Today, Monday, was DeFranco week 8, day 1.

I did 225 for 7 reps on the last set of bench press.  Really good, except my right pec got a little flared up by that.  I could feel my right shoulder shifting a bit throughout.

Once this round of the BLABA is done, I’m doing a revised version in which I’m going to be changing the program from a three-day, to a four-day program – Horizontal Upper Body Push/Pull, Squat, Vertical Upper Push/Pull, and Deadlift.

I’m going to continue to use Joe’s basic framework, but adapt it in a couple of ways.  Namely:

1. I’m going to emphasize the movements/exercises that I had the most trouble with in the first 12-weeks, and de-emphasize the others.

2. By adding deadlift, I hope to be able to incorporate more clear “dynamic effort” work on non-max-effort days.  For instance, on bench press day, I’ll be able to do dynamic effort work for the movement pattern that was two/three days before that.

Right now, I just want to focus on getting through this program in good health.  I need to rehab this pec asap.

It’s been great to be on the BLABA program.  Like going to UCSF’s RunSafe program, it has really shown me my weak areas, and given me a lot of great ideas for the next step.

The 17th was actually yesterday, and I didn’t do diddly all day, except for 66 kettlebell swings with my 62 lb. kettlebell.

I wasn’t in the mood!

Uh oh!  Means I didn’t do diddly today!  I got up at a normal hour, but failed to plan for the NLP seminar I’d registered for in Marin.  That lasted till about 1.  Went down to San Rafael for some good Puerto Rican food afterward, and then came home and promptly fell asleep on the couch while reading.

Oh well!  I’ll just do some training tomorrow, which is my normal “day off.”  Or maybe I’ll just take this weekend off.  Don’t worry!!!

So I bonked out my blog yesterday trying to add a plugin.  Not doing that again.

If you don’t know, this is a training log of my journey to the Leadville 100 trail run happening in August of this year.  It’s a 100-mile footrace through the mountains.

Here’s a basic rundown of my training for the next few weeks:

Mon/Wed/Fri – doing DeFranco’s Built Like a Badass program.  I’m on week 7 of 12 on this program, so, another 5 weeks to go.  I love the program, and will most likely continue with a modified version once this 12-week cycle ends.

Tues/Thurs/Sat – doing the Men’s Health Spartacus Challenge Workout.  I entered the challenge, and I’m doing the workout.  It’s pretty starightforward, and I’im doing it basically as “cardio.”  Not using a lot of weight (if any) for most of the movements.

Monday Nights, and as often as possible – Taking Chen Taiji (Tai Chi) with Tony Wong at the Daly City community center on Monday nights.  I’m practicing my form whenever I think about it, or when I have a chance, and I’m in an area conducive to it.

Finally, I’m signing up with the Endurables running group.  They run up in Marin every Saturday, doing progressively longer runs as the season gets under way.  I’ll do some other runs during the week, but that will be a lot of my running practice.

My goal is not to “win” Leadville.  It’s just to finish in under 25 hours.  Preferably, in under 24.  I’ve worked out a mileage strategy that should get me to

My nutrition strategy is simple – eat a lot.  I’m taking a few supplements right now – multivitamin (liquid), liver supplement, Zyflamend, an allergy pill (herbal, almost gone, and won’t be taking it anymore once it is), and fish oils (Nordic Naturals).  PHEW!

I’m going to quit the liver supplement when this bottle is empty, which’ll be two months from now.  I also drink a greens drink (from Trader Joe’s, but I’m switching to Amazing Grass when this jug is done).

Training

I did day 3/week 7 of DeFranco’s program today.  Chinups, lat pulldowns, etc.  Good stuff.  Had a full 4 scoops of SPIZ afterward.  Feeling groovy.

Well, I’m four days in to my training for Leadville, and something really bad happened when I tried to install a plugin.  The whole blog crashed, and I have neither the time nor patience to suss it out.

So, start with me tomorrow ladies and gents.  No more trying to gussy this thing up.  It will basically be a bare-bones blog of my journey to Leadville.  I’ll include my training and diet every day from now till then.

Also, if anyone out there is willing to help me, I could definitely use some donations/gifts to help get there.  I’ll probably go through a couple of pairs of shoes between now and then.  I definitely need to pay for airfare there and back, and probably a hotel room.  Food during training is another expense.

I will not be doing the Leadville 100 barefoot, or in Vibrams.  My feet took too much of a beating after the 20 miler I did last November, and now need recuperation time.  I’ll be wearing shoes.  But it’s still 10o miles.  In 24 hours (that’s my goal-time).

If you want to help someone to do something that seems totally insane, gift me at jleeger@gmail.com on PayPal.

Thanks!

Josh