goals update

 in lieu of running this year I've made a bunch of lifting goals. I have goals for where I want to be by June of 2025 but I also make monthly goals. I didn't hit any of my monthly goals for November but I made progress on most of them so because December just started I wanted to go through each of them and talk about what happened.

#1- hang for 10 seconds on a 20mm edge with 70lbs added to body weight. My goal before this goal was to hang with 60lbs for 10 seconds which I achieved on October 27th. Shortly after that I hung 70lbs for 7 seconds on November 3rd and then 8 seconds on November 8th. Then there was a somewhat sharp decline and the best I could manage was 7 seconds on November 17th. I hangboard 3 times a week. Looking at my log, it seems like I got excited that I was very close to reaching my goal and started climbing more. The end goal for hangboarding is to climb harder so I'm not too bummed but I really want to get this done so for the next three weeks in December I plan to climb very little or not at all and see if that can finally get me over the finish line with this goal that I originally set out to achieve by May of 2023. woof. I'm very close though!

#2- One pull-up with 100lbs added to bodyweight. I got really close with this one and overall this was a great month for pull-ups. On October 31st I wrote that I did +100lbs for one pull-up but kipped a little at the end. I kicked my feet like some sort of strange dolphin to inch myself over the bar. I never really tried another max pull-up in November but I did some great workouts that I've never done before like 5 sets of 3 with +70lbs. I did 3 sets of 3 with +75lbs (and then tried a one rep max where I wrote that I got 90% of the way up with 100lbs). I also did a good pyramid where did 3 x 70lbs, 4 x 70lbs, 6 x 53lbs, 8 x 35lbs, and then 13 bodyweight pull-ups. So, that was a good month of work

#3- Squat 205lbs for 1- On October 27th I squatted 195lbs for one and shortly after that decided to pivot and focus on higher reps and better form. Heavy squats weren't feeling comfortable or clean so I decided to back down and work in a range that felt "better". I went from doing heavy and slow sets of 5 to sets of 8 where I felt a bit snappier. I also was using a medicine ball to judge my depth but that felt a little desperate so now I do a deeper squat with around 115 to 125 lbs. I just like the feeling of my legs getting stronger so I'm gonna stay in that range and see if I can get 135 and 145 to feel comfortable for a set of 8. 

#4- Bench 190lbs for one. Way back on September 10th I tied my bench press PR from the spring and did 175 for one. I've kept trying 185 a couple times a month and on 10/29 I wrote that I was very close with 185lbs but "not quite". In November I continued to fail at 185lbs but between those failures I had some really good sessions. On November 12th I had maybe my all-time best session where I did 175 for 3 and 155 for 7. I also had some other really good workouts. Overall I was a little busier this month so there were definitely weeks where I wasn't feeling fully recovered but hitting PR's isn't everything so I don't want to make too many excuses. 

#5- I had some sprint goals- 200 meters in 26.9, 100 meters in 12.4, and 50 meters, in 6.19. I'm not gonna lie. It was an awful month for sprinting. When the temperature drops though there's just not that much you can do. The wind and the temps were not on my side and that's okay. I got some inline speed skates and that's been really fun. Going into this year I knew I was going to reach a point where sprinting would fall-off and I would have to try to improve in other ways. That point has been reached! Until temps improve I'm going to focus more on skating and lifting. I really think those will address my biggest weaknesses in running, namely raw strength and hip stability.

#6- One arm pull-up training. Using a pulley system I can decrease my bodyweight and my goal for November was to do a one arm pull-up with my left arm with -2.5lbs and -5lbs with my right arm. Long story short I didn't reach those goals either but I DID hold a lock-off with my left arm for 20 seconds and 11 seconds with my right arm which is a huge improvement from back in August and September so we're happy with that. 

Anyway, like I said before I have 3 weeks until I go back to Harrisonburg for the holiday and so it'll be fun to see which of these I can accomplish if I really focus.