Per aspera ad astra (strongman Koestrizer)

Awesome, any pics of Hamburg as well?

Unfortunately no. I didn’t actually get to do much in Hamburg this weekend in terms of sightseeing. Which is okay since I have been here many times before and know the city quite well. We weren’t here before 6 pm, had a quick rest and headed down the Elbe coast to sit for a bit and then into the infamous St. Pauli. We met up with two friends of my mate’s and spent the evening. All pretty chill, I didn’t drink much (to my standards) in order to be fit tomorrow for my session but it’s still 3 am as I’m writing this.

No worries, sounds like a good time even if you didn’t do any sightseeing for me to live vicariously through you :slight_smile:

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Haha I’m sorry, I promise to do better in the future! I would post some older photos of previous trips but those are either on my computer or were lost when my old phone died.

Don’t fret. It’s pretty easy to find pictures online of whatever city, but I do like seeing yours when you occassionally share. And I hope to take some of my own should the day ever come

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Damn! That’s beautiful :star_struck:

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08.08.

Slept really good and had the extra day of rest but still… The weekend and last session apparently fatigued me a lot. It is what it is.
Won’t be able to train for a few days because of the kayak tour (will snag pics @bagsy ).

1 push press
8 @ 100 kg
11 @ 100 kg
10 @ 100 kg

I wanted to do a 3 x 12 and thought 100 would be easy but fatigue was just too much. Stopped every set before the first grinder.

2 frame carry
10 x 10m @ 220(??) kg

No one knew how heavy that thing exactly was. Owner said 140 or 120. I believe 120 is more accurate. It was a pretty low pick (a bit lower than a trap bar, I’d guess), which made for a decently hard start.

3 arm over arm sled pull
190 kg x 12-18m or so
250 kg x 12-18m or so
290 kg x 12-18m or so
2 x 340 kg x 12-18m or so

Each set followed by a backwards drag…

4 some atlas stones
Was pretty done, didn’t have tacky or arm guards (aka ductape) so I just did some 90 kg loads.

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So paddling around in the Spreewald was a dream vacation. The group of people was a perfect combination and made for a chill trip. We were surrounded by stunning nature, had good luck with the weather (only three hours of rain once) and had lots and lots of fun. I’m really glad we did this. Camping wasn’t exactly great for my sleep and nutrition was mainly canned meats and fish, local snacks and canned beers.
Also one night we had a rain of shooting stars. We were lying there on the field and watching them for hours. It was magical and I’ve never seen shooting stars like that in that quantity before.









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Okay T Nation isn’t really the website to upload photos. Some quality lost there but nvm, you get the impression: It was quite beautiful, haha,

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13.08.

Back home, back to contest prep! During warm ups my back was like “dude, you sat in a
canoe for four days and slept on an air mattress - you sure about this?!” But it was fine as I went. I have to make up some lost time so I’m training today, tomorrow and Sunday and then take Monday off and continue Tuesday. That’s gonna be fucking brutal. We took that into account with the program of course.

1 ‘wsm’ axle squat
3 x 5 @ 168,5 kg

Third was terrible because of some mistakes but overall strength is there.

2 axle clean and press (clean each)
5 x 3 @ 98,5 kg

Brilliant, technique is becoming better and better.

3 sandbag carry
4 x 25 m @ 125 kg

On to of those I absolutely butchered the pick

4 hollow rocks
3 x 22

Notes:

  • good session, legs are feeling it.
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Absolutely beautiful!

You also look like you’ve leaned out quite a bit

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I fear it’s actually the opposite, those pictures are just a bit flattering (which is the reason I chose them). It’s fine though. I’m gonna start eating healthier again but give my body whatever amount it needs during comp prep and lean out a bit afterwards.

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Glad you had fun! Good luck with the comp/ comp prep!

What about alcohol… :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes::stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Thanks!

As a matter of fact I will reduce my alcohol intake quite a bit for a while now. It’s gotten a bit a much lately. Summer, lots of night outs and then my vacations… No regrets at all but time to back off.

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14.08.

1 deadlift
3 x 4 @ 187,5 kg

That felt like 220, lol. Fatigue from squats and canoeing (or however that’s written) was there.

2 viking press (with improved setup)
3 x 8 @ 112 kg

Felt perfect. Pretty easy.

3 sandbag carry
3 x 60 m @ 100 kg

Disgusting

4 incline db row
4 x 12 @ 25 kg

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Great photos - looks like a really nice nice way to do a vacation.

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Confessed to my long time crush and good friend how I felt about her tonight. As expected she didn’t feel the same about me.
I’m proud of me that I had the courage (this has been a loooong time coming) but yeah… This hurts. It really does.
Still, now I know where I’m standing and we can go from here.

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It took so much courage to do what you did. You have every right to feel proud of yourself for doing it.

As much as it hurts, this gives you some certainty in life. As the humanist Oliver Burkeman wrote recently, “don’t worry about burning bridges: irreversible decisions tend to be more satisfying, because now there’s only one direction to travel – forward into whatever choice you made.”

You didn’t exactly burn a bridge, but I’m sure it definitely feels like it to you right now. Know that there’s a silver lining to it!

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That’s a great quote!

Ultimately I’m going to have to wait for a bit to see if this impedes our friendship or not but on some level I feel better for being honest now. I think we both handled the situation pretty well and time will tell the rest.

I did expect a rejection but still went ahead because I wanted clarity and needed to get rid of the “what if” voice in my head.

Now I just hope I didn’t make things to awkward between us and we can just go on as usual.

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