Week of October 21st

Busy week. My brother and his girlfriend came up to visit over the weekend from California so we showed them around Seattle. It was a lot of fun as this was their first trip alone together and both really like the pacific northwest (who doesn't?!). Both of them are from Roseville which is basically suburban moonland. Super wide roads, strip malls everywhere, hot and lots of brown grass. The other thing that it's missing is vegan options. There's just not much there for us, so introducing them to the wide variety of things available here was great.

On Friday we went out to Brouwer's after having some home made vegan pizza, expertly crafted by my lovely wife.



Saturday morning we went down to Wayward cafe for breakfast.


Not my picture, but this is what I had. LOOK AT IT AND DROOL!

We took our dog and went to Carkeek park for a nice long walk after breakfast to try and keep from drifting into a deep food coma. The sun kept trying to come out, but it was mostly gloomy. Great weather for walking about though.



Then we went to Plum Bistro for dinner. I'm torn when it comes to this place as their food is really really good, but it's so expensive. Definitely good for their first vegan "fine dining" experience.


This is what I call a power couple
Sunday we planned to go hiking, but it was raining when we got up. Our guests didn't have any proper rain gear, so we decided to go down to gas works park instead. Of course, as we set out, the clouds parted and the sun came out.



They had to leave yesterday to head back to California and real life. Hopefully they'll make it back up next summer.

Along with all these events I somehow managed to squeeze in a full workout week!

October 21st

Reverse Band Deadlift w/ Blue Bands
Warm Up w/o Bands:
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 2

Add Bands:
405 x 3
495 x 3
545 x 2
525 x 3 x 2

Pendlay Row
135 x 5
155 x 5 x 2

It was an interesting experience using the bands. At the bottom of the lift they take off about 185 lbs and at the top about 100 lbs. 545 felt really heavy and I couldn't lock out the 3rd rep. 525 was a better work weight as it allowed for solid reps.

October 23rd

Bench Press
Bar x 10 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 2
155 x 1
170 x 5
180 x 5

4 Board Bench
180 x 3
195 x 3
210 x 3

Lat Pulldowns
140 x 6
150 x 6
160 x 6

Yeah! Another week of gains. Last rep was a grinder though but it went up.

October 25th

Squats
Bar x 8 x 2
135 x 5
225 x 3
255 x 1
275 x 1
295 x 5
310 x 5

Pause Squats
255 x 3
275 x 3

Still moving. That puts my 5s up 15 pounds from last cycle.