Yesterday's workout

DL: 295 lbs x 5, 315 lbs x 3, 335 lbs x 1
Shrugs
Rows
Accessories

Grip on the bars here isn't great. Knurling is pretty much non-existent and one of the bars has been painted. Started losing grip a little on the last 315 lbs rep. Will need to bring my chalk and possibly switch back to hook grip moving forward (been using regular overhand grip and no chalk so far).

Didn't workout yesterday as it ended up being a long day. Some word around the site is we may being going to either (7) 10 hour days or (7) 12 hour days. If we go to 12 hour days I probably will hang up my boots for now.

Yesterday's workout

Squat: 275 lbs x 5 x 3
Press: 135 lbs x 5 x 3
Accessories

Pretty straight forward session.

Today’s workout

DL: 305 lbs x 5, 325 lbs x 3, 345 lbs x 1
Rows
Shrugs

Used hookgrip tonight and didn’t have any grip issues.

Probably going to lift Monday and Wednesday. I return home on Thursday, which will be nice to lift with decent equipment again. Will try to video while I’m home. Return here on the 26th until we break for Christmas.

Yesterday's workout

Squat: 295 lbs x 5 x 3
Press: 140 lbs x 5 x 3

Easy workout yesterday. Was pressed for time, so no accessories. Gonna try to work out tomorrow and Friday to round out the week. Will depend on work tomorrow. May end up doing Friday and/or Saturday at home.

Yesterday's workout

DL: 315 lbs x 5, 335 lbs x 3, 355 lbs x 1
Rows

Another short and straight forward workout. Should be heading out tonight (as long as the plane flies) so my next few workouts should have videos accompanying them as they will be at home.

Went back out to Dillingham yesterday. I lifted over break, but didn't video any of it. Ended up "coaching" by oldest daughter's boyfriend and focused on that instead. Lifting went fine. Will probably start up again tomorrow out here (got a stomach bug and am not lifting today).

Tonight's workout

DL: 325 lbs x 5; 345 lbs x 3; 365 lbs x 1
Bench: 185 lbs x 5 x 3

Got to the gym with 3 guys from work. As I was starting my warmup about 10 people showed up which completely packed the gym. Was able to get my DLs in easily enough. Didn't feel like shrugs and rows today. Saw that there might be a competition in February (I think in Fairbanks) and figured I may try to train for that and see how bench feels tonight. Bench was straight forward and felt good. Paused first and last rep of each set on bench. May start doing bench a bit more, especially if I want to compete in February. Will need to figure out the date and see if my R&R can be scheduled around the meet. Probably won't be anything special, but would be nice to compete again.

Did the earthquake affect you at all?

Hope all is good at Casa Skel.

Thank you for the check up!

Out here in Dillingham we did not feel it at all. I have seen reports where it was felt from Homer all the way up to Fairbanks. It supposedly was centered just north of Anchorage (about 20-30 miles south of my house). My wife, family, dogs, and cats are all OK just a little shaken up. There is a lot of damage to the roads up here. Our house fared pretty well. Wife said some things were knocked over and/or broken, but for the most part nothing major. At least not from what she has seen so far.

If you are on Facebook you should look up Last Frontier Magazine Alaska. They have some pretty cool shots of some of the damage around the area.

The Alaska Earthquake Center has reported over 50 earthquakes in the area since the ~7 one that happened at 0829. The others are all between 2.7 or so to 5.1 or so. There was a report in the paper that some people are worried that another, possibly larger than the 7 one, will be coming later today. Not sure if that is just speculation/over worrying about stuff by civilians or if there was something in the data that may help scientists predict the possibility of a larger one coming in. Not too sure about that.

Sucks being away from the family in times like this, but as of now there isn't a way to get home yet even if I was needed there. Anchorage airport was shut down last I had heard, as well as the highway going from Anchorage up to the Valley.

I heard they're worried about tsunamis. I assume your place is far enough away from the ocean so that it wont be affected if that happens?

There was a tsunami warning for about 3 or so hours after the earthquake but nothing came of it. Where I am now we would be screwed. Right on the water and not really any high ground around to get away. My house back in Palmer is fairly far away from the water and up a little bit. Shouldn't be a real issue there if one ever did come. If it did start coming, we are a short drive to a mountain (5 minutes or so) to get up higher if need be.

Tonight's workout

Squat: 315 lbs x 5 x 3
Press: 145 lbs x 5 x 3

Gym was packed again. There was a lady in the squat rack when I arrived with 3 other guys (who use the cardio stuff and machines, rarely any free weights and before anyone asks: yes, one of the guys wears lifting gloves. They are construction workers who don't want advice from me so I'm fine with whatever they do. And yes, I asked if the gloves matched his purse). She was finishing up some weighted lunges and came over to ask if anyone was planning on using the rack as she could do the rest of her workout next to it (gym doesn't have much room for anything and only 2 straight bars). I said I was planning on doing some squats and she quickly moved out for me. She ended up doing some type of circuit with hang cleans, jerks, then planks, pushups and other stuff. Pretty nice of someone in a remote village to be aware about some gym etiquette stuff.

I have been trying to hunt fox out here to get a couple of hides for the kids with no luck. All of the hunts have been a spot and stalk type hunt, but haven't spotted anything. Decided to bring a predator call out to Dillingham this trip. Set it up in a field near the camp this morning right around sunrise. About an hour and a half later I see movement in the corner of the field. I quickly realized that it was a little too large to be a fox. Once it came fully into view I realized it was a lynx. I didn't think I would see a lynx out here so I wasn't really prepared for that. The gun I have is a bit undersized and needed it to come within about 25 yards. It unfortunately stopped about 60-70 yards away from where I was setup. It sat there for a good 5 minutes before moving. Every time I made any small movement it would look directly at me. It ended up turning around, walked back to where it came into the field, and then walked around the far side of the field before entering the woods again. Overall I saw it for probably 20 minutes. I waited until it was well out of site before I got up and took some pictures of it's tracks. Not the best quality, but it is what I could get. Was really cool to see a lynx out here and hopefully it will come back next week. I will setup slightly different next week to see if I can get it to come in closer.

Where it was sitting about 60-70 yards away:



Few tracks where it walked away:



Back Paw:



Front Paw:



Front Paw size comparison to my glove:

Tonight's workout

Squat: 325 lbs x 5 x 3
Bench: 195 lbs x 5 x 3

Pretty straight forward session. Ended up having to go back to camp with some new guys so I lifted after dinner tonight. There are 2 guys who tend to do this, so I went with them and one of the new guys. Got there and 4 people were in the gym. They left within 10 minutes of us getting there so it wasn't crowded, which was nice.

Tonight's workout

DL: 335 lbs x 5; 355 lbs x 3; 375 lbs x 1
Press: 150 lbs x 5 x 3
Shrugs

Pretty straight forward workout tonight.

Tonight's workout

Bench: 195 lbs x 5 x 3
Squat: 335 lbs x 5 x 3
Accessories

There were a couple of people using the squat rack when I got there so I decided to just do my bench first. Other than that it was another straight forward session.

Tonight's workout

Squat: 345 lbs x 5 x 3
Press: 155 lbs x 5 x 5

Felt like I should start upping volume on bench and press. Figured I would just do some 5 x 5's for now and see how that goes. May end up doing some of those for squats, but I'm not sure yet. Probably will need to figure out a training plan soon

Tonight's workout

Bench: 200 lbs x 5 x 5
DL: 345 lbs x 5; 365 lbs x 3; 385 lbs x 1 x 2
Accessories

Pretty straight forward session tonight. Looking forward to going home next Friday, possibly Thursday if the weather looks like it will be crappy on Friday (don't want to be trapped out here).

Today's workout

Squat: 355 lbs x 5 x 3
Press: 160 lbs x 5 x 5
Accessories

Today's workout sucked. Felt tired and beat up after work but decided I can't make excuses as I will keep going down that road. Everything felt heavy at the gym today. Got my reps in but I'm guessing they weren't the best. I have a feeling that I felt tired and beat up due to working outside a bunch yesterday and today. Warmest temperature yesterday was 9 F (windchill of -7) and today was 13 F (windchill of 3). When I work outside in the cold I tend not to eat enough nor drink enough during the day, 2 things I know I need to do more of but tend not to pay attention to in those situations. Usually I'm in the office but stuff came up onsite and they needed help getting back on track.

Didn't work out this week. Work has gone long a few times and woke up one morning with my shoulder hurting. Still doesn't feel great but will start up again soon. Flight home is in about 4 hours. My plan is to lift tomorrow at home, which will be nice. Will try to remember to video the session. Probably going to stop benching as it seems to bother my shoulder and elbow. Most likely a form issue, but figure I should hold off until they feel a little better.

Realized I haven't posted in a while and figured I would give an update. Still working out in Dillingham. Had some family stuff come up in January so I went home for about a month. During that time I only lifted twice. Left knee has been bothering me, guessing I tweaked it while home. Dropped squatting as it my knee tends to hurt while doing those, but is OK doing DLs. Hoping to get back to squatting next week or the week after as my knee is feeling good right now. Since I have been back out here I have been pressing (2x/week) and DLin (1x/week). I have also been focusing on accessories to help out my shoulders and back. Not lifting anything impressive and will probably need to figure out a program soon as I'm just doing an SS style progression still.

Workouts have been a bit inconsistent lately due to work stuff - probably averaging twice a week (one press day and one deadlift day) for this month. Changing up some things starting tomorrow. Probably going to workout Sun/Tues/Thurs as Sundays are days off of work so it is easy to get a session in. Probably going to keep going with my DL sessions the same for another 2-4 weeks and then will do something different. I think I am going to switch to a volume day and intensity day for press starting tomorrow. Will look that plan over tonight/tomorrow morning to get a solid plan down. My left knee has been feeling pretty good lately so I think I am going to try squatting tomorrow. Nothing major, probably just start back at 225 for a few sets and see how things shake out. If things feel well I will start doing those during my press sessions. I will hopefully be home in a month or so and will be able to start videoing my lifts again at home. May wait to start logging on here until then.

In other good news, my older sister (just shy of 3 years older than me) did her first push-pull meet back in January and today she did her first full meet. Numbers aren't record setting but she did well and is really liking the competition aspect of it. Will have to figure out a time when I can go back east and compete with her. She isn't a full on strength athlete as she still loves medium distance running (half marathons and down). I'm glad she is going for an all around fitness approach now instead of just focusing on running as it has helped her with general life stuff - I think running and strength are both good things to do. I rarely run as it kills my ankle, but my overall health would benefit from the running.

Summer is right around the corner up here and am looking forward to getting out to hike and walk again.

Yesterday's workout

Squat: 225 lbs x 5 x 3
Press: 135 lbs x 5 x 5
Accessories

Knee felt good during squats. Will probably slowly increase weights for these while going 5x3. Thinking 10-20 lbs per workout up to around 315 or so. After that I'm thinking of switching to a Volume/Intensity setup like I am doing with press.

Press: On Friday I did 165 lbs x 5 and then 175 lbs x 1 and 185 lbs x 1. I got antsy and wanted to see how higher weights were feeling. The 185 felt pretty good, but was near my top end. I wanted to switch to a volume and intensity split this week. I decided to do 135 x 5 x 5 as my volume day and thinking of 160 or so 3 x 3 for my intensity day on Thursday. I realized that I hadn't been pausing my press at the bottom like I used to so I also added that back in yesterday. Probably will increase 5 lbs per week going forward.

Overall the workout felt good and am hoping to be back into some decent weights soon.