Sasha and Darren let me sleep an extra 15 minutes later this morning, not waking me up until 6:30a - a small victory. 

When I climbed out of bed my legs were already getting sore after yesterday’s hard lifting session. My upper back was also sore from Friday’s workout. 

Whereas some people don’t like feeling sore, I enjoy it because it lets me know that I am improving my body. 

To add to the soreness, I crushed the following chest and biceps workout: 

Chest

• Barbell Bench Press: 1 x 12 reps (115 lbs), 1 x 8 reps (155 lbs), 1 x 3 reps (205 lbs), 1 x 215 lbs), 1 x 6 reps (185 lbs)
• Dumbbell Incline Press: 1 x 10 reps (50 lb dumbbells), 2 x 8 reps (55 lb, 55 lb dumbbells), 1 x 6 reps (60 lb dumbbells)
• Dumbbell Flyes: 3 x 15 reps (25 lb dumbbells)
• Hammer Strength Flyes- 3 x 15 reps (100 lbs, 135 lbs, 145 lbs)

Biceps

• Barbell Bicep Curls: 1 x 12 reps (30 lbs), 2 x 8 reps (50 lbs, 60 lbs), 1 x 6 reps (70 lbs)
• Incline Dumbbell Bicep Curls: 3 x 8 reps (25 lb dumbbells)
• Dumbbell Hammer Curls: 3 x 15 reps (20 lb dumbbells)

In most of my lifts I was able to increase either the weight or the number of reps over last week. 

On bench press I wasn’t able to get more than one rep at 215 lbs and since I don’t workout with someone else, I didn’t want to risk trying another rep so I dropped the weight for the final set. 

Though last week I did cable crossovers for the final chest exercise, all of the machines and rigs were being used so, instead of waiting any longer, I jumped on the Hammer Strength flye machine. 

The other major change that I made this week was removing the laying concentration curls from my workout. 

I had never tried it until last week and it was something that felt comfortable for me so I chose to remove it thus giving myself more likelihood of increasing in the other lifts. 

Shortly after getting home the clouds rolled in, the skies started spitting and the temperature dropped a few degrees so, after running two errands, we came back home to watch football for the day. 

Every once in a while a cold and rainy day at home is really nice. You don’t feel guilty for not taking advantage of it being nice outside and it’s good to just relax. 

I am planning on working out during the first half of this week before shutting it down to allow my body to heal before my GORUCK Light this Saturday. I will likely go for a short walk Friday but nothing too strenuous. 

I’m excited for the challenge especially since I have never walked 8-10 miles before. The most I have ever done was right around 7.5 miles.  

This is also week our last full week of work before heading back to Connecticut for Thanksgiving. The next 1.5 weeks will be busy getting ready to head out for 10 days back in the Northeast.