend

Today begins the sixth week here at the OTC and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't feeling it. No joke there was a knot the size of a small squirrel in my left hamstring last week; it took some serious stretching and some not-so-gentle help from the massage therapist to ease it up.

Needless to say I spent the entire weekend sleeping and eating...it was great. All the rest is well needed because tomorrow it's back to the grind: lifting, fencing, and sprint drills. The rest of the fencers return from Sydney on tuesday...but leave for Montreal in ten days. So it'll sweet to fence them at the end of the week but I'm going to be doing a lot of lifting by myself and practicing with the pentathletes, which is cool with me.

That's pretty much it for now. I'm just beginning the whole "get back into shape and prepare for next season" thing so tomorrow just kicks off another wonder week in Colorado Springs.

Going back to watching ATHF

-JP

Still Survivin....

Been a while since my last post, but things have been absolutely great here. The other guys returned from Guam and the fencing practice has been intense. On top of that we've jumped to a new workout in strength and conditioning...my favorite part of monday's workout were the three sets of max pull ups.

Besides that, last friday I got a body comp from our nutritionist (who just got a gig being the head of US ski and snowboarding nutrition) before he left. The body comp basically entailed measuring my fat in the magic spots (waist, biceps, triceps, thighs, etc) and then he measured the distance around those same spots. This way they can track how my body changes over the coming months. This way they can see where I'm gaining/losing weight and what areas to target in the workouts. I thought I'd just get a percentage of my body fat, but turns out that doesn't really tell you where the fat is, or how much of your body is lean or where you should focus.

Well anyway tomorrow's full of an early lift, and a demo for some darling kids in the afternoon. Can't wait.

-i love sleep

JP

2 weeks down!

Last week was great; there was fencing, got a massage, and a whole bunch of upper body weight lifting goodness. So I've spent most of the weekend letting my shoulders and triceps recover while eating my own weight in pasta. Good times.

But ah, no worries. The rest of the fencers return from the North American Cup (NAC) and then we kick off a brand spankin new week of training. I personally can't wait to feel the subtle burn of an overhead squat. Other than that I've started doing track practices, which consist of a bunch of sprinting exercises for around an hour. Which in and of itself isn't bad, but since I'm still getting used to breathing what these Coloradians (?) call air when I got finished with the workout I was literally lightheaded and seeing sparkly things in the air above the mountains in the distance.

But hey, in another week I should be all about this elevation so bring on the training like another serving of omelette....cause I really like omelets.

-Still Survivin JP

First Week

First week is finished and I'm just chillin and gettin ready for the next one. It's going to take a little time to get used to work-outs everyday and of course the infamous Colorado Springs elevation (the center is 6,000 feet above sea level...the air is thiiiiiiinnnnnnn). But most importantly was that my first week was a blast.

The strength and conditioning program is just getting started for me, so we're easing into it with stuff like over head squats, turkish get ups, RDLs, fun stuff like that. Most of the fencing practices are combined with the pentathletes, because modern pentathlon does five events and one of them is epee fencing. I got a taste of the recovery room, on tuesday I had my first cold plunge. And when they say "cold plunge" they don't mean cold like "cold shower" they mean cold like "feels like it could make a polar bear's nuts shrink". There are also athletic massages, sauna, hot tub, compression pants (I'm gonna try that one real soon) and a giant pile of cliff bars, power aid, energy bars etc.

But yeah....all in all this is just about the best place I've ever been in my life. So I'll just be getting back to resting my sore hamstrings and lookin forward to tomorrow.

-JP